Day 12: Back home to good ol' D.C.

The vacation was great but it was time to come back home to D.C. I said my goodbyes and it was off to BIAL for the long trek home:

Bengaluru (BLR) Depart 1:55 am

to

Paris (CDG) Arrive 8:50 am Terminal AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL C

4,869 mi (7,836 km) Duration: 10hr 25mn

AF Flight: 191

Paris (CDG) Depart 1:25 pm Terminal AEROGARE 2 TERMINAL E

to

Washington DC (IAD) Arrive 3:55 pm

3,849 mi (6,194 km) Duration: 8hr 30mn

AF Flight: 24

This trip to India was long overdue. Meeting extended family and seeing the amazing sights made this the best trip ever. Being back in Bangalore was great and it felt like a warm bowl of chicken soup on a cold day.

I won't wait 15 years to come back. I will definitely be back next year.

If you're planning a trip to India, don't hesitate. Just do it. India is very different and exciting. You just have to close your eyes and dive in and soak it all up.

Some useful links:

Incredible India

Karnataka Tourism

Day 11: Wearing a dhoti and visiting the Swamiji

We had planned on spending a lazy day shopping on MG Road for gifts for people back home when we got a call from the Math (pronounced Mutt.) One of the aides to the Swamiji, who is the religious head of our particular sect, wanted to talk with Ma about a possible visit by the Swamiji to the US. So Ma wanted us to go along and get his blessings. Now, I have never been very religious, but the chance to see the Swamiji was like an audience with the Pope. Supposedly, the rule is that men cannot wear clothes that are stitched so Ma and I dashed off to Girija Silks on 8th Cross to get some dhotis. Dhotis are like sarongs and, in their simplest fashion, are wrapped around the waist. We got long pieces of cloth called angavastras to cover our upper torsos.
So there we were, Doodle and I, probably two of the most non-religious Amchi's draped in dhotis and angavastras trying to climb out of Fats' car at the Math. It was a great experience. We got in line and when we reached the Swamiji and got the tirth (pronounced teerth, which is sort of a holy water-like mixture of camphor and other ingredients) he made small talk with us. He said, in Konkani, "what do you do in Washington? And I said, in horribly butchered Konkani, "I work for Metro." And that was that. All I could say to the religious head of my sect is "I work for Metro"!!!! ROFL. We got his blessings and moved on.

Dressed in our Swamiji audience finery. Becky pointed out that the whole world could see my A&F moose boxers through the outfit!!!

We got home, got dressed and went shopping. I bought some scarves and rosewood elephants at Cauvery Emporium. If you are ever in Bangalore and you want authentic Mysore Silk and sandalwood products you have to shop at Cauvery. At the intersection of MG Road and Brigade road, it is one-stop shopping for all things Karnataka.

I couldn't leave Bangalore without RR Biriyani. RR restaurant on Church Street specializes in Hyderabadi biriyani. I had the lamb biriyani and the mutton fry and it was as good as I remember.

Ma and I then went to Cottons and I took some pictures. Bishop Cottons Boys' School is a Hogwarts-style grand old school (sometimes called the Eton of the East) in Bangalore complete with five houses (four in my time.) Each boy belongs to a house (like Gryffindor in the Potter books.) I was in Pope house and our colors were yellow and white. The other houses were Packenham-Walsh (purple and red), Elphick (blue and gray), Pettigrew (green and black) and, added recently, Thomas, (red and green.)

Standing in front of the Cottons gate brought back many memories of my school days there. I saw the First Elevens' Field, around which I was made to duck-walk (walking on my haunches for a mile) by the Prefects for being late once. The pain of duck walking a mile and the bamboo caning I got in 1985 made sure that I was on time for the rest of my time at Cottons!

I went to Gangaram's, a bookstore, and bought Kautilya's Arthashastra, published by Penguin. I also bought the Amar Chitra Katha Mahabharata.

Day 10: Visiting more family and Indo-Chinese!!!!

We visited my grandmother, aunt and cousin today. It was nice seeing them after such a long time.

Day 10 and I still hadn't had any Chinese food. Chinese food in India is very different from Chinese food anywhere else. It is more Cantonese than Szechuan and includes dishes like Gobi (cauliflower) Manchurian, Chilli Chicken and, of course, Fried Rice. I grew up on this food because my Dad had an Chinese restaurant in Malleswaram and it was the best food around. He had a small folding hot dog cart-like contraption and he cooked and sold Chinese food from it to mostly college students from nearby MES College. His cart was initially parked outside CV Raman's house and I used to pedal up every evening on my little bike and get a fried rice and chilli pork. Once, his cooks decided to strike and walked off the job so my Dad and I ran a two man operation for a few days. He would do the cooking and I would do the washing up. Seeing that is was still successful without them, the cooks came back on the job. That was probably my first experience with (dis)organized labor! Even to this day I absolutely hate it when people threaten to walk off the job or any kind of direct union action.

