Lado News

Here is the BBC news:

W has a lowly-worm which tells him eat more!  (L and I have got the giggles about this one).  He also has a bit of a crush on Radhika, a young Delhi princess, who comes in to help N finish his book.  WM hopes he develops less high maintenance tastes as he grows up. 

Today, L has written her own version of the Jungle Book, done further chapters of the Olly Bottbott Avatars and is compiling Great Dates in Family History, and it’s not even 3 pm yet.  None of the rest of the family can match her productivity.

[L fantasy-piece : Loly worm presses a button on W’s neck and says, ”Time for my tea!”  Loly worm lives inside W’s tummy button.  Loly worm is W’s personal tape worm. Loly worm visits W’s tummy regally. By the way I love Loly worm too. Loly worm likes to eat apples, chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, water melon and chocolate. By the way W scoffs water melon I think it’s because hes eating it for Loly worm.]    

M has near-teen moments (“Everything’s all floppy and just brushes over me! It just annoys me so much.  It’s so frustrating!” she was heard to say just now in response to a cross stitch problem).   Unfortunately these spread by contagion which ultimately end up with W stropping off, saying “Fine! Nobody listens to me!  I might as well jump off the roof!” No one is remotely impressed by his borderline threats so he strops about that instead. Fortunately, W responds well to toastbutterjam (especially with Kissan jam, guaranteed no natural fruit) so no need to resort to Prozac.  Even WD has been known to have the odd flounce.  M’s exasperation and tears are trickier, requiring Understanding and the Milk of Maternal Kindness.

[M:  Big important thing – I slept very well for the first time in ages last night!  I’m feeling a whole lot better.  I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep again tonight.  We haven’t fought at all today.  It was a mum challenge.]   

Overall, things are calmer and more settled under the new regime.  M and WM are sitting on the balcony doing our thing, watching the sun sink over the Tomb and park opposite, whilst W and L have played an elaborate make-believe game happily all afternoon within earshot (Max is currently on my mobile phone, “Hiya DJ Moose! Howya doing?” and Holly is giving Bobino a bath and planning his christening) - although bedtimes are still not nearly early enough. 

WM’s current frustration is how to dry double bed sheets anywhere in this dusty, dirty, filthy building without them getting grimier in the process.  She’s in serious need of hand cream as Indian detergents and hand washing for a family are taking their toll on her lily-white hands. 

WD is at JNU (Delhi’s post-grad university), and is due to give a talk this afternoon in a lecture theatre that can seat 400 and has been publically advertised… so he is anticipating a larger audience than the 4 men and a dog (= departmental meeting) he had at Delhi University earlier this week.   He went shopping to buy some respectable chinos at M&S in preparation.  Interestingly, the very same M&S slightly shiny, non-stick, perma-crease trousers as stocked in the Oxford Town Centre but made in South India, are a little cheaper here, but not substantially so… It was then a style toss-up between sandals and socks or WM’s trainers for footwear, and he’s gone for the later.

Lado Sarai is officially Very Noisy.  The street iron welding, overhead flight path, neighbours and Mehrouli-Badaphur main road took second-place to wedding drumming and brass band on Tuesday night.  A huge red and white wedding tent had grown overnight in the square under Fort Buffalo, like a magic mushroom,  but had vanished by the next morning…The groom arrived on a white stallion wearing a white and gold turban, whilst all the young men did lots of jiggy dancing in a very virile and energetic  manner.

Egg competition - novel ideas for eggs needed as egg fatigue sets in.  Boiled, scrambled, fried, omelettes, eggy-bread, poached, pancakes have been done to death.  Soufflēs and baked eggs are not possible as there is no effective oven.  Eggs are pallid and battery-produced (agri-industrial intensification now the norm as the demand for protein soars) but they are an easier protein source for the kids than lentils, paneer or dodgy meat, and more straightforward to cook in the Master Chef kitchen.  The prize will be a year’s supply of Keggz Eggz (v. fancy organic eggs). There are lots of random ‘z’s and double ‘ee’s that appear in Indian advertising english – Dizee World, Eazee Squeezee – that’s the way to spell…

Success! The children and WM ventured out of Lado Sarai on their own for the first time this week.  We are a very long way from Central Delhi (if you think of that as Connaught Place and most of the tourist spots) and even from most of the fancier parks and Shopping centres of South Delhi.   However, everyone had been working so hard at their respective schoolwork that a change of routine was needed.  So we decided to go back to Haus Khas for bagels, the deer and the fitness trail.  M worked on her upper body strength on the parallel bars.  Another playground was discovered – this time with newish play equipment (functioning swings! ), the old discarded into the nearby bushes…The children played Frisbee in their own fashion and it felt good to be out in the sun.  We failed to find Rabbit World (but have sworn to continue the search – there is a petting zoo or equivalent apparently).  However, we did find the village rubbish dump and the marginal homes of families living around it – old ladies knitting in the dust, children skipping with fraying twine and pumping water from the one stand pipe. 

Lado Sarai is warming up to the Foreign Family.  WD was even called ‘sweet’ by the old geezer selling him aloo gobi last night, as they were running through a Hindi Beginners conversation class (“I am from England” “I am from Hindustan”), revision?  We had invitations issued to us by a lady on an opposite rooftop as she watched us all doing schoolwork and our crazy grinning is beginning to wear down a little of the reserve.  We have found where to get our ironing done (not that we do very much ironing); where to get WD’s mobile fixed (you can’t hear his voice at the moment) and where to reserve train tickets.  Time Out Delhi describes Lado as the hip-happening spot on the Delhi Contemporary Art Scene - so I could even go out to spend a big fat wad of cash on Art here, as well as picking up the mouli (Indian mega-radishes)and cornflakes on my way home.  It may not look like it at first glance, but everything is possible in Lado Sarai.