Purple hand towel

An awesome thing happened this morning.
Last Saturday I went shopping for some new towels for the guestroom. I wanted a full set of purple towels--bath towel, hand towel and wash clothe. But the hand towel wasn't available in that color.
I asked if they would have more in stock at a later time.
I was told no.
I asked if they would be ordering any more purple colored hand towels (never accept the first 'no').
Why yes, they would. And if I gave my address, it would be couriered to my house on Tuesday.
Really? Awesome.
And yes! My purple hand towel showed up this morning! What great service!

Diwali

Happy Diwali.
The neighbors have decorated.
The shops are hung with lights.
The neighbor below me has decorated outside the door and left marks for the spirits to follow.
It's time for Delhi to be overtaken by the Festival of Lights.
The celebration of Diwali includes thousand and thousands of lights, candles and fireworks. Non-stop fireworks from 6pm until well after 1am. That's a lot of fireworks. And a lot of smoke and trash when it's all over.
Diwali is a loud holiday.
See some of the festivities and the "safety precautions" taken as traffic passes by:

Billowing curtains

I love to watch my curtains blow in the breeze. Billowing.

It's very relaxing to watch the interplay of light and color, shadow and movement.

If I didn't have work to do, I'd just sit mesmerized by them.

That curtain man was right to take pride in his work.

If only it didn't include the background construction noises...

Shelves arrived

My shelves arrived today.
The carpenter kept his word. And he did a good job on them, too.
Now my house smells of new stain and sawdust.
Next great, big project: unpacking, cleaning, repairing, sorting, filing, organizing, and shelving the hundreds of books in the bunches of boxes stored in the same room.
Ayah.

Latest painting projects

My latest painting projects have been this stool, which came with the apartment and which all the handymen have used and abused. I was making it live outside. But now that I've painted it and it's clean, it can live in the house.
I also got a mailbox. The mailman just lays the mail on the bottom step of the building where anyone could take it. I hope that by putting the mailbox up, the bills and letters and packages will actually get to me. Mailboxes are not common things. And it was not easy to find one. This one was handmade out of stainless steal and needed painting. Maybe I should have made it red, a more standard mailbox color, but I wanted blue.

Couch transformation

The landlord left a couch in the apartment. I agreed that it could stay only if I could have it re-upholstered. He said I could do whatever I wanted to it.
It was in terrible shape, flattened cushions and crusty material.
I had it fixed. It's condition could only be improved from what it was, and it sure is better now.
Watch the transformation from disgusting and ugly to green and able-to-be-sat-upon:

More paint

I've been doing some painting.
There were beds and a shelf left in the apartment for me to use but they were in very bad condition. Instead of replacing the damaged wood and vinyl, I striped it off, sanded them down and painted them all. They look much better--and cleaner--now.
And that means that my guest room is finished--so you can come and visit me.

On the way to school

The everyday things I see on my walk to school never cease to catch me by surprise and amaze me. What is common place here is still exotic and new to me.
For instance, this is a very personalized lorry. It even has shikaras (water taxis) painted on it.
The neighbor's house was decorated to the hilt for a wedding. So much tinsel.
One morning as I passed the sheep being herded down the road, the shepherds pointed out to me a newly born lamb on the side of the road. This is not him, but a cute goat kid who was also part of the herd that morning.