"Yes, you are right," responded Igor, Tania's maternal Uncle. "I will go and inquire about a taxi," he added. Saying this Igor went towards the booth that indicated taxi services.
Just then Tania drove up and maneuvered her car towards the pavement so that the luggage could be piled up on the carrier which she had got fitted atop her car a few days ago.
Seeing that there were only three people there, she inquired where Uncle had gone to?
Nikita informed her that her uncle had gone to get a taxi as her car could not carry all the luggage they had brought. "Child you have forgotten that we have perhaps brought too much luggage."
Igor was back and commented, "I got a taxi which is arriving here soon. I will sit in the taxi with the rest of the luggage and follow you guys who will be going in Tania's car."
True to his word the taxi arrived. The men along with the taxi driver loaded the luggage on the carriers of both the cars. Thereafter, Tania took the lead with her two grandmothers sitting in her car and the taxi followed behind.
Her grandfather insisted on taking the following taxi and went to sit besides Igor, her maternal uncle.
As Tania drove homewards, her grandmothers started to speak. She had thought that they did not speak much.
Mira asked, "Tania what do you like to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner?" She went on to add, "I have brought several Indian sweets (Mithai) for you. I did not know what you liked, so I bought a bit of each Mathai."
Tania was very happy. She loved Indian sweets. Here, she was being offered some of each. She would relish that.
"Thank you, grandma," she responded with a smile which seemed to be more like a grin.
"No, no grandma, you call me 'Dadi' or 'Dadi ma' meaning father's mother," Mira replied. "In India, the parents of the father are called 'Dada and Dadi' and the parents of the mother are called 'Nana and Nani."
Nikita was listening to the conversation and seemed to agree as she was nodding her head in agreement. "Yes, it is the best way to separately identify the grandparents from the father's side and the grandparents from the mother's side."
"Ok, Dadi ma and Ok, Nani ma," Tania responded with a smile,
Nikita seemed to like being called Nani ma.
As Tania was responding to their other queries about Moscow, the drive home did not feel boring. Time passed quickly, and they soon arrived at the home of Tania. There had been hardly any traffic on the roads while going to the airport and coming back as it was early morning still.
The taxi carrying the two men and the luggage seemed to have caught up and was stopping right behind her car. All alighted from the cars and went inside as soon as Tania opened the door with the keys.
Upon going inside they were shown the drawing-room, the dining room and the lobby. After they all had their breakfast of porridge and toasts with tea, they headed upstairs and were shown the three bedrooms where they were to stay. All the rooms had attached bathrooms. Tania told them to relax take a bath etc. They all would meet in the library by 11.30 am.
Tania went downstairs and started to prepare lunch. It was a good thing that she had learned to prepare Indian and Russian dishes from her mother. Yesterday, she had got bought fresh vegetables from the nearby store. The store stocked fresh and delicious vegetables farmed on private landholdings within the compounds of dachas (summer cottages).
She prepared mixed vegetables, lentils, curd with mashed potatoes. She made a salad of onions tomatoes and cucumber and added garnishing of coriander leaves on all these things. She then prepared a sweet dish for after lunch. She made a mint onion and tomato chutney too. Finally, she made a few chapatis (flatbread made on a griddle on which dough of wheat flour is rolled out and put to cook like thin pancakes).
Then she commenced on a few Russian dishes. She cooked them for her Nani ma and Igor Uncle. Just in case they would not want to eat the Indian dishes. But she knew that the Indian dishes would be liked by them.
She prepared Vareniki. Russians like to eat veg dumplings called Vareniki ( These dumplings are filled with mashed potatoes, cabbage, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or even cherries). They are quite close to the vegetarian momos that are available in Nepalese and Tibetan restaurants in India. She also made Blinis.
Blinis look like french pancakes and taste great with honey, jam or sour cream. She fried mushrooms and cheese to go with the Blinis. Finally, she prepared a salad of beetroot, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini and cucumbers and laced it with olive oil and locally grown spices all obtained from the private farm.
It took her two hours to get everything ready and by the time the food was ready, it was almost 11.30 am. She had asked her family members to come to the library.
This library was her parents' library. There were medical books arranged on book shelves on two of the walls starting from the floor to the ceiling. One wall had shelves with books of great authors as well as biographies of important personalities. There were some novels too. The fourth wall had books that she was using and were on various stages of History. Not only of Russia but the whole world. There were books on Indology and on the subject that she had been doing her thesis on. She had placed the 7 books written by Dr Brain L Weiss on this part of the wall along with the book on the interpretation of dreams.
She headed towards the library and saw that no one had come down yet. There was a gong that her mother used to hit to call everyone in the family for meals. It was too much effort for her to go upstairs and downstairs all day. So her father had bought this huge gong that could be heard from all the corners of the house when it was rung. However, she decided not to use it at the moment but to ascend the stairs and call everyone personally to come down to the library to talk.
As she was ascending the stairs, she saw her Dada ji and Dadi ji descending the stairs followed by her Nani ji and her maternal uncle(Mamu ji).
"Let me help you?" She stopped and grabbed hold of her Dadi ji's hand and started to guide her to descend the stairs. Thereafter, she guided them all to the library.
"Lunch is almost ready, I just need to do the finishing touches. Let me know if 1 p.m. suits you? You would be tired after the long journey, you would want to rest."
"After lunch you all can rest for a few hours. Then I can take you around to show you a few places in Moscow."
"No child, We have come to see you, talk to you, to get to know you better. We would prefer spending the time here with you today and can do a Moscow tour with you tomorrow."
"I am sure your Nani ji and Mamu ji (Maternal Uncle) would agree with me," Her Dada ji immediately replied.
She ushered her relatives into the study and simultaneously said, "Please be seated.