Farewell Priscilla

My children's nanny, Priscilla, will leave us next
Tuesday. We've all known that she will be going,
but still we feel so sad that she is leaving our
lives. Yesterday my 5-year old emptied out her
piggy bank and laid all 15 US pennies on the bed.
Then she called Priscilla over and said,
"Priscilla, if you stay with me I'll give you all
this money. But if you go, you can't have any of it."
I think my little angel will have the hardest time
next week.

Waiting for Rain Again

The air is thick and heavy today, a result of no rain
for a week. Every day feels denser than the one before
and I feel a tension everywhere as though everyone
waits for the great deluge. Last week the nightly
bouts of lightning and heavy rain were welcomed and
enjoyed, but this week the waiting makes me twitchy.
I should not hope for rain for it must make life
desperate for the millions of homeless around here.
Although what some call home is really four walls of
corrugated metal sheets enclosing a square the breadth
of the sidewalk with a tarp thrown over the top.
When we pass these corrugated neighborhoods, I'm
always surprised to see padlocks bolting the door
shut when the windows (cuts in the metal panels)
are wide open.

One road we frequently drive on crosses a long stretch
of undeveloped swamp land. The left side of the road
is all buildings, stores, apartments, and people while
the right side of the road is a wall separating the
road from the swamp. Trees grow alongside the road
in measured gaps along the footpath. Some
individuals have chosen to live along the sidewalk
so I always see laundry hanging out to dry or naked
little children struggling to stop their mother/sister
from washing them. The interesting parts of the
scene lie high up in the trees - hammocks are strung
from bough to bough. So I suppose at night these
guys climb the trees to sleep.

Childhood

Earlier this week I just couldn't stand to
see my 5-year old cooped up any longer. So
I took her outside to the little courtyard
and let her run around in the rain. I held
an umbrella and stood while this hurricane
of exuberance raced from wall to wall in the
pouring rain. She slid, she slipped, she
crashed in to things, she was absolutely
soaking wet and having the best time in the
world. Afterwards we returned to our apartment
where she had a long shower, bundled up in
a warm towel, and ate a pile of food.

Therein lies the joy of childhood for both
child and parent.

Sea Squares

I have found out what the blocked off squares are (from my previous blog entry), they trap fish!!! The fish get trapped in the area as the tide recedes, then fishermen go out there to collect them.

The Arabian Sea

We walked along the Arabian Sea the other day. Now when I hear "Arabian Sea" I envisage white sands, palm trees, wild black stallions racing over the beach, and sea so blue your heart aches to see it. The photo shows a slightly different but nonetheless
intriguing picture.

People wash their laundry in the ocean and dry it by laying it flat on the ground. As you walk along the beach you notice these very large square areas blocked off with stones. When the tide recedes, these square areas retain the sea water. My assumption is that the people wash clothes in these large areas and leave them on the rocky shore to dry.

I think that some of the people do this as a job - now how enterprising is that? No cost but the labor.

The other photo shows arrows pointing to these rocks squares. The red circle is around 2 people so you get an idea of how big the squares are. I can't believe this huge area was made just for washing clothes - it is obviously man made but what could the areas have been made for?

P.S. click on the photo to see it enlarged

Vacation Expectations

We are going on vacation in a few weeks and there are a couple of things I am looking forward to. Among the top 10 is NOT seeing guys peeing. I just can't get used to these drivers pulling over to the side of the road and peeing against any wall they see. Coupled with that ... I am tired of seeing people squatting in the road to relieve themselves, and seeing the tell-tale red streak of betel-leaf chewers spitting out their blood-red juice.

Of everything I will miss, the people top the list.

Cometh the Rains and Happy Birthday Diego

The monsoon season has arrived in Bombay. Last night a thunderstorm raged for an hour or so, the lightning flickering off and on long after the rains ceased, and again this morning the rains beat down on the city. For some reason the rains have made me inexorably happy. People are supposed to get depressed when they can't see the sun, but today I feel as though some great weight has been removed from my shoulders and I want to dance and sing in the rain. Undoubtedly in a few weeks I'll be miserable when the rain doesn't stop, but for now call me Gene Kelly.

As a side note, many happy returns to Diego Velazquez ... he would have been 409 years old today!

Learning Hindi

Priscilla, my children's nanny, brought me a small
book entitled "Learn Hindi Through English." The book
is split into different sections that detail different
sorts of conversations you may have, and each page of
each section is split into 3 units; the Hindi script,
the Western pronunciation of the Hindi script, and
the English translation. The units are supposed
to represent fairly common conversations you may have
in a given day.

Here are some examples of the typical conversations
you may have in Hindi:

- He is a donkey (Vah gadha hai)
- This is against the law (Yah niyam ke virud-dh hai)
- Your hair are falling (Apke bal zad rahe hain)
- I want paws a bit wider (Panje kuchh chaude chahiye)
- The boat is sinking (Nav dub rahi hai)
- It has brought the lust (Masti laya hai)
- The world has become mad (Duniya pagal ban gayi hai)
- The moon is giving bath to the Earth with dews
(Chand dharti ko sabnam se nahlata hai)

Or perhaps something has been lost in the English
translation and the Hindi expression doesn't
actually mean "He is a donkey?" but actually means
something like "How are you today?"

Nonetheless ... this is very interesting reading ...