A Sidrigavi Christmas

I have always thought that I am so lucky to have as much family in Canada as I do in India. This Christmas I escaped to Sidrigavi, to my Uncle Lalu's coffee estate, with his family, to spend some quality time in the mountains. The air is fresher, the sky is bluer, the stars are brighter, and I honestly think your food digests faster up there too! I had the wonderfully talented Erica, stuffing me with all kinds of yummy food, every three hours on the hour. So in order to earn these delicious meals, I had to walk and walk and walk just so I wouldn't look as blobbish as I felt! We went out to the forest on the 23rd to cut our own Christmas tree, we ended up chopping off the top of a fir tree, but i'm sure it will grow back by next year! It's amazing to see how the labourers climb trees that are like 50 ft tall with only their bare feet, and chop off limbs while clinging to the trunk! It's like extreme sports Indian style.
The 5 days I spent there just flew by. I went on hikes with my cousins Aaron and
Lauren almost every day. I also went coffee picking with Lauren and the coolie children (picked a wopping 9 kgs!), and hunting with Aaron and Lalu. In total we only shot one green pigeon and it was too cute to eat, so I didn't. I returned to Bangalore on the 27th of December. And at midnight Paul, Ken and Danika landed with their gigantic haul of luggage and I know Danika will hate me for mentioning this, but she cried like a little baby when she saw me! I think this is the longest we've ever been apart (2 months) without seeing each other.
It's funny, but as much as I am warming up to the way of life here, I am beginning to miss home just as much. There are so many things that we don't realize about our own lives until we are submerged into another culture or lifestyle. I am sure anyone who comes here will marvel at the richness of the culture and the vitality of the people here. But regardless of how many times I have visited India, the poverty, the inequalities, the apparent lack of any kind of modernization persists visit after visit. And if there is one thing I have learnt from my 2 short months here, it is that we are lucky to be women living in a country like Canada. There are inequalities everywhere I know, but the ones here you can see every single day, with your own eyes, and they are egregiously destructive to any woman's freedom.