May 26

May 26 Saturday
It was another hot and sunny morning. Pishimoni fixed breakfast, fish kachoris (an Indian fish preparation). After breakfast, Pishimoni, Pishomoshai, and I went out. Pishomoshai had to get a haircut, and both Pishimoni and I had a couple of chores to do. We drove up to the Hiranandani Gardens complex in the neighboring suburb of Powai. We went in Pishomoshai’s Swift. The Hiranandani Gardens complex is one of the most peculiar neighborhoods that I have ever encountered. It is an entire neighborhood that has been constructed by a single developer, and designed by an architect Hafeez Contractor. Contractor’s designs are a little peculiar. He likes a Neo-Classical look, but generally goes a little overboard with odd gigantic statues of eagles and such. Anyway, Pishimoni and I went to Haiko, a grocery store while my uncle went for a haircut. After completing our shopping, I walked over to Crosswords, a bookstore chain. After spending some time there Pishomoshai gave us a call telling us that he was done. We then went back home for lunch and a short nap. I was feeling very full after I woke up and decided that I needed to hit the gym very badly. I went down and had a pretty good workout. I even felt a little hungry afterwards. Around seven, the five of us got into Baba’s Honda City and took off for a drive into the city of Navi Mumbai. We were on our way to visit one of my uncles, Bubai Kaka. Bubai Kaka is my father’s first cousin. His father was my grandfather’s younger brother. This grand uncle lives in Kolkata but was visiting Bubai Kaka. Bubai Kaka is married, to Suchishmita, I call her Suchishmita Kakima (Kakima means Kaka’s wife). They also have a son whose pet name is Igloo. Bubai Kaka lives in a hotel where he’s the general manager. I found his apartment to be quite American, it had a wooden floor, and a kitchen designed reminiscent of an American house. We were served an excellent dinner cooked up by the hotel’s chef. We had chicken, fish, paneer, and potol as appetizers, biriyani (rice and meat) as a main course, and tiramisu and mango soufflé for dessert. The food was excellent and innovative. I got a little tipsy on Chardonnay. It was Sula wine, a local brand grown in the slopes of the Deccan Platue near the city of Nashik, not too far from Bombay. The wine was pretty good. I fell asleep on the way back, but we reached home before midnight. Another day had finally ended.