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Then the next morning, Rajesh and his wife, Nupur, who was in the house when all this was happening, told close relatives that they found their daughter dead at 6am that morning. They do not mention anything about the servant. Later when the servant’s body was found, the first suspicion was that the servant had killed Aarushi before taking his life - without any explanation of why he would have done that.

Since then, Rajesh was deemed as a suspect, taken into custody, and is being held for questioning without bail. His wife, and the alleged mistress, Dr. Anita, are also being questioned. Today in the news it was mentioning that they had found chat transcripts or emails from Aarushi to her friends, particularly boys. Now her social behavior is being questioned, I guess it seemed that she was having “boyfriend type” emails with 3 different guys.

This is what I took out of all of this:

There is a major problem between how working parents are handling their teenage, or to-be teenage, children

Extra marital affairs are happening more frequently in India than ever before

State police leave too many holes in such cases which causes higher level of suspicion

Having both parents working in India is now becoming more common because of its booming economy. The liberation of women have occurred, and it is great that both are participating in the workforce. However, somewhere those same parents forget how to raise their children, how to communicate to them, and how to make them great human beings. How can you not know who your child is meeting with, talking to, hanging out with, or even realize that there might be even a slight infatuation with your own servant? Clearly shows, if all the above information is true, that the parents in this case didn’t pay close enough attention to Aarushi.

Extra marital affairs - you didn’t hear about so frequently previously in India, but now you do. I don’t really understand why people go down that route anyway, but that is a whole different post. So it was mentioned that Aarushi and possibly Hemraj, the servant, knew about Rajesh’s alleged affair with Dr. Anita. Aarushi disapproved this and hence did a lot of back talking to her father. Its bad if your spouse finds out, but I think its worst when your son/daughter know that you are having an extra marital affair. After all, what are you teaching them?

Police in India need to do a better job of investigating such cases. There are too many holes, and when they get up to talk to the public, it doesn’t sound like they know what they are talking about. They just don’t sound credible - potentially because they have that type of reputation as well. Quite sad when you can’t trust your own police or CBI/FBI to do a decent job on such cases.

I am going to keep reading and listening to this case because I want to see where the twists in the story happen from now on. There will be more, and really, sometimes I think its the media who does a better job investigating then the police.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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Even though our taxi stopped @ an ATM, we reached the same time as the other team, so it was a tie. We spent the rest of the time in the mall basically playing video games and going around the shops. Then it was time to determine what is the next location (i.e. dinner). Pizza Hut @ Fort was the unanimous decision. As we are on the top floor of the mall, Roop Mama starts discussing teams and all and says,

Now that we have our teams, let’s make it interesting. The team that gets to Pizza Hut last pays for dinner!

As he is saying this…he starts running for the elevator!! Gautam, Heena, and myself (the rest of his team) are just in awe — and immediately start running after him. We HAD to get to Pizza Hut first. Well the other team decided to take the escalator. They were half down the third floor as we got in the elevator. As we reached the ground floor and made it towards the entrance, Neeraj and Rishabh were right behind our team. But then when we tried to see where the rest of their team were so we saw Chandni chugging down to the ground floor, but Sangeeta Mami was slowly making to the second floor on the escalator. Our team took a big laugh and headed outside to catch a taxi.

We grabbed the first taxi and were off. We were very confident that we would reach the Pizza Hut in Fort wayyy before the other team because when we had left, they hadn’t even gotten in the taxi. So we chit chatted the way there, well our taxi driver took a wrong turn:!: We got stuck in traffic in which he had to end up taking a U-Turn anyway. But still we knew we would reach first.

We called in between to make sure that they got in the taxi, and then they asked where we were - we bent the truth a bit….and I think they did too. Soon after we reached Pizza Hut and Heena, Gautam, and myself ran to the entrance.

As we made it to the door, we were trying to think if they had gotten there before us — as I opened the door, to our surprise, their team was sitting having Pepsi! They beat us by 15 minutes!!!!!! So Roop Mama made the bet, and he ended up paying up!

