Leaving India Soon

My time in India is coming to an end. I've spent the last month traveling around this vast country and it never ceases to amaze me. India is a country that you grow to both love AND hate. I love both the surface and depthness. It's so hard to describe India in words, each place is so different from the other. In Bangalore, you can experience the growing culture of the middle class through the IT industry and a Kerala backwater village you can experience the lives of people who make a little over $200/yr through their rope making, canoe building, fish catching businesses. I met an old woman who made Rs. 30 for 8 hours of rope making working 7 days/week. In dollars, that's $0.70 per 8 hours of labor. In one month she earns $20, and one year $235. I had heard about people making this much but never thought I would actually meet someone. I am still in shock.

In one month, I'll be returning to Portland, OR. I accepted a position with Intel US. I look forward to returning home to start a life with Brandon and Kylie together. This has been an amazing last year, filled with every type of emotion possible. I've experienced all the ups and downs with moving to a developing country and if I could do it again, I would!!! I will miss all the amazing people I've met here from local Indians, to British, Irish, Israelis, Germans, Australians, French, Swiss, Danish, Americans, they are all here in India. It definitely takes a unique person to experience India as India itself is truly complex.

Well, I'm now busy preparing for my repatriation. That too, is not simple. Nothing is ever simple here.

Passage to India Article

My name made it in print again. This time in the American Airlines in flight magazine, American Way. Check it out! It's a very good article on the life of American expats in Bangalore! :) Passage to India

Royal House of Mysore Fashion Show

Palace Bangalore

Last Thursday I attended the Royal House of Mysore Fashion Show at the Palace Bangalore hosted by the Maharaja & Queen of Mysore. There were approximately 800 guests. I was invited through the Overseas Women’s Club. I knew that $20 membership would eventual pay off!!!! It sure was fun hanging out with Bangalore’s cream of the crop. It was a very good mix of foreigners and Bangaloreans. It was pure eye candy; my friend and I enjoyed people watching! I got to wear my sari again!! But it was the same sari that I had worn at another event. I need to expand my collection. A girl can’t wear the same sari twice!!!

Between each collection they had fusion dance and traditional South Indian dance called Bharatanatyam. I enjoyed watching the dance troupe.
My favorite collection was the Royal Mysore collection of sarees, which were extremely beautiful and looked like they cost a fortune.

King Datta Wadiyar and models
The King reminded me of Don King, he had very wild chia pet like hair. Of course he was a typical King, where he didn’t really show any true interest in his guests. He was very aloof but posed in pictures with many of his guests. I even got a picture with him. But as you can see he wasn’t even paying attention to the camera. After the fashion show there was an Indian buffet dinner, which was yummy. It was a great evening.