Success at last!

Finally we have an in focus picture of one of our elusive geckoes. I'd like to introduce Gurshagun.

Tommy and Gurshagun are camera shy. Actually they're people shy too. Late at night, when Rod and I are on our way to bed we often catch them in the hallway or kitchen out of the corners of our eyes. But then they run and hide, under the fridge or underneath the front door. Trying to catch them on camera has been really rather tricky. But last night, when I put my tea cup in the kitchen on the way to bed I didn't turn the light on, because there was enough ambient light from the dining area. And that's when I spotted Gurshagun. I know it's Gurshagun, because she is smaller than Tommy. Don't ask me how I know she's a girl gecko though!

Amazingly she was still there when I returned with my camera. Geckoes, like puppies and four year old boys, aren't very good at listening to directions from photographers, so I was surprised she stayed still long enough for me to take a number of snaps. Everyone, say hi to Gurshagun.

Sign your name...

One of the things that's distinctive in the area we live, is signs outside houses showing the name of the people who live in the house. These name plates would also be really useful for the postman, except the mail for these houses has probably already been redistributed, probably to people whose names were not the same as those on the envelope. So on our street we have signs saying, among other names, Chakrabati, Mirchandani, Batra and Gupta. Actually most of the signs in our street say Gupta. Our landlord is a Gupta, a cousin lives on our top floor, and his mum lives across the road. And they're just the connections I've made already. Our house has one of these nameplates. It says Gupta, Mehra and Institutio Hispania, the Spanish Language School. The space next to Ground Floor is blank. We could add Fairweather, or Fairweather Dragicevich to it, but
a) proper paint is not cheap (so says our friend, Shireen)
b) the space isn't large enough for all those characters
c) Indians often get confused between forenames and surnames, so Rod is often Mr Rod, and I am Mrs Rod, so maybe the sign should read Rod or Rod Lana instead
d) we're the only white people in the street and everyone knows where we live already
and e) no mail really ever arrives anyway, because it's been nicked!

But we can't be the only white people in Hauz Khas, because I saw this name plate around the corner from the market.
Short, sweet and identifying enough!

Happy Diwali

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.…"

King Rama was exiled in the forest. He fought a lengthy war against Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, and kidnapper of his wife, Sita. King Rama slays Ravana, rescues Sita, and together they make their way back to Ayodhya, the capital of Rama’s kingdom. But finding their way home is not easy in the dark. So the people of Avodhya lit rows of lamps, called diyas, along the way to light their path through the darkness.

This is the story of Diwali. It celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, goodness over evil and knowledge over ignorance.

Today Indians decorate their homes, inside and out, with fairy lights and diyas to help Rama and Sita on their way. It is believed lighting diyas welcomes prosperity and well-being into the home. This pleases Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth. I’m sure we could all do with pleasing Lakshmi at this time :-)

Operation Smile

Do you want to know how loud 14 expat women can be when it's all for a good cause? Really, really quite loud! Members of my Monday quilt group and the Thursday knitting and stitching group gathered in Kehi's house today and made quilts for Operation Smile. Operation Smile provide free reconstructive surgery to children with cleft lip, palate and other facial deformaties. While recovering from these surgeries, nurses place a roll of soft fabric under the patient's necks. A roll of soft fabric is fine, but a quilt is so much better. Of course it is!

Many of the knitting group didn't know how to piece or rotary cut, but they found themselves called upon to choose fabrics for the quilt tops, press the quilts as we stitched, do any handwork required and make copious cups of tea. Trust me, they were vital! Thalia is home from school this week and she came too, tracing applique shapes, taking photos and making a quilt for the pile. She also found herself much in demand when it came to laying the quilt tops on the backings. We had to use the floor for this, and her back and knees are much younger than the average!

Suzanne stitching
Our first finished quilt, modelled by Kehi

Thalia's quilt

Today's effort

In all we completely finished 8 quilts, before we ran out of the fleece we were using for backing. Another two tops are ready waiting for more backing to be purchased, and many of us took home bundles of fabric to make some more. So a day spent doing something really useful, and having great fun with it!

Twinkle! Sparkle!

