India #9 Home

March 20 

The home stretch is in sight! Today was Mothering Sunday. I received a beautiful card with sunflowers and a date for a 'build your own terrarium' workshop in London next month. We had left most of the gift shopping for our final day in Delhi. J and B had looked after the house for us whilst we were away and we always like to take a little something home for them as a thank you. R, however, quite fancied buying some chillies, so we took the first tuktuk that we found outside the hotel and headed back to the old city in search of spices.

Being Sunday, a lot of the stalls were closed, which surprised us a little. Rather than the stalls we had passed before in our explorations, the driver insisted on taking us to a different area and waiting with us while we browsed. Having secured a customer, we found drivers remarkably difficult to shake off. In this instance, it turned out to be a big mistake. Feeling the old abdominal cramps again, I decided to sit down for a while but encouraged the others to keep on browsing. R was hesitant but the driver reassured him that he would stay and look after me. I really didn't want this; I just wanted to rest and didn't feel up to making conversation.  He sat very close, smoking and coughing. I put his cough down to the cigarettes and tried to resist the urge to move further away or make wafting motions with my hand. Counting back from when my Covid symptoms started, Sunday was the day that I probably caught it and our tuktuk driver was the obvious culprit. 

The others returned, having bought some jaggery, and we then pottered briefly round the flower market. One of the vendors gave me a flower which I pressed in our guide to India book.

We then checked out and took our final car ride back to the Jaypee Vasant Continental Hotel in Delhi. It seemed good to be back in what we found to be the most comfortable hotel of our trip. On an after dinner walk around the neighbourhood, L bought a wooden flute from a vendor. 

March 20th

After breakfast at the hotel, we set off to find the statue of Hanuman, the Monkey God, at the Chhataphur Temple complex. R remembered this fondly from one of his trips but, to be honest, it all seemed a little bizarre to me. A bit like some strange theme park:

R also recalled several Government run shops near Connaught Place, that he thought might be a suitable spot for last minute gifts. Here began a strange, frustrating period when we were caught between R trying to get us to these shops and a variety of tuktuk drivers and other 'helpful citizens' who, for 20 Rupees, were insistent on taking us to an expensive tourist market called the 'India Looms'. R became increasingly frustrated and shouty, and the whole experience took on an almost nightmare-like quality where we kept trying to escape, only to find ourselves back at the wretched India Looms. :O)

Eventually, enough was enough. I needed the loo anyway, so marched us into a branch of Starbucks to use the facilities, have a chai latte and allow R to calm down!

With his blood pressure back to normal, R found his Government shops and we bought gifts for the neighbours. I also bought 2 cheap bead necklaces from a woman street vendor. I had admired the adorned statues of Ganesh at our previous hotel and wanted to decorate the wooden Ganesh that we picked up in Sri Lanka years ago.

The cherry on the cake was when we set off for a cafe, 'Greener', recommended on Happy Cow, only to find it had closed down. The heavens opened and biblical rain began descending. The locals were very pleased as it hadn't rained properly for months. Our last dinner in India, therefore, was a mirror of our first: plant-based burgers and fries at KFC. I was quite enjoying it until L pointed out the paneer!

Back at the hotel, after what had been a disappointing and frustrating final day, we were cheered up by the fact that the hotel staff had arranged one of our towels into the shape of an elephant. It's the little things! :O)

March 21st

We took the 11.30 Virgin Atlantic flight from Delhi to London Heathrow, arriving at 4.30 in the afternoon. Thankfully, the banana masala wrap didn't make a further appearance, but L had developed an upset stomach and felt sick anyway.

2 days after arriving home, I realised after lunch on Thursday that I had a bit of a runny nose. As the afternoon progressed, I had, without really noticing that I was doing it, put on multiple layers of knitwear. So much so, that when I realised that I was feeling a bit grotty and looked in the mirror, I was practically spherical. Something didn't feel right and I took a Covid test and, yes, it was positive. One more souvenir than was strictly desirable!

One week later and I have more or less recovered (R tested positive 3 days after me). It was basically a bad cold with a few other weird symptoms thrown in. A  pulsating nose one day (very annoying), a mild bout of glossitis the next. My smell and taste aren't back to normal yet but I'm hoping that's temporary.

Despite Covid and despite the upset tummy that plagued most of our second week, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It is a fascinating country, with the most beautiful, friendly people (a little selfie obsessed but hey!) and, as Joanna Lumley said in her India programme, 'you'd be mad to miss it'.