Second Night in Mumbai
We headed for a fun filled day @ Lower Parel @ the Phoenix Mills mall. All six of us (those mentioned in the first night) had a great time bowling. Neeraj was bowling for the first time, and he was one of the top scorers of the night:!: Rishabh and him tied with a score of somewhere in the mid 100s. We also played pool in the same area — the cousins were playing for the first time, and so Neeraj and I were showing them how to shoot. It was fun! We ate @ Phoenix Mills @ the various stalls (I love McDonalds in India, and I was craving an Aloo Tikki Burger).

Third Night in Mumbai
Now we made the trip out to Powai. We took two cars, asked Lalit Mama to send someone from his office so that he could drive the other car. Chandni, myself, Sangeeta Mami, and Anita Mami (w/Roop Mama driving) sat in one car as the driver, Neeraj, Heena, Rishabh, and Gautam sat in the other. The main reason making the long trip to Powai was to go go-karting in their huge race course (its the same course shown in many movies including Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye). We had a great time as we tried to race, but the people running the place made us go one by one. Neeraj was one of the last to finally go but for his car was messed up, and he ended up crashing into the tires!! Its a good thing that they give you a helmet and elbow pads to wear.

After 10 laps of fun, we took some pictures and then we went into the shopping area and walked around for a while. Then ended up going to Shiv Sagar and ate there. Lalit Mama joined us as it closer to home.

Fourth Night in Mumbai
Chandni, Heena, Neeraj, and myself headed out to Andheri West to stay two nights with my masi (Mumma’s elder sister), and her family. We were also going to see my cousin, Mitu Didi, in Borivali and bring her & my nephew Kunal back to my masi’s house so that they could stay with us during the time we were there.

This night Chandni, Heena, Neeraj, and myself already had planned that we would go out to a discotheque for some fun. We ended up going to Poison in Bandra late that night. Thanks to Kunal (our buddy the avid reader @ this blog ), he set us up with free tickets so that the four of us could get in. We appreciate it Kunal, and it would have been fun if you and Bharti could have joined us. DJ Aqueel was one putting on the music, but I have to say that I was not impressed by the selection of songs. It was just techno-crap music that he ended up playing. It was quite crowded as well, and the atmosphere wasn’t great. I would say that it was 60% posh crowd (teenagers from upper class who were smoking who-knows-what) and 40% call center girls. There were many lesbians which was just interesting, and too many girls that would get close (I mean close) with any guy that would stand in front of them. I was pretty shocked with the crowd, and it wasn’t as enjoyable as I had expected. Neeraj felt the same. Amrita Arora (Malaika Arora-Khan’s sister) also showed up and was up there w/ DJ Aqueel, but nobody else famous was seen. It ended @ 2 am, and we took a taxi back to Andheri.

Last two nights in Mumbai
We spent one extra day in Andheri at masi’s house than expected, but all in all it was alright time. I don’t agree with alot of things my masi’s son says or the way he speaks to others, but hey, when you are visiting for a short period — you have to suck it in and let it go.

We went to Lokhandwala and wanted to hang out @ the new Mochas that had an open rooftop, but unfortunately there was a 45 minute wait, so that ended up going nowhere. We ended up going to the Cafe Coffee Day across the street.

That night we ended up watching India lose again in the World Cup, and the big game in my house to play on this trip was dumb charades. So the four of us (Heena, Chandni, Neeraj, and myself) stayed up almost all night and played dumb charades. Tons of fun! My other cousin, Pooja Didi, and Bobby Jiju showed up the next morning as they came from Surat to visit us which was very nice.

Then once we got back to nani’s house, we went out the last night to Bombay Blues for dinner. I also bought a new mobile (Nokia N73 which is so awesome ). I love the new phone, its got a built-in IPOD which is great because I can listen to songs as well use it as a phone. There are two cameras also and its chic — I love it. When we went to Bombay Blues for dinner, Chandni was raving at its Mexican dishes — so Neeraj and I, like last time when we we went to New Yorkers with the Americans on the previous trip, ordered various Mexican dishes (nachos, enchilada, burrito, etc…) - but unfortunately we could not classify it as “Mexican” food. It was definitely Indian-Mex, and that too not well made!! So I told Chandni and Heena that they will have to come to USA to have real Mexican food.

