Five two year olds

I visited some friends in a house where there are five two year olds running around. It's a pretty active household.

A friend and I took some pictures, to put on refrigerators and stuff.
In return, we had our pictures "taken" also.

The dog that barks at me

This is the dog who barks at me every time I go in and out of the house.
Masha very big dog, too. His paws are about as big as my hands and I was very uncomfortable with his greeting one day: his teeth around my shoulder.
This is me walking up to the house approaching Masha's cage and awaiting his bark.
This is the door whose squeak Masha waits for to know that it's time to bark at me.

An interesting video

A friend of mine recently drew my attention to this video. Maybe it's staged and maybe it, too, is one sided, but it sure is a different perspective than the one usually shown by American media.
And: it's a lot more like the people I know.

Thawing out

It snowed last week. I woke up and it was cold with no electricity or sunshine.

I wimped out and couldn't get out to teach. It was so cold inside that after trying to do a few things around the house before going to teach in the afternoon, I ended up back in bed under my down comforter. I couldn't come out. You're supposed to hibernate in the winter.

Later, I was relieved that it wasn't all in my head--I had a real sickness cold, not just an aversion to the cold outside.

Anyhow. The electricity that had gone off sometime in the night stayed off all day and all the next night. It returned just before noon the following day. Which is a relief because now my electric blanket and the hot water heater work.

The sun that also decided to shine today is another relief.

The government school next door

There is a boys government high school in the lot next door to my house. I can see it from my window. It's a boys' high school, right? So tell me this: Why are there little boys in attendance? And why are there girls there?
So this was exam week.
The children lined up in these rows on the ground to take their tests.
The passersby, especially army personnel, like to watch them over the wall.
The teachers also sit on the ground for their breaks and meetings--except the head teacher.
But even she has to stand up in attention and give over her chair when the big man comes to inspect things.
Everyone is very relieved when exams are over.

IhateitIloveit

I went out shopping today and I experienced some contradictory emotions.
There were moments of "Oh, I hate this",
like when the guy behind me in line at the ATM told me to move forward and close in the four inch gap between me and the man in front of me. No thank you, I like my personal space, small as it is.
Or when there was one check out line at the grocery store that took at least half an hour to get through.
Or when the rickshaw-driver-with-a-death-wish nearly drove us off the road where it drops eight feet and later did not notice the car backing out in front of him.
Or the beggar woman who called me a "maharaja daughter" and told me to give her food before cursing me.
Or that buying groceries and eating out for lunch took four and a half hours.

And then there were moments of "Wah, is there anywhere in the world like this place?"
Like when the check out attendant told one of his minions to bring me a free carton of guava juice.
Or the other clerk who gave me a two-for-one deal on matches.
The smell of freshly cooked rice and the fall which can't be matched.
Or a walk on the bund over the newly fallen chinar leaves.
There was the ancient man in an even more ancient photo shop who ambled over the creaking floor to tell us he didn't have any camera batteries.
And the other old man in a camera shop who did his best to produce the battery we needed, even sending his assistant several blocks away to look while he gave a us a newspaper to read.
Or the relief of finally being back home where everything is quiet.

Cast your vote

I usually avoid all topics political, but are you voting on Tuesday?

I encourage you to take the responsibility of your civic duties seriously.

Vote for Pedro. ;)

Disturbing events

There have been some disturbing and under-publicized things going on India. It's hard to get any report, let alone an accurate one. But the ugliness of persecution and violence is real.

Babysitting

I changed nine diapers and fed eight bottles to three babies today. I had a kind of assembly line going on. I also changed quite a few outfits and washed the bottles. When the babies weren't eating or sleeping they were pleasantly lying in their beds.

Very well behaved.

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.