Hello India!!!!!

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25 degrees in the winter, now THIS is what i'm talking about! Can't quite believe that we've made it here, first day or two felt like I was tripping...me and akashi and shivum, finally in india, i feel like we're strong enough to take on the world!

The reaction of most of the indians i spoke to in the UK about our forthcoming trip was 'You, alone, with the kids in India...are you crazy?!' Well, that first day arriving into the noisy and polluted sensory overload that is Delhi, I thought that maybe i am crazy....After an amusing journey to our hotel from the airport (akashi- 'mum, there are cows on the road, mum that car doesnt have a door!!!!' shivum - 'but where are the spitting cobras and pigs and kingfishers and monkeys and crocodiles?!'), an overtired shivum decided when we sat down in paharganj to eat dhosa, that he didnt like indian food, didnt like india, and wanted to go back to england! Luckily, we found ice-cream! :D

Anyways, onwards from delhi to gujerat, to my aunty's place in bhavnagar. Within minutes of arriving in gujerat, akashi decides that it's her fave place in India ( a chip off the old block!), maybe influenced by the fact that we saw some amazing green parrots, and that most places in india aren't quite as mental as central delhi....Loved it at jasu masis's- we had a lady who comes and cooks for us; we just put our order in every morning and pravina ben provides! ( i want to take her home...!) My nieces (Anvita (aged2) and Pari (aged 3 )are absolute jokes, i cant get enough of them! Anvita is a right character, the youngest of the lot, but by far the bossiest, coming out with amusing little anecdotes in typical gujerati, so cute! Pari is very sweet natured; her parents live in Pune (nr mumbai) and she speaks hindi, not gujerati. So when all 4 kids come together, they speak 3 languages between them! Ironically, pari and anvita have been teaching my kids the 'ABC' song... none of that in steiner school!)

A few days back we visited my friend Gau, who used to work for my aunty. Gau is the same age as me, and we have been friends for a long time, from when we were younger and we used to chase each other about.....now she has 3 kids, and I have 2, but we still enjoy teasing each other (or more me teasing her and her creasing up with laughter!) Shivum really enjoyed playing with her middle child, jatin, and spent many fun hours playing cricket, wrestling in the dhoor (dirt), carrying each other about and having a laugh; it was heartwarming to see such a lovely connection between the 2 grow almost instantly, even though neither understood much of what the other said; Akashi understands a lot of gujerati, and has even started to chat the odd word or two, but shivum, ever the rebel, just shouts 'TALK IN ENGLISH!!!!' We all walked up together to a hanuman temple, a longer walk than expected, where actually the walk was much more of an experience than the temple. We had a taste of the rural india which i love so much, the india that nourishes me fully from the inside out, the india of yellow dusty earth, bright blue skies, and lush greenery......two kids play barefoot under the shade of a big and gnarly tree, four sari-clad ladies saunter past, chatting and smiling, carrying huge bundles of sticks on their heads, a herd of goats suddenly appears out of nowhere, and akashi marches forward to the herder, and proudly takes hold of a bleating baby goat, while shivum and gau's kids thrw stones into the nearby lake where buffalos are bathing, there heads just about mooching above the water's surface.....mmm hmmm!

From there to my aunty's vadi (farm) - in uk we have allotments, here they just buy up some land and pay people to work a whole farm! Now in Junagadh, where my mum grew up when she came from africa, been coming here since i was 5 and i love the place; living in much less luxury than in bhavnagar but i prefer it....simple styles, all washing from one bucket of water ( i get the kids ends of course), washing, bashing and scrubbing our clothes outside in the morning, all sleeping in the same room with gadla (futony things) laid out on the floor.....

Tommorow me and the kids head to sasan gir, the gujerati jungle; we are gonna bus it from here (just 2 hours from here), where we're going to make freinds with asiatic lions, leopards, wild boars, peacocks etc...there is even a crocodile breeding centre! Looking forward t getting out of the city, much as i love junagadh, indian cities are too polluted......

Well, gonna go now, onwards and forwards we move on this ever changing journey, mystical and magical things happening right now amongst the intensity of india, there are moments, just moments of pure and lush being-ness.....I feel so thankfull that i can be here with my two little troopers.....Love to you all!!!!!!!! x x x x x x

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