This Month:
Comment
The Monsoon
The Garden
Bleu'
Wedding and Engagement
Night out with friends from IBR.
Our battle against Malaria continues.
Comments from Kris.
Comment.
Winter is coming.
Every year as winter approaches following the monsoon we see people huddled around fires on the roadside. They burn what they can find, sometimes plastic, mostly wood and waste.
Winter to the foreign tourist is a warm pleasant climate, 5degC at night with relatively warm days of about 25degC. This lasts from December to February. For Indians (and acclimatised foreigners like us) that is cold!
Every year Christine suffers pain with her metal knee joints, especially in the evenings as the temperature drops. Normally we try and keep the main room warm with an electric radiator. This is both expensive to run and largely ineffective. This year things are set to change. I have been building a wood burning stove from a damaged old gas bottle (the gas man refused to take it because of a big dent in the side). Instead of scrapping it we recycled it into this.We intend to run it on charcoal so it will be clean heat and gives potash for the garden. I cut the dent out where the door is and hammered the door into shape.
When it is up and running we will do an article on it in the blog.
Kris black leading the stove and the nearly finished stove.
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This led us to consider what we could do to help the poor and the road dwellers in the city this winter.
We cannot deliver fuel but we can deliver warm clothes.
Yesterday Chris and I (mostly Kris) tipped out all the wardrobes and divided into 3 heaps, keep, give away and work clothes for the garden. We ended up with 4 black bags of clothes and material we are going to donate. It is not all winter clothing there are some summer shirts, salwar tops, sheets and jeans that must have shrunk because they don’t fit me anymore (hee hee).
What cannot be worn or used can be sold by the poor, any extra income helps.
We are going to try to encourage others around us and through the NGO to also contribute what they can. With a little publicity and support, this is a way to help that can really make a difference. So many of us have clothes we will never wear again in our cupboards, make space and help others. We hope in this way we can alleviate to some degree the hardship poor people endure through the winter.
If this is successful we may well repeat it next year on a larger scale. It is something that costs nothing and directly improves lives. Distribution is one problem we haven't solved yet but we will with Gods help.
The monsoon
With apologies for some of the pics but it was very misty.
One of the lakes overspill
The roads flood very quickly
This was the first real rain this year
Now it's full on monsoon rain
Its hard even from these pictures to appreciate just how much water falls in a short time.
In our drive we have 2" in 15 minutes. Just think, this can go on for 24hrs or longer. the run-off is
massive. Floods everywhere then it slowly drains away over three or four hours in most places. Rajasthan is very rocky and sandy ground so we have super drainage.....good job really isn't it. Some states are not so lucky. Each year hundreds to thousands (no exaggeration here) die in floods. Whole villages can be washed away, farms ruined, animals drowned. the rain is so necessary yet can cause such great suffering.
This is the view from our side window
And this is our lawn!
The Garden
Bleu is fascinated by the chickens in the garden at the front. We have separated the cockerels
and the hens. The 10 hens are now in the back garden coop and very happy with 1 cockerel.
The other 5 cockerels are in the front kitchen garden eating pests and fertilizing the ground.
When they are big enough we will dispatch them to the freezer. We were going to sell them
but decided that it makes more sense to do this as we get wonderful free range chicken to eat.
No chemicals, no fattening agents just naturally fed plump chicken.
Weed, feed, and fatten up!
Compost bins emptied out onto the garden
Mulched with grass cuttings
Our new seed trays. they don't dry out so easily
and the seedlings can be left in longer with no
danger of being too cramped.
Sweet pea's attempt number three. Try as we might we have never succeeded in getting
a decent number of blooms. This year we are planting much earlier (that's two months earlier) in
the middle of the monsoon to give them as long as we can before the summer sun burns them off.
Look carefully and you can see them just coming up.
We have managed to save the roses which is quite an achievement considering our water crisis at
the end of the summer. There are four plants all looking good. Weed and feed next.
Our shady path to the back garden.
This used to be the cess pit cover.
This has changed the whole look
it now feels more like a jungle.
Bleu' mini and Full size
Looking her best for the photo We shrank her.
Can you spot mini Bleu'?
Pooped!
Wedding and an engagement.
Attending our friend Manchirag's engagement party
They make a really lovely couple
Kris approves
A very nervous Manchirag awaiting
Sanya's arrival.
Guests enjoying the occasion. We have attended several Sikh weddings and parties and have always been impressed by the good behaviour of all the guests. Note that there is a free bar with beer soft drinks and spirits available. We have never seen a drunk Sikh, not even mildly drunk. Their sense of honour and self-respect, and their respect for others pervades all they do and say. If this had been the UK with free alcoholic drinks it would in most cases have had a completely different result. I am sorry to say that a free bar at a party like this would probably be a disaster with some guests falling down drunk because they would not have the same respect either for themselves or their host. I am not saying that this would happen in every case. Suffice it to say I personally would not risk it at a function I organised.
