Butterflies

Yesterday was a full day with Pratheeba and her mother. We left the house around 10:30 a.m. with the same driver who has been driving us around every day. We drove into the city, on the way passing over a brand new bridge that is now famously known for it's shape- from above the structure, with all of it's twists and turns and overlaying freeways, is in the shape of a butterfly!
We got into the city and picked up Pratheeba's mother before heading out to do a bit more shopping. On today's list was jewelry. We went to one shop first, but left empty handed. The second shop that we visited however had lots of choices, and we all spent about two hours inside the three floored building looking around at all of the amazing gold, silver and bronze. Pratheeba even bought me a gold necklace and earring set! While inside, it suddenly began DUMPING rain outside! Giant water droplets fell hard for about fifteen minutes, flooding the entire street outside! When we left the jewelry store to go to lunch across the street at a place called "Hot Chips," we had to walk halfway down the block before we found a puddle small enough that we could take only a few steps to get across! The rain made the air even more humid- it's really hot and humid here already, but the water soaking into the hot earth made lots of steam come up from the ground, and so the air became wet with all of the moisture.
After lunch, we all drove to an agricultural farm (which was what we would call a nursery). It was only a short drive, and when we got there it was beautiful! The whole place was like a giant tropical garden! We got out of the car and walked around aimlessly for a bit, watching all of the multi-colored butterflies fluttering around among the brightly colored flowers, before a young boy who worked there found us and showed us around- telling us the names of many different flowers (the Tamil names) and helping Pratheeba and her mother choose a few plants to buy and take home with them for their houses. After we left, Pratheeba told me that the boy was seventeen, and had dropped out of high school. He had been working there for four years and made only 200 rs. (about four dollars) per day.
We left the agricultural farm and went to another shopping complex called "City Centre," however, this mall was REALLY fancy! Pratheeba told me that there had been several movies filmed there, and that because of this there was no photography allowed inside...kind of strange. The inside was really cool! Most of the stores were high class and brand name, and so we walked around, got a mango ice-cream, and looked through a few windows before going in to do some shopping at a store called "LifeTime." We spent about an hour and a half inside looking through all of the kurtis, salwaars, and also the western style clothes. Pratheeba tried a few things on, and so I looked around and tried on a few things also. We ended up leaving the shop with one item each- a kurti top for Pratheeba and a shirt for me. While in the mall we also went to a store that was like the Indian version of Barnes and Noble. They had lots of books on every subject, magazines, and then also toys, watches and other things.
After leaving the mall, Pratheeba and I dropped her mother off at home and went to meet Pratheeba's husband, Santosh at his office. He works in a HUGE business complex with three buildings, a food court, shops, and even a grocery store inside! We met him at the food court and sat and talked for a while before getting dinner. Guess where we went? Subway! We all sat around eating, chatting and having a good time before we all got into the cab and drove home.
P.S. above is a photo of Pratheeba's mother and I in front of City Centre Mall!