My sister finally came to visit me decades after I moved here.
I don’t know when was the last time we lived together for more than couple of days (during my India trips).

I went through an elaborate process to get her and her family prepared for USA trip, starting from getting their new passports, and then the painful process of getting B-1 visa.  After she finally got visa in 2016, she had second baby and the plan to visit went again on back burner.

I went through the whole rigmarole once again to get new passport for new baby and one more visa (thankfully, the new baby qualified for dropbox).
If you are an Indian, you might know that it’s 1-2 years wait now to get visa interview so I do appreciate that newborns don’t need an appointment if parents already have visa.

Sister only had couple more years left on her 10-year-visitor-visa so her travel had to be soon.
Finally, now that the new baby is not new anymore (5 years old), she came with the 5 year old and my parents.

Her husband and first kid couldn’t join this time due to parent’s health issues but at least she used her visa once before it expires.
She is here only for a month (2 weeks already gone) and I want to show her so much but also want to spend some personal time with her.

NorthEast plan
– Niagara Falls (Done)
– Statue of Liberty (Done)
– Some good nature parks in Central NJ (Done)
– New York City Landmarks (Pending)
– Washington DC (may not happen but pending)

Hopefully, she would have good memories from her trip and she could come back again with full family.

Before I forget about stuff I observed during my India trip, I want to jot it down:-

1. Just like every India trip, I spent all my time in central India (Nagpur and surrounding area). This was where I grew up during teen years and have fond longing for this place. Given this was December, the weather was pretty nice there. The chill in the air during morning/night was welcoming.

2. People in India actually use phone as a phone and not as texting device. SMSes are used for receiving OTPs whereas Whatsapp, of course, is used mostly for spreading propaganda. In day to day life, you receive so many OTPs that phones have inbuilt feature to delete OTPs after 24 hours.

3. Android phones overwhelmingly surpass iOS. Even the cheap Chinese phones (<10,000 INR) are really good. I didn’t see any iPhones around me during one month stay. I replaced my dad’s old OnePlus phone with new Samsung (S23+). The process of setting up new phone was pretty seamless (used Samsung’s app which works with all other phones). While researching the phones for Indian market, I found the website gadgets360.com very useful. It’s pretty decent site with good content.

4. Nagpur – Boy, has this city grown
   –The infrastructure improvement I observed since last time I visited was really stunning. There is whole new metro system, new flyovers and roads which makes transport really easy. There is lot of traffic, of course, but the city is really trying to keep up.
   –The quality of medical care in Nagpur is really good. So many specialists in various fields are available at reasonable cost. My dad went through knee replacement surgery and we are very happy with the result. He is already walking pain free and looking forward to riding his scooter soon.
   –Most of the kids in my family are now in high school and all of them are going to coaching institutes to prepare for college entrance exams (JEE/NEET/UPSC etc.). I feel sorry for the kids grinding themselves down for the competition but it is what it is. The good thing is that best institutes are available in Nagpur so they can at least stay home instead of going to specific town, which used to be the norm (Kota, Bhilai, Hyderabad etc.)
   –I visited some of the new residential societies on a whim. From what I can decipher, the quality of construction was excellent. It was good to see a home with thick rock solid concrete walls instead of punchable drywalls.
   

5. Vidarbha is very hot and dry region but fortunately receives sufficient rainfall each year. In the last decade or so, lot of dams and reservoirs have been constructed in Vidarbha region which really helps with water supply. I don’t know the long term impact of climate change but water supply issue feels sorted for now. Fingers crossed.

6. If you have not been to India for some time, the scale of digital payment system (UPI) will surprise you. Every shop and street vendor has bar code promptly displayed and almost everyone uses GPay/PayTM/BHIM to make payments. No one is forced to use UPI and cash is still an option but I found GPay very convenient to use. Even transferring money to friends/family is very convenient using UPI as it’s platform agnostic and some of the low value transactions don’t even need internet connection.

7. EV Scooters have become very prominent on Nagpur roads. Some of the big companies (TVS, Bajaj, OLA) have good EV scooters. I drove TVS one and it’s really well designed.

8. If you have a house, Solar Panels have kind of became a standard. Every roof is covered with them and the generated electricity is fed directly to central hub. My dad has received negative bill since last year or so. If he replaces his old scooter with EV one, it would be carbon neutral.

