Nesting!

Now that our recent extensive and exciting travels are over, and we are settled into our new apartment, there's one clear thing that needs to be done before the baby arrives: nesting! Nesting, or getting one's physical space ready for a new baby, serves a valuable psychological exercise, scholars say, preparing a couple for the arrival of a baby. It involves stuff like painting a nursery (which we won't be doing), making things for the baby (more on that below), etc.

Well, we wouldn't want to disprove scholarly wisdom...so a-nesting-we-shall-go. Both Jo and I have become active nesters of late. Jo's nesting has largely taken the form of the organization of the "twigs" that comprise our "nest" (i.e., putting stuff away, cleaning). Recently she set aside a closet area for the baby's stuff and had a lot of fun folding and arranging all the adorable baby clothes for about a half hour (Dave's note: that must be India time, because once she goes into that closet it's all over).

Earlier on in her pregnancy, Jo also made a couple of things for the baby, including this adorable elephant.

Dave's nesting has principally revolved around the creation of baby-related "twigs". His first twigs have been 4 fitted sheets for Noah-belle's Pack and Play crib.

Next on the list? Do-it-yourself swaddling blankets, bibs, cloth diapers (perhaps), waterproof diaper bag, and baby carrier (modeled on the design/materials of my banjo/fiddle case)....

Now, back to sewing! With a list this long and growing, it's going to be a busy month or so before our long-awaited "guest" arrives. For those of you who haven't heard about this, a colloquial way of saying that one is pregnant in Hindi is to say that one is "expecting a guest." (Dave's note: something tells me this guest will be here for an extended visit!)

So cute.

Tuesday May 24-Exploring Kurseong: Orchids, Goats, and Banjos!

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek

Up bright and early, breakfast at the hotel with roti, egg omelets, fruit and (instant) coffee and tea, and off we went for our explore. After discussing all of the potential activities and available hikes with the manager of the hotel, we rented a driver to take us first to then train station to get our tickets for the Toy train on Wednesday, and then to a monastery and then to the place where we could start our hike

The monastery was much farther up the mountain, and there was thick fog covering the entire area from our hotel up as far as we went on the mountain.

We left the car (after another series of switchbacks, cars honking madly as they rounded curves, a few backing ups, and one time when we all had to get out of the car so the car could make it up the steep slope), and walked up the old stone steps to the Buddhist monastery .

A stupa at the monastery

We were greeted by a Buddhist nun who allowed us to go into the . It was decorated with brightly painted and gold-gilded buddhas, and also devils. There were many prayer flags, each one sending its prayers out with the wind. It was such a quiet place, and was so deep in the forest, with birds, flowers, and fluttering flags around it.

Wild orchids in the trees

Mom smelling the beautiful orchids

We set out for the Forestry museum, which appeared deserted when we reached it. A gentleman opened it for us, and we wandered around looking at exhibits that probably were new in the 1950’s. Many dusty cases of butterflies, with typed labels identifying their genus and species. Many instructional posters, talking not only about conservation of the land and trees and water, but others counseling that the only way for this world to survive was with population control. Our ever-increasing number of people will further diminish our food and energy supply, therefore causing the poor to have increasingly decreasing resources making their lives even more difficult.

We then walked on through beautiful vegetation, lush and green. Tree orchids, gorgeous flowers by the side of the road, and beautiful flowers growing outside of some of the cottages. Again, many homes in need of significant repair and cosmetic attention, but an occasional one (possibly left over from the British) looked to be in good condition. Long stretches of green, and then a few houses would be clustered together. People smiled at us, and occasionally we would get a “Hi” or “hello” – we obviously were tourists. We passed several schools where classes were in session. The children were always nicely dressed in uniforms, polite, and apparently well-behaved when we saw them. We passed one elementary school and heard a teacher reading a story to her students in English about a Mommy Penguin. After each line she read, the class would all repeat back to her the statement word-for-word in perfect English. Very sweet and very special. We did later see five or six young children sitting by the side of the road, smiling at us, and waving. After we passed them, we began to hear the chant “please give me money” repeated over and over and over again....

