Thank You

I am leaving India in a week or so, and feeling very lucky to have had such a happy experience, I wanted to publicly thank all the people who made it happen for me (because I know they'll be reading this and I want a second invitation!).

First to Ram, my dad's great friend in Nashville who works at Vanderbilt and is totally responsible for getting me here. When I called him last August with my idea, he had not seen me in four years or ever really known me other than through my father. With little preparation he took a big chance on me, dropping me right in the middle of his school, and I think he actually had serious doubts when he left me here in January. Thanks for keeping the faith, Ram, and for introducing me to your amazing venture. I am so lucky.

To Rajan and Hema, Ram's brother and sister in law who live in Madras and have treated me like a daughter since I arrived at their apartment at 3am on January 7th. They have opened their guest room to me many weekends, shared their driver and provided me with a cell phone (a must for all my travels). More importantly, they allowed me to raid their kitchen for banana chips and Sri Krishna sweets, sit in my pyjamas until 10am on Saturdays, rant about bad journalism in The Hindu, and watch crap American movies on their satellite (and Rajan still claims I am adorable).

To the rest of Ram's family (I know this is starting to sound like an Oscar speech, but think of it as a bypass for all the monogrammed thank you notes I would send), his wife Susan, his sister Vasantha, her husband KV and their children Vasuda and Narayan , Vidya and Mani (my devoted blog follower), his nephews and their wives, Krishna and Sangeetha (thank you ahead of time for this weekend!), Srikanth and Kitty, all all all their children, and their many cousins spread out all over India, thank you for being so nice to me every time we crossed paths and for treating me like one of your own. Each one of these folks had some job in helping me get to or around India when I traveled, and it made everything so much easier.

Of course my big thank you goes to Pati. Without much of a to do, she welcomed me here, gave me the freedom to find my own routine and rhythm as a teacher, and encouraged me every single day. She helped me arrange my trips, hovered over me when I got sick, gave me ideas to make my lessons fun and different, picked up my slack when I needed the afternoon off, made me coffee every single morning (and iced coffee during the heat waves), took me to all her events and receptions, and most importantly, gabbed for hours with me everyday about everything under the sun. We have definitely fulfilled our conversation quota for the year. Her invaluable advice and friendship has made all the difference on my time here.

I want to acknowledge the Vidya Vanam children, even though they will never read this. I really grew to love my students here for so many reasons, which I have recounted for you over and over on this blog. Without knowing them at all, it took me about two weeks to totally love every one. When I arrived back from Delhi after being gone for a week, they all came up to say Hi Akka and get a hug, then immediately returned to driving the imaginary bus or playing cricket. It was a great feeling to be treated like a normal part of their school life. Their growth over just three months has been amazing, and they have so much in their future.

With Hema, Ram, Rajan and Pati in their Chennai apartment.

With Krishna and Sangeetha's daughters, Anantha and Arya. When my dad visited, they spent an entire afternoon calling him 'Mama', which means uncle in Tamil. "Mel Mama" was very confused :)

A cute pic of me and Vidya, who admitted to wanting to take me shopping because she felt as if she was with her own daughters back in the US.

With Pati.