A Sunday Outing

Last Sunday the smog cleared and sky was the bluest I'd seen it for a long time! The temperature headed for a balmy 22C so we decided it was an ideal afternoon for a walk. An Indian friend of mine looked at me in astonishment “ why would you want to go for a walk when it's sooo cold??” she asked. “well, walking will get you warm for a start” I answered, “Oh no, far too cold to go out! I'm going home to drink hot chocolate !” was her reply. Some other 'more hardy ' Indian friends of ours decided to come with us and we headed westwards to the ruins of an ancient fort known as 'Tughlukabad.

Even though this fort is now just ruins rising from the plains and forest areas of Delhi, it still impresses with it's ancient yellow stone walls and crumbling towers.
It was built in the 14th century by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq and is known as the third of the seven cities of Delhi. It was so well built that the 4 mile perimeter walls still survive intact! It was lovely walking down the dusty paths, clambering over the stones and climbing up the crumbling steps to stand at the top of some of the towers to look across the city. We could look down and still see the grid like patterns of the house walls and palaces built inside the fortress. With a bit of imagination you could imagine the once bustling streets, bazaars, armouries and stables of the king's fighting elephants.There seemed to be no other tourists around – just a few indian families wandering around and groups of young boys playing cricket on the dry open patches of ground. A few wild donkeys searched in vain for grass and one or two stray dogs lay sleeping in the sun. We were still in the suburbs of the city and yet here you could hear no traffic noise – it was so peaceful!!!


STORIES FROM THE NEWSPAPERS!

Don't read if you are squemish!

Indian daily newspapers are mainly made up of corruption stories, Bollywood gossip and horror stories , usually involving road accidents, murders or hospitals!! At the moment they seem to be concentrating on government hospital stories involving rats!! One was about a paralysed patient who was attacked by rats whilst the night guards and doctors slept! The rats managed to eat a lot of the person's face and bite through tubing whilst the poor person was unable to raise the alarm! There are similar stories daily involving rodents or stray dogs entering hospitals and eating patients! If you have money to pay then hospitals are great in India but the vast

majority of people here are reliant on hospitals with the most basic of resources. Yesterday I read about a poor pregnant lady who was turned away from several hospitals because they didn't want to admit her and she had to give birth to twins right outside on the pavement and bled to death. I must remember to never complain about the NHS again !

Christmas in the UK

Having spent last Christmas in India, this year we returned to the UK for three weeks to spend the festivities with family.
The first thing that hit me, as I came out of Terminal 5, was the cold, fresh air! I inhaled deeply! How good to fill my lungs again with relatively clean air compared to smog filled Delhi! Having acclimatised to the Indian weather the English weather seemed perishingly cold to me even though it was above freezing!

There is nothing like spending Christmas in your home country! It is such a time of family traditions and where strong memories are evoked so that, in my opinion, spending it abroad is never quite the same! So this Christmas was wonderful ! What did I love about it ? Well, a whole week with the extended family, carols by candlelight on Christmas eve, mulled wine, Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, presents round the tree, warm central heated houses with soft carpets underfoot (rather than the hard marble floors of Indian houses), satsumas, pavlova with raspberries (oh how I've missed rasberries!!!), the delight and amazement of my 16 month old granddaughter at all the sights and sounds of Christmas and the general family banter that you miss when apart. It was a great time all in all.

England did strike me as a depressing place to be however. It felt quite oppressive and the people in the street appeared glum and weighed down by life. India, by contrast, is a very positive place to live in..... the economy is booming, the people seem very positive , even amongst the poor there is an air of optimism. they might live in appalling conditions but they haven't given up!!!


BACK TO DELHI

January 3rd saw us return to India for our last stint before our move back to the UK. Only 12 weeks and we will have to pack everything up and say goodbye to Vasant Kunj! What an amazing adventure we've been on and how I will miss this place …. but I don't want to think about leaving yet!!!!

We had forgotten how cold our house is in January!!! The days are foggy with faint hazy sunshine and the cold air seeps in through all the gaps under the doors and through he ill-fitting windows. The marble floors are icy and as you sit still the chill creeps into your bones! Hopefully it will only be for a few weeks and the warm spring weather will return. It's crazy to think that only a few months ago we were wilting under the intense heat, with hot water coming out of the cold taps and unable to sleep with even a sheet over us! Now we huddle under duvet and blankets , walk around in jumpers and scarves and hope that there are no power cuts so we can heat up water to wash in! At least my house is now free from all rodents and cockroaches, for the time being anyway.

Delhi in November

I apologise for the long gap in blog entries but October and most of November has seen a deluge of visitors passing through Delhi and staying at our house. It has been exhausting but great both to catch up with old friends and to make many new ones! I definitely think Tim and I could make a good living as tour guides to this wonderful city as we are getting to know it very well showing people around!!!
The weather has finally cooled down from the endless summer onslaught. It's amazing how quickly it happens – one minute we are sweating profusely from the heat and humidity and then suddenly almost overnight in October the weather freshens and the temperature drops.. Out come the scarves, shawls and hats in the early mornings and evenings and the whirring of ceiling fans stop. However with the cooler weather ( now mid twenties) has come the smog. A mist has settled over the city made up of smoke from fires burning at night, fire ctackers from the continual festivals and weddings there are at this time of year and the general city pollution . Everywhere you go people are coughing ( us included)and spitting ( a disgusting habit !!!)

