Dilli Dilli Dilli

Okay people, we finally made the move! Now we live in New Delhi! Considering that up to a few months ago all that I knew about Delhi was the railway station and the airport, I am much more seasoned with what the city is all about now. Even if its only the Dwarka part of it.

The truck was unloaded with help from the Army and for that I am eternally thankful. There were all kinds of scenarios running through my head when I left with Rehaan from Gorakhpur. Thankfully things could not have gone smoother and must share my heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped me.

I reached on 19th, the truck reached on 20th and my hubby reached on 21st. By which time I had hung up the curtains, unpacked the kitchen, made up the bedrooms and had the hired furniture cleaned and placed. I must also say that the location of the house is great because I could walk down to the local market and pick up WHAT EVER I needed.

The icing on the cake was my parents who are on a trip of north India and had essentially come for the Bhuj Fatehpur day celebrations to the regiment. Still they reached within two weeks of our reaching and both of them took over many of the settling down aspects. Dad turning handy man and Mom turning cook.

The boys are also more or less set in the routine now, although poor Rehaan has tons of making up syllabus as the books here are different from the ones he had in Gorakhpur. Still he’s made enough friends in the colony for one of them to come ring the bell and ask for him to come down and play one evening, so I’m happy.

He is also learning to skate. Can you imagine the school has skating and abacus as a part of its curriculum. Its such a welcome change from his last school. The class teacher is nice and the co-ordinator is really efficient. Plus there is the added advantage of having a friend there as a teacher.

Jamshed is learning to deal with the long drive, the long hours are not new to him. On my own front, I am happy with all the restaurants that provide home delivery in the area. I have baked precisely two cakes here since the time I have come, because I really don’t need to.

I have ventured into main Delhi just once when we went with Jamshed to do a route checking for his way to office, but like I have come to discover, you really do not need to move out of Dwarka at all. Every thing is available here!

 

Bye Bye Gorakhpur

Bye bye frogies,

Bye bye termites,

Bye bye monkeys,

Bye bye seepage,

Bye bye kitchen taps,

Bye bye birdies

I promise I won’t miss you,

As I sing bye bye Gorakhpur

* My sincerest apologies to the original lyrics writer, but hey, I needed to get that out of my system.

We finally got our posting out of here and yes, my heart sings with joy to leave the borderlands of UP and Bihar to head for more civilized climes. It may be a tough deal to get the house at the other end, it may be more expensive a city to live in, it may be a whole lot worse for getting local help, but I’ll take it all the same.

I know when I signed up to be a fauji biwi that its never all the same in every station. Being a fauji baccha I was no stranger to the situation. And yet when its time to pack up and move with your bags, this is one place I leave with no regret. It may have been good in some ways, but it was equally bad in others.

They always balance out in the end, but for now I hear the beat of that distant drum to which I must march. The sound of the drum that calls to me as I pack trunk after trunk. It tells me its time to move on. The past is long gone. Its time to build things anew. So I move with a slight bounce in my step as I pack my curios in bubble wrap.

I don’t know when I’ll have time to update the blog next. The next couple of months are going to bring a mess. In more ways than one if you get what I mean! I’ll see you when I see you, and until then I’ll still be singing Bye Bye Gorakhpur.

 

Nora Roberts is truly gifted

I have been reading a large number of Nora Roberts’ books in the last couple of years. She is a truly gifted author who can make magical worlds come alive. I was hooked when I read her Three Sisters’ Island trilogy. The magic in her characters made you feel that you too could conjure fire out of thin air if you really tried hard enough.

The call of the elements was also well answered with each of the sisters having her own. Air, Earth and Fire each with her own strengths and weaknesses. All rounded off by the masculine Water. Of course I had no idea what a silkie was before I read the book and now i’m keen on experiencing more of the Celtic folklore.

Mythology of all kinds has always interested me and as soon as I am done with the last round of Nora Roberts books that I have with me, I’m going to begin a study of Irish and Welsh folk stories. They are almost the forerunners of the fairy tales that we grew up on although we have Hans Cristian Anderson to thank for taking them from the oral tradition and putting them into a book.

What I like about Nora Roberts is her ability to take an everyday place and convert it into a magical one. The fact that we don’t ever really outgrow our childish believes about fairies and princes is exploited by her in such a manner that you truly feel that even in the adult world there is magic. You just need to look for it.

Long time no news

We are still in Gorakhpur and likely to be here for another 8 to 10 months if the rumors are to be believed. I sincerely hope that after that we get posted down south closer to home. The winters of the north are what I want to avoid.

 

Rehaan is now a big boy and is in the “big” school having shifted from the KG wing into the Primary school building. He is in the first class and has learnt a lot of Hindi, while his English is now beginning to suffer from the Bhujpuria twang. Really can’t be helped, but I’m hoping the accent will not stick for long.

 

Jamshed is of course busy as usual. He picked up his rank in June and is now a Wing Commander. I’m still getting used to it, as was made evident when I called up his office one day and asked to speak with Sqd Ldr Lashkari. Thankfully I can’t be docked for beer bottles for making that mistake.

 

I had the unique privilege of teaching 9^th and 10^th class students in the Air Force School here English Literature for a couple of weeks. A stunt that I never hoped to pull off, considering that I am not a BEd, but these were desperate times for the school management and called for desperate measures.

 

It was a very interesting exercise as I am used to dealing with college students and this was very different. Hats off to all the school teachers I know for the patience that they have in dealing with young kids. The incident also made me more visible to kids and now when I float out to buy bread or something from the neighbourhood shops I am often accosted with a Good Evening Ma’am by one or more of my ex students.

 

Other than that life goes on as usual, there is no major change in the AFWWA, Ladies Club circuit, and of course we still manage to get bounced and raided once in a while. That’s about all my news is for now. Do keep in touch.

Now that I’m 6

I recently posted on a Facebook update about just how jazzed my baby boy was to have walked to school on his own. Since he turned 6 a month ago he has been constantly wanting to do new things all on his own. He wants to help me with my chores and he wants to do new chores that befit his older status. In fact if I ask him to do some thing that he has been doing earlier he will say I could do that as a 5 year old, now that I’m 6 I can do more.

The truth is that while I’m happy at the progress he’s making and the amount of independence that he displays I also feel a bit scared at how fast the time’s running. A week short of his birthday Jamshed was showing me some old home videos of Rehaan in Agra and it was easy to see that he had been a chubby cherub there. A little baby who was yet to find his feet. And now when I look at him as he keeps growing like a weed I can barely credit its the same baby.

Of course he hates being called a baby now. And it would be galling for him to have his mother call him one. Still its interesting to see how he’s growing up and the opinions that he is developing. Its fun to see the world through his 6 year old eyes. His enthusiasm for a game of cricket and his reluctance to practice his handwriting. I don’t know what the teenage years will bring, but right now I’m just happy with the fact that once a day he crawls into my lap and wants to be hugged.