Bet you thought I was dead, didn't you.
After a gut-wrenching good-bye to Raja's family, especially his mom (How do you say "Sorry I stole away your only son and all but one of your darling grandchildren to my foreign country," in Telugu?), we hit the road, off to the big city of Hyderabad to join the over 10 million dwellers here. The six hour drive turned into seven when he met with a road block guarded by police. It seems there was some kind of festival involving a huge temple with naked men-animal face statues on stone wheels being pulled by its thick rope by people who did not care that we wanted to pass through. I was getting so frustrated. Raja told me it was out of our control and to just deal with waiting. But I thought I could do better than that and got out of our suv and walked through the traffic to the police to sweet talk them into letting us through because I am arrogant and not above using the shock value of my race to my own advantage. Well thosejerks guys didn't speak much English anyway and womanly wiles truly are useless here, but one told me it would be half an hour still and another told me it would be an hour still. This was mid afternoon under a scorching sun. There was a school bus full of small children a few trucks behind us. But too bad for all of us because that's just how it works here. It wasn't long after my little stunt that traffic got moving again so I like to think that I contributed a bit, you know? Because I'm a giver.
As it got darker, driving got a bit scarier. Imagine playing chicken in the dark for hours. Last time we were here, three years ago, I was all white-knuckled and breath-holding on these excursions but I've learned, in part, to just let go and hope for the best because I am totally powerless here. And stress hormones make people fatter. There were signs everywhere that warned against overtaking. They even went as a far as to have a red skull and cross bones on them. "Those signs must be just for pirates," I joked to myself. Raja was in the back dealing with the kiddies (first time this month!) while I listened to my iPod in the front and made the driver uncomfortable by my presence. I get that a lot. Plus, I was car-dancing a little bit. Because I have rhythm. And an unsubstantiated fear of deep vein thrombosis.
We found out the next morning that a couple hours after we were off that road and safely at our destination, there was a serious accident and several deaths and injuries and an all-night traffic jam. Of course, words cannot describe my gratitude that we were not involved and my sadness for those who were.
*switching back to light-hearted mode*
Dominoes pizza was waiting for us here at Raja's sister's house. But between the layers of crust and topping was a thick layer of processed cheese mixed with...salad dressing? relish? We couldn't tell for sure but it was super gross and we were all disappointed and couldn't eat it and made Raja's sister feel guilty for getting us the wrong stuff, even though it's not her fault because what does she know about pizza and she did her very best and blah, blah, blah, you get the idea. All was forgotten the next day when we ate Pizza Hut and went shopping for trinkets and whatnot. Then we ate horrible KFC and went to bed. Success!
Today's agenda includes visiting with more friends, eating more awful fast food and packing because tomorrow night, the show goes live and the Censoredtoprotectfromcrazies Family flies home!
Yay!
After a gut-wrenching good-bye to Raja's family, especially his mom (How do you say "Sorry I stole away your only son and all but one of your darling grandchildren to my foreign country," in Telugu?), we hit the road, off to the big city of Hyderabad to join the over 10 million dwellers here. The six hour drive turned into seven when he met with a road block guarded by police. It seems there was some kind of festival involving a huge temple with naked men-animal face statues on stone wheels being pulled by its thick rope by people who did not care that we wanted to pass through. I was getting so frustrated. Raja told me it was out of our control and to just deal with waiting. But I thought I could do better than that and got out of our suv and walked through the traffic to the police to sweet talk them into letting us through because I am arrogant and not above using the shock value of my race to my own advantage. Well those
As it got darker, driving got a bit scarier. Imagine playing chicken in the dark for hours. Last time we were here, three years ago, I was all white-knuckled and breath-holding on these excursions but I've learned, in part, to just let go and hope for the best because I am totally powerless here. And stress hormones make people fatter. There were signs everywhere that warned against overtaking. They even went as a far as to have a red skull and cross bones on them. "Those signs must be just for pirates," I joked to myself. Raja was in the back dealing with the kiddies (first time this month!) while I listened to my iPod in the front and made the driver uncomfortable by my presence. I get that a lot. Plus, I was car-dancing a little bit. Because I have rhythm. And an unsubstantiated fear of deep vein thrombosis.
We found out the next morning that a couple hours after we were off that road and safely at our destination, there was a serious accident and several deaths and injuries and an all-night traffic jam. Of course, words cannot describe my gratitude that we were not involved and my sadness for those who were.
*switching back to light-hearted mode*
Dominoes pizza was waiting for us here at Raja's sister's house. But between the layers of crust and topping was a thick layer of processed cheese mixed with...salad dressing? relish? We couldn't tell for sure but it was super gross and we were all disappointed and couldn't eat it and made Raja's sister feel guilty for getting us the wrong stuff, even though it's not her fault because what does she know about pizza and she did her very best and blah, blah, blah, you get the idea. All was forgotten the next day when we ate Pizza Hut and went shopping for trinkets and whatnot. Then we ate horrible KFC and went to bed. Success!
Today's agenda includes visiting with more friends, eating more awful fast food and packing because tomorrow night, the show goes live and the Censoredtoprotectfromcrazies Family flies home!
Yay!
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