Monsoon Season Is Back!

This is going to be my second, and last monsoon season. Below is the forecast for the upcoming week... and yes this is perfectly normal weather for this time of year.

For you Canadians, who are probably freaking out, believe it or not this is actually more pleasent than the summer season, which usually peaks at 45 degree of dry heat.

What I've noticed is that even though humidity can feel icky, you actually start getting used to it after a bit. My bike ride to the nearby gym is quite pleasent because the breeze (from biking) offsets the humidity. On the other hand, 45 degrees of dry heat is just outright punishing. The longer you stay outside, the more tired you feel.



From my experience in India... and this is only my opinion... we 'goras' (white people) can only manage up to 40 degrees (with mild discomfort). After that, make sure your AC is working.

Goan Resorts

In the first half of October, Lakshmi and I decided to spend a few days in Goa. It was during the Common Wealth Games and many Delhites were leaving the city to avoid all the chaos. We booked ourselves at the first (and I think only) all inclusive resort in Goa that included alcohol. Our room was nice, the weather was nice, the food was ok, yada, yada, yada...

And why am I writing about this... check out the photo below:

That's Lakshmi playing basketball all by herself in the pool (which has a bar) in the middle of the afternoon.

So... where is everyone? The resort is actually fully booked. Initially, when we first arrived in the evening we were concerned that this was going to be a disaster because it was full of families and screaming children. As it turned out, we pretty much had the pool to ourselves everyday.

The irony of beach resorts in India is that all upper-class and well to-do people avoid the sun like the plague. In complete contrast to western culture, Indians strive to be as pale as possible because only the lower class (which spend the day toiling outside) are extremely tanned. Given their skin type and abundance of sunlight it really doesn't take much for an Indian to tan. Many of them actually use products (i.e. soap, creams) that contain bleaching agents.

To conclude this blog... if you want to catch a glimpse of an Indian frolicking in the pool, you need to go either early in the morning or right before sunset.

Dilli Roads

Just a warning to my 4 loyal followers :) ... there are going to be many blogs on driving in New Delhi. So I'm going to start things off with photos that really capture some of the most interesting aspects of driving in India... the traffic, the cows, and the monkeys.

Oh... Dilli is the hindi way of saying Delhi.

Newspaper article says it all!

The Monsoon Season Is Here!

The above was reported in the Times of India. We were actually on our way home from work when the rain started and it was quite the sight. The usual army of motorcyles and mopeds vanished from the streets... they all went looking for shelter. Most over-passes (or fly-overs for you Indians) became bike parking lots. The good news though was that they city really cooled down from a high of 48 (with the humidex) from earlier in the day. Apparently I can expect this kind of weather pattern for the next couple of months.

I've been told that the really (I mean really) high sidewalks in Delhi were to prevent drivers and motorist from driving on them, but it seems that they are also quite useful during this kind of rain. Oh, one more thing.... by 8am next morning the city was completely dry.... almost like it next happened.

Gold Class Seats

If anything good has ever come out of the Indian caste system, Gold class cinema seats would definitely be at the top of the list. The quality of the picture below is a little off, but you get the idea.


There are 6 rows, 8 seats each, of plush leather lazy boys. The seat are electronically controlled, so you have a remote to help with the reclining. All viewers are provided a dry-cleaned blanket.... obviously you can't watch a movie without a blankie :) The tables between the seats is where your food is served, there are no concession stands here. This hall has a full kitchen at it's disposal, and waiters provide you a menu and take your orders before the movie starts.
Very few theaters provide these kind of halls. Lakshmi and I saw Iron Man 2 (in gold class) at Select City in Saket (a newer, western style mall) 30 minutes from the house. The main cinema halls are located on the second floor of the mall, whereas gold class is on the ground floor by itself. In fact, the waiting area for the movie is a lounge, similar looking to a night club, where they serve you a complimentary apple juice in a champagne glass... don't ask why, because I really don't know. Oh, one more thing, there are no previews when in gold class.
And...how much does all this cost? Well, the normal multiplex movie experience (which is usually frequented by the middle class and above) will cost you Rs. 250 (or 6 CAD) and gold seats are Rs. 850 (or 20 CAD). The common labourer would go to the old style cinema, which is simply a single huge hall playing only 1 movie. This is goes for Rs. 100 or even less.

Monkey On The Roof

Our new home in Delhi is the top flat of Lakshmi's family home. The ground floor apartment is occupied by Lakshmi's grandmother and grandaunt. The 1st floor is where my future mother in-law lives and above her you'll find us.

Just outside our bedroom we have a patio area full of potted plants. Penny has really taken a liking to it because there are plenty of birds and squirrels in the vicinity to keep her occupied. This morning, however, I noticed something was a little off. Listening to Penny (relentlessly) barking while I'm still trying to sleep is nothing new, but today Rufus was also going at it. At this point, realizing that getting a fewer extra minutes of sleep just wasn't going to happen, I decided to investigate..... and that's when I saw the monkey on the roof. It was just sitting on the ledge staring down at my dogs. It got startled and moved off when I called in the dogs, but Penny managed to find it again from our living room window just sitting on another ledge. At this point I figured that a picture was duly needed for my blog... unfortunately this monkey must have been camera shy because it jumped away when it saw me trying to take a picture... no worries though, next time I'm going to be better prepared.