Well, we went to Mainland China on Church Street for some yummy Chinese food. Twiggy was appalled by the price of 200 rupees for a bowl of white rice and in a typical Auntyji tone said "200 rupees for a bowl of rice? At this rate I will bring my own bloody rice cooker and make my own rice!!!" The food was great and we had the pepper lamb, chilli chicken, fried rice and of course, Kingfisher beer. Yummy!

Day 9: One More Maalish and back to Bengaluru

I wasn't going to let the last day in Goa be boring so I got up at the butt crack of dawn (yeah, they have those here too) and walked around the hotel and fort to the ramparts, stood at the cannon turrets and surveyed the Arabian Sea like some potentate! LOL. Doddle and I had rented scooters at the Holiday Village and we drove them to Fort Aguada but it rained the rest of the time and we didn't really get a chance to drive around Goa. But we got to drive them a short distance, on the left of the road.
I got one more pehelwan maalish before we checked out and it was back to Dabolim for the bumpy ATR flight to Bengaluru.

It was sad to leave Goa, but, it was back to reality and to lovely air-conditioned Bangalore.

We landed back at the fabulous airport and took a Meru taxi home. Meru taxis are awesome, well-organized and quick. All the Meru taxis were Chevys, so someone's buying them! We got home and crashed in front of the TV and relaxed.

Day 8: The Ultimate Spa Treatment

After a day of temples, cathedrals, and being lightly hungover from kala-khatta mojitos, I signed up for the ultimate spa treatment. It was a 2.5 hour treatment that included a Sammardana massage,
a Narikela scrub, and a Mukhalepa facial.

The day started off with a one hour yoga class on a pavilion overlooking the Arabian Sea. I did basic yoga poses like the Suryanamaskara (sun salutation) and the cobra pose. Well, I tried to do the Suryanamaskara because it was quite cloudy and we had to guess the direction of the sun to do the pose! My horribly mojito-pickled inflexible body screamed bloody murder as I tried the cobra pose. It was more like an overfed python pose rather than a sleek cobra pose! The best part of the yoga class was the meditation. I closed my eyes and chanted "Om" with the instructor and the only thing I could hear was the sea and the wild monsoon waves crashing against the ramparts of the fort.

Then came the best part-the 2.5 hour spa treatment.

It started off with the scrub. I was covered in dessicated coconut mixed with honey and wrapped up like a mummy for what seemed like an eternity. In a fit of jetlag induced euphoria I had declared to Twiggy "I want to bathe in milk" a la Cleopatra. Well, I almost got my wish. I felt like a mummified Cleopatra in my scrub and wrap but I drifted off to sleep and, for some odd reason, dreamed of dhows (ancient ships) plying the Arabian Sea between Oman and India, trading spices!
After a shower, I got a vigorous massage and then the most amazing facial with honey, sandalwood, ashwagandha (a fragrant root extract) and jasmine.

At the end of the 2.5 hours all I could feel was my face. All the aches and pains were gone and I was floating on air. I'm turning into a certifiable spa maniac!

Day 7: The Cathedral of Bom Jesus, Mangeshi and Shantadurga temples.

After a day of relaxing and unwinding at the hotel, we decided to go sightseeing. So we piled into a car and went to see the Cathedral of Bom Jesus (Good or Beautiful Jesus, in Portuguese.) The cathedral is about a third of the size of the National Cathedral in D.C. and is gorgeous. The inside reminds me of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. What is unique about this cathedral is that it houses the remains of St. Francis Xavier, which are on display in a glass coffin. Legend has it that when St. Francis Xavier died in China, his servant put his body in a coffin and covered it with quicklime to speed up its decomposition. When the body was exhumed it was still intact. This was seen as a miracle and the Portuguese brought the body to Goa and enshrined it in a glass coffin. The body was put on display on special occasions and the last time this happened was in the 1950s when Goa was still a Portuguese colony even though the rest of India was now independent. The body began to gradually decompose and this was seen as a symbol for the end of Portuguese rule in Goa, which came in the 1960s. The body is today displayed in a glass coffin and is rarely ever taken out and put on display.

We then went to Mangeshi temple. This is the temple in which my ancestors worshipped. Well, the original temple was razed during the Portuguese Inquisition and rebuilt in Portuguese style once the Inquisition ended. The story goes that during the Inquisition, the Konkanis fled down the coast settling in towns and villages between Goa and Mangalore. One such small village was Tonse, where my ancestors settled and they took the name of the town as their last name. After the Inquisition, the temple was rebuilt and is visited by people from all over.