What do you do in a predominantly Muslim suburb in the days leading up to Diwali, the biggest Hindu festival of the year? You buy Christmas decorations, of course! At Monday's quilt meeting I was given the address for the Christmas Decoration man, and told not to wait too long before paying him a visit. Helen said you'd go to a suburban home, walk down into its basement and be blown away. She wasn't wrong! A basement not much smaller than our Hauz Khas home full of sparkly, dangly stuff! Three rooms of colour coded baubles, wreaths, tree skirts and tree toppers - everything you'd need for Christmas, with all the baubles priced at 50 rupees. Well, almost everything. There wasn't any wrapping paper...

A small selection of our purchases

We bought 17 baubles, two of the stand up stars and a tinsel tree for each of the kids' rooms. This one's Thalia's. As the Christmas tree we bought last year is only marginally bigger than this turquoise one, we're going to need to get a larger tree if we're going to have any hope of hanging all these trinkets on it!

A walk in the park

Well the weather seems to be finally on the turn, the maximum temperature has been 34 degrees (93F) for the last couple of days. Not enough of a drop to wear different clothes yet, we're wearing the same things we did when it was 40 (104F), and just sweating into them a little slower :-)

To celebrate our new found freedom on Sunday we went for a walk in the park. Nehru Park is in Chanakyapuri, near the Australian High Commission and one of Delhi's premier hotels, the Ashok. For the past week, The Ashok has been playing host to the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly, who came to check on Delhi's readiness to host the Games this time next year. Delhites think there's lots of work being done, so it will all be okay. But there's 19 venues and none of them are finished yet, nor is the athlete's village. A lot of work is being done, but there's a lot that needs to be done! Delhi will think it's ready on time if everything is complete on October 2nd, the day before the opening ceremony. For something as important and complicated as the Commonwealth Games, I know I'd want to see most things ready at least six months in advance! I don't suppose the Commonweath Games Federation sees it any differently. To ensure all this work is completed on time, the CGF has said it will put in place foreign experts (a.k.a. people who don't work to Indian Stretchable Time). The Games getting the go ahead is very big news for Delhi. If the CGF had come in and said there was too much to be done and the Games will be held in Melbourne instead (a.k.a. Plan B), work on all those venues, and the road works, bridge building and traffic control measures underway all over the city would just stop. Driving here has been really dreadful. If all work stopped we would have had gone through hell for nothing. That's just too awful to consider!

Anyway, back to Nehru Park. In the sun it was still too hot, but in the shade it was almost pleasant.

Aren't we cool?

Aren't they cute?

Aren't they handsome?

If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium

but it's Saturday, so it's Switzerland!

Today we went to the Swiss Embassy for their Festa of Lights Mela. Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is next weekend, so the Mela, or Fair season is well underway. Traditional gifts to give at Diwali include candles and diyas (oil lamps) and food. This mela had lots of those on offer, and much more. Clothes, shoes, handmade paper crafts - anything a girl could ask for!

Thankfully for Keir they also had a kids area, with a ball cage. He was much happier there than browsing through Indian clothing stalls. They didn't know it, but the stall keepers were happier too! There was a gourmet food court, so Rod and I decided as we were in Switzerland we should do as the Swiss do, so lunch was bubbling Raclette cheese served with boiled potatoes, pickled onions and gerkhins. Though I suppose in Switzerland it's not generally served on a plate made from recycled palm leaves... Yummy, nevertheless.

And after the bustle of Switzerland we moved back into India. To celebrate our return, we enjoyed an icecream on the much less crowded footpath. Not the way round things usually are!

School run, the harder way

We have a great driver Raju, who can get us anywhere we need to, even into Old Delhi (even though he doesn't like it). But sometimes Rod and I need to be in two different places at the same time, and not even Raju can manage that. That's when we use an auto rickshaw, or tuc tuc. Yesterday was one of those days. Keir had to be collected from school at 2.15, and Rod needed to be in Gurgaon at 3. As the school is much, much closer to our place than Gurgaon is, I pulled the auto straw.