If nothing else, the next time we go to an Indian restaurant and see a picture of the Taj Mahal, I too can say 'I've seen that'!

Toodle pip for now. x

India #8 Block Printing

 March 19th

Apart from the cookery lesson, the only other item that I booked before coming to India was a tour of a block printing factory. The tour itself was fascinating. We got to hear about how the wooden blocks were made and then talked through the whole process of fabric printing from start to finish.

The cotton is pinned out on tables covered  in a layer of wadding. This ensures that there is a little give when the blocks are pressed down, resulting in a better coverage. The border is done first and, depending on the design, there can be many colours and different blocks involved. First the outline, then a different block for every colour used. Once the border is complete, the rest of the design is added using the same process. 

The dye is spread thinly onto a piece of fabric in a paint tray and the block pressed gently into the colour. It is then positioned carefully (with a very steady hand!), placed onto the cotton and then thumped twice before removal. The tray is on a table with castors and moves along the fabric with the worker.

The initial colours that you see are not always the final result. After washing and drying, the dye is fixed by dipping the printed fabric in sulphuric acid and nitrates. At this point the colours may change, revealing the final effect. A further washing and drying and the fabric is ready for use. 

2 thumps:

The border half coloured in:

Then came the fun part ........ our turn! We got to make our own scarves to take home as a souvenir. Lining up the blocks is obviously harder than the workers made it seem! :O)

Drying our scarves after the initial printing:

Into the sulphuric acid and nitrates to fix the dye:

Another wash and dry. The once yellow border is now red and what initially looked red/brown turned green :

The workers making quilts with some of the fabric. I wish that my machine quilting was as good!

Even R proudly wore his scarf for the rest of the holiday.  Leaving the factory, we drove by the Birla Mandir Temple, a beautiful Hindu Temple made of white marble:

Then on to the Albert Hall Museum:

The museum was quite interesting, although we arrived at the same time as a large school party, so decided to start at the top floor and work down to avoid them as much as possible.

Having exhausted the delights of the museum, we set off in search of lunch. Our first port of call was unexpectedly full - there appeared to be a prebooked party. Our second choice, 'Anokhi' was a fine replacement. We shared a plate of pitta bread and falafel, which was absolutely delicious and made a nice change. Ditto the vegan coffee cake to follow! In the queue to wash my hands, I fell into a conversation with a lady after I admired her block printed dress. I felt very knowledgeable about the process involved in its making! :O)

In the same building as the cafe was a brilliant bookshop called 'Crosswords'. Amazingly, all the books were in English and we spent a while happily browsing. I sat in a comfy chair by the window, watching the tuktuks outside as the sun got lower. It was remarkably peaceful and I could have stayed for hours. R bought a deck of cards - we normally remember to take one on holiday for the evenings but had forgotten this time - and L bought a copy of  'Bhagavad Gita'.

Then it was back to the hotel for a Planter's Punch ( rum, orange, pineapple, lemon, Angostura bitters). Not my favourite and a score of 2.5. This was our final cocktail of the holiday, so the winner was definitely the Gimlet!

Toodle pip for now. x

India #7 Elephants

 March 17th

I managed to spend yesterday afternoon in the greenhouse, sowing my veggie seeds. It's a little late but that can't be helped and I feel so much better for ticking that job off the list.

Friday's trip to the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) was not without incident. It was here that I had an encounter with the 'psycho-monkey' that seemed to take objection to the stripy trousers that I bought in Glastonbury! We were exploring behind the facade and I was slightly ahead of the others. I went round a corner, realised that there was no exit that way and tried to turn back. I then heard a snarling sound and spotted a monkey crawling down the sloping wall between me and my family. I swear it was glaring at my legwear! I tried to hurry past but that only made it more aggressive. I called to R who started heading towards me and that wound it up even further. I began to imagine having to go for rabies shots! Eventually, I managed to scuttle past but, as we turned to leave, it leapt to the ground and followed us teeth bared and growling. R turned and clapped loudly and it backed off, but only momentarily before chasing us again. This time R clapped louder and shouted and, thankfully, it finally disappeared.