That’s it — Neeraj and I headed back to Jaipur the next day (we changed our flight because in the morning there was a solar eclipse and no one in my house would let us leave until it was over ). As we were on our way to the domestic airport, we got the good news that my masi (Lata Didi) and her family in Delhi completed their US Visa interview that day, and they all 10 year visas!! Now they can come to the US @ anytime. This was a feat as Lata Didi had been rejected twice previously - so it was big news for the family.

Next: Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur, and the Finale of the India Trip 2007!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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Rajat’s father works @ a high post for the Indian Railways (Eastern division) and so they live in the Railway Colony in Kolkata. It was quite far from the airport, but it was a beautiful place. Their house was a mansion with servants all over the place, beautiful view of the sea (boats and ships were drifting by), and wonderful large rooms to hold all of the marriage festivities. Neeraj and I were staying in the guest house which was walkable distance to their house. All of the marriage festivities were held at their home, and the actual mandap and marriage happened in their garden area (back yard which was as long as a football field it seemed ).

We had a wonderful time dancing in the baraat as Rajat came behind us in a chariot. It was quite hot the day in Kolkata but as the baraat reached his home after making a round around the colony, a major wind dominated the rest of the night. All and all, we had a great time in Kolkata.

Then we were off from Kolkata to Mumbai the day after the marriage. This time we flew on Kingfisher Airlines, known in India as the best airline on the subcontinent. We reached the airport, entered, and immediately two Kingfisher guards were standing there. They asked if we were going on their airline, I replied yes, and took a hold of our bags and lead us to the baggage screening. As our bags were being screened, another Kingfisher employee began to print out our boarding passes. By the time our bags were done, our boarding passes were in our hands. Then we went to the counter only to weigh our bags, and we were ready to board. What fast and friendly service, now that’s what we call great customer service.

We went through security checkpoint and began to relax with a Pepsi in hand. Our plane was right on time, we boarded the plane, and we were able to watch the various TV shows as each passenger had their own little TV to watch. We also were given gobi ke parathe, paneer, etc.. to eat for breakfast - which, just like the US, Indian airlines have also cut down giving food, unless if you are traveling in high class airlines like Jet Airways or Kingfisher. All in all it was a great and smooth ride from Kolkata to Mumbai.

We reached Mumbai as Roop Mama and Sangeeta Mami were waiting for us at the airport. We made the trip to Charni Road…and here begins the nonstop fun part of our trip.

Let the games begin!!!!!!! Stay Tuned!!!

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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So we picked them up and headed back to my masi’s house. We had lunch, and then soon after it was time for Neeraj’s parents train back to Hindaun. As we headed to the station, Neeraj again looked uncomfortable only to find out that he was having a stomach problem. The night before in the train to Delhi, we were in the 2nd AC dabba, and we had gotten dinner. The dinner was soo bad, you wouldn’t believe:!: There was roti, dahi (yogurt), rice, daal, and this lockey ki sabzi. Neeraj had told me to not have the sabzi because it was too spicy. He went ahead and ate it because as he says, he has an “Indian” stomach, and I have an “American” stomach. So I said, suit yourself, and I didn’t eat it. Well guess what, Neeraj had diaharrea because of that sabzi:!: Guess whose stomach has turned “American”.

After dropping his parents off @ the train station at Nizamuddin, we went home, and Neeraj spent the rest of day and evening in the bathroom. Yep, he had it that bad. Poor guy was in bad shape. I gave him all of my different medicines from Pepcid AC to Aleve to Imodium (the diaharrea medicine). In the night he felt a bit better, but then the next morning, he was feeling much better. He was pretty weak but it was alright.

We told him to rest up because we were heading to Kolkata the day after for his college friend’s wedding. The night we were leaving for Kolkata, our Spicejet flight got delayed four hours! Only to find out later that there was a hijack scare in Kolkata that day which caused the delay. Because of the delay we spent the majority of the evening in Delhi where we should have been in Kolkata enjoying their mehendi ki raat. Many of Neeraj’s friends were traveling with us on the same flight, so we were all in the same boat.

