On my first trip to India, I spent a week in Lucknow with the mother of one of my friends from London. I was told to refer to her as Aunty, a general term used when speaking to older women in India. She was an elderly lady, frail in body but not in spirit; lively, entertaining and commanding.
Lucknow Aunty (as I have since come to think of her) had a home full of people, with a cook and her family, a driver and six hearing-impaired children that she housed and tutored. Nevertheless, I was given a nice room on the top floor, with plenty of space and peace.
I enjoyed her company so much that I wanted to visit her again on a subsequent trip to India. I called to make the arrangements and was told that she would love to see me again but that she had turned the upstairs into a rooming house for single men and that it would be completely inappropriate for me to stay up there with them around. Instead, she arranged for me to stay with her brother and his wife, who also lived in Lucknow.
Since I was heading to Lucknow in Andhra Pradesh from Chandigarh in Punjab and Haryana, I thought it would be nice to buy a box of Punjabi sweets to take for the children – a treat that they would probably never have, otherwise. I bought 2kg of Punjabi sweets, which were placed in a big, cardboard box, held shut by two thin rubber bands. I packed the box carefully in my backpack, surrounding it with soft items to keep it from getting too crushed, and left for the train station.
Lucknow Aunty (as I have since come to think of her) had a home full of people, with a cook and her family, a driver and six hearing-impaired children that she housed and tutored. Nevertheless, I was given a nice room on the top floor, with plenty of space and peace.
I enjoyed her company so much that I wanted to visit her again on a subsequent trip to India. I called to make the arrangements and was told that she would love to see me again but that she had turned the upstairs into a rooming house for single men and that it would be completely inappropriate for me to stay up there with them around. Instead, she arranged for me to stay with her brother and his wife, who also lived in Lucknow.
Since I was heading to Lucknow in Andhra Pradesh from Chandigarh in Punjab and Haryana, I thought it would be nice to buy a box of Punjabi sweets to take for the children – a treat that they would probably never have, otherwise. I bought 2kg of Punjabi sweets, which were placed in a big, cardboard box, held shut by two thin rubber bands. I packed the box carefully in my backpack, surrounding it with soft items to keep it from getting too crushed, and left for the train station.
