Other half of the Rotarian Homestay experience

We went to their home to get settled in and to make sure my bag arrived. We got settled in and that's how I met Mr. Selvam and Jumwala (the 14 year old who upon introduction I thought was 16!), Veigus (their dalmatian). Jumwala was soo excited to meet me. Tell me if this is fate or coincidence. Priyanka explained how they had saw a list of all the SAS students and her mom had liked our names but she didn't think she could have all of us. Jumwala in particular loved the name Candace. She greeted all of us by our full names which was hilarious but very flattering that she actually studied the list and that they had even had that conversation haha. They offered us some Coca Cola and we put our bags upstair in Priyanka's room. Priyanka changed into a saree and then we headed to the Hindu temple that they always went to. It was rush hour and the temple was at least an hour away.  En route Meg mentioned food and Mrs. Selvam asked if we wanted anything. Naturally we didn't want to cause any trouble and said we were fine. Mr. Selvam owned a restaurant and we were going to be eating there after the trip to the temple but she insisted. She gave the driver some rupees and he got out and brought some bananas and bunch of different chips. Mrs. Selvam would peel open each banana and hand it back to each of us... which was a great feeling haha.. it was very family-like. Oh, I had masala flavored cheese doodles which were awesome! Closer to the temple she got out to buy some fruit/flowers for the guards of the temple as offering. We took off our shoes and left them in the van and walk the short bit. We also left our cameras because we didn't want to take away from the moment... and it just woulda been rude. We did what they did. We briefly touched the coconut which was cracked in front of us... it broke in exacts half which symbolized good luck so that was good lol, we followed the line and waved our hands over the fire and the priest(?) prayed for us, We got the white lines and smears of ash and red dots on our foreheads, and necklaces of limes and flowers from where they were offered up....it was all explained as we walked through, what was happening... I just can't recall it well or have the knowledge to call it as it was.. Mrs. Selvam brought us blessed treats sold within the temple. Then we walked around the temple and Jumwala and Priyanka pointed out the names of the Gods and told us more about their beliefs.  We saw a section where people tied paper around several bars which symbolized people who wanted babies but were sterile; another area had a ton of master combination locks and we found that was the number of people who prayed or wished for a better relationship with their in-laws. kinda comical there. Around us we saw people laying facedown on the ground praying. It was a cool surreal experience. We left to head to the van and took pictures. Jumwala and Priyanka kept telling us how cool it was to do it with us. The feeling was mutual.
                 We went to Mr. Selvam's restaurant and we went to a separate area with tables just for us. Funny tidbit: It was the first time I had seen a bathroom with a "hole" for a toilet. Okay back to the food... It was like a family style deal. Lots of naan (garlic and plain) love that stuff mm mm mm. Then so many dishes of a ton of different stuff like prawns, chicken, mutton...I can't remember it all but it was a lot of delicious spicy food as usual... we ate until we couldn't eat anymore. Then we had pistachio ice-cream in these cute little pots which we got to clean out and keep. We went back to the house and got ready for bed. We compared mosquito bites because we had plenty... lol... talked as folks got to showering. Priyanka had grabbed 3 mattresses which we spread on the floor and put covers over it. It was like one big sleepover. Warm fuzzy feeling here =) We talked about guys- her parents were really liberal as we could observe and she could date whoever she wanted...Jumwala showed me some of the awards in her room and that was cool. While Priyanka's was pink and had disney related stuff, Jumwala's was pink and had rocker/music decal on her wall... haha. We took some silly photos where we were trying to capture our faces in motion doing something silly... either way you wouldn't understand lol. The pictures are hilarious though. Unfortunately their family camera dropped and stopped working... that upset Jumwala who went to her room. We felt pretty helpless and bad because it wasn't anyone's fault... but that sucked. We talked a bit more than went to sleep since we had a long day ahead of us.
                   The next (and last) day we got dressed to head out. Priyanka showed us her collection of bindis and we picked one out to wear. We took pics as they placed it on us... she and Jumwala lit up and exclaimed how pretty we looked with them on haha.. then we went downstairs and had breakfast. The cooks were so nice. One of the girls was a teenager and she was so tickled by us. We tried to eat as much as we could but was still stuffed from the night before. So serious lol. It was hard to say that though because they wanted to keep giving us more and with the language barrier, we just didn't know how to refuse without offending lol. Anyways, Mrs. Selvam had to leave because she had a meeting but was going to meet up with us while we shopped. In the meantime, Priyanka then drove us. During some point of the ride she got a call from an admissions person for the MBA program of a school and we cheered for her... very exciting news =) Random tidibit: I loved seeing the women in sarees sitting properly and regal driving motorcycles, weaving through crazy traffic... it was so bad azz. They Then she drove us to Saravana's which was the best store ever in the world. It was a true gem aka one stop shopping center. 7 floors with virtually everything. Each was dedicated to certain things and it was like a warehouse but not really. It was perfect. Mrs. Selvam and Priyanka was so helpful...almost like mother hens checking to make sure we grabbed stuff that was worth the price. Oh also, instead of checking out at each register for each floor, we had one of the store girls who accompanied us. We would hand our stuff to her and she'd put it into a bag as she trailed behind us. She was so cute and helpful. So many of the other store girls as we passed would come up to us and she would talk to them and they stared at us... and smile or asked us stuff in English if they knew any but mostly, they would show us stuff or they would laugh at our facial expressions lol... we enjoyed the company and they sensed that. haha. The check out system was unique. Some people rung up the stuff. Another did the payment. Then the other folks checked our baskets to make sure we had everything that was rung up and that the price was accurate (which was excellent) then it was finally packed in bags and we could leave. The thing was it was