Bullet (a bike)
I never wrote about the marvelousness of last weekend. Gayatri’s mom and sister were supposed to come visit Pune. I was really excited because I’ve heard so much about them, and I still haven’t been able to meet them. Unfortunately, her sister got malaria, again, and they weren’t able to make it. She’s ok, she’s resting, and malaria is a reality (unfortunately I’m used to my friends saying that they’ve had it, more than once). Not to make light of a not-light situation. They had a hotel room booked already, a nice hotel room. And Gayatri and I basked around in a huge white sheet, comfy bed with AC, a really, really nice shower, and some room service, ice cream, and subways. It was a weekend of heaven.
This weekend is a weekend of work. I rarely get to talk, by choice, about what I do. But I’ll indulge for a while. For two weeks before the school year we give daily trainings on how to run a classroom, theory based practices and techniques. It’s amazing and I love doing it but it’s stressful, but in a good way. I love this kind of stuff. I’m happy for one week of it to almost be over though. It’s funny because I still haven’t adjusted to the new school year, June – April. But I can’t keep in my mind that school is just finishing in the US. I’m all thrown off.
This past weekend also involved the kids. Our four main ones, Chapel, Ishwar, Ganesh and Prakash finally came home. They, as in Ishwar, asked when they would get to come home. This is something Manoj and I both wanted to be able to let them do but also felt a little uncomfortable with. But, they ask, and we don’t say no. They’re great kids and we want to give them whatever experiences they can get from us. It was great. We had some badminton rackets and there’s a small play area downstairs outside our building where there’s a broken(ish) swing, a slide and a few benches. Our watchman joined us for a round of badminton for a while. We took pictures. When we went up, we had pizza ready for them. They’re always reluctant to take things from us. I’m happy about that, they’re not expecting anything from us. If they were, it wouldn’t be as beautiful as it is. We ate, they had pizza for the first time and then Gayatri and Sagar joined. We ended up in my room with different drawings. They took turns playing games on our cell phones. Ishwar drew very strange pictures of everyone and passed them out. We threw our hacky-sacks at each other, we laughed, we had a great time.
The best news of the day is that I have the Bullet! A Bullet, aka Royal Enfield is the Harley Davidson of India. It’s the coolest bike I’ve ever driven. My bike went in for servicing on Friday and they couldn’t give it back. Vineet often lets me ride his Bullet after capoeira class with him on the back. We’ve spoken about me taking it for a day or two, but I’ve been scared. I half-jokingly sent him a text about borrowing a bike this weekend; he also has a vintage scooter that goes put put putter put put. He thought I was talking about that, but I can’t ride that one because the gear shifting is in the left handle bar and I have no idea how to even drive it. Because he’s out of town this weekend, I got the Bullet! His rules of engagement…
Always Remember: 1. First start of the day has to be a kick start, 2. Let the red light go off before you self start, 3. Be extra cautious when going too fast or slow, 4. The bike is really heavy, 5. Try to control your grin when riding it, 6. Resist the moans, and 7. Love the bike and it will love you back. Have fun!
It’s awesome!!! I got to ride it to work today. It feels great!
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