Later in the afternoon (after a nap!) we met again and walked up the road to a beautiful old cemetery we had noticed several times. There were many old stone crosses that one could see from the road. The entire area was under fog and mist again, which made it a perfect time to explore a cemetery.

We wandered around, trying to imaging the life of the tea planter who died at the age of 20, the child who died at 10, the people with Indian names who were buried in a Christian cemetery under the sign of the cross….

David brought his banjo and played a number of songs as the sun briefly came out and then disappeared again behind the clouds and mist.

Rita noticed a group of goats cavorting around a large grave in the distance and captured an interesting picture of a goat trying to climb up the large gravestone.

Rita and David lingered in the cemetery, and slowly walked back to the hotel. They walked along with a small boy of 10, impeccably dressed in a gray sweater and gray flannel pants with knife-edged creases, and shiny black shoes who had obviously just come from school. Rita has been thinking about all of the young boys going to these (mostly religious) schools, and then about all of the men standing around in front of shops with apparently nothing to do, and wondering if that is the life that the boys will end up with…

A brief rest, then off to dinner at the hotel where we took all of our meals while in Kurseong. The food was not quite as good as the previous night, but we managed to eat most of it anyway, and then a brief banjo concert while Rita taught Jo how to play “Hearts”. After a few games including one where Jo demonstrated what a good student she was by “shooting the moon” successfully, everyone tumbled into bed so we could be up bright and early Wednesday for our next adventure: off to Darjeeling after a trip to a tea plantation in the morning! And we listened to the rain on the roof….

That's all folks....for now!

Well the most recent family visit has been an amazing six weeks. It's hard to believe it wasn't that long ago that I was planning the various itineraries, thinking about how I wanted to "present" India, how I wanted my various family members to experience it for the first time.

Speaking from my perspective, the Delaware/Nevada Meek's trip was an overwhelming success. Sure, everyone got a little sick. Some more than others. But no one got hurt, everyone got exposed to a very different set of cultures and environments than they'd ever experienced.

It was really with quite a mixed bag of emotions that I saw Jon off last night.

We have had what I would describe as an adventure of a lifetime, if we hadn't already had similarly amazing adventures in Alaska, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, and knowing this pair will have numerous more of varied sorts as time goes on. So perhaps I should say we had another adventure of a lifetime. Yes, that works much better.

But, like every great adventure, it was time to close the book on this one...at least this chapter of it. After all, with two great mustaches like these, what more could one ask for?

What more could one ask for? A wonderfully relaxing apartment, the most incredible wife (and soon-to-be mother) that a husband could be so lucky to come home to, and all sorts of do-it-yourself dad-to-be crafts (more on that soon!).

May 23rd-The Meek's Journey to India-On to the Northeast!

Up very early to get a 5:45 am cab ride to the airport and get on our 7:50 am flight to Siliguri-Badogra airport to begin our trip to Kurseong and then Darjeeling. The flight was uneventful and we were met by the driver sent by the hotel. It was quite an interesting almost two hour ride up through the mountains to get to Kurseong. The road is essentially one car wide – but it is a two lane road, so each car is incessantly honking to let someone from the other direction on the other side of the curve know they are coming.

Several times, there was an impasse where a car from each direction met and neither could get past. Ultimately one had to back up so the other one could get by. One time, a soldier had to make one car move backwards, because 20 cars were piled up behind the car that was headed in the other direction. It was a trip through lush, green forests. We went through a number of small villages, and noticed how multiple shops next to each other all sold the exact same packages of salty snacks, candy, etc. It is unclear how anyone can make a living in this manner. Many small shacks with tin roofs, many houses in various stages of disrepair, many men standing around with apparently nothing to do….

We arrived at the Cochrane Place Hotel, which is clearly much more elegant than the other hostelries in the area. We had two nice rooms. Rita’s and Jim’s was larger with a little balcony and a nice sitting area.

David's perspective is that the hotel was very "funky", with all sorts of interesting pictures, and other bits and bops...such as this, an elephant trunk-shaped exhaust pipe, or perhaps....a tea kettle? Given that we're in tea country we chose the latter!


