Cultural dancing meets Barbie Girl...

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New Years Eve was the end of the cultural programme with an afternoon of cultural dances and singing from the local villages. Without sounding biased, we reckon the Nishtha youth group were the best, with their amazing costumes and enthusiasm.

Doctor Babara who set up the clinic many years ago gave us and some other locals a lovely meal in the evening, before Geoff and I spent the last few hours of 2006 dancing along to some classic Hindi tunes with the youth club.

Geoff was given a continuous marathon dance lesson from Happy, who didn’t seem to appreciate that he was more than twice his age and not quite as energetic. Amazingly Geoff made it to midnight, without straining anything or passing out, but it was close..

Whilst all this was going on, I was chatting with a few people and one guy asked if Geoff was ‘satisfying me’ and shortly afterwards proposed marriage! Although the offer of a ‘love match’ which meant leaving on a bus the following morning to Punjab was tempting, I decided it was far too much effort and to stick with my manically dancing boyfriend.

The first song of the New Year was put on especially for us as it was in English and I can’t believe I am going to admit to it but it was…… ‘I’m a Barbie girl’..

What a start to the New Year!

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Photos

Bandana looking alot more traditional
She tried making Lexa into a Gaddi girl .... you can see for yourself later the not so traditional result.