This time of year is wonderful though for walking in the parks and visiting the old tombs, towers, forts and mosques/ temples that are scattered around the city. Delhi is amazing for its old history which is evident in the most surprising of places. You can be just walking down a road or in a park or field and come across and old tomb sticking out of the undergrowth, totally neglected – a reminder of a vibrant history of powerful moghul kings and invading armies.

Back in October some of us started a kids club at the church centre for street kids and poor kids living in the local area. The idea is to enable children just to have a time where they can play and be children as many of them have to work long hours and have no real childhood. . We provide painting, craft, skipping, lego, cars, books etc and we play group games, provide some hot food and watch a cartoon at the end. The club has proved so popular as word has spread around the community that we've had to do two different age groups with about 50 coming to each and with a waiting list for the groups. After Christmas I hope to start some English classes for the children at the clubs who can't read and write in English.. Through the clubs we're getting to know so many more of the local mums and dads which is brilliant.

Monsoon Deluge and Amazing Jaipur

The monsoon has made a late resurgence this year deluging the capital and causing floods everywhere and traffic nightmares! Yesterday was the highest rainfall in 50 rears with 120 mm falling in one hour! It's fine if your at home but Tim was driving back from teaching some Burmese refugees English in Vikashpuri and he had to negotiate water levels over his wheels and then the car decided to overheat in the traffic queues so it was a very stressful journey!

My war against the insect population seems to be going my way at the moment. Some chalk like substance that I was told to draw in all my cupboards has done the trick and the ants and cockroaches no longer venture in to the cupboards!! some cockroaches scuttle across the work surface every now and again but nothing I can't handle. The invasion however, has moved on to a whole new level with the arrival of a rat (s). This creature is determined to get into my house every night whether coming up through sink drain pipes, through kitchen extractor fan vents or by squeezing itself under the cracks of the doors (of which there are many!!).

Firstly I tried a rat trap – the one they sell here is basically a flimsy black tray covered in super glue which is baited with a substance the rat likes. The idea is that the rat runs on to the trap and gets stuck fast by the glue. A person then has the problem of how to dispose of a live wriggling rat stuck fast ! With great trepidation I came down in the morning only to find the tray over the other side of the room minus the rat who obviously got stuck but managed to extricate himself and who then proceeded to run around the room collecting bits of fluff on its sticky paws and depositing them on all my furniture!! I was actually relieved he had escaped..... but now I have moved on to poison which comes in a green cake like substance that you break into squares and leave at various places round the house. Well it's been three days and some of the pieces have been nibbled at but the rat is still alive and kicking !!!! We will have to make a valiant effort to strengthen our fortifications against the intruder..

Last weekend we went to Jaipur , capital of Rajasthan. This ancient city often known as the Pink city was amazing! We arrived at eight in the morning at Amber fort , a 15century fort built high up on the hillside overlooking a lake. The sky was clear blue and the air much cleaner and fresher than smoggy Delhi. We ascended the steep hill riding on elephants ! This was how the queens and then the British during the time of the Raj must have arrived- it wasn't very comfortable but great fun!
The fort was beautifully preserved, especially the intricate designs and paintings on the walls. They used a special technique that meant the colour soaked in to the stone and didn't fade over time.


Jaipur was full of ancient buildings and bazaars. We visited the Hawa Mahal (the air palace) which was built by the king for his 12 wives. It is five storeys high and connected to the royal palace by a long tunnel so that the wives could go from the confines of the palace to this building which was right on the main street. There they could look through the many latticed windows down on to the street to watch processions and daily life without being seen by the public . It was called the air palace because of the clever way it was designed so that a constant breeze blew through the rooms. Special slanted vents were built into the windows in such a way that the breeze cooled the rooms. It was amazingly effective and much better than the noisy air conditioning systems we have today.

Our hotel was an old haveli set in lush gardens and filled with old ornately carved furniture. It was a peaceful haven set behind high walls just off the crazy bustle of the main street. The streets were full of beautiful Rajastahni women dressed in amazing, vibrant coloured saris and decorated in coloured bangles, ankle chains and toe rings. It was a truly magical place. The practise of 'purdah'(women being hidden from other men) was common practise in this state by Hindus as well as muslims and even today many of the women would cover their faces with their saris when walking down the road. The act of veiling came in to being after the ninth century when invading armies in to India noticed how beautiful the women were there and started to take them as slaves and mistresses for themselves so the local people decided to try to hide the beauty of their women from the outside world in order to protect them! We learnt as well that the popular ankle chains with tiny bells on were used originally to warn other men in a room that a woman was approaching , so that they could avert their eyes or go elsewhere so that they didn't meet. In some conservative families still today the daughter in law will still cover her face in the presence of her father in law as a sign of respect.

August in Delhi

Well the month of august is passing in a continual heat haze, interspersed by the odd torrential monsoon downpour. The monsoon is definitely less than in previous years but it still manages to cause chaos after about five minutes of rain!!!

