We kept meaning to go back. But first it was financial. Then it was COVID. Trips to make-up. Suddenly it had been more than 10 years, and we had not returned to India. It was more than past time to go. It was time to reconnect the kids and ourselves with my husband’s beautiful country. We wanted to not only see the great sites, this time with teens old enough to remember them, but also reconnect with family, friends and the culture. In our three weeks we covered five cities, reunited with many family and friends, saw several UNESCO World Heritage sites, and enjoyed reconnecting to our family’s roots in a way he hadn’t in years.
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- Chennai: The Heartbeat of Tradition
- Coimbatore: Temples & More Temples
- Mumbai: Street Food & High Energy
- Agra: Seeing the Taj for the “First” Time
- Delhi: A Surprise in Every Sip
- Tips for the “Heritage Traveler”
Chennai: The Heartbeat of Tradition
Chennai is where my husband was born and raised. It’s where many of my husband’s cousins and friends are. We went back to Chennai specifically to attend two important events: The SKB Memorial Concert and the IIT reunion.
The SKB Memorial Concert is a memorial concert for my husband’s uncle. He was always a lover or Carnatic and Hindustani music, and later in his life built an online community of people who loved the music as much as he did. To honor him, his family has started a memorial concert series every year during the music season in Chennai. This year was a full day of different artists. We came as a whole family, and my kids sat and listened to a few of the concerts. My husband stayed for the whole day, indulging in his love of music and spending time with his family. We were able to see family reunite and at the end my husband was able to honor his uncle with a speech.
This trip also happened to coincide with my husband’s 30th reunion from the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras. We had the opportunity to not only meet with people we heard stories about for years, but my husband also took us on a tour of the campus. We walked through the Electrical Engineering building where he spent hours, saw the dorm where he lived with friends, and even saw the wildlife that wanders the campus. (Unfortunately, my daughter had an up close and personal relationship with a monkey. Don’t walk around with an open soda bottle unless you want that too).
But some of the best parts were the home cooked meals. We went to reconnect with family, and everyone wanted to feed us. We ate traditional south Indian sambars, upma, pulao and sambar sadham. The kids could not get enough of the amazing food, my husband was happy to indulge in all his favorites, and I was happy to see all the family, and happy to have everyone reconnect.
Coimbatore: Temples & More Temples
After our time in Chennai, we spent a few days in Coimbatore. It had been 30+ years since my husband visited his family temple dedicated to Murugan. His brother-in-law wanted to do a puja for the deity, and we joined to help celebrate with family. It was a small temple in neighborhood that has a water well instead of indoor plumbing and no cars fit, but it means the world to our family. We all dressed in our best and went to celebrate the deity and family.
Afterwards we met with a friend of my husband’s from IIT who took us to visit Isha, a beautiful temple ground dedicated to the god Shiva. Unlike other temples, this one is dedicated to meditation and quiet, and has a pool where people go in for therapeutic swims. Cameras were not allowed in the temple grounds, but we were able to take them to the Shiva light show in the evening. It was an amazing display on a giant Siva statue in the night sky; it was a highlight of the trip.
But afterwards we ended up stopping at a Vishnu roadside temple on the way back to the hotel. We were there on Vaikunta Ekadasi, the holiest day for Vishu. We stopped at the temple to pay our respect and saw all of the community out at the temple sharing food and celebrating this holy day.
Mumbai: Street Food & High Energy
While Chennai is the city of my husband’s birth, Mumbai is where his brother and family currently live. We spent a few days in Mumbai, enjoying the most cosmopolitan city in the country with our family. The best part was having my sister-in-law and my niece as tour guides to lead us through the city. They took us to the Colaba Causeway to shop the stores, Swati Snacks to have the most amazing authentic North Indian Chaat (and discovered I love Dahi Puri), and the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre to see the authentic art forms of India.
During the week, while family was at work, we would go out during the day and explore. We were able to go to Elephanta Island, had high tea at the Taj Hotel, walked Marina Drive, and even enjoyed the new Malabar Hill’s Elevated Nature Trail. But in the evening, we would go home and enjoy home cooked meals with the family, reconnecting after a day of exploring.
