Yahoo Groups

Until I moved to Bangalore I was never a member of any yahoo group. Now I'm linked to four: one for the OWC, one for our gated community, and one for parents to communicate for each grade at the school. The idea is to communicate events or concerns. Of course it can turn into more than that.

The Gr. 7 group is pretty non vocal but the Gr. 5 parents are another story. Next year our kids go from PYP (primary) to MYP (middle school) which means they move to a different building (with evil big kids, grade 6-8) and will get different teachers for different subjects. Well, the emails from parents - "how will our children handle this?" Concern that they will get "too much homework," or "they will not get enough homework" and the biggest concern seemed to be about choosing second lanquages and how they are taught.

That settled down and now the big issue is a program that the school is implementing OLPC (one laptop per child). Of course the group has been in an uproar, "it will be too heavy to carry," "will the children still be taught to write?" (seriously?) "my child will be on the computer too much." (not if you monitor them).

As for our "gated community" the Yahoo issue has been regarding clubhouse fees - owners feel they are too high and have banded together not to pay the fees until certain measures have been taken: decrease in fees, more lounge chairs at the pool (that seems to be a big issue), and better pool maintenance. Good for them for sticking together and fighting for what they want.

But now that memberships are past due, some people who haven't paid are trying to sneak in anyway and then it becomes a show down when they get caught and security forces them to leave. Well, you know, if you are trying to take a stand - don't try and get the service for free. We, on the otherhand have the fees included in our rent so I guess we are going to "cross the picket line" and enjoy the facilities.

Most often the groups are informative about upcoming events, items for sale, and even warnings to keep doors closed due to snake sightings. The biggest problem is those that "reply" instead of posting a "new message" as the thread becomes nauseatingly long.

Summertime

It is summertime in Bangalore and the heat wave is not letting up. April and May are the hot months and the locals say it is unusually hot this year. Late afternoon thunder storms are welcomed, bringing with them cool winds. In fact, at the first sign of rain (it’s been five months), Alanna runs around outside until she is soaked, singing, dancing and doing cartwheels!

Some say the heat is a side effect of cutting down too many trees in the city. Construction continues in every corner of the town and it seems there is a price to pay. For most families the heat makes it difficult to sleep. They can open the windows to let some air in but then the mosquitoes come in too. Keep the windows closed and it feels like a sauna.

We have fans and air conditioning – most, of course don't. However, the electrical can only handle one A/C on at a time and three fans (if we are lucky) or else the entire electrical trips.

The drawback for us is not being able to sit outside on the (covered) patio. After 9:00am it is just too hot. Walking a block to the mall produces such a sweat, one needs to bring along a change of clothes. Thank goodness for the pool - at least the water has warmed up to a nice temperature now. For much of the year it was on the cold side.

Of course the flowers and trees are blooming, our bananas are finished for the year, but the papayas keep on coming. And now it is mango season and the little rain that we do get ripens them, making them juicy and wonderful to eat or blend into mango lassi - yum!

Andaman Islands (Part 6): Port Blair

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We left Havelock on the 2:00pm ferry. This time we specified that we wanted seats on the upper deck and all together. Last time our seats were all over the place although we managed to find some close together. In hindsight we should have taken the newer catamaran which is a comfortable one hour trip vs the two hour older ferry.

Arrived in Port Blair and stayed overnight at TSG Emerald View Hotel. It's a 2 1/2 star hotel and it felt clean and luxurious compared to Barefoot at Havelock. We had an excellent meal at the hotel restaurant, including huge tiger prawns, chinese chili chicken and more at very reasonable prices.

Unfortunately we didn't make it to the sound and light show at the Andaman Cellular Jail and in the morning when we went there hoping to tour it, it was closed for Good Friday.

Port Blair was stinking hot and humid. The kids went back to the room and Michael and I went for a walk through the town. Very pleasant little town, lots of little shops, temples and quaint cottage style houses painted in blues and greens. Lot of trees and statues as well.

Off to the airport to catch our Kingfisher flight to Chennai and once we got there we were told that our next flight, Chennai - Bangalore had been cancelled. We would have to wait there for six hours for the next one at 8:30pm. Not too happy about that so when we got to Chennai we went to book in and asked if there was any other flight that we could take. Much to our relief Kingfisher put us on a Jet Airways flight that left at 5:30pm. So kudos to Kingfisher, I was impressed with that. But I must say the Jet Airways plane was much nicer and took only 40 min. vs one hour.

Andaman Islands (Part 5): Waves

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When we first arrived at Havelock it was almost a full moon. The waves at Beach #7 were pleasant for body surfing.

After the full moon and by the end of our week waves were much bigger and crashing very close to the shore. Does the moon have anything to do with this?  There was also a 6.6 magnitude earthquake near the Andamans on March 30th, right in the middle of our stay. Perhaps that caused the larger waves?

Our kids love being out in these huge waves and so on our last day that's what we did. We hung out at the beach with some people we had met from Mumbai. I started taking pictures and then this other family came along - a Mom with three young children and the grandparents. They start blowing up those inflatable rings for the kids to float in. Sure enough their first wave was their last. The wave was huge and sent the kids into the "washing machine" effect...and out they came. You can see them in the above picture just before getting pummelled. Others didn't know whether to run towards the wave, or away from it!

...and here's a couple more...

Andaman Islands (Part 4) - The Other Side of the Island

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One day we ventured to the other side of the island. We walked through the forest to the main road and got a three wheeler (tuk tuk). Havelock is a small island, but hilly and jungle like, with the occassional coconut grove or rice field.

We stopped at Village No.3 (exciting names on this island, eh?) to look around a bit. Village No.3 is found at a junction and is just a few touristy shops and local shops selling this and that. Not much to see so we carried on to the beach and past multitudes of backpacker huts. Stopped at Emerald Gecko and walked to the beach. Very pretty, turquoise water but we could tell it was full of coral, nowhere to swim.

Lots of backpacker types with dreadlocks hangin' on the beach. We walked from Emerald Gecko to Wild Orchid and stopped there for lunch. Had some really good Thai curries, fish and chips and the best cheese naan. The beach all the way was sandy, but narrow, even with the tide out.

We found lots of hermit crabs along the beach. They are so cool to watch. First they just look like shells but then you realize they are all moving.






The kids enjoyed them, as well as these tiny little crabs on Beach #7 that would dig a little hole and then make little balls made out of sand all around - super cool sand art.