The Troops (avec un chien indien) at Shantadurga

Mangeshi temple is dedicated to Mangeshi, another name for Shiva. Shantadurga is dedicated to a peaceful Durga, another deity. People visiting Mangeshi temple also visit Shantadurga, which is a short drive away. Both Mangeshi and Shantadurga are the family gods so Heery Aunty gave us some money to put in the hundi (a piggy bank-like box that takes up the collection for the upkeep of the temple and for charity.)

The tired Ray-Ban cousins at Kamat's after all the sightseeing.

After a long day of temples and cathedrals we went into Panjim, the capital of Goa, for lunch. What better way to end a day with Konkani temples than Konkani food? So we had traditional Goan Konkani food at Kamat's where I showed Twiggy the Thums Up trick. Thums Up, spelled correctly, is a local drink that is India's equivalent of Coke. The Thums Up trick goes like this: you take a straw in the Thums Up bottle and move it up and down and the bottle erupts in a fizz. Very juvenile, but fun nevertheless.

Becky (left) sampling Kala-Khatta mojitos, her hair oily-fresh from the spa!!!

Doodle and I getting boozy on Kalla Khatta Mojitos and Martinis

We got back to the hotel and hit the spa and then the bar. The bar at Fort Aguada was awesome and the bartender, Royce, is one of the best ones I have seen. He will make you anything you want, even stuff that's not on the menu. I had a 007, which is a standard shaken-not-stirred martini and it was good but not as good as the one I had in St. Michaels. What was amazing and unique was the kala-khatta mojito.

Blackberry juice+rock salt in a mojito= Goan heaven.

Day 6: Bumming around the hotel and Cafe Mambo

We spent the day bumming around the hotel. Our rooms were in tiny little cottages on a hill on the hotel property and we got 3 cottages. Ma and I were in one cottage.

Reading the Times of India-Goa edition at the cottage

Goan food and entertainment

Doddle, Twiggy and I went to Cafe Mambo so shake our bootys (or is it booties?) Lots of good music like Dr. Alban and Jamelia. The club was on Baga beach and was great but it was a bit dead as it was the off season.

Day 5: Off to Goa

Lunch at Souza's on the beach-traditional Goan food, yummy!

When we planned this trip to India we decided to go to Goa for a few days. So Twiggy, her mom, my mom and I went by Kingfisher Airlines and Doodle, Fats, and Becky went by Jet Airways. Kingfisher is the best airline I have flown. It is run by the beer baron, Vijay Mallya, India's Richard Branson. The service both at the airport and on board is amazing. The food was very good and we were given a full meal on a 90 minute flight. Beat that, United! The difference between Bangalore airport and Goa airport is night and day. The one in Bangalore is brand new and is privately run but the one in Goa is government run, is older, and was recently converted from a naval aviation base to a civilian airport. The baggage carousel was worn out and it was old and run down.

We got into Goa and took an hour long courtesy shuttle to Sinquerim, which is in North Goa, and checked into the Taj Fort Aguada Beach Resort.
View of the pool. Goa was a Portuguese posession from the 16th century to 1961. The Portuguese refused to leave Goa after independence in 1947 so then Prime Minister Nehru sent Indian forces into Goa and sent them packing. Fort Aguada was built by the Portuguese to protect their prize possession in India-Goa from the British and French. During World War II, some Germans traveling through British India were captured as prisoners of war and held at the Fort Aguada prison. The Taj Fort Aguada is built into parts of the fort and one of its ramparts is visible from the hotel pool. The ship in the right of the photo is one that ran aground in a storm 5 years ago and is still there rusting to decay.

The beach at Sinquerim was really rocky so we had the option of going to another beach at Calangute.

The Taj Fort Aguada was great. We were in the off season, which is the monsoon season. It rained a lot so we spent a lot of time indoors at the spa getting pampered and relaxing. The spas at Taj hotels focus on ancient Indian treatments combined with aromatherapy and ayurveda. Ayurveda is an ancient Indian discipline that goes back to Vedic times. It combines natural elements and ingredients to maintain wellness and cure minor ailments. I went to the spa everyday and got a different massage but my favorite one, which I got three days out of five was the pehelwan malish. Pehelwans are wrestlers who work and sometimes live in akharas or academies where they learn the art of Indian wrestling. Part of their daily regimen are vigourous massages and rub downs that soothe the muscles. The spa had the pehelwan massage and it was painful at first but felt great later. At the end of the 90 minute session, I felt like I was floating on air.

We went to lunch at Souza's on the beach at Calangute. This is the best traditional Goan food I have had. Goan food is heavy on coconut and seafood. It also has a Portuguese influence. The famous dish pork vindaloo originated here. Our first meal at Souza's was Goan fish curry with pork vindaloo and sanaas, which are steamed rice cakes. Mmmmmm. The rest of the day was spent bumming around the pool and lounging in a pavilion overlooking the Arabian Sea, reading Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star . I love reading the journey he describes from Amritsar to Bangalore and his experiences in Bangalore. Now that am here I can relate to his views on the new Bangalore.

