Eurokids

Today was EUROKIDS SPORTS DAY!!! Preeya, V's cousin, owns a preschool center called Eurokids. And today was their special Sports day to highlight how well the children were doing and how they incorporate sports into their learning. So we accompanied Lalit (her husband) and her 2 children Ananya and Anjolie and spent the day with around 200 adults (parents and grandparents) and 80 kids. It was a whirlwind of 4 year olds, dressed in red, parading around banners, running pseudo-races to 'win' hugs, and a tiny little old lady who would yell out in her high pitched Indian dialect "ready, set, 123GO!". The whole experience was surreal. Lalit watched over us all, making sure we had drinks, were comfortable and enjoying ourselves. Because V and I do so much sitting, I got up and walked around a bit, taking pictures, and generally trying to understand what was going on. There was also a cricket game taking place at the sportscenter, and that interested me too. But as soon as I got up, Lalit tried to get me to sit down again. After a while, he was very adament that V and I sit down. He wouldn't take no for an answer, so he lead us to a section of seats and told us, "sit, sit down, relax, relax!" Vidhu and I took a seat and instantly noticed that we seemed to have been seated in a big pile of shit. I asked V, "Dear God, what is that smell?" And V just shook her head, unable to speak over the fumes, which were choking her. We then realized that there was perfectly reasonable explaination for why no one else was seated in that area, and that, in fact, the chairs must be over a large septic tank, and really, who wants to smell like poo? Lalit looked over and smiled happy that we were finally content, when in fact, we were fighting to breath over the stench. When we could no longer stand the pain, we got up again, and hastily retreated. As soon as Lalit noticed this, he insisted that we sit down again, though this time to our relief, he pointed out a new spot. The new seats didn't smell like shit anymore, but the table in front of us was covered with baby barf, that was now fermenting in the sun. Oh well, it was better than the poo.

Priya's two daughters are Ananja and Anjolie - smart girls - just like their mom. It was interesting to hear them talk about how they hate traveling or leaving India - and watching them sing along to all their favorite Bollywood songs. Ananja wants to be a Bollywood star when she grows up, Anjolie talked about how impractical it is to study art - she thinks that only a technical degree like science or math makes any sense. Very different than American kids, though their patriotism was similar...it was interesting to compare them.