Indore, the cleanest city in India and home sweet home...

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This is the post for several days. Bina was doing very well after the fourth Chemo and she gave me "permission" for a quick trip to visit Indore (my other home). She is walking from her room to the bathroom. She cooked breakfast for the family and is energetic and happy. Next Chemo is on Monday ( tomorrow) .

Mumbai airport is amazing mix of technology, art, culture and typical Mumbai language and style.

Indore is an hour flight north east of Mumbai. This is where i spent 23 years before going to UCBerkeley. Indore was selected  as " The cleanest city in India" just few months ago. I was surprised and proud at the same time.  My brother Shekhar and sister in Law Binu came to pick me up. The drive from the airport to home was revealing . It is a classic case of what can we do if we put ours minds to it. The roads appear much broader than before, the piles of garbage along the road were gone and with that the cows , pigs and stray dogs disappeared too. It seemed like people stopped throwing the garbage, stopped spitting and started putting things in the dust bins over night. For generations, Indians were convinced that , it is a "cultural thing" and India will never change. Then, the society as a whole decided to change and change it did. It is an amazing feat....the secret? Motivation and infrastructure provided by the government and then a massive campaign to educate, support and punish people. All the excuses about population density and lack of resources have disappeared.  

This is an airport but you see the blend of art, culture and functionality. There is always Hinglish...signs written in a language that you cannot understand unless you are Indian and know Hinglish. The sign below is an advertisement for a cell phone and is playing with the old Indian slogan of freedom fighting days ( freedom form British empire). The original slogan is "HIndustan Hamara"...meaning India is ours.  ...You can probably understand the advertisement no:)

Singing garbage truck
Yellow trucks like this one, drive around the city all day, singing about the pride of clean India . These pick up the trash from the dust bins places all over the city. At night the water tankers spray water and clear the roads to clean the dust down. It is delightful to see what people can do if they put their mind to it.

At home, there was another surprise waiting. My brother and nephew are getting a home built right next to the existing house. A quick look at the half built home, I learnt how technologically advanced India can be if one wants it. This house is going to be a 3500 sq ft home, eco friendly, completely solar powered, recycled water and a roof garden to grow organic vegetables as well as keep the house cool during hot summer days. I took lot of pictures, few are included as a sample. Here the houses are built with bricks, wood and steel ) solid construction lasting hundreds of years)  The interior will be as functional and elegant as any high end American home. ( Italian marbles, brass fixtures and all top end appliances, and lots of glass allowing natural light to come inside) There will be beautiful garden on the sides and then amy be roof garden.

The worker and the guard is resting after the days work.

Another worker and has his family has temporarily moved in to work and help keep an eye on the construction site.

Sushila is a friend from high school. She came to see me with an hours notice and we talked for hours. Sushila and  I were two girls taking Advance  Math and Pysics as an option in high school.( as opposed to most who took, economics, art or biology). She reminded me that I tutored her all summer so she can pass the 9th Math exam and enter in 10th grade Math with me. (School was not going to offer Math if I was the only student wanting to take it, so I had the challenge of convincing someone to want to take Math and then tutor her enough so she will pass the entrance exam and get proper grades) .
 Interesting part of this is that I have no memory of teaching her Math all summer along and for her this is a life changing event that her kids and grandkids have heard legends for Saroj Aunty millions of times ;) It really brought home the fact that , " One person's reality and memory is not necessarily the only truth there is.."  She and I were a strong  debate team for the school. We won many medals around the state.

Sushila, my high school Math buddy

At home, my nephew, Gaurav, showed the mangoes that they have been harvesting form a tree that my mother had planted over 60 years ago when the house was built. Knowing that , these were from my mom's tree made them extra sweet.  They also have a stray cat and three kittens that play around in the back yard and get fed milk and bread. This brought back old memories when we used to shelter all sort of critters ( birds, mice, dogs, peacocks, pigeons and more) and adore them. It was fun to see how these three grownups take such pleasure in just watching the kittens play. Gaurav also have stray dogs that listen to his car doming home in the evening , come running from who knows where. He plays with them and feeds them:) ...Nice to know that some things never change and may be it is in the genes to love animals..

Anil, Shekhar and me

Anil ( tall guy in the picture) lived behind our house while we grew up and he is still there. We went to school together and then did the engineering together, He was one year junior to me. We spent hours talking over the back fence, passing college notes, ( me helping him with concepts and problems) refusing to come around to each others house but spent hours talking.  As always ( from 60 years past) he heard my voice but this time he came over for a visit ;) We also did early morning biking adventures to near by villages stealing mangos, dates and Jamuns from the trees along the way. Times have changed us, his sister ( my friend) has passed away, he has kidney problems but I am happy that i got to see him.

Pictures below are the home, an art gallery and a jewelry museum of a friend that like everything else in Indore has been in my life for last 60 years. Sethi brothers were one of the 'very rich" families of the small town Indore. We went to same schools ( my parents were struggling middle class family but they sent us to expensive private school..I can write a whole book about that). In any case, same school but boys and girls were separate and they were all boys ( five of them). But in engineering collage, one of the brothers was my sister's class mate and one year my senior. I spent all my college years, studying off his notes and copying his engineering drawings. I (TOPOed) all his journals TOPO is something very valuable and only engineering students of those days can appreciate the time it saved :) The younger brothers ( his and mine) shuttled the journals back and forth two to three times a week :) for four years. The little brothers are good friends now and they get together to complain about us :) Anyways , when I went to see his art gallery (very nice and grand) and walked in the house. The mother who is 95 was sitting on the porche, I went close and touched her. She looked and said , " Saroj, you came after ten years, how are you and how are the kids. ".....This is why I love Indore...no one ever forgets you and they welcome you as if you just met them yesterday. It was great to see the whole family. They ( all brothers and their families) live together in this grand house.

While talking about the kids and grandkids,  they said their grandkids are going to school at the 'Daly College" a prestigious private school where all the who's who went for schooling ( and it was a boarding school in our times) . From my childhood days I knew the school was too far and outside the town, in the middle of wilderness. I was shocked to find out it is only 7 km ( 5 miles) from their house. For a child who was walking all over, that was too far...now when everyone drives, it is close ;) Distances are indirectly proportional to the speed of your vehicle :)
This is Indore for you.Everything you will ever need, everyone you will want to visit and every place you want to be is within 10 miles. And it does have everything from shopping malls to university , medical colleges, IIT , IIM, movies, Live concerts, theaters, wonderful restaurants and more.

I will stop now, otherwise I will never publish this and wait till this turns into a book. There is a lot to say about my three days visit to Indore. I will continue it tomorrow,

Good night