❤️🎄A Very Punjabi Christmas🎄❤️

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We woke up on Christmas Day to the sounds of Giagi bustling around the room, telling Grace she needed to have a shower and also merry Christmas! Hattie and Grace donned their best Christmas dresses, did their makeup for the first time in forever and had a yum breakfast of pratha, yogurt, garlic chilli chutney, aloo puri and copious amounts of chai and fresh orange juice. Giagi asked who had done their hair as they looked so glam! Just us silly! Hattie really was the spitting image of Joanna Lumley though. Grace is trying for Eddie but her hair just isn’t curly enough. Hatts and G sung Christmas carols and played cards, pleased with ourselves we hadn’t slept on our henna-ed hands and given ourselves involuntary face tattoos like the last time we’d had it done. Grace gave out her painted Christmas cards with her attempt at writing in Hindi and Giagi chuckled at her spelling which roughly translated to ‘Well Christmas, love for you!’ A for effort though.

Pinky then drove Iksha, Grace and Hatts to the family village and farm about 15 minutes outside Abohar, past lots of men standing on wagons being pulled along by ponies. It looked really fun. We arrived at Grace’s great grandfather’s house (the ancestral home) which has since fallen down but still has a plaque with his name on it, photos of her grandfather before he left for India, cow sheds, a courtyard and contrastingly - an enormous TV in the only remaining room. This is where Uncle Sunil likes to come and rest in the daytime.

We then wandered over to the descendants of Grace’s great grandfathers’ houses who all still live on the same street - their children have since gone to the cities for work but they enjoy the quiet country life. Their houses were bungalows with blue and white painted walls and pointed archways. Beaded curtains, low setees, photos of their children’s weddings and embroidered wall hangings filled the space. They all remembered Grace’s dad as they would babysit him when he was little. They told us that Grace’s family had originally migrated from Kuch in Gujarat to Rajasthan then to Punjab 250 years ago because of better opportunities and the land was more fertile. They call Abohar the ‘California of the Punjab’ for this reason. The British had given the land to them, so they would farm it and give them the tax money. Quarter of a millennia later, the land and profits were all theirs and business was booming.

More uncles and aunties kindly took us into their homes, showing us photos of relatives - most memorably the original of all of the men in the family of the great grandfather’s generation, sat with their weapons and babies. This was exciting because Grace has been working on a huge painting of this for the last few months so seeing it in person was very exciting. She showed the uncles and aunties to which they nodded with approval. Being in the arts seemed like a rather unlikely occupation, bringing to mind a Sanjeev Baskar quote when he told his dad he wanted to become an actor, and he replied - ‘in India, we pronounce it: Doctor’. 🤭 We filled up on freshly grown radish (with black salt of course), rice crispie style squares and chai, whilst Uncle showed us his rifle. Boys and their toys!

Then the goats were brought out. Hattie and Grace freaked out as they were the most adorable babies we’d ever seen. We fed them some greens and scooped them up to sing them ‘Away in a Manger’ - all we want for Christmas is goats!

Then we drove to the farm which grows cotton, guava trees, flowers and sugar cane - also home to lots of chickens and cows. We love how assorted nuts are always offered at peoples houses - we are suckers for a pistachio! They also showed us how they make butter in a clay pot on hot coals, boiling the milk until it’s just right - and very rich!

Orange juices in hand, cousin Varun showed us the farm, accompanied by his enormous cane corsa - a HUGE guard dog that’s actually banned in lots of countries because they can be so aggressive. He guards the farm from Wild Boars and other stray dogs. But he was like a huge puppy who didn’t know his size, almost knocking Iksha over as he bounded around, slobber flying, excited about the new visitors. Grace wants four to pull her around on a chariot like Boudicca. The farm was beautiful and vast, a peaceful break from our city explorations. Hattie seriously considered relocating to Abohar to become a farmer’s wife, picturing herself spinning cotton into clothes on the veranda. The air was also much clearer out here, the fields stretching for acres towards the Pakistan border.

Then, cousin Varun took the girls in his open top Mercedes (!!) to a local resultant to have Christmas dinner. We drove 100mph (don’t tell uncle!) down the roads of Abohar as he dodged trucks and carts whilst picking Bollywood tunes and simultaneously filming us for his instagram story. By a Christmas Miracle, we arrived in one piece at the restaurant and ordered four different types of chicken (we’ve been vegetarian thus far) gin and tonic for Hattie and Kingfisher beer for Grace. (we’ve also been sober) - cuz it’s Christmas and Jesus would want us to have a drink and a chicken! We were very full and happy, feeling as though we had achieved a little slice of our Christmas traditions in the Punjabi countryside.

Still carolling, we made our way home, past lots of stalls selling Santa masks and suits - we’ve seen these all over India and we want ten. At home, we taught Giagi spoons - she’s very good at card games is our Giag! We FaceTimed family and showed everyone our festive set ups back in Wiltshire. Giagi said she didn’t want to give Grace back and she was keeping her forever.

Feeling full, festive - and a little bit farty from the chicken - we fell asleep ready for our journey to Amritsar the next morning.

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