The entire area was shrouded in thick fog and cloud. Jim and Rita went for a walk in the afternoon, and wandered down a small road into a residential area where the houses were brightly painted. People smiled at us, and many of the homes had beautiful flowers growing outside or in pots. There were cows, goats, chickens, roosters, and dogs wandering around in the street; many of the dogs were in the middle of the street sleeping. The homes were very much in need of repair and paint, and many parts looked like they had been in need for many years.

After our walk (and a nap), we met David and Jo and walked into the town of Kurseong. It is about one and one-half miles from where we are staying (all uphill), and we saw a number of residential areas along the way.

Again we saw all of these little shops, next to each other, where the very same items were sold, and many people were standing around outside. Again, lots of dogs in the streets, along with some chickens, etc. We got into the main street in Kurseong, and there were stores next to stores next to stores. People everywhere. Incessant honking from the bumper-to-bumper traffic. We walked to the train station where we will board “the toy express” to Darjeeling on Wednesday so we could check it out and figure out when we were going to get tickets.

The ticket counter was closed for the day which we knew already but made plans to get the tickets Tuesday morning so we would be sure of seats on the train. We were all feeling pretty tired so we took a taxi back to the Hotel. And it was beginning to rain – which pretty much happened every night. Also the mist persisted for most of our stay in Kurseong.

We had dinner with David and Jo in the hotel restaurant and had a full dinner, with a menu selected by the chef with approval from Jo. (she is so handy to have around since her ability to speak in Hindi makes everything so much easier for the rest of us!) The meal was interesting and we all agreed that the chicken dish was the best although the presentation of white, yellow, and green rice stacked in layers on top of each other was beautiful. However, it made a huge mess of “rice everywhere” when Jim took the first spoonful. After a traditional Indian dessert, we fell into bed, exhausted. And aside from the sound of the torrential rain hitting the tin roof, we all slept like logs.

Mango Festival! (July 3rd 2011)

Most people (at least those who have never been to India)are probably like I was, and likely think that there are only one or two varieties of mangoes. Those people need to come to India. Expedite their visas, please.

This weekend was the annual mango festival in New Delhi.Jon and I had just returned home this morning on an overnight train back from Benares (more on that later).

We had seen signs for the mango festival around Delhi, but what we hadn't noticed was that the festival was not at the "normal" Dilli haat (near INA for those of you in the general Delhi know). Oh no, this Dilli haat was up at the end of the red line, another hour by metro, almost outside of the city, near Pitampura. Well, an hour and a half metro ride? Nothing I say shall keep us from an audience with the "King of Fruits" (and no, I'm not talking about myself here).

Was it a Royal Treat? Or a Royal-Let-Down? We said to each other-"Selves, as long as there are mangoes how bad can it be?" Well....there were mangoes...500+ varieties of them!

In addition, they had all sorts of mango products, like chutneys and kulfi (Indian ice cream)

Jon wasn't so sure....

What we had envisioned was some sort of no-holds-barred smorgasbord where you got to try out as many as you like, and then buy the varieties you like. I mean with 500+ varieties, who comes knowing that they want some obscure type that isn't in stores here. But no, they hadn't asked me for some reason, and so what they had was vendors ringing the Dilli haat area selling more varieties of mangoes than you could shake a stick at. Most weren't really interested in letting us taste test, but Jon and I were able to try about 10 types, using the ole "taste taste" ploy.

At first we could discern the finer points: "This mango has a fine fruity finish", "This one tastes like it has some citric acid in it", "This one likely came from a tree". Clearly, we were the fruitiest fruits there. So with the hesitant hawkers watching with bated breath we made our decision: (1) 5 kg box of Deserhi (Rs 200=less than US$ 5), and (1) 5 kg box of some unpronounceable (by me) type. The result=one pregnant woman mortified by two total fruits

The Meek's Journey to India (2)-Brunch, Quitub Minar, and Old Delhi!