9. Finally we come to most important topic – Food.
   One benefit of visiting India during winter is the amount of in-season green vegetables available. I had tons of fresh Methi, Palak, Green Peas sabzi (I find the frozen GreenPeas in US stores very sweet for my taste whereas the fresh ones in India are much better).
   Getting these green vegetables ready to cook is time consuming process, so while cleaning the raw materials, I got to spend some quality time with family members in kitchen.
   I don’t get to eat meat during India trips (parents are vegetarians) but had some outside with friends. It all comes down to curry, which was excellent at the places where I had it.

That’s a wrap. I am glad I wrote all this down and hope it will be fun to read these observations in future.

Before I forget about stuff I observed during my India trip, I want to jot it down:-

1. Just like every India trip, I spent all my time in central India (Nagpur and surrounding area). This was where I grew up during teen years and have fond longing for this place. Given this was December, the weather was pretty nice there. The chill in the air during morning/night was welcoming.

2. People in India actually use phone as a phone and not as texting device. SMS is used for receiving OTPs whereas Whatsapp, of course, is used mostly for spreading propaganda. In day to day life, you receive so many OTPs that phones have inbuilt feature to delete OTPs after 24 hours.

3. Android phones overwhelmingly surpass iOS. Even the cheap Chinese phones (<10,000 INR) are really good. I didn’t see any iPhones around me during one month stay. I replaced my dad’s old OnePlus phone with new Samsung (S23+). The process of setting up new phone was pretty seamless (used Samsung’s app which works with all other phones). While researching the phones for Indian market, I found the website gadgets360.com very useful. It’s pretty decent site with good content.

4. Nagpur – Boy, has this city grown. The infrastructure improvement I observed since last time I visited was really stunning. There is whole new metro system, new flyovers and roads which makes transport really easy. There is lot of traffic, of course, but the city is really trying to keep up. – The quality of medical care in Nagpur is really good. So many specialists in various fields are available at reasonable cost. My dad went through knee replacement surgery and we are very happy with the result. He is already walking pain free and looking forward to riding his scooter soon. – Most of the kids in my family are now in high school and all of them are going to coaching institutes to prepare for college entrance exams (JEE/NEET/UPSC etc.). I feel sorry for the kids grinding themselves down for the competition but it is what it is. The good thing is that best institutes are available in Nagpur so they can at least stay home instead of going to specific town, which used to be the norm (Kota, Bhilai, Hyderabad etc.) – I visited some of the new residential societies on a whim. From what I can decipher, the quality of construction was excellent. It was good to see a home with thick rock solid concrete walls instead of punchable drywalls.

5. Vidarbha is very hot and dry region but fortunately receives sufficient rainfall each year. In the last decade or so, lot of dams and reservoirs have been constructed in Vidarbha region which really helps with water supply. I don’t know the long term impact of climate change but water supply issue feels sorted for now. Fingers crossed.

6. If you have not been to India for some time, the scale of digital payment system (UPI) will surprise you. Every shop and street vendor has bar code promptly displayed and almost everyone uses GPay/PayTM/BHIM to make payments. No one is forced to use UPI and cash is still an option but I found GPay very convenient to use. Even transferring money to friends/family is very convenient using UPI as it’s platform agnostic and some of the low value transactions don’t even need internet connection.

7. EV Scooters have become very prominent on Nagpur roads. Some of the big companies (TVS, Bajaj, OLA) have good EV scooters. I drove TVS one and it’s really well designed.

8. If you have a house, Solar Panels have kind of became a standard. Every roof is covered with them and the generated electricity is fed directly to central hub. My dad has received negative bill since last year or so. If he replaces his old scooter with EV one, it would be carbon neutral.

9. Finally we come to most important topic – Food. One benefit of visiting India during winter is the amount of in-season green vegetables available. I had tons of fresh Methi, Palak, Green Peas sabzi (I find the frozen GreenPeas in US stores very sweet for my taste whereas the fresh ones in India are much better). Getting these green vegetables ready to cook is time consuming process, so while cleaning the raw materials, I got to spend some quality time with family members in kitchen. I don’t get to eat meat during India trips (parents are vegetarians) but had some outside with friends. It all comes down to curry, which was excellent at the places where I had it.

That’s a wrap. I am glad I wrote all this down and hope it will be fun to read these observations in future.