Hot on the heels of the monkey incident was the toilet rat! Needing the loo, I found some and entered, smiling at a group of Indian ladies standing chatting outside. As I went in, a rat emerged from the squat toilet and ran across the bathroom. Well, I was out like a shot, mere milliseconds after going in and I can just imagine the Indian ladies shaking their heads, thinking that the English can't cope with squat toilets! It was nothing of the kind, I just didn't want to avoid being savaged by a monkey, only to then be bitten on the bottom by a rat living in the loo! :O)

Finally, there was 'Creepy Man', as L dubbed him. This was a little different from the usual attention that we received, in that he didn't ask for a selfie. We just became aware that this man was following us VERY closely. Initially, we assumed that it was just because we were following the same prescribed route and it was crowded, but after a few sneaky attempts to outmanoeuvre him, it became obvious that he was in fact trailing us. He was wearing a stripy green shirt, was carrying something in one hand, and had a facial characteristic which made him very easy to spot. When he started getting a bit touchy feely, rubbing up against us, we made a more concerted effort to lose him. It worked for a while and we managed to shake him off for a bit. There was, however, only one route out and inevitably he found us again. Here's the weird thing though, he had now put another shirt (presumably the item he had been carrying), over the stripy green one. Bizzare though it seems, it was undeniably him. He started with the touchy feely again and this time L turned round and asked him directly what he wanted. He looked a little startled to be confronted but it took R telling him to go away in no uncertain terms for him to finally disappear.

Despite all this, Hawa Mahal was lovely. It was constructed as part of the Women's section of the City Palace. The facade seen from the street is effectively a screened porch, 1 room deep in places. The 5 floor exterior has 953 small windows decorated with lattice work, allowing the Royal ladies to observe events in the street without being seen themselves. It also allowed cool air to pass through, ventilating the interior. The facade that you see from the street is actually the back of the palace.

When R mentioned going to see some elephants during our India trip, I didn't really think too much about it, just a vague 'yes, that would be nice' kind of thing. When the car arrived to pick us up for a trip to the 'elephant village', I still hadn't given it much more thought and it was only when we arrived and saw the place, that I began to have some misgivings. It's not that the elephants were badly treated in any way, far from it, they appeared to be well looked after and loved by their mahouts. It was more an air that they were there for the benefit of tourists, rather than the well-being of the elephants. It made me very uncomfortable; animal exploitation isn't our thing - hey, we're vegan after all. If, like the sloth bears, they had been rescued and were living out their lives in a protected environment because they weren't adapted to life in the wild, it would have been a different matter. Questioning revealed that they weren't. It is not a sanctuary; the elephants were there because we were there and the fact that these people were able to provide for their families off the back of it was irrelevent. By being there we were exploiting these beautiful, magnificent creatures and it upset me greatly. I'm posting these photos as an accurate record of our holiday,  they are not something that I look back on fondly. Much the reverse, I look back with a sense of shame and the memory that we couldn't get out of there quick enough.

A breakfast of straw wrapped about with alfalfa:

Pyle having her breakfast:

.... and then a little drink:

Saying hello to her best friend, Tara:

Moving on. Our driver took us to Jaipur's Stepwell. The advantage of a stepwell is that it makes it easier for people to access the water and maintain the well:

Adjacent temple ruins:

Gobar cakes made from cow dung and used for fuel:

Meera Krishna Temple:

Our last stop of the day was to the Amber (Amer) Fort, also known as the Amer Palace. Constructed of red sandstone and marble, the palace is laid out on 4 levels, each with a courtyard.

Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace) - they were filming here:

The views were magnificent and there was a subteranean passage connecting it to the Jaigarth Fort, allowing the Royal Family an escape route in times of war. The King had 12 wives, each had a room, connected via a staircase to the King's room upstairs, however, the wives weren't allowed to climb them! We also found more bees!

On the way back to the hotel, our driver was persistent in wanting to take us to a handmade rug workshop. We had declined all his other offers - jewellery, textiles etc. but we did need a new rug for our living room - the old one was fraying badly after years of abuse by Hamish. We agreed to see the rug making. We were shown the various processed involved - the hand knotting, the washing, the cleaning, the trimming ...... and then the finished products. They were beautiful and (after a lot of bargaining!) we brought one home. I love it and hope it will last for many years to come.

Dinner was back at the hotel. I was again feeling unwell and actually went back to our room for a bit of a lie down, leaving L to finish our Mai Tai (rum, orange and lime). It scored a mere 2 on the cocktail scale. Not up to Gimlet standards!

Toodle pip for now. x