India is one of the many countries my husband and I have on a somewhat of a long list of places we would like to visit. What we didn’t know was how soon that visit would be. This past year my husband started a job with a company named MTX. MTX is a very fast growing software consulting company with offices in the USA and two offices in India. At the end of the year they have a big award ceremony and party to recognize their workers, promote their charitable giving, and get employees together to work hard and have a #FunCulture! When we had the opportunity to go on this trip we took it!
First of all let me say getting to embrace the Indian culture was a privilege to say the least! I was able to purchase a traditional Indian dress and wear it to an MTX end of the year awards party. Oh how I love that dress! I’ve had the chance to “try” to do Indian style dancing. Something I love watching, but getting to actually try it myself was beyond fun. Even my husband tried to dance. I was able to purchase some other Indian clothes as well that I love. I have always loved the clothes Indian women wear so having the opportunity to wear it myself is pretty cool to say the least. By the way that party was beyond super fun and there is a very short video at the end of this blog of me trying to dance.
Getting to meet my husband’s coworkers from India at MTX was a pleasure. They are some of the nicest people I’ve met. They are fun to be around and so nice to talk with. I have made some nice new friends, which is always a plus where ever I go. They welcomed us with open arms. Going to India has given us a chance to make new friends and experience a different culture. Some of my husband’s coworkers took time out of their busy schedules to take us to different local sites and to the Taj Mahal, which is another dream come true.
So about my stay in India. What can I tell you about this place. For one thing I can tell you ten days isn’t enough time to see everything. Which I imagine is the case for any place you visit for the first time. For my husband this trip was all business. For me it was all pleasure with the except of starting this blog and trying to promote my books. While there we had the chance to visit one of their old Forts. Fort Golkonda. This was a cool place to visit! We had our own private guide, thanks to Vishnu and Gaurev from MTX. The guide showed us different parts of the Fort. There was this one spot where when you clap your hands, the sound can be heard from every corner of the fort. There is also a part of the fort where you can speak into a corner wall and the person standing at the opposite end of you can here you clearly. That was cool!
There was one night when we all went to a team building cooking place that’s like one of those competing cooking shows and we were all put into groups of three or four and we had to compete against each other. That night was beyond fun and it gave us even more of a chance to get to know members of the MTX team better. There was so much laughing going on that night I don’t know how any of us got any cooking done.
We were able to go to a local market with two of my husband’s coworkers. That was quite the experience! I found the people there who were selling their goods or trying to sell their goods were very aggressive. Not something I am use to. But I did manage to buy two tops there that I really liked. My husband bought what we were told was for the table, which we found out later is really a scarf. Since I don’t wear scarfs it’s making our table look nice.
Our journey to the Taj Mahal from where we were staying in Hyderabad, India consisted of about a two hour plane flight and then about a four hour drive. During that drive we saw lots and lots of cows roaming around here, there and everywhere. We also saw some pigs, dogs, and one or two camels. Not something I see every day–which made it quite fascinating to put it mildly. When we finally got to the Taj Mahal we couldn’t believe we were there. Yes, another dream come true and an incredible sight to see. I mean, seriously, my husband and I stood there staring at this monument thinking “wow!” The Taj Mahal really is an amazing place to see and walk through. There is history behind the making of this building that I wasn’t aware of until our guide told us about it. If you’re ever in India I would highly suggest you visit the Taj Mahal. You won’t be disappointed. It’s a memory that I had the chance to make with my husband and so glad we did.
As you probably know India is known for their spicy food. I know my husband enjoyed every spicy dish he was able to try. Me, on the other hand, I can’t eat spicy food. My stomach says no to it every time. This did make it challenging for me to eat, but we made it work. In fact my husband’s coworkers were so sweet doing their best to find foods for me to eat that had no spice in it at all. I felt bad that they had to go out of there way for me. However, on our last night there I was given a sweet dish to try and that was so so good. Absolutely no spices at all. It was simply delicious! (I think it was Moong Dal Halwa)
This first trip to India was surreal! I think that may be the best way to describe it. When my husband and I got off that plane in India we kept saying the same thing “we’re in India!” It all felt unreal to us and yet we were there. It truly was an amazing opportunity to say the least. And in all honesty 25 years ago if my husband had told me we would go to India one day I would have called him a liar.
Kathleen Smith is a blogger and author. Her book “Good-bye Brooklyn, Hello Upstate” and other memoirs are available on Amazon and other book stores.