Merry Christmas!
The beautiful image was not made by me but by my Portugese friend, Margarida Oliveira (of Forma Design, Lisbon), but I am borrowing it because it is so beautiful - I hope she doesn't mind!

We have celebrated Christmas in the Netherlands with our family, and are now off to the not-so-snowy mountains of Switzerland, where we will indulge in fresh air, swiss cheese, lots of wine of course and hopefully some snow to go skiing. And yes, we will meet more friends there!

We wish you a fantastic, fascinating, colourful, healthy and happy 2007!
Do join us again in the new year for more adventures in Incredible India!

Partytime!

Not for us, mind you...but in India, the months of november and december (and february, I am told) are months of weddings and celebrations! A wedding in India is not something to be taken lightly; astrologers are consulted to determine the perfect day for the wedding, bestowing the maximum amount of happyness, luck and good fortune for the couple - and in february there seems to be a day on which the moon and stars are so perfectly aligned that 40.000 weddings are planned for that day!
The average amount of guests attending an Indian wedding (of wealthy Indians, that is) is app. 1000 -1500 people - elephants are involved, as are white horses, a live band or dj, fireworks and the occasional helicopter. In order to fit so many people in an open space, the so called "Partyhouses" were established, where huge gardens accomodate all those that wish to celebrate the occasion.

So a partyhouse is a house with a big garden where party's can be held....like the one we are living in...or the one our neighbours are living in...needless to say that there are a couple of these -illegal, but that need not be a problem- in our proximity! So at the time we are enduring loud music, fireworks and yes, the occasional helicopter. Sometimes we hear Indian music, which is quite nice, but at other times the dj is playing house-music (of which we only hear the drums) or -even worse- the occasional guest takes to singing a hymn, and unfortunately these seem to be the people that really need to take advantage of the situation as normally no-one would let the near a microphone!

We have taken to sleeping with earplugs but especially the singing seems to be unstoppable. We were explained that in India, in order to be convincing, things have to be exaggerated...loud music, loud colours, loud everything. We are now planning a party of our own and as soon as we have found a band that is willing to play Dutch folksongs (smartlappen), on a day where all stars are misaligned and everyone is resting, at a volume enough to cover the Scala, we'll hold it!

What a week!
Coming back to India after three wonderful weeks in the Netherlands (for me that is, T had a LOT of work) I felt ready for a Christmassy, cuddly time...only to find that the temperature had dropped considerably and our house was cold, big and not cuddly at all! Now I understand why everyone kept saying I would need carpets!
Then the next day the trouble with the personnel started (as everyone predicted it would, but we had hoped in our case things would be different). The father-in-law of our cook turns out to be living in our garden, the kitchen has been used for cooking (and not for us!) and the gardener presented a bill for a blanket and the story that "he is a poor man" so could we please pay it. O yes, and could we also buy a buffalo....and suddenly, 5 years India seemed like a Very Long Time!

Luckily there is a large group of veterans whose shoulder is available for moments like these - they laugh, they tell horror stories of their own and they assure you that after a year all is settled and by then you don't mind about many things any more. Or, as one veteran put it, you pick what to get upset about and you leave the rest. In eight months' time, we'll see.

In order to get over my "what the hell am I doing here" feeling I decided to emerse myself in social engagements, and -amongst other things- joined a "spiritual walking tour" through Old Delhi. The pictures show the shrine of the Sadhus of Bankhandi; here is where the orange and yellow robed holy man meet and can stay as long as they wish. The sadhus walk to Haridwar to collect Ganges water, barefeet with a colourful decorated bamboo stick across one shoulder. They walk from tempel to tempel; some do it only for a year, other leave their families for good. We had to take our shoes off (this is customary at temples and shrines) and walked on our socks trying to avoid the pigeon shit, sadhu spit and wet patches where the floor had just been cleaned (at least we think that is why it was wet)...still, very interesting (I did wash my feet though when coming home).

Old Delhi itself is one bustling, full, colourful, smelly, intreguing and tiring bit. I have not explored it fully yet, but I visited Chandni Chowk, the main street. More to do in the coming months!