Day 4: Visiting Heera Aunty and more family history

Heera Aunty hugs me tight and refuses to let go!!

My family has an interesting history, as most Indian and Pakistani families affected by the events of 1947-1948 do.

Starting in 1498, India had regular contact with Europe with the advent of Vasco de Gama who arrived on the west coast and started trading in spices and other goods. The British arrived in 1600 under a charter from Queen Elizabeth I and set up the East India Company. It expanded and, after retaining armies and playing one ruler against another in the waning years of the Mughal Empire, they were able to build up a sizeable landmass that came under the rule of the East India Company. Decisive battles against the French, their main rivals, culminating in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 made Britain the main European power in India. The War of Indian Independence/Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, and its subsequent reforms, brought all the land directly under Crown control in 1858, and Queen Victoria was claimed Empress of India. The Anglo-Sikh and Anglo-Mysore wars and other wars, skirmishes and deals increased British land assets and led to what eventually came to be known as British India.
The Amritsar Massacre of 1919 at Jallianwallah Bagh unofficially kicked off the Indian independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, which led to the partition of British India into India and Pakistan and their independence in 1947. That, in a nutshell, is the history of modern India.
When British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan, the new countries went through what was arguably the bloodiest period in their history since the Kalinga War (which led Emperor Ashoka to renounce everything and convert to and spread Buddhism.) Mass migration from India to Pakistan and vice versa led to thousands of people being slaughtered along religious lines and war broke out between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir. Kashmir remains the main bone of contention between the two countries today. A good book to read on the events leading up to Indian independence is Freedom at Midnight by Dominique LaPierre and Larry Collins.

My grandfather, Flying Officer Umesh Tonse, got his wings at RAF Cranwell, which is Britain's Air Force academy. When war broke out between India and Pakistan in 1947 he was deployed with his squadron to fly troops fighting on the new Indo-Pak border. He was the co-pilot of a military version of the Douglas DC-3 Dakota when it crashed into Banihal Pass in the Himalayas on October 31, 1947 . He was missing in action for a year and was then classified as killed in action. The bodies were not recovered until 1981 when mountaineers searching for the crash site of a Russian plane found the wreckage of the Dakota. The remains were brought back to Delhi for a funeral with full military honors.

Heera Aunty is my grandfather's sister. Visiting her was great because she is the only link left to my grandfather from that generation who is still alive.

When I walked into her apartment, Heera Aunty got very emotional because she was seeing me for the first time in 15 years and because she repeatedly said that I reminded her a lot of her brother, my grandfather. She kept saying "you look just like him" and she hugged me and wouldn't let go!

Doodle, Heera Aunty and me.


After lunch at Heera Aunty's apartment.

I also found out that my great grandfather, Heera Aunty's father, was the Grand Master of the Freemasons in Bangalore in the 1920s!

Goa, Velha Goa

We just came back after 5 days in Goa and had a blast! I went to the Taj Spa everyday to get Ayurvedic massages and enjoyed the Goan seafood and entertainment. Took lots of pics of the Cathedral of Bom Jesus, the Shantadurga and Mangeshi temples, and all the other sights in Goa and I will try to sort them all out when I get back home to D.C. this Saturday and post them up on this blog.

Goa is very different from the rest of India. Known for being very liberal, this live and let live town still counts hippies from the 60s as its residents. The clubs are world famous and the cuisine is unique with lots of seafood as the main ingredient.

Goa is also the place from which my ancestors came. The main language spoken here is Konkani, which is the linguistic group to which my family belongs. It was comforting to hear everyone speaking Konkani and seeing the temples that go back hundreds of years in my family. During the Portuguese Inquisition of the late 1600s, many Hindu Konkanis fled down the coast and settled in places like Mangalore. They then moved to Bangalore in the early 20th century to work in the cotton mills, which also brought my family to Bangalore. My ancestors can be traced to a village north of Mangalore called Tonse. Many Konkanis took the name of the village in which they settled and that's how our last name became Tonse.

Tracing the movement back to Goa before the Inquisition was interesting. When we went to the Mangeshi and Shantadurga temples we saw the idols that had been smuggled out of Goa to protect them from the Inquisitors. When peace was made and some Konkanis returned to Goa, the temples were rebuilt with a Portuguese architectural influence. I will post pics of the temples when they are sorted out.

So we are back in Bangalore. I visit my grandmother tomorrow and some shopping Friday and then it's off to the airport Friday night for a 1:55 a.m. flight back to Paris and then home to D.C.