We eventually reached Kolkata at midnight, with a person there waitiing to take us to Neeraj’s friend’s house. It was going to my first time in Kolkata……interesting place, that’s all I can say.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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The 8th was a busy day, with us asked to come to lunch at Neeraj’s middle sister’s sasural around noon, and before that we had to get our train tickets online for that evening to go to Delhi with Neeraj’s parents. Unfortunately nothing worked out our way because you aren’t able to get tickets online for the same day after a certain amount of time has passed. Then we had a hard time trying to find Neeraj’s sister’s sasural which then took away so much time. By the time we were done with lunch and reached back to Neeraj’s brother’s place (where we were staying), Neeraj’s parents came just a few minutes after us. Then we had to go to get their US visa photos taken because they hadn’t taken it properly previously. We went to two different photo labs (Kala and Goyal Photo Labs) and asked them how long it would take to get the photos for both parents. Now just think about it - all we needed was them to take the photo, make it US visa size, and then print it out, how long do you think it should take? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Both labs said that it would take atleast two hours!

Now that is the problem with India. It is a simple task, but they make it complex. AND they do it on purpose - which makes me angry. If we would have gotten the same photo done in US at a photo lab do you know how long it would have taken? 5 minutes! No one cares for customer service in India when it comes to things like these which makes it irritating. I wanted to go into the photo lab area and print the photo myself. After much requesting, they said that they would do it for us in one hour (we had to catch the train immediately after that which is why we needed it in a hurry). Neeraj and I watched the photo lab people - they wasted the first 50 minutes, and in the last 10 minutes they completed our task. Wouldn’t you be irritated?????

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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We left for Jaipur the evening of Holi after our max masti morning/afternoon. It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Hindaun City to Jaipur, then we stayed over at Neeraj’s middle brother’s home, and left early on Monday morning via plane (SpiceJet) to Mumbai. Yes, we took 13 family members (the 4 children in the pic in the above post, Neeraj’s two brothers, their wives, two sisters, and one jijaji) on a plane from Jaipur to Mumbai in which it was the first time that all 13 members were going on a plane. It was going to be a high feat because anything can happen, you don’t know how people will react (health-wise) on a plane for the first time. One of Neeraj’s sister’s and her children also get motion sickness, so Neeraj and I were most worried for them. But all is well — everyone really enjoyed being on a plane, and we safely reached Mumbai.

Neeraj and I had planned and booked everything from the US for our big Mumbai trip with the family. This includes hotel booking in south side of Mumbai near Chowpatty Beach, two Toyota Qualis vehicles, and of course the itinerary - what we were going to do for two and half days. I was very impressed as everything worked as clock work for us — just as we had planned out. We had the two vehicles waiting for us as we had reached Mumbai’s domestic airport. Then we left immediately for the hotel where the family got freshed up while Neeraj’s brothers went back to the airport to pick up their sister and her family who were coming in a later flight from Ahmedabad. Neeraj and I went to my nani’s (grandmother) house to drop off some stuff for her that was sent from my Mumma.

The first evening was spent going first to Phoenix Mills mall in Lower Parel where the kids and adults both enjoyed playing video games at the arcade. Then we went out to the various famous sites in south side of Mumbai such as Gateway of India, Worli, Nariman Point, Marine Drive, and of course, Chowpatty Beach. We reached back to the hotel late and went to sleep.

The next day was an early day as we headed by our two vehicles to Essel World. All days in Mumbai were quite hot, weather wise. We took the long route by car because it was going to be too tough to take everyone by local train and then by ferry to Essel World. Once we reached, we went straight to the water park there, and what a great time we had!! Really, it was a great park, well made, and everyone enjoyed to the fullest! We stayed until the park closed, which I thought it closed too soon at 5.30 pm, and then headed for dinner at this restaurant that I had spotted on our journey. It turned out to be a very nice restaurant, and everyone enjoyed the food. Then Neeraj wanted to have ice cream at this place in Versova (Andheri) where we had last year when we had brought our Americans to Mumbai. So we called my masi and jijaji who live in Andheri, and they told us where it was and even said that they would come meet us. So we went there, and this ice cream place has various fruit ice creams that you don’t get to eat on the ordinary (sitaphal, leechi, mango, etc..). Everybody liked that as well, and then we headed back to the hotel.

