What I love about India

As our adventure in India draws to a close, I want to be sure to capture all the things I love about India. In no particular order, they are:

1. The people. The people here must be the most hospitable people on earth. Our first week was tougher than expected due to the jet lag, apartment mixup and the kids going bonkers. Patrick was ready to hightail it back to California with the kids, but friends, friends of friends, and random strangers came out of the woodwork to amaze us with their kindness and hospitality. For example, on IM one night, my friend Kiran in CA asked how things were going. I explained our stress and within a few hours, her friend in Bangalore, Manoj, whom I have never met, emailed me with offers to help. He went a step further and bought a book on Bangalore restaurants, *highlighted all the good ones* and then had the book COURIERED over to me at work. I never ended up meeting Manoj in person to thank him, but I will never forget his crazy kindness. And this experience is not the only one.. There are a ton more.

2. Beautiful women. Despite the pollution and dust, the women here are still so freaking beautiful. Even the women sweeping the streets wear colorful and attractive saree's. I guess it was a good thing Patrick had the kids most days so he wouldn't run off with another woman. :)

3. Insane tolerance for kids. On this trip, we learned how spoiled our kids are here. We would cringe as our kids would throw a tantrum for a coke while a few minutes earlier, we would see shoeless kids in the street do cartwheels for a few Rupees. But our Indian friends (and strangers) were much more tolerant than us insisting we were putting too much pressure on the kids (I still disagree, but really appreciated their tolerance). At Indian restaurants, the servers paid all kinds of wonderful attention to the kids -- I kept trying to poach them as nanny's until I realized they were just so darn nice to everyone. Even when the kids freaked out or raised their voices, there weren't any evil eyes shot at us. This would definitely not be true in the U.S.

One other observation is the great focus on kids' education here. There is a show called "India's smartest child." Compare that to the JonBonet-type pageants we have in the U.S. and it really makes me cringe.

4. Democracy. India is the world's biggest democracy. It's remarkable how they have pulled together so many different religions, cultures, and kinds of people and kept this country so peaceful. The world should learn from India.

5. Politeness. People are so polite. While they drive like maniacs and there does not appear to be any order on the road, I didn't see one person yell, flip someone off, nothing. We're not in NYC anymore. I also love how everyone addresses one another as "Sir" and "Madam". Patrick is annoying calling me "Madam", but I love how everyone else does it. :)

6. Food. Yum, yum, yum. With the exception of the crappy food served at Google, the food here is amazing. Patrick and I both want to be vegetarians after having such fresh, diverse, and tasty dishes here.

There are lots, lots more, but in general, we have had a great experience and will leave India with even more respect and fascination with the country and people than we ever imagined.