10 rupees for requests but No Erotic Love Songs

Tonight (4th Dec) we leave Delhi on the overnight Mewar Express to Udaipur. But how could we leave before visiting the 62^nd Annual Chrysanthemum Show at the YWCA? A spectacular horticultural extravaganza of marvellous blooms.

It has served to reinvigorate all our spirits and senses of humour as the previous 48 hours had been…challenging.  Poor M hit the wall – with full-on traveller’s diarrhoea (and vomiting) – and was really quite unwell.  So 2 nights up and lots of enforced ORS (Dioralyte) – M not appreciative – and resorting to antibiotics given her fever and profuse purging.  Literally 2 hours post azithromycin, she sat up, stopped vomiting  and started chatting again, and today is starting to think about food again….Just as well given an overnight train journey tonight.   Whilst we all knew this was going to happen ( and often),  it was rough for M and the rest of us: L furious at the amount of attention she was getting,  C stressing about logistics and me worrying about finding her a ‘proper doctor’ if my GP skills failed her.  (Thanks Laura for the advice from Cambodia)

M, do you want to add anything about this most sh*!y of episodes?   

M: I have been doing  green pond weed diarrhoea and vomited more times than I care to remember but am feeling 90% better today – doing a lot better than before.   

So Year 5, there you have it…

Anyway back to the YWCA Flower show – as L gutted to be missing English Christmas, the stalls and good folk very helpfully reminiscent of school Christmas fairs and fetes we have known – cake stalls, brick-a-brac, second hand clothes, performances (girls rapping in Hindi in base ball caps, accompanied by others dancing in saris – we weren’t quite sure of the message, but their teacher assured me it was  ‘street theatre’) all amidst 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and highly commended chrysanths. 

And the music, wolfdad?

 Where is a Chrysanthemum exhibition without a 70s disco soundtrack? It’s exactly what you’d expect at the YWCA: ‘Saturday Night Fever’, ‘Ra-Ra Rasputin’, and of course ‘Y-M-C-A’. I  threatened to upstage the street theatre with some embarrassing dad moves and had to be physically restrained by two daughters from teaching the crowd the YMCA dance. But where could it be more appropriate? Fergus, I needed you there. For ten rupees we could have requested our own music but couldn’t easily comply with the ‘no erotic love songs’ declaration.

L: You’re such an idiot, dad, and really embarrassing. I really liked the YWCA especially the restaurant called ‘Buns & Cakes’. I really liked the omelettes and chapatis.

W: zzzzzzzzz [he’s asleep on a hard chair- after 2 weeks, he’s finally resorted to an afternoon nap.]

We’ve rationalised our stuff – left a whole load in Delhi – and are leaving on 3 tier, non AC sleeper tonight.  It’s good to be moving on – different vistas etc – and looking forward to Rajasthan (Udaipur, Abu, Jodhpur with Wolfdad nipping off to other places), 20 years+ since last there.   Some nostalgia remembering being in India with Sam and Emily aged 18, but an utterly different experience as ‘respectable’ married mother of 3.  

 We’ve lit the advent candle and are opening doors on the calendar and doing Granny Jane challenges daily (yesterdays was ‘an alphabet of flowers’ – we had to resort to cheating - ‘yellow flower’ and ‘xerox flower’- when we got stuck) but the countdown isn’t just to Christmas, oh no – it’s a countdown to the Penninks!  Sam and Eva, we can’t wait!  See you in Cochin on the 25^th Dec…

W is stirring but sleepy still in Wolfdad’s lap.  L has rewritten the menu for the café and M is designing a rabbit house/mansion.  Lodi Gardens beckons….