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!