What to do?

We are hosting visitors over the holiday season.  Our oldest, Kid One, has returned to our India home for the holidays and she has brought with her Grandma Mister.  We are so glad to have both of these beautiful women in our home.  If you read my previous post, the trouble with visitors at this time is that we are without a driver.  You picked a fine time to leave me Lucile. 
So far we have managed each day with a temporary driver and an extended out of Delhi trip booked with a driver and bus.  Temporary drivers are easier to find this time of year.  Many expat families leave India and/or go on extended vacations over the long holiday break from school.  Leaving many of their drivers eager to pick up some extra money while the employer family is away.  It’s a way for the driver to earn twice the pay.  The drivers that are willing to accept extra work over the break generally are hardworking individuals.  Instead of sitting around and getting paid to do so by their employer family they choose to take on extra work knowing the pay is that much greater coming from two sources.  If only we could find a hard working reliable driver like we had experienced over the break to hire as our full time driver…life would be so good.
Trying to chase away the no driver blues in an effort to get out and see the area I booked a trip with Indomania Tours www.indomaniatours.com/pottery.html to the pottery village for Mom, Kid Middle and myself.  With a tour group we did not need our car and driver for the activity and we had a chance to get out of the house and explore another side of Delhi, the west side of Delhi.  It was a very full day.  We left from our meeting spot at 10am and did not return until 3pm but it was loads of fun and an opportunity to snap many photos.  Here is a photo tour of the pottery village.

Indomania offers these tours in association with South Asia Foundation, a non profit that works with the village.  Tour fees help pay for things like the development of a community center that will house a community kiln.  This tour offered a walk through the village, an opportunity to purchase from the wholesalers and a pleasant reminder.  Just keep smiling.

Another One Bites the Dust

And another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust. We are back in the market for another driver yet again. Drivers have proven to be an issue for us during our entire existence in New Delhi. We have yet to find a person to drive our family that is really suitable to our needs. Our most recent hire conveniently waited for our family to be away on holiday to return all his driver belongings to our house manager and announce he is leaving our job. All of this of course falls on the heels of visitors being here from the US. Just when a reliable driver is most needed, to make everyone most comfortable in India we are searching for the reliable driver. My pessimism is punchy right now and I feel reliable driver here is an oxymoron. He tried to explain to me when I saw him upon my return to New Delhi but in my defense I did not ask many questions. I have become very frustrated when I ask questions to people. It seems natural for most people to try to gauge what answer would please me the most and tell me that selected answer instead of search in their soul to find what I would call the “truth”. I need to step back, take a deep breath and accept that “truth” is subjective. In our search for another driver we do not have a long two years left to our stay in India which makes us undesirable to work for in most cases. As is with anyone looking for employment, drivers want to know you will be here a long time so they will not be looking for another job in six months time. So for now I am collecting bios and resumes this week and sifting through what could be a suitable fit. “Where do you live?” “How do you commute?” “What hours can you work?” “Do you have a record?” and I hum.

He walks warily down the street, With the brim pulled way down low. Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet. Another one bites the dust.-Queen

We went to the Camel Fair

The song, although slightly altered, has been in my head since our visit.  "We went to the camel fair.  The birds and the beasts were there."  When I think of a fair I think of the auditorium for events, the rides, livestock animals and of course the food. Like most things we have experienced in India our perception of Pushkar Fair was the same as most fairs we had experienced but very different.

Wikipedia.com states:    

Pushkar is a town in the Ajmer district in the Indian state of Rajashan.  Pushkar is one of the oldest cities of India.  An annual fair held in Pushkar is Pushkar Fair.  According to the Hindu calendar Pushkar Fair commences in Nawami (ninth day of fortnightly phases of moon) and ends in Purnima (Full Moon) in the month of Kartika (October or November according to the lunar calendar). In Pushkar, one of the biggest Cattle Fair is also held for trading purposes and the best cattle in all categories are awarded.  Pushkar fair continues for five days and these five days are a period of relaxation and merry-making for the villagers. This fair time is the busiest time for them, as this is one of the largest cattle fairs in the country. Animals, including over 50,000 camels, are brought from miles around to be traded and sold. Trading is brisk as several thousand heads of cattle exchange hands. All the camels are cleaned, washed, adorned, some are interestingly shorn to form patterns, and special stalls are set up selling finery and jewelry for the camels. Camels at the Pushkar fair are decorated with great care. They wear jewelry of silver and beads. There are silver bells and bangles around their ankles that jangle when they walk. An interesting ritual is the piercing of a camel's nose.

A photo recap or our experience follows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The End

for Pushkar 2012

 

Votes Are In

     Voting still takes place while living overseas.  Just like in the US many people remain relatively quiet about who they support and their beliefs but every now and then you will have one or two blast on their online posts about the support for one party or disdain for the other.  We live in a more sheltered environment as far as the campaign ads and calls and surveys and text messages and annoying barrage of campaign related slaughter of sounds and senses that go with the campaign season in the US.  On numerous occasions both Mister and I have expressed out loud how thankful we are to live in India, away from the media coverage and true campaign trails of the running mates.  We are “proud to be an American” but when you live overseas you find joy in the little things that are different from our homeland.  This is one we focused on since our return from the summer’s travels. I’m glad we did not have all that campaign stuff the rest of our country had to endure since our return in August.  We send our condolences for any suffering.
     Voting overseas is a much different procedure and the results seemed to be  more ceremonial than I have participated stateside.  Because we all cast the absentee ballot those votes happen at any time up to the deadline for your state.  It seemed that upon return from the summer vacations many people began their absentee voting either state side before returning to India all the way up to mid-later October.  After mid-October it seemed that was it, until Election Day.  For us Election Day happened 12 hours later than it happened for the US.  So all the rallies and voter results were showing for us starting at 5:30am November 7 (12 hours later than the US) at the American Citizens Services Association (ACSA) where people packed in to all the spaces available; the restaurants, poolside, bowling alley any place there was a TV, to watch as the states reported their results and participants colored in the US map provided by the embassy group who put on the event for all American Citizens.  It was a beautiful displays of patriotism; Americans all coming together with all eyes on our country.  
     Later that morning at the school drop off time in the coffee house just inside the entrance at one of the gates many people gathered as they do most mornings but the chatter about the election was strong the morning of November 7.  It was nice to compare with citizens from other countries how the election process is the same or different for them. Parents talked about how election results from their country would not be posted so quickly and people had to wait up to a week to know the results.  At that hour it was too early to know the US results but this election process has been so very different for us compared to years past in the US.  I’m thinking in a little less than four years I would like to live overseas again.  I have found the election process in the US while living abroad is an adventure I would like to have again.