Monkeys, elephants and brides

The monkeys were back again the other morning.  On the opposite side of the apartment this time but I’m convinced it’s the same one with the streak of viciousness in him who is stalking me and on the rampage.  This time he ate the fresh new leaves on my plants, pee’ed in my plant pot and lunged at the glass again when Steve got the camera out……

 

 

Later in the day when the monkey had gone we went down to the garden for a celebration that was going on for Dusshera.  There was an elephant that had been decorated and brought in for the afternoon to take kids on rides which was fantastic.  Harvey loved in and hogged the back seat on numerous treks across the lawn….

They’d also organised for men on stilts decorated like storks to roam around.  Not entirely sure of the significance there but the feat of walking on those sticks with a bird mask on their heads was pretty impressive all the same….

Harvey wasn’t convinced by the horse in this get-up……

but he did enjoy the drums and dancing………

Wedding season is getting into full swing again now too so in the spirit of that I had a go at painting an Indian bride…..well her face at least……..

Bugs, monkeys & Karva Chauth

The monsoon is a distant memory now and the days are getting cooler and shorter which is sooooooo nice!!  The only down side is that the pool isn’t so inviting anymore so we’ve got to find some new afternoon and weekend activities to keep us entertained.  Sadly the post monsoon season of illness has been a lot more vicious this year and has gone on a lot longer courtesy of what the paper describes as a “successful” rainy season.  Dengue fever and malaria have been really prevalent as has a lovely little bug called chikungunya which is a bit “dengue-esque” but the joint pains that come with it can go on for months afterwards.  There’s no treatment other than rest and panadol so it’s pretty brutal for those unlucky enough to catch it.  All of those nasty illnesses are mosquito related so we’re still madly spraying ourselves with repellant each day.  Hate to think what all the DEET is doing to us but it’s got to be better than Dengue or it’s cousins.  The other thing that is making waves is something vague called “viral fever” which is again a bit like dengue but without the severe joint pains.  I was lucky enough to experience this first hand for the last 11 days.  Haven’t felt so miserable in years and I was healthy and chipper beforehand.  It’s been having a devastating effect on elderly and previously ill people living in this neck of the woods and is just really indiscriminate in who it targets.  Last weekend I was panicking I had Dengue so I called the hospital that I normally go to when I’m out of action and the receptionist told me “there are no free doctors, we can’t see anymore sick people at the moment”. Well that’s a big problem I would’ve thought!!  It was a blessing in disguise though – I ended up at a brand spanking new hospital not too far from home with state of the art everything including massage chairs for when you get your blood test done.  Great for me, but it really did make me think long and hard about how awful it must be for the workers I see out on the roads everyday when they get sick and can’t afford the 500Rs fee to see a doctor in a nice place like that, let alone afford the medicine that might make them feel better and on top of that they probably still have to get out there and dig ditches while feeling like crap.  The other irony was that my brand new shiny white hospital is across the road from the village school where these kids are living under tarps.  The divide between wealth and poverty is so stark here.

So anyway, one morning last week when I woke up feeling deathly, I wandered into the kitchen to have some water and this scene greeted me……

I was in a really bad mood because it was day 7 of feeling crappy so I banged on the glass and yelled at this poor creature.  Feisty little critters they are though.  Here’s what he did next……

Lunged at the window with his teeth all bared…..

Started to rip up my towels and sheets with his claws, and then…..

you can’t tell in this pic but he sat on that railing, turned his head around to get eye contact with me and started to take a big dump on my clothes!!!  Nice!!!  Just what a dodgy tummy needed to see first thing in the morning!!!

I was planning on telling Mamta about it but she was late to work and I had to take Harvey to school.  When I got home she was busy folding all the clothes from the line when she came across a nice little gift wrapped up in the towel and she said – “didi, bandar  bahut shaitani hain” (sister, monkeys are so naughty!).  Personally I’d use a stronger adjective but given monkeys are revered here I just nodded.

Today is the Karva chauth festival – a day where wives are not supposed to do any housework (nothing unusual for the middle and upper classes here but must be a HUGE day for the majority of Indian women).  Instead they are supposed to dress themselves up in their finest saris and jewellary and pray for the health and well being of their husbands.  They fast from sunrise to sunset and there is a special pooja ceremony in the afternoon where the prayers take place (well something like that anyway).  Yesterday in all the market places there were mehendi wallahs everywhere putting beautifully intricate henna patterns onto the women’s arms and hands.  Amazing how quickly them can do it and with so much precision.  I was going to get it done just for fun but my tummy wouldn’t come to the party.  Plus my better half has a work dinner tonight so I’d be wasting all my finery!!

Netball, new friends & Jesus

Yesterday Harvey & I made a trip into Delhi to watch the gold medal netball match of the CWG  in action.  Again the stadium was far from full (which was really annoying because Steve found out the day before that he had the day off and yet we couldn’t get an extra ticket ANYWHERE!) but the people who were there were (like us) real loud mouths so there was plenty of atmosphere…..

