"New Delhi, 14 july 2009. The second consecutive mishap at the same site on the under-construction Central Secratariat-Badarpur line of the Delhi Metro at jamrudpur here on monday came as little surprise to many of the residents, who said the area was jinxed.
The area residents said well before the work started on the stretch, an old banyan tree located near a temple was pulled down to widen the road and some portion of the temple was dismantled.
"The entire village used to worship the old tree. On several occasions, we requested the authorities not to touch the tree or the temple. But they did not listen to us", said Ravi Kumar, an area resident." (source: The Hindu Times)

India, 2009.
Deities and djinns are part of everyday life, as are superstition, belief in witchcraft and sjamanism, rituals, numerology and astrology, and reîncarnation.
Cows block the road and eat the fruits and vegetables of local vendors who do not dare to scare them away, as they are holy. Monkeys are an absolute nuisance to residents but instead of chasing them off (or finishing them off) they are fed, especially on thursdays, as that is Hanuman's day (Hanuman is the monkey god) and it brings good luck to feed them on that day. Every shop has it's little altar from where Ganesha figures watch over business...usually incense is burning from these altars, and the occasional picture of a deceased relative puts in some extra weight. The paper runs articles on embracing trees amidst economic news, and people fast on certain days to honour their god(s). Giving a party becomes a challenge when cooking, as there is always someone not eating something because it is monday/tuesday/wednesday etc. And of course the first customer of the day brings luck, one needs to consult an astrologer before entering into any important undertaking and going to the temple is part of any good housewife's practice (men seem to be less eager to pray, fast and do offerings).

India is often said to be a spiritual country...in my definition spirituality means a development of the self to a point where "self" looses its importance. In India, spiritual seems to mean that the "self" (which judging by the behaviour of many Indians is in their centre of the world) utilizes all means to shape that world in such a way that the self gets its maximum benefit from it. If that means feeding monkeys and fasting on tuesdays, so be it.

Incredible India 2009...the longer you live here, the more you see that puzzles you!
In the meantime I however have decided that I'll stick to my car for the time being....you see, I don't fast on tuesdays, I don't feed monkeys and I don't worship Banyan trees, and that is bound to be bad luck when riding the metro!

Today is a very special day...today I met the Dalai Lama!

Well, not in person really, but he stood so close I could actually see the twinkle in his eyes, the watch he was wearing and the look he gave us three when he saw we could not follow what he was saying, nor the Hindi his interpreter was producing...after which he gave a speech in english as well (and we like to think that was especially for us!).

Today it is the 6th of july, and the 74th birthday of His Holiness, and the 50th year that he is in India. To mark this auspicious occasion, the People of the Himalayan Region held a tribute of gratitude, and three people of our embassy were invited: The Ambassador, the political advisor and ms Danielle Brown, devotee and visa officer. So "us", that would be ms Brown, the Ambassador (who could not come as he is in Bhutan, so he sent me ;-), and the political advisor who could not come as he is also in Bhutan so he sent Tanja, the assistant of the Agricultural Councellor ;-)....Bob's Angels, as it were. (Bob being the Ambassador...)

We were not allowed to use Bob's car but the rest of the event was perfect... after the Dalai Lama adressed us (and the rest of the audience), Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India and an equally charismatic man, also adressed us (and the rest of audience). And then there were performances by different cultural groups from the Himalayan region...

I am turned, that's for sure. What a fabulous man! What a fabulous message! He has calm and peace and love radiating from every pore of his body, and it reaches everyone around him.
"I have been in India for 50 years...I'm here!" That simple. No judgement, no anger, no political statements...he is just there. But boy....is he there! I'm hooked!

The Monsoon has officially started, and thank God for that!!!!

It was SOOO hot in Delhi, unbearable! This was the hottest summer I have experienced here so far...especially the month of june was terrible. It seemed the air contained no oxygen anymore, breathing got difficult, sleeping got difficult...doing anything except hanging in front of the airco got difficult! But this the power and water demands soaring powercuts and watershortages got more frequent by the day, leaving millions of people without water and electricity for hours every day!
Obviously people got angry and started protesting...we expats keep wondering how a government can not foresee that powerdemands will grow as more and more people can afford to buy an airconditioning and how water supplies cannot be fed during the many rains that India does have...India does not have water shortages, but it has shortages of drinking water and it has no even water supply. When it rains India floods, contaminating drinking water and sweeping away fertile soils, villages, roads, electricity cables etc. When it doesn't rain, and the water has flown away instead of being stored in -for example- underground storage systems, there are water shortages. Simply said, of course. But in fact, it is this simple.

Water shortages do not only affect people, it also affects animals. Monkeys, to be precise. Monkeys that live in the forest across our street, and that come into the city to find food and water. can't blame them really, but unfortunately they found a source of water allright: OUR watertank! They also found out it is relatively easy to break the plastic pipes that come out of the tank, so we have had several downpours of 600 liter at the time and now left that one tank empty because repairing will only result in more damage. They didn't like that their watersource was not properly refilled and so they distroyed my palmtrees as revenge! They "visited" our terrace several times and the result was the above mutilated tree (and all the others look like that as well).

Needless to say that pissed ME off..but then there was T to protect us!!!

In an heroic attempt to stop the beasts from ravaging our surroundings T climbed up the roof with a big bamboo stick and whacked the alpha male of the monkey troop one across the ears...and then he stood up, waved his arms and stick in the air and made a lot of noise...the monkeys must have understood his body language and figured this ape was too big for them, because we haven't seen them since!

T the Monkey Man! There is money to be made of this in Delhi....!