So here we are then. I’m now a Dilliwala—a resident of Delhi. The past 3 weeks have been a bit hectic and complicated, given that I started a new job while living in a hotel, and meanwhile had to find a new apartment within 14 days and register the address at the Foreigners Registration Office. But I managed it, and this time it’s an order of magnitude easier than when I first arrived in India 2 years ago, when I […]
Right then—I’m back in India! The 4 weeks back home in the UK flew by incredibly quickly, and sadly I spent the last 12 days down with a nasty virus and doing very little apart from coughing, sleeping and experimenting with various flu remedies. Many of my grand plans for visiting friends fell by the wayside. I left the UK just as the first major snow-fall of the winter was arriving. 7 hours later I was in Dubai looking […]
It’s 2013—Happy New Year! Changes are definitely on the cards here… my new employment visa was granted yesterday, my plane ticket is booked and I’m off to Delhi in 2 weeks. Meanwhile I’m making the most of being back in the UK, seeing family and lots of friends, eating great food and drinking nice beer. Here’s to all the new opportunities in the year ahead!
Well, I made it. It’s exactly 2 years since I arrived in India. And I’m just about to leave Bangalore. My last day at work is tomorrow, and then I have one more day after that to finish sorting things out before I fly back to the UK for a few weeks. The last couple of months have gone by really fast, and inevitably I still have a mental list of “things I never did” while I was in Bangalore. […]
Sometimes, to see something properly you have to stand a long way away from it. On the morning of 29 July 2012 I watched the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on the Internet. I watched as soon as I got up, around 7.30am, without my usually reading of the morning’s news over breakfast, to avoid any spoilers since it had gone out live the night before. As a piece of spectacle and theatre I thought it was really fantastic; […]
On a dark, busy, Friday evening in Bangalore I stop in the wine shop on my way home from work. It’s spacious and modern, with steel and glass frontage. Several businessmen are eyeing up the 18-year old imported single malt whiskey, which is very expensive. On the counter next to the window are a couple of small Hindu idols with garlands of fresh flowers round their necks, along with a large bunch of bananas, half a coconut, and a couple […]
About 8.30am, and I’m walking to work down a residential side-street. A woman comes out of her house with a large bowl of food scraps. She goes to the corner of the street and calls something out. A huge black and white friesian cow comes waddling up to her, and she puts the bowl down on the ground in front of it. As it starts eating, she touches the cow on its rump, mutters something, and blesses herself.
Eating my breakfast at 8am. The doorbell rings and Kannagi my maid lets herself in with the key I gave her. We exchange pleasantries and as usual she heads straight into the kitchen, puts down her handbag and her phone, and starts chopping and cooking. Once that’s under way, she starts sweeping the floors while the pressure cooker hisses away. “The days are going very fast now, brother”, she says. I agree, and we smile a sad smile at each […]
Only four and a half weeks to go and I’ll be home! For the first time in 2 years. Well I’ll be back in the UK anyway–I’m not really sure where “home” is these days. But it will be great to see my family for Christmas, and after that possibly living the life of an itinerant couch-surfer for 3 weeks, catching up with dear friends, many of whom seem to have participated in the British Baby Boom this year. […]
Saturday lunchtime. It’s about 25 degrees. A boy of around 7 years old nonchalantly wanders about in bare feet, daydreaming and singing to himself, outside a shop on a busy road. He’s wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and a fluorescent, lime green, knitted balaclava.
