This post rounds out the Diwali break record. As noted in an earlier blog, Uncle Tom, Aunt Robyn, and Grammy (aka Mom/Barbara) showed up in Pune after a trans-Atlantic flight. We were so thrilled to have them visit! An earlier post was about our first few days (NDA visit, Aga Khan Palace). This finishes the week.
Tom and Robyn took off for Goa on Monday, and the girls, Parag and I moved into the JW Marriott right across from my mom’s room. (17th floor – but it wasn’t the 17th floor… Just labeled as such to make it feel fancy.) If you ever visit Pune, we definitely recommend the JW Marriott! They were amazing.
Here are a few of the highlights.
The beautiful decor and lobby – lots of flowers!
The restaurants and incredible food.
The pool – which was heated. And ShilpaKaku joined us for one of the days!
And very nice people. Everyone was extremely helpful. And then Grammy – who always is making friends – became best buds with Shreya, her housekeeping staff. Here’s some of the flowers and extra fruit that just started to appear in Grammy’s room.
Not to mention extra bottles of water and fun towel pets. She got a half dozen roses on her last day there!
Here’s Shreya with us on the last day.
Plus, Grammy somehow made an impression on the Pune Baking Company staff, so RiRi (our favorite service person there) gave me chocolate to give to her – with a hand-written note!
We also did some shopping – at a handicraft place, as well as the mall that was attached to the Marriott.
And on Wednesday, we had a special treat of visiting Parag’s cousin’s place in Kolthrude (forgive all spellings). We had seen them in Thane the previous week. Maitriya and Aditi were so nice to host us! Maitriya shared some of his musical talents (classical flute), and Aditi shared some of her artistic and culinary talents (pushing the limits of the cake world)!
Note – we did not eat the bumble bee cake! It was for a 6-year-old’s birthday, and the client had called to ask for the cake sooner. So we got an unexpected look into her work.
On Thursday, we moved out of the Marriott and my mom came to spend the night. Friday (Nov 8) was the end of Diwali break and the girls first day back to school! Tom and Robyn – back from Goa – came out to our apartment Friday morning, and we all got to do visit the girls’ school, Pawar Public School. We had a wonderful tour, hosted by Rohini, one of the administrators, who showed us all the ins and outs AND the math lab room, which I hadn’t seen before.
The hallway walls are quite covered with maps, sayings, student work, etc. We were amused by this poster of proverbs. “Time is Money” made plenty of sense, but others we were more puzzled by! Try your hand (or brain!) at them….
The school also was so kind as to treat us to a lovely lunch. The principal, Anjali Gurjar, had recently been to the US (her daughter moved recently to Manchester CT — have we mentioned that before???) so one of the dishes had on it almonds from Big Y. Gotta love a global society!
The principal actually had gone to Alex’s (future) class in Buckley school on her visit to CT, and the day we visited Pawar, she went into Alex’s (current) class and showed them pictures of her Diwali break in Connecticut.
After that, it was a relaxing afternoon. Grammy picked up the girls from school; Tom and Parag made a trip to the ATM and to have pani puri; and then they all headed off to the Mumbai Airport for their midnight flight and long journey home.
Here’s all the luggage — yes, one of those bags was filled with our stuff (!) — and the girls chasing the car. They were quite sad to see everyone go.
What a great visit!
Joshi-Staples Family India Adventure! 