Agra: Seeing the Taj for the “First” Time
One of the key sites we wanted to make sure to take our kids to be the Taj Mahal. I am lucky enough to have visited twice, but the children have never seen it. Now that they were old enough, I wanted to make sure that they could see it, and to get to see their experience of it for the first time.
We used Get Your Guide to book a private tour of the Taj Mahal and Fort Agra with Markable Joy. They picked us up from our Airbnb in Delhi and drove us to Agra with a rest stop for coffee. Once in Agra, we picked up Faz, our private guide for the day and started at the Taj Mahal. We were taken to the VIP entrance where our kids were given a history and then walked through the Main Gateway and got to see the Taj Mahal for the first time.
We were talked around the Taj Mahal, lunch, Agra Fort and even saw the Baby Taj. It was an amazing experience.
Delhi: A Surprise in Every Sip
After our day trip to Agra, we took the rest of our time in Delhi a little bit slower. We spent some time at the Airbnb relaxing after a long trip, letting the kids catch up on their schoolwork, and going to a few sights. We took an afternoon to visit the Lotus temple, a beautiful temple of peace, and then went to visit the India Gate lit up at night for Independence Day.
But the best times were when we got to spend time with my brother-in-law. In town for a work project, we got to spend evenings with him exploring the great food of the city. He took us to Sattvik, an excellent North Indian vegetarian restaurant where we had a truffle mushroom kabab, saffron kofta, and the softest garlic naans. But our favorite was the Burma Burma vegetarian Burmese restaurant. I love Burmese food and the tea leaf salad was one of the best we’ve had. We also ate Shan State Dumplings filled with bird chili and Lotus Stem chips for appetizers.
On our last weekend day there, we visited Dilli Haat, an artisan market that had handicrafts and textiles from all over India. We purchased the last of our souvenirs including several beautiful scarves, painted elephants, bowls, and even an Indian dress for my mother.
Tips for the “Heritage Traveler”
It’s possible to visit Indian family and still make sure to take time to see all the sights. Here are a few tips to make sure you can do it all.
- When going, make sure to schedule your visits to historic and cultural sights during the week, when people are working. This allows you to visit and enjoy your family’s time in the evenings.
- Don’t bother purchasing your Indian clothing in the US. There is so much ready made available in India. You can go into any department store, and they will have it with fitting rooms to see what works best for you.
- The Sketchers Slip In Sneakers saved us in India. He all needed good walking shoes for exploring all day but also needed to be able to easily take our shoes off when we entered anyone’s house. The sneakers made this easy anywhere we went, even temples.
- Don’t eat street food, no matter how tempting or how strong a stomach you think you have. Just go to a restaurant. I promise you can get street food there, but from a much cleaner environment. Will it cost more? Yes. Will you save yourself from sickness? Also yes.
- Much of India has moved to digital payments, using G-Pay. However, G-Pay only works when you have an Indian bank account. If you are an Oversees Citizen of India (OCI) , you can set up a bank account and use those payments. Make sure to set it up BEFORE you leave for India.
- India has evolved with several easy-to-use online delivery services. However, some of the apps will only allow you to use them if you have an Indian phone number. We had our US number and were able to use Swiggy and InstaMart, but had some issues when the driver tried to call, they could not connect through to a US number. We had a few orders canceled on us becuase of this. I would consider getting an e-SIM with an Indian number to use all the apps available.
This trip was not just about visiting India and checking off a list of sights. It was about all of us reconnecting with the culture of my husband’s ancestors, and bonding with friends and family. The reconnection was found in the homemade meals people gave us in their homes, sitting around the living room listening to music and singing, laughing at jokes and talking late into the evening. It is in the sight of my children embracing the clothing, the food, and the people. In seeing my husband relaxed and happy, in the place of his childhood. In spending quality time with my family, and a culture who I have had the pleasure of being a part of for over 20 years.
* Starred Photos taken by Atma Photography
Edited by SKS
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