Some of you might be wondering where we are staying during our time in India. We are very, very lucky to be staying at our friend Michael Aram's home in Delhi. Ken has known Michael for . . . . well, let's just say they have known each other for "some number of years." They first met when Ken was a buyer at Pottery Barn and regularly traveling to India on buying trips. Michael had recently started his design and production company in India and Ken worked with him on a number of products for Pottery Barn. Although Michael has since moved back to New York City, he still returns to India regularly to oversee his New Delhi factory. As a result, he maintains a lovely apartment here and graciously made it available to us during our stay.
Our stay has been truly wonderful. Michael was here for our first several days in India before he flew home to New York. Just two months ago Michael and his partner Aret welcomed their newborn twins, Thaddeus and Annabelle, so Michael was able to share with us a lot of new parent stories and advice. He also introduced us to a group of his friends here and they have stopped by to meet Cornelia and of course for cocktails and dinner. Also making our stay wonderful are Reema and Biru, Michael's house staff. Reema is a wonderful cook and both of them are taking very good care of us. In fact, we're feeling pretty pampered at this point.
As an aside, Michael has the honor of being our first friend to meet Cornelia, and his visit to the hospital to see her even caused a bit of a stir. In the afternoon after Cornelia was born Ken and I were at the SCI offices and we got a message from the hospital that my brother had been there looking for us. Of course we were baffled by the message since my brother is in Denver and not in Delhi, but we didn't give it a whole lot of thought. Clearly, something had been confused in translation. Later, we were back at the hospital and Dr. Tandon told us that the fashion designer Suneet Varma had been at the hospital that day. We weren't sure why this should be important to us. Then Dr. Tandon told us that this fashion designer had been to the hospital that day to see Cornelia. Again, we were baffled.
Ultimately when we got home that evening Michael told us that he and his friend Suneet (who is in fact a designer in Delhi) had visited the hospital to see Cornelia that afternoon. When the reception desk hesitated to let them go to the nursery, Suneet – thinking quickly and realizing that Michael and I look alike or at least look sufficiently alike in India where all tall white guys look alike – proclaimed to the receptionist, "This is the brother of one of the fathers! You must let him through to see the baby!" It worked. They let them right through to see Cornelia.
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