At 1.40 I walked down to the market to find a rickshaw. It's never hard to find one there, but you never know how good the driver's English will be. You also don't know how good a driver the rickshaw guy will be, but the state of his vehicle can give you a few clues on that front. It's a good idea not to make eye contact with any driver with a really battered rickshaw! Luckily the first rickshaw who offered me a ride had all 3 of its wheels, an non cracked windshield and only a few holes in its upholstery. Fingers crossed he would understand where I needed to go. Toes crossed he would know how to get there! I show him my school ID badge, which says in big letters "The British School". I say, clearly, "The British School, Chanakyapuri". The badge also gives the street address, but that's not going to be much help. The driver isn't going to be able to read much English (because if he did, he wouldn't be a rickshaw driver), and even if he did, he wouldn't use a map to get there, because Indian drivers are unlike men anywhere else in the world. They actually like stopping to ask for directions! I know, freaky! The driver nods, to indicate he knows where I want to go. I've done this enough to know that the nod doesn't actually mean he does know where I want him to go, but he thinks he can get me close enough so that I'll pay him. I ask him how much to get to the school, wait 10 minutes and then bring me back to Hauz Khas. He repeats "British School" and thinks, because all auto rickshaws have meters, but none of them work. Fees for hiring an auto are not determined by distance covered, nor time of day. They're determined by how much the driver thinks he can get out of you, before you go and try your luck with the next auto in the queue. My guy decides 150 rupees (£2, $3.20 USD, $3.60 AUD) is the tipping point. This would be exhorbitant if I wasn't white, but the journey's cost me 200 rupees in the past, so I take it.

We set off in the right direction (so far, so good), and after a short while he asks me "which Embassy?" Now Chanakyapuri is home to many of the Embassies and High Commissions, so it's not a bad assumption I'm going to an Embassy. Except that less than 5 minutes ago I told him "The British School", and he repeated it back to me. I say clearly, again, "The British School", and add "near the American Embassy", in case it helps. The driver keeps driving, and soon we are heading up Africa Avenue, and into Chanakyapuri. We turn into Satya Marg and the wide streets of Diplomatic Delhi. We come to a roundabout. The driver enters the roundabout and stops in the middle. I yell and point, "straight ahead", because I'm not too keen on being stationary in an open sided, three wheeled vehicle in the middle of a roundabout. The driver goes straight ahead. We come to the next roundabout. Because I didn't want to play sitting duck again, I tell him straight ahead as he enters the roundabout. He makes a noise which I take to mean he doesn't believe me, but he does what I say anyway. When we get to the next roundabout, I say straight ahead. He hesitates, and the penny drops. "Ah, British School", he says, no differently to I have been saying it, and he has been repeating it back to me all along, and takes me to the school gate. I get out and ask him to wait while I go collect my son. I know he will wait for me, because I'm not going to give him any money yet.

I get Keir and he is so excited to be going home in an auto. The driver smiles as he climbs in and Keir wishes him Namaste (hello). The driver grins even wider and asks Keir if he speaks Hindi. He replies, Han ji (yes Sir). The driver turns to me and asks if I speak Hindi. I reply chota (little). We set off back to Hauz Khas. As we get back to the market I direct the driver to our house. I get him to stop outside D59, and Keir thanks him in Hindi (Dhanyavad) while I get out the fare. The driver asks me "do you live in Delhi?". I reply, "I live here", and point to the house. He looks confused, and repeats "do you live in Delhi?". I'm confused, because I would have thought the fact that I collected my son from school and directed him back to our house, telling him it was my house, were enough clues. Maybe they aren't, so I point to the house again, and repeat "I live here". Just in case we still aren't clear, I leave. Quickly.

Not fair weather, not yet

It's October already! Rejoice! Why? Because all Indians say the weather is best in Delhi from October to February. That's when the endless days of temperatures over 35 degrees come to a close, and locals start mentioning that it's turning cool. I'm waiting...because it was 37 degrees today, and it's forecast to be 37 for the next four days too. Now where I come from, that's just not cool...

I am really, really bored with my wardrobe. I am tired of opening it up each morning, and trying to find something suitable to wear when the forecast says 36 degrees or more. And it's not that I want to go out and buy more clothes suitable for this weather. Really, I have enough. I just want to wear something different, something suitable for a day when the forecast says 24 degrees. I have those clothes already. I haven't worn them to death since March. I still like them...

I know I need to take a reality tablet. I'd settle for a 28 degree day, even though we're getting 28 degree nights. There might be a 28 degree day in November...