goodbye india

my last day in india arrived too quickly! i was excited to get home, but sad to be leaving.

for my last breakfast, i took money to the restaurant to give to all of my favorite waiters. i gave my favorite waiter, ravi, a little bit extra, because he was always so sweet to me. not to mention, he was cute! the whole tip giving experience was hilarious, since most of the waiters only speak a small amount of english (enough to say “tea or coffee madame?”). i had to explain in as simple words as possible that it was my last day, so i wanted to say thanks to all of my regular waiters. they fetched those who had been in the kitchen (including some waiter i’d never even seen, ha!), and i passed out bills. when i back in my room getting my computer ready to leave for work, there was a knock at the door. it was ravi! he wanted to come up to thank me again and tell me that he wished me a good trip. i don’t know if he realized that i gave him a little extra money, or if he just wanted to be nice. i told him he had been my favorite waiter, which made him beam. he said “ma’am, you…you are my best friend.” i’m quite sure that limited english played a role in this statement, but it was still great. and hilarious. i recounted the story to sunil, and he thinks ravi has a crush.  he also thinks that ravi may be one of the more educated waiters from my stories, so i’m hoping for his sake that he moves up in the restaurant over time!

off to the last day at the office…sigh. i had several work things to finish up, and some final meetings to end the trip. i met with all of the managers to discuss how the training had gone, how the project would work going forward, etc. the managers in the office are extremely gracious and well-spoken, and i’m glad that they seemed to approve of everything that had been done! we had our last lunch (which was delicious – more butter chicken, some other kinds of breads, this non-gravy chicken thing they have that is cooked in yogurt – mmmm), and we discussed everything i had done and what i thought of india, etc. it was a good finish to the work part of the trip. later that afternoon, i walked around and took pictures of the teams with whom we work most commonly so that i can show my US colleagues what the person on the other end of the email looks like! i also took some final pics with the ladies of the office, my lunch mates from the past month. all in all, the office experience was great. i’m so glad i got to come on this trip!

final thoughts to come later…