about 2000ish rupees which the young girl was shocked about... but that was about $50 full of 3 stuffed bags... nuts how far the dollar goes in India. We'd walked past guys doing Henna and some of the girls who hadn't done the Welcome Reception and got free henna had wanted to get some at some point... Mrs. Selvam paid for all of us to get it...so I did my other hand, although we didn't realize til much later it was a different base used lol so it was really light an almost rust-like color. I was done first because my guy drew what looked like a mermaid with boobs lol...and I opted to grab our bags and leave with Mrs. Selvam in a rigshaw back to the house and get ready for us to go. It was nice being alone with her... she understood/spoke limited English and could only really make out what Meg said since Meg spoke slower than Alyssa, Lauren or I. lol. But it was almost similar to a kid wanting to bask in a mother's presence even if much isn't said. I was in awe of her and her family. It was just a loving environment. I brought all of our bags downstairs and met Mrs. Selvam's mom who had arrived. Part of the SAS Rotarian trip included a tour of the ship at the conclusion of our stay and she was coming along. She brought a bunch of different earrings for us to choose from... I picked a pair and thanked her. The girls came back shortly after and it was like a full house. Mr. Selvam and everyone was getting dressed... we went to the sink and was scrubbing off some of the dried peeling parts of the Henna. It was hilarious how we crowded around the sink. Lol. Jumwala was holding some oil which she poured into our hands to lock in the color and over all appearance... Didn't really work out too well lol. But anyhow, Meg presented the family with the gifts that they'd brought. I had came at the end and hadn't gotten anything so that was a bummer. Mr. Selvam called each of our names and presented us a package of assorted Indian treats from the Krishna Sweets shop we'd seen but didn't get to stop the night before. As he handed it to us he told us good luck with everything in life... it was all so nice. Then we discussed how we would fit. Then walked outside and took pictures with Vegus. I stood next to him and he had a great load of fun licking me and biting my clothing... everyone was laughing because I kept squirming and jumping lol. The driver suddenly became a photographer haha... all and all it was awesome having that collective experience. Then we piled in the van. Mrs. Selvam, Lauren and Meg sat in the back, I sat in the middle section with Alyssa, Jumwala and her Grandma, then in the front was the driver (driving on the right) and Mr. Selvam and Priyanka squeezed on his lap. Mrs. Selvam whipped out some snacks like Banana chips and some crunchy noodle stuff similar to the stuff we had brought from the temple. She would call our names and we'd turn around with our cupped hands and she'd dish out chips.  It was so homely. Lol. At some point they remembered I didn't sing for them so I sung "Amazing Grace" and they all clapped. Grandma Selvam said "Angel voice" and that felt pretty darn awesome =) haha. Then we got Juwmala to sing and she sung Rihanna's "Unfaithful" in Tamil. I wish I had recorded it... too cool. I would've loved to love it in Tamil. Anyhow, we had little difficulty finding the gate where the ship was docked but finally got towards the area. Then we had to get out because we had to walk and do our whole passport thing. The family had problems though because while they had a pass authorizing them to visit they had to go back and take photos... we started panicking because we hadn't left too much of an open amount of time and all visitors had to be off the ship by 7:30 pm. We assured them that we wouldn't leave and would wait until they returned.

Meg took the shuttle back to the ship to let the Purser's desk know and find out what she could about the policies--but more importantly if they could extend the visitor time for us. Lauren, Alyssa stood outside and started joking about begging the guards... we'd said something about let it be.. and then ended up singing "Let it Be" haha.. anyhow, they came back shorter than expected and we were able to proceed. Then we got out the van and walked through the gate for Indian security check. The minute we got past that and up close to the ship, they whipped their cameras out and were all smiles. We posed for pictures then went towards SAS security. There was about a 25 minute issue about photo ID's and some other stuff. We were getting pissed because we hadn't been informed of the procedure so we couldn't inform our families. It was like watching people you love get interrogated and after that first issue at the Indian checkpoint we thought there would be no obstacles. It sucked that the driver had to go back and sit in the van... because he wasn't on the list. Got on finally, snapped pictures of their faces as we walked throughout the ship. We showed them Lauren and Meg's cabin and that went well. Then Meg and Priyanka ended up splitting and Alyssa, Lauren and I took everyone else around the ship. There was a cute moment in the Union. Mr. Selvam posed near the podium, Mrs. Selvam who used to dance posed on stage, Grandma Selvam posed leaning over the piano, and Jumwala posed as though she was playing the piano. haha. Then we took pictures of them near the comp lab and library...showed them the dining halls and 7th deck where they posed some more. Mr. Selvam gave us his business card and Jumwala wrote their email addresses on the back. We were now his daughters he said. Whenever we came to India, call them up and we would stay with them... or as Priyanka said when we saw her "in her room again" hahaha. We waited for Priyanka and Meg in Tymitz. They were getting a bit paranoid because the technical time for the visitors had ended but we figured if they wanted to know where we were or needed us... Tymitz was a perfect location. When Meg and Priyanka came they were with some other SAS'ers like Jack, Matt, Allan, and some other folks that Priyanka had met. it became this huge picture fest and each of us were taking pictures. But as we neared the end of picture taking, and more talks about leaving, it got really emotional. Mrs. Selvam was at first just wiping her eyes... then she was crying... it wasn't audible... it was the silent one where you look over and we was like oh no...! Then Grandma Selvam was tearing up and crying... and it was interesting to see how people who had just met them like Jack was telling me that he got teary eyed... I mean just within meeting them you felt so much love and just acceptance. It was just an awesome awesome awesome experience. I am so glad that everything happened the way it did. I can't imagine it ending any better than it do nor could I foresee myself falling in love with a family in a nation I considered myself "done with." India is intense. India is complex. India is aggressive. But India is beautiful.