The food was absolutely first class both veg and non veg were catered for. I have to admit I came home completely fried chickened out. Not only was there a continuous supply of food being served throughout the evening but there was also Dinner later on. A really great occasion that we both enjoyed very much.
The couple with her parents. We have known Mr Singh Hoda since coming here. A gentleman.
We were very honoured to be invited to the Sikh temple to witness the ceremony there.
This took place the day before the party. Chris wore his turban (yes he has his own) as men and women must cover all hair. I wore a salwar and white shawl.
At the Sikh temple. Here for the first time they are
acknowledged as being a couple.
Garlands are placed around the couple's necks
to signify the joining of both the couple and
the families through this impending marriage.
This is the strength of the Indian family. Not only
do the couple join but so do the entire families.
In this way, the support structure becomes ever stronger.
One room at the Royal Retreat Hotel
where the party was held
How about this then. Yes those are real tusks
and the furniture is silver.
Fantastic room
Sorry about the quality but these were taken on my phone.
All at the Royal Retreat Udaipur. A really first class hotel
way out of our price range! We spent a little time just
admiring the chairs and table. All around the rooms there
are silver fittings and the most wonderful art works, some
dating from hundreds of years ago. The sword and personal
combat weapons are well worth seeing.
Below a selection of photos from Manchirag's cousin's wedding we attended the night before Manchirag's engagement. We had a wonderful time and even met up with old friends and students.
Wedding guests eating and relaxing
celebrate the happy couple's wedding,
guests all in their finery set for a good time.
Good company, lovely atmosphere and
great food, what more could you want.
Even the brief downpour of rain did not stop play.
Food, beer and good company
Sahiba (President of HDS) and me ..selfie.
After....mmmmm that was good.
Our battle against Malaria continues.
Step one: Stop them as they land
Step two:Anti malarial drugs taken daily.
Step 3: Zap them if they get into the house
Comments from Kris.
Yes, it’s that time of the month again getting ready to publish the blog, wow doesn’t the month fly by.
I now have a new job as a spotter. For anyone who does not know what that is if you watch Ice Road Truckers in India you will get the idea. It really entails me checking for any dangers that Chris cannot see such as oncoming cars (on the wrong side of the road), vehicles coming the wrong way down the road, animals or people in the road, and especially at this time of year potholes or obstacles on the road whilst Chris is driving the jeep. It's actually quite fun but no I don’t hang out of the door like the true spotters but I get close at times.
Everyone the world over pretty much knows what an ATM is and how to use it, but here in Udaipur outside the local Dairy we have a unique ATM. It dispenses Milk products especially useful when the dairy is closed, it was actually out of order for a few weeks and I actually missed it, just shows how we can quickly start relying on services.
I was out the other night on my bike when I saw the most amazing vehicle, not exactly a trike as it had 5 wheels not three. It was made up of three motorbikes, two at the rear complete apart from handlebars with a hand made seat bench between in the centre at the front was another bike complete with handlebars and headlight, it was mega congested with traffic and by the time I pulled over just ahead of him he had turned off so alas no photo. The amazing thing was it looked stable, manoeuvred well was fairly fast and all the bikes were different. I wished Chris had been with me to see it incredible home built Indian style.
Well as the monsoon has hit in full we are getting lots of rain, it’s a great time but does have its problems too. Everything feels damp, clothes, food packets etc., for example, we had a plastic folder on our wooden coffee table overnight and because of the high humidity it had stuck to the table, clothes feel damp and it’s difficult to wash and dry clothes even indoors. Sometimes getting into bed you feel as though the sheets are damp. Nothing we can do about it.
3 days to dry these jeans and towel
due to the high humidity levels.
I have to check my food cupboards every other day as the packets can become wet. We have it lucky as so many live in makeshift homes by the side of the road or families live in one room having to live, sleep and eat there and cook outside with wood or whatever they can find.
The weather also zaps your strength as the high humidity is hard to cope with making it difficult to work or sleep.
Even though the monsoon is welcomed by many it is also a time where there are huge health risks from waterborne diseases, diarrhoea cases increase and hypothermia is common as people get soaked through to their skins and then cannot dry off properly or quickly enough, even more difficult for the homeless or those in poor housing conditions. On a positive note its cooler after the high temperatures of summer and the countryside looks amazingly verdant and beautiful, the animals that wander such as cows, buffalo, goats and street dogs all look healthier as they have plenty of grass and green vegetation to eat.
Our garden is looking better and the seeds are doing very well, we have a green lawn again.......
but it badly needs cutting which is difficult in the rain.
Mango trees Chris has been growing since last year. There are five of them all growing away happily. They are an F1 variety bred for extra sweetness. Jam coming!
That’s all for this month hope you enjoyed reading.
Take care and God Bless you all
Chris and Kris in a very wet Udaipur
