Waiter......the bill please.

Roochi, Natasha, Nikhil and myself all went out to grab a bite for dinner last night.

We had :-
1) Idli with sambar and coconut chutney x 2
2) Rava dosa with sambar and coconut chutney
3) A plate of mixed vegetable rice
4) Aloo papri chaat
5) Aloo tikki with chole
6) Pepsi
7) Fanta
8) Mineral water (Bottle)
9) A plate of freshly made jelebi
10) A plate of Carrot Halva

The grand total for this meal was Rs 200 including tip :))) That is £2.50 !

The funny thing is, some people over here probably think I got ripped off :)

Peace and Love

Kids and Yoga.......

Every Sunday for the last 3 months now, Nikhil and Natasha (my 2 children) have been going to the Sivananda Yoga centre in Kailash Colony...near Nehru place if you know Delhi........... which to my shame I still don't. Anyway...........

For 2 hours they chant and do quite strenuous stretching and excersize. The result is not however what I expected. Usually after such physical activity they would both be breathing deeply and gasping for water and telling me how hard they had worked etc etc. After yoga however they both seem to be in a very peaceful state of thoughtfulness. When we get in the car Nikhil usually does not stop talking about this or that.....but after Yoga he seems to be undergoing a process of quiet contemplation. When I ask him about it he tells me where he got the chants right and when the teacher praised him then just smiles. Natasha knows all of the chants back to front.....when she gets in the car she quietly sings them, beautifully I might add, and will tell me how Nikhil is getting on in the yoga class.

From my understanding of Yoga.....it is meant to do these things. Give peace of mind and of body. I have tried yoga and it did these things to a degree. BUT nothing gives me more peace of mind and moreover happiness than our drive home from the Yoga centre.

Peace and love

Positive Thinking

You know......I am still trying to come to terms with how full of optimism people are over here. It is such a contrast to how it was or indeed is back in the UK.

Over here people in general are earning so much more money comparatively than they were even 3 years ago. I have never seen the kind of boom times that are going on here in my life. Take property for example. I met a guy the other day. He bought a house for around 50 lacs (half a million) of rupees which equates to around £62,000 about 1 and a half years ago. Today it is worth easily double that !!!!!! In 1 an a half years !!!

All of this of course must be tempered by the fact that there is also a burgeoning underclass of paople who have next to nothing. I have noticed that with the growth of the Indian economy the number of beggers on the streets has significantly increased in recent years, it is those people who will never be able take part in the new emerging India. Is it always the case that when an economy grows like this that people should be left by the weyside.......I think so. I cannot think of one example of a nation that is making decent money that looks after it's poor sufficiently well to ensure that no one has to beg.

So....... as a race we still seem to be heading in the wrong direction. We still cannot seem to do the one decent thing ......... Look after one another in a proper and decent manner.

Peace and Love

At Last..

Yesterday was truely a day for celebration for the whole family.

Yes Natasha has started school. :)) Phew. We were all going stir crazy at home. It is really difficult to get anything done when you have got 2 kids to keep occupied the whole time. To be honest I think Natasha was more desperate to get to school than we were for her to go to school ! She has made some friends straight away and seems to be getting stuck in from the off. Here is a picture of her on her second day at home in front of our famous Hindustan motors Ambassador.
She may not look happy....I think she was nervous but she is doing OK now. Some of you may be wondering what she is doing wearing a puffa jacket in India. Well it is bloody freezing over here at night and in the morning. It has however started to warm up more during the day which should knock on to the nights soon.

There has been so much that has been happening over ther last few days I almost do not know where to start. Before I go into any more if you want something a bit more mentally challenging for your blog reading go to my dear old friend Sheel's Blog . I need a dictionary next to me whenever I read it but it is most stimulating.

I do miss my friends ALOT. Here are a few of the guys :))

Good times my friends......good times. Many ..... Many more to come. :)))

Peace and love

Water..........or lack of !

My time here has really made me appreciate the value of water. I do not think that there are any parts of Delhi that has running mains water for the whole day uninteruppted. Something that we all take for granted in the west. Where I live there is flowing water for about half a hour in the early hours of the morning and for another half an hour in the late afternoon. How does one manage I thought......

Well, we have a 500 litre tank on the ground floor that gets fill when the water does come and then we have to pump it up to the roof where there is another 2 tanks from where we can then draw on the water. It is OK so long as we do not waste the water needlessly. It does make me think twice about flushing the loo after a number 1 though :)

On a slightly different note......it is absolutely freezing here at night. The temperature has been dipping down to about 2 or 3 degrees and when you do not have central heating and only stone floors you can imagine. Thank goodness for electric powered oil heaters.

Actually even they are a bit of a luxury around these parts.

Will post again soon with something a bit more interesting. :))

Peace and love

Money and Cars...!!!

Have only just got over New Years Eve. I hope you all had a good one.

The traffic.....oh the traffic :(( Day by day you can see that there are more and more cars on the road. Credit has become so easily available now. Something that we have taken for granted in the UK for years has just emerged as the new thing here. Everyone is taking out loans or credit to buy the things they want.....including cars. Mercedes is the car to own here. The funny thing is that the Ambassador that I have hired is a novelty car in India now. Roochi and I have been to a couple of high brow do's and at the end our car is the easiest to find as no one else would be seen dead in one !!! I like it though. When in Rome and all that. I'll get a photo of my car soon and post it. Those of you with a nervous disposition will have to turn away when that happens. :))

People are seriously making money hand over foot here. Take the party we went to on new years eve. This guy has built a beautiful spanish looking villa, HUGE it is. What does he do..........? Exports incense....yup those little sticks that smell when you burn them and only cost a few pence or rupees or whatever currency you are in they are cheap.

It is quite common to find middle to upper middle class families with fleets of cars. Our neighbour has a family of 4 people 1 of whom has flown the nest so there are three of them living there. How many cars does he need......? 3 max ?? noooo no no no he needs 6 cars....1 of them being a merc of course. Oh and he has 1 driver for every 2 cars. If you got it.......:)

Peace and love