I've managed to wear my flowery wellingtons once and caused a lot of attention from passers by!!!! I can't understand why there isn't a huge market for wellingtons over here with such torrential rain but no-one wears them?!! well at least they kept my feet dry and stopped mud splashing up the backs of my legs.

I seem to be spending a good part of my day in battle against the insect population at the moment. The heat and rain has bought out every kind of insect imaginable and lots of them are migrating to my kitchen!!!! I open cupboards and there are ants swarming everywhere and the odd cockroach scuttling quickly away from the light!!!! Not to mention the mosquitoes, flies and large wasp like things . I'm becoming quite an expert armed with my weapons of various sprays, an electric tennis racket, boiling water and a chalk like substance that you draw in all your cupboards. The insects disappear for a few days only t resurface again!! I will win this war!!!!

The English classes are going well. At the girls home I'm using jolly phonics to teach the girls the letter sounds. Each letter has an action and a song to go with it. The girls just love the songs and the actions and it's really helped them to learn the sounds rather than just the letter name and to put simple words together..I just love teaching – whether it's the kids at the home or the adults at the centre or my maid's son. I love seeing people grow in confidence and in their ability to communicate.
I just wish I was as good at Hindi as my students are at English!!!

Delhi Roads

It’s now the monsoon season in Delhi, and whilst the rains have been relatively light this year, they have still played havoc with the state of the roads. Many of the roads around here are not in a great state anyway, but the rains seem to tear them up with huge potholes appearing overnight. Much of the time, on our local neighbourhood roads, we are driving cautiously, zigzagging across the road trying to find the way through that will cause least damage to our suspension.

When these potholes appear, the local authority have a very functional approach to repairs. A couple of men – or sometimes women, will appear with a wooden hand-cart loaded up with a pile of broken bricks and mud. They then tip the cart out into the general area of the holes. They then spend the next couple of hours bashing the bricks with spades and hammers until they roughly fill the hole. This process does of course leave lots of protruding bricks ready to do all sorts of damage to your tyres, but after a couple of days, enough people have driven over it to level it to some degree.

One of the best sights of the monsoon is the little children from the small slum near our house. As soon as the downpours started, they were out in the street enjoying the rain, playing in the puddles, splashing each other and having such fun.

Driving in India is great fun. At first it looks like a free-for-all with no rules at all. In fact, there are rules, but they are just different. Pulling out into traffic takes some nerve because you don’t wait for a gap – you make one. Constant use of the horn is mandatory, otherwise someone will definitely pull out and into you. There is also a great degree of flexibility about which side of the road you should drive on. Technically, people drive on the left – unless it will be quicker to drive up the right side of the road – or down the middle.

Last week, we were driving home at night up a major dual-carriageway. For some reason, our side of the road was completely jammed. There was, however, a gap in the central reservation and so a number of cars, ourselves included, went through the gap and up the other side against the traffic in what should have been the fast lane of the other carriageway. I will have to try that on the M25 when we get back to the UK.

July in Delhi

Well we've settled quickly back into everyday life in Delhi, made a lot easier in this weather by acquiring our own second hand car and a driver no less!! It means we can step into an air conditioned car as the auto rickshaws were unbearable in the excruciating heat. For a few days we had no driver so Tim bravely manoeuvred his way around the roads! He actually enjoyed the freedom of driving here with no real rules to abide by and got very proficient in using his horn. I, on the other hand was a nervous back seat driver and I think , at times, Tim got very close to throwing me out of the car!! Now that we have Sunil driving for us I feel more relaxed.

The monsoon has been flexing it's muscles in the last week with some very heavy downpours but nothing too prolonged. It's a wonderful sight when the hot rain falls, seeing the local slum kids running half naked in the puddles splashing each other.
However the roads quickly flood as any flood drains are blocked up with rubbish and silt or built over!! The pot holes in the roads make driving through the floods worse as suddenly you sink into hidden ponds of water. Hope our car survives?!!

Last night we went to India Gate in central Delhi. This area is basically a huge park area with famous war monuments and a view right down to the state government buildings. The heat of the day had been replaced by the relative cool of evening with a warm wind blowing and several thousand people must have been there, picnicking in family groups, wandering around and swimming in the filthy lakes. No health and safety here as young boys splashed and cavorted in the large Victorian fountain, clambering right to the top and splashing those below with water from the large dish! It was great to watch and I so wished we had our camera with us! I just want to record all these moments!!! Everywhere people were selling toys, balloons, candy floss, corn on the cob, chappatis and sweet chai. The people of Delhi seem to struggle through the day barely functioning in the heat but then as soon as dusk falls out they pour on to the streets, full of life and vitality , making the most of the cooler temperatures! There's such a buzz and party atmosphere, it's great!!

We're wanting to use the church centre more in the week to involve the whole community. So I'm busy preparing material for some English classes to be held there for beginners and intermediate level and above. Tim is going to hold some skills classes in things like giving presentations, power point etc; another course of guitar classes are starting and also we're going to have a games night where people can play table tennis , chess and carrom (an Indian cross between snooker and draughts!}