2 January
2018
2 January
2018
That was a bright colored dragonfly
2 January
2018
The Indian Ocean
2 January
2018
This is why the second lesson in most important to me…
We landed in Bangkok on our way to transit to Bali. At the coffee shop in the wee hours, I was chatting up the lady who was cleaning up the place. I asked her “How do you say Thank You in Thai?”. She said “Kop Un Kha”.
Excuse me if I got this completely wrong – spelling wise. I was desperately trying to learn the pronunciation. While not totally accurate, I think I got most of the pronunciation. The rest, I expected the Thais to look the other way just because I was trying their language as a foreigner.
Next stop, Natasha wanted to pick up some gifts for her friends. After choosing some stuff, the girls stepped outside the shop waiting for me to finish paying for it. As I mentioned before, it was very early in the morning. The checking out counter was empty. In fact, two young ladies helped me thru the process.
At the end, to impress them, I came out with my knowledge of the language Thai in its entirety – “Kop Un Kha”!!! I even put the flair at the end like I had heard the cleaning lady do.
The response was not exactly what I expected. You could see that they were bemused by my Thai. Not above learning, I asked them – “Did I get it wrong? How do you say Thank You?”
What I learnt was that I was absolutely perfect in my words and delivery. If I were a girl!!
Apparently, it matters whether you are a boy or a girl when you say Thank You in Thai. I believe I was to say “Kop Un Kup” (with the same flair in the end). Or something like that.
In college, every 101 course was easy for me. It is the 102 that got me.
Not much has changed from those college days.
🙂 🙂 🙂
2 January
2018
Some “Us” time
After a week of frenetic activities to get the daughters opportunities to spend time with their grandparents and cousins, Sharmila and I finally got some “us” time here in Bali.
Today is a planned “lazy” day. Kicked it off with coffee with Sharmila. If you can see the water through the trees, that is the Indian Ocean.
2 January
2018
Nothing says Welcome like a giant starbucks sign right as you get out of the airport…
1 January
2018
Guess who I ran into?
Phase A of our vacation over. Kids spent a good amount of time with grandparents and cousins. Moving to Phase B now. Time for just the four of us to spend time together.
With that in mind, we reached Kolkata airport quite some time before our flight to Bali, Indonesia. The airport was empty and the checking in, immigration and security check were all super smooth. The girls were hungry. So we headed towards the restaurants inside. I knew one restaurant that I thought they might like.
We turned left, got past the construction area of the duty free shop and then started cutting across the shop. Just as we did it, I saw somebody walking by. In fact, by her uniform, it appeared that she worked at the duty free shop. Looking at her, I was fairly sure I had seen her before. In fact, I thought I knew who she was too.
I was looking at her to see if it was indeed the person I thought she was – without making it appear too embarrassing. It was a 50-50 situation and I was weighing the options of how to approach her. (It could be really really weird if I walked up to a random young lady and asked her if she recognized me and she said no. I would never hear the end of it from Nikita and Natasha. Or Sharmila, for that matter).
Fortunately for me, she recognized me too!! In fact, she talked first!!!
Although itt was for a brief few minutes (she was on duty), I was able to introduce my family to Anzee. Last time I had met Anzee – in fact the only time I had met her – was in the bar at ITC Sonar hotel. Three and a half years back. She had served me and my brother some wine and I had realized while finding out her story (what else is new? 🙂 ) that she hailed from a place very close to where my sister had adopted my niece.
Nikita took a quick snap of Anzee, myself and Sharmila. It was delightful running into her and getting a quick update on her and her family!!
1 January
2018
Non sequitur?
1 January
2018
Cousin time!!!
31 December
2017
The three girls in Kolkata Maidan
There is a mildly embarrassing story that dates back to 1989 when I had picked up Sharmila from her college and we had gone out to Maidan and Victoria Memorial. I will save that story for the future. My point is, yesterday, we took the girls to some of those spots in the Maidan.
Folks from Kolkata probably can recognize the ever present cricket games going on during winter in the background (and soccer during summer) and the Shahid Minar behind.
