Rohtang - a near miss

On our Manali trip we did try to go to Rohtang pass. A truck had its real axle break and pretty much blocked the one lane road for a good kilometer on either side and after waiting for a few minutes we were told by our driver that it would be 2 hours to clear it.

Instead we decided to go the valley and have some fun.

Visibility was bad anyways and the driver told us that it wasn't exactly a good idea to go there that day. So we spent a good 3 hours on the van going up and coming down.

The scenery was till fantastic on the way.

So were the signboards.

We also went up and down the state of the art ski lift they have in this valley and visited the "pizza hut" on top. The visibility was non-existent at the top of the ski lift. We seriously thought that this was a real "Pizza Hut express" on top of the mountain. The FIL and me were amazed. I was comparing it to the "quickie Mart" on top of the Himalayas that comes in "The Simpsons". Myself and my FIL made it past slippery paths and little rivulets of slush in heavy rain to check out this place and guess what it was?

A small yellow canopy with an electric Oven and a Nescafe machine powered by a pulled down connection from the ski lift. The menu was all Italian and the guy did make a decent pizza based on feedback we could hear.

It was Hut Pizza!

So at the end of the day, we missed out on going to Rohtang but had a ton of fun in the valley!

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Matching isn't a new concept for these two..

Thanks to the platform stores at the Gandhi Market in Mumbai..

The little one is almost there. Another few millimeters and we will somehow find a way to pin a flower on it...

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Parking lot manners

We have a busy time finding parking prior to the girls swimming lessons. It is a small indoor swim club with lots of students and not enough parking for all the kids coming in and the kids already in the pool. So it is always a struggle to find parking if you come just in time or a few minutes late for the lesson.

One has to wait for 5 minutes so the previous lessons folks pull out and we can park. Knowing all this we usually go 5-10 minutes before lesson starts to find parking.

The kids run out of the pool and into the car or van so they can shower at home.

Last week we came out with the kids. We were 10 feet away from the van when we saw this desi dude park his car and walk away with his kid. He pretty much made sure that 3 cars could not get out! All three cars had wet or semi dry kids waiting to get home.

In spite of our calling our to dude he kept clicking his car keys and walked on with his daughter.

So I tried to pull out, no luck. Then tried to guide another parent out of her spot hoping she would clear the blocking car and in the process give me room to get out. That did not work either. Just then the dude walks back and sees us try to get by.

I told him "aree yaar. why do you do this? we have kids waiting to get home" (he was desi for sure, but did not know what language he spoke.. so the aree yaar was my attempt at being polite)

His response "do you want to stay here longer?"

Me : I don't get it. You parked illegally along the red line. We have been trying to get our cars out and were thinking of calling a towing company. The only correct thing for you to say here is "sorry".. instead you ask me "do you want to stay here longer?"

Dude : I would have said sorry, but the expression on your face made me angry.

Again, no sorry. Apparently my facial expression at being frustrated is more offensive than what he did.

We finally got out of that parking lot a good 15 minutes later.

This whole being wrong and showing attitude thing by some desi dude in the US is new to me. Have seen this in Chennai/ Mumbai , even on my recent trip. Never seen it here. Usually Desi's behave responsibly at least in the areas we have lived in.

This was a new thing for us to experience this.

Hope this doesn't start a trend!That would pretty much even out the difference between living in India and living here.

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