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek

Sunday, May 22 –

Up in the morning to have breakfast at Hamsa’s, a friend of David and Jo’s friend Sarah. We had our first opportunity to experience Delhi's taxi system. We were supposed to be picked up at a certain time, but the taxi driver kept delaying the time of the pickup, while we waited. Finally, our driver for the day came, and off we went to Hamsa’s. Brunch was great with waffles, fruit salad, coffee, yoghurt – yum. Hamsa is a fantastically pleasant and smart (and TALL – 6’7”) PhD student from Columbia studying religion.

It was wonderful to be able to see where Hamsa lives since David and Jo (and soon-to-be NoahBelle) will be living there by the middle of June (note: I'm posting this blog entry from our new/Hamsa's old apartment. A lovely spacious two bedroom apartment in a quiet section of New Delhi with a lovely park nearby.

We went with Hamsa to Qtuba Minar, which means Qtuba’s Tower, built in the 1100s.

Qtuba was the first Muslim conqueror of India. Fantastic mosques with fantastic decorations, such as columns removed from Hindu temples and incorporated into these structures. An extremely tall tower with four different levels, built at different times. In the center of the courtyard was a 30 foot cast-iron pole.

Hamsa was a fantastic tour guide and knew so much about the different religions represented in the site, and so many historical details about everything we saw. We told him he should be a tour guide for an upscale company, like Overseas Adventure Travel or Smithsonian! Not very likely, apparently!

There were many many families visiting Qtuba, with the women all wearing beautiful saris in splendid colors with gold decorative elements. The children were, for the most part, wearing “Western” clothes.

Frequently the grandparents accompanied the father, mother and children. Jo explained that usually the son lives indefinitely with his parents. After he is married, he and his wife and (ultimately) their children all live with the husband’s parents. The daughter-in-law is expected to care for her inlaws, and, even if she has been well-educated, she may be expected to stay home to carry out her domestic duties.

Then our driver took us on a tour of New Delhi to see many of the government buildings, the large stretch of green which reminded me of the Washington Mall, and to see many of the large homes in the area called “bungaloes” – a far cry from the Craftsman Bungalo from the 1930’s! We went to the Old Delhi market (Chandni Chowk) which was filled with people selling the same wares in tiny little stalls; lots of cows and dogs everywhere. Depressing, crowded, noisy. We saw a rickshaw repair shop, a bicycle repair shop. Lots of people selling the same cotton/textile products. We went to the Jama Masjid mosque, where Jo and Rita had to put on housecoat –type garments so that our arms covered only by our short sleeves would not offend anyone.

Jo was outraged because Indian women attired similarly did not have to put on the coverings.

(the blog's first panoramic picture attempt courtesy of James Meek)

Back to the apartment and then a trip to the local market, Laipat Nagar Central market.

Then we went to the Bikanerwalla restaurant where we had an interesting selection of foods from both South India and North India – it was a really good meal and we hope to go again on one of our return brief overnight stays in Delhi.

We were supposed to have dinner with Jo’s and David’s friends Tani and Murad but we were so jetlagged we didn’t think we would be great company, so we took a raincheck.

The Meek's Journey to India

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek, guest blogging extraordinaire


Friday May 20. After months of planning, many e-mails, and a number of Skype sessions, we headed off to see David and Jo in Delhi, India. Sandy Beale drove us to the Wilmington train station, and we, our four bags, and a computer bag and a backpack went by train to Newark International Airport to begin our amazing adventure. We took a non-stop flight on Continental, leaving at 8:30 PM (Eastern Daylight time) and arriving in Delhi Saturday, May 21 at 8:30 PM (Delhi time).

We got there earlier than expected, and customs was a breeze to get through. After David and Jo realized we were at the International arrivals rather than the local arrivals, they came to meet us and when we saw David and Jo we were so excited!

We took a cab ride to their apartment in New Delhi. They live within one block of a busy market street, where they do much of their grocery shopping. We got settled into their home, and then opened up the suitcases filled with things for the baby, books they had ordered, chocolate goodies (can’t beat those “Mrs. Field’s Super Fudge brownies” that Rita makes!), hiking gear, etc. Then to bed for a well-deserved rest!