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.

Bhimtal

India celebrated labour day on May 1st, so we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and headed to Bhimtal which is in the mountains. The weather was perfect for relaxing and even the dogs really enjoyed themselves (excluding the part were Penny almost killed herself).

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The road to Bhimtal... 300 kms. in 7 hours. There are some decent highways along the way, but everytime you pass thru a town it really slows you down.

A Bhimtal mountain from below. The red house was recently built by Lakshmi's mother.

A close up view of the house and one of its gardens. You can't see it in the photo, but the lower balcony has an eaves drop to the left which is similar to the green ones above the windows. To Penny's misfortune, they're very slippery and she fell 8 feet to the ground after deciding to investigate them. Luckily, she was unhurt, but was so traumatized that she didn't bark at any strangers for hours.

The view from the house.

Walking down to the lake for an ice cream :)

A neighbour's house... and their pets :)

That's Ali, our driver. He's buying some meat from the local butcher for himself and the other help at the house.

Return trip... and waiting for a train to pass. Notice our fellow commuters?

This was a first for me, so I really felt the need to share it with all of you :)

Our Bathroom

Indian bathrooms... they sort of look like ours, but really aren't. Like most homes in India, our bathroom opens up to the bedroom. You'd really be hard pressed to find a home where it's located in a hallway or living room.
So... this is a picture of our bathroom. I quite like it. It's roomy, comes with several attractive features, and since it was built a few years ago it's still very neat & clean. Notice the fan at the top, it blows directly outside. This wouldn't be possible in Montreal because of our winters, but when that thing runs you actually can feel a current of air passing thru... no more burning matches or lighting candles :)

You may have also noticed that there's no tub. Unfortunately, New Delhi, being next to a desert and ridiculously overcrowded has a serious water shortage problem. As a result, tubs are not common.

Since electricity is also scarce, all bathrooms have separate hot water tanks which are turned on only shortly before showering (most homes have back-up generators because power shortages occur on a regular basis).

The city water supply has no pressure, and I suspect is also very unreliable, so most homes simply pump the water (when it's available) into a large reservoir tank on the roof. Seems like a simple solution... except... by mid-afternoon in 40+ degree weather that water becomes unpleasantly hot. I discovered all this last Sunday when taking an afternoon shower....

If you pay close attention to the toilet itself you'll see the bathroom's best feature. There's a small water jet on the back side. That's right... you can wash your bottom without even getting up.

And finally there's the large bucket. A very common bathroom item used for bathing. Yup, you fill it up and using the smaller bucket to pour you wash yourself. Great way to save water!

Lajpat Nagar

This market in New Delhi is the place to go when buying home appliances/electronics and also t-shirts for some reason (not really sure what they have in common). Lakshmi and I, in fact, have been to this one at least 6 times in the first 3 weeks that I've been here... and for those of you who are wondering why 6 TIMES, well you obviously don't know Lakshmi :)

A zoo, is really the best way to describe it. There are people, cars, motorcycles.... everywhere. And just to make the whole experience even more pleasant it was 46 degrees that day. It's so packed that not even the cows feel like wondering thru this part of town (BTW the Hindi translation for cow is actually the word "gaay").

This particular outing was quite successful. We bought an electric kettle, a toaster, and a microwave... and, in this second picture Lakshmi just finished buying me some Hindi books.

There was a third picture that I wanted to post, but unfortunately it came out blurred. In it, Lakshmi was Purell'ing herself because just a moment sooner a fat, sweaty, Indian man had bumped into her and transferred a healthy amount of sweat onto her arm. For some reason she didn't find it as amusing as I did.

The Farm

Sundays are quickly becoming routine. Usually in the morning, before it gets too hot (the high for today is 43 degrees), we head out to the "farm" which for us white people would be the "cottage". Lakshmi's mother (Bharati) has really out done herself and built up the place very nicely. It's a huge plot of land completely landscaped with a big house and fenced in by a stone wall. Lakshmi's dad (Ram) actually designed the entire thing... he's a retired architect. We usually go there just for the morning so that the dogs can get some exercise and because, unlike Delhi, it's very quite and tranquil. Great place to relax.

Rufus really enjoys the pond and Penny has plenty of squirrels to chase. As usual she's always getting into trouble. There's a small section of wall that's low enough for her to jump over, and there happens to be a pile of hay on the other side. Unfortunately, today after jumping over she was blocked from coming back because 2 cows had decided to go snack on the pile of hay. Another nice thing about the farm is that there a large vegetable garden and plenty of fruit trees. We tend to come home with a bag or 2 of fresh produce everytime.

Ohkla

So... today is day 24. I guess I should have started this a little sooner... but better late than never. For those of you who don't already know, Lakshmi and I have decided to move to India and work for her mother's business (Varnali). The factory is located in Ohkla, an industrial area of Delhi. This part of town consists mostly of 3-story buildings, except for areas that have been claimed by squatters. And...since possession is nine tenths of the law, the only way to remove them is with bribes.

This picture is the view from the third floor of Varnali. The image is really small, but inside this mess are several utility poles which the occupants have conveniently tapped into for electricity, and even more fascinating is that I counted at least 4 satellite dishes. BTW... there's an entire village living there... probably more people than Pincourt :)

This is the street view. There are a few shops lining the front, a lot of trash, and a rooster. I'm glad to say that the rooster was also there back in December... must be a pet (of some sort) since this is no farm.

Hope you enjoyed my first post... I've got to go study Hindi for an hour now, and then off to bed. Ciao.

Hello World!

Just created my first blog...