Phoenix, AZ: We left Boston on March 1, 2011. Up until then, we had been waiting restlessly for Deepa's Travel document to arrive.. we thought that we would be able to leave the country on February 15th. We were scheduled to arrive in NZ on Feb 17th and spend the following 5 weeks exploring both the North and South Islands and then carry onwards to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We scheduled our sublet to arrive on March 1, 2011. Bus alas! Things seldom go as they are planned! We waited and waited and waited...and those of you who were with us through those awful days of waiting know how painful it was watching our dreams of catching the end of summer in NZ slip away. During the wait we did improve our winter mountaineering skills quite a bit though.. we climbed Mt Washington, Mt Lafayette, and Mt. Cardigan (photos coming soon).We decided that since we didn't have our apartment past March 1st anymore anyway, there was no use in hanging around in Boston. We made a quick decision to fly to Arizona...amongst other reasons to come out West** was the fact that the weather here is simply perfect this time of year, there's plenty of exploring to do from little day hikes to strenuous backpacking with an entire wealth of mountains as well as the Grand Canyon, and most importantly Deepa's cousin, Siddharth who lives in Phoenix.
In the four years that Siddharth has been in the US, I have only been able to see him a few times and have never really been able to come out to visit him much because of our schedules and time constraints but this last month has been such a blast reconnecting. Siddharth is my first cousin, our mom's are sisters. I was 6 when he was born and still remember being intensely jealous of him because he took all the attention away from me. My parents were away in Nigeria at the time and had left me under the care of my aunt, Shanthi, and my grandparents. During those years, Shanthi was my main caretaker, my mother, and my best friend more than anything else. That's why I have never called her Aunty or Chitti- she was always my Shanthi and when she got married and became pregnant with Siddharth, I still insisted that I be the center of her world. She and Giri Uncle happily obliged until of course, Siddharth was born. I remember not wanting to share Shanthi with him but at the same time loving him as a brother (complex emotions for a 6 year old). Soon I moved to Cote d'Ivoire to be with my parents and Shoba but we would visit India every summer for two months... we would look forward to spending time with Siddharth and the new addition to the family, Ashwin who was born a couple years later. The years flew by and Siddharth was off to engineering school and Ashwin to law school... soon I was herein the US doing my residency and Siddharth applied and got into Arizona State University to complete his Masters in Engineering. He has since then made his home in Phoenix and has invited me to come out multiple times.
Rama and I jumped at the chance of being able to spend time with Siddharth here in Phoenix. We have really had a chance to see what a handsome young man he has grown into. He is such an easy going, fun loving, responsible, baby brother to both of us.** First of all he is an amazing cook...a quality that both of us foodies really appreciate. From cooking molagootal to dum aloo or enjoying a really good Hyderabadi birayani together, we had such a ball!! We also got to meet a lot of his friends including CC and Arundhati who are darlings and took care of us while we were there.** With Siddharth's help we were able to use his place as a base and travel all over Arizona.
We received my travel document finally last week but then that would have meant that we would have only 5 days in NZ and a couple of those days would probably be spent recovering from jet lag. Thus the plan to travel to NZ was dropped with much sadness...but someday it will happen! Routeburn track, Tongariro, Mt Cook, Abel Tasmen... will miss us but not for long!
We decided to continue on with the trip as we originally planned it which was to leave to Cairns, Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef. We will spend a week on a boat there doing multiple dives.In the meantime, we had a few extra days in Arizona which we spent at the Grand Canyon.
In the four years that Siddharth has been in the US, I have only been able to see him a few times and have never really been able to come out to visit him much because of our schedules and time constraints but this last month has been such a blast reconnecting. Siddharth is my first cousin, our mom's are sisters. I was 6 when he was born and still remember being intensely jealous of him because he took all the attention away from me. My parents were away in Nigeria at the time and had left me under the care of my aunt, Shanthi, and my grandparents. During those years, Shanthi was my main caretaker, my mother, and my best friend more than anything else. That's why I have never called her Aunty or Chitti- she was always my Shanthi and when she got married and became pregnant with Siddharth, I still insisted that I be the center of her world. She and Giri Uncle happily obliged until of course, Siddharth was born. I remember not wanting to share Shanthi with him but at the same time loving him as a brother (complex emotions for a 6 year old). Soon I moved to Cote d'Ivoire to be with my parents and Shoba but we would visit India every summer for two months... we would look forward to spending time with Siddharth and the new addition to the family, Ashwin who was born a couple years later. The years flew by and Siddharth was off to engineering school and Ashwin to law school... soon I was herein the US doing my residency and Siddharth applied and got into Arizona State University to complete his Masters in Engineering. He has since then made his home in Phoenix and has invited me to come out multiple times.
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| CC, Siddharth, Arundhati, Rama and I at Kabab Palace;after a hard day's work, they needed to wind down with a good birayani. Siddharth smelled his hands for hours after-hehe |
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| Enjoying a toast with Siddarth and friends |
We decided to continue on with the trip as we originally planned it which was to leave to Cairns, Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef. We will spend a week on a boat there doing multiple dives.In the meantime, we had a few extra days in Arizona which we spent at the Grand Canyon.