The last day everyone woke up a bit late, and we went to Siddhi Vinayak mandir which was on the way to the airport for us. It was pretty crowded, but we were able to receive blessings from the Lord just as we had thought. Then we were off to the airport and back to Jaipur. The big Mumbai trip was going to be over…..:sad:

We took the SpiceJet flight back to Jaipur, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Neeraj’s niece, the one from Ahmedabad, was crying very badly due to the horrid navigating done by SpiceJet’s pilots. As you will read on about our experiences in the various airlines in India, SpiceJet was definitely the worse. They change altitudes too quickly, and when they say that they are landing, they are not really doing that, they are just lowering the air pressure and altitude which can hurt a person’s ears. We weren’t impressed, and really will think twice to fly with them again.

Anyway, we all reached Jaipur just fine, and now the rest of the trip continues….

Because the photos are too big in size and I don’t want to compress them, I am going to upload them on Yahoo. Please let me know if you want to view, and I will send you the link.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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Surprise Trip to India
Neeraj and I surprised his family by showing up in Hindaun City two days before Holi. No one in his family, except for his middle brother in Jaipur who helped us coordinate everything, knew about us coming. Just about a week before we were going to leave, his elder brother had a slight clue that we would be coming on Holi but didn’t know which date. So we reached Delhi from Chicago on March 1, and we left by Janshatabdi to Hindaun City in the afternoon of March 2. We had borrowed a mobile (Motorola Razr) from my masi/jijaji in Delhi, so we had a phone and all. Once we reached Bharatpur, Neeraj called his elder brother to let him know where we reached, how many bags we had (4 big bags and 2 hand bags), and to please bring a van or so for help at the train station. We reached Hindaun City, and there was Neeraj’s brother with everything ready — coolie and all. Neeraj and I got in the van, and his brother was on his scooter, and we were off to my sasural. As the gate opened and our van reversed in, you can hear the “oohhs” and “aahs” and the “yeh log kahan se aa gaye” as Neeraj’s two sisters (who reached Hindaun that morning), his bhabhiji, the kids, and Neeraj’s mother were in total shock that we had shown up. Of course later in the evening when Neeraj’s father also came home, he also was in shock to see us already there.

The great surprise was a success - Neeraj and I have been planning for 4-5 months on our trusty whiteboard, trying to think about anything and everything that might happen to make sure that the surprise works out. Neeraj’s family tried everything to find out when we would be coming, but we stayed strong like a rock. But the surprises weren’t over yet…….

Holi
I would have to say that Holi was an amazing experience. Of course this was my first Holi ever in India, and wow! what a great time we had. Neeraj’s middle brother and bhabhiji came from Jaipur that morning, and so we had a full house (only one sister was missing, and she lives in Ahmedabad and couldn’t make it). We woke up early, after sleeping late the night before, and we started getting everything ready (pichkaaris, various colors, water, etc..) for our 4 special kids (Harshit, Monica, Shubham, and Himanshu). The kids had a great time standing at the front gate, asking uncles to please pick up the pichkaari that had fell to the ground, as the uncle came closer to pick it up, the other three would douse him with the colors (soaked in water).

Soon after watching the kids, Neeraj’s eldest sister decided that its time for the adults to get into it. So who was the first to get picked on — any guesses???? Yes the new member of the family - me! I wasn’t even ready, had still my glasses on, and she came up from behind with a handful of rang and got me good!!! I yelled for Neeraj, but as soon as he had reached it was too late — I was all pink. Neeraj’s youngest sister couldn’t hold back, and so she also got into the fun. Of course I wasn’t going to let anyone put color on me without a revolt, so I returned with fire by getting both sisters so good that their faces were all black. The best part about Holi this year was that Neeraj and I were together, enjoying with family, tons of masti - it was just as I had dreamt earlier. We played for five hours, we all were black in color….our clothes were a mess, but what great fun we had doing that to each other!

Another surprise was soon on its way in the evening of Holi for the family…….what was it? How did they react? Did they like it? Find out soon, in the next post.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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