Harvey was yelling louder than anyone else for the first half and was madly waving the Aussie flag with me.  Then at half time we had a row of people come over to us asking if they could please have their photo taken with him.  He actually obliged this time (doesn’t usually) and wrapped himself in the flag like a sari for the snaps….

The security men were there in droves again but were looking more relaxed than they had been at the swimming stadium.  Not sure if I should have been pleased or concerned about that, but anyway it was nice to see them interacting with the crowd and having plenty of opportunities for cheek pinching……

Recently we joined a new playgroup for kids around H’s age (+ siblings).  Neither of us were that sure about it given that the previous group we’d been part of wasn’t really our sort of crowd and most of the kids had been girls, but we seem to have jagged a really good one this time around with quite a few boys.  It’s really multinational too which is always great.  H splashed around in a backyard blow up pool for 2 hours on Wednesday with his new best mates who have just landed here from the US.  Great to see how kids just hit it off right away no matter where they’re from.  Other nationalities in the group so far are Thai, Finnish, English, German, Danish & Singaporean!

Harbs & I were out in the car the other day when he brought out of his pocket his Batman & Jesus action figures.  It’s impossible to get in the car lately without him thrusting an action figure into my hand and insisting I make it act out a story.  Anyway, he’d decided that the story for the day was “Batman & Jesus turn bad guys into good guys”.  Batman had to run off and capture the Joker, Penguin, Riddler etc, bring them to Jesus and Jesus would make them instantly become good guys.  It was really good.  Once all Batman’s foes had been born into new life, Batman called ahead to Wayne Manor and asked Alfred to prepare the finest dinner because Jesus was coming for the evening.  I thought I’d done quite well with that line but H interrupted forcefully with “No mummy, Jesus doesn’t want a fine dinner – he just only wants pizza and water”.  Well maybe he’s onto something there????

Swimming, CWG fallout & staff

Yesterday we went to the last session of the swimming at the Games.  It wasn’t exactly packed out (although there were apparently a lot more spectators than on previous days) so the atmosphere was lacking something, but it was great for Harvey to see a few of the world’s best swimmers in action.  He kept asking if any of them were faster than him.  I didn’t want to burst his bubble but on the other hand it’s good for him to be a bit grounded so instead I told him that I’m sure he would’ve given them all a run for their money when they were also 4 years old.  He seemed happy with that and did lots of cheering…..

We were right up above one end of the pool so we got a great view of the medal ceremonies…..

It was really good to see that the stadium had held up for the meet and that not too much of the ceiling came down but I did have a really hard time finding the loo (the ladies was miles from the mens and there was no sign  – just a paper one on the door) and by the end of 2 hours the backs of my thighs were killing me because I couldn’t get my feet to touch the ground when sitting. I think they must have used one of the hurdlers to test the seat height when building the place……

Security was pretty tight.  On the long walk from the gate to the stadium there were soldiers and police with semi automatics looking pretty alert (for a change) – lots of them standing ready behind sand bags like this one below right next to our gate….

So it was a good experience given the potential for disaster.  Having said all that I’m still not sure how or why the Games ever came here.  The infrastructure was so lacking and the work that had to happen to pull it off was enormous and therefore unbelievably expensive.  I wonder who will be paying for years from now for the budget blowout and who/what will suffer as a result.  This video posted on YouTube shows some of the people who have been displaced because of the Games.  I’m not sure they’ve had any publicity……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gEyLFTTkcM

Lots of the local middle & upper class residents are complaining about the Games too because their staff have gone missing.  The police have sent at least 100,000 people out of the city/country for the duration of the Games because they couldn’t produce 2 identification documents.  The majority of these people work as household staff and so their emplloyers are now having to clean, wash cars, prepare meals and garden for themselves.  The maids, drivers, cooks and gardeners who are still here are sitting pretty because they’re in huge demand and can ask for sizeable salary increases.  A friend was telling me the other day that her neighbour was saying “how are we supposed to keep our vehicles clean when there’s no one here to do it for us?”.  Amazing how skills are lost when we’re not required to use them huh?

Temples, elephants & bonding.

On the way to the village school this week we got caught in village traffic.  The roads inside the village are really narrow and it’s very difficult to get past anything on coming.  Hari did a great job of backing up to let a herd of buffalo, a tractor and a fullen laden donkey through.  Then we turned the corner and there was a mobile Hindu temple.  It was an amazing set up on the back of a rickshaw complete with altar, incense, marigolds and speakers out of the back from which emanated a guru chanting…….

It’s been over a year since the kids decorated elephants for the wall and Poonam Ma’am had requested that I get them to do some new ones in preparation for Diwali, so here’s what they created……

They took about 90 mins to decorate the whole picture including the border.  It’s amazing how engrossed they get in it and how much they love detail…..

Harvey came along this week and was happy colouring in his own pictures while the kids did theirs.  He insisted on wearing full body armour including shin pads this time (I think partially because he wanted to avoid all the cheek pinching etc)……..

And at the end I loved watching him share his works of art with them and then he complimented them on theirs….. great bonding…..