And The Rain Came Down

The rain that we have been anticipating for a few weeks has finally arrived. I am sure everyone was sick of me asking"When is the Monsoon coming?"
As I have been told many times "Be careful what you wish for."
We are having some really heavy showers and lots of thunder and lightening, which freaks poor little Mac out.
Part of my longing for the rain was to clear the air and give this place a darn good wash, but with the rain came a foul smell and mud and puddles everywhere. The drain situation is not good with most of the drains being blocked, the roads are now covered in puddles. I was reading in the paper about the men who go down into the drains to clean them and how many lose their lives. The job they do is very badly paid and very unhealthy. We see these men going down into the drain in just their underwear with no protective clothing or breathing apparatus. Most of the deaths are from the poisonous gases.
Next comes the smell...... On the first day of the heavy rain I went to open the doors to get some fresh air, only to close them pretty darn quickly. I went to ask Margaret what the smell was "Oh Madame that is all the wee wees and poo poos the people do on the streets."
Nice...........So off I went to the homewares shop to but lots of smelly things to put around the house as the smell makes it way inside through the drains.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice-cream

Even ice-cream shopping is fun in Chennai, we asked for one scoop of ice-cream in Mac's cone but of course nothing is simple in India and Mac ended up with the BIGGEST ice-cream ever.

Sam decided he would stay in the car with Victor as his love for ice-cream doesn't match ours.

Mac was up to his usual tricks and wore most of his on the white Tee-shirt he had on. Noelene and I thought the mint ice-cream with chocolate bits through it was just about as good as we used to have as kids growing up in Australia.

Satay's in Singapore

Last weekend we escaped Chennai and went to Singapore for 4 days. One of the things I remembered about going there when I was 12 was the great Satay. So needless to say that was one of the must do things on our weekend was to go out on night for these delectable treats. The kids thought it was great to sit outside and eat all the Satay they could. At a cost of coarse, but who cares when you are on holidays.




We have found it really hard to get back into the "Indian way" after being away for the weekend. Singapore was sooooooo civilised. (I need to find my mo-jo soon.) Will write more on out Singapore at a later date.

Heart Breaking

Yesterday I looked out our front window and saw this little boy in the dumpster bin. He was sorting through the rubbish picking out all the paper, cardboard and plastic bottles. He filled his bag and was on his way to the next big bin where he probably had to contend with the local cows and dogs.

Seeing this breaks my heart. This poor little boy was no older than our Sam and this is how he has to help support his family. The thought of my chlidren having to get into this dumpster bin kills me. How fortunate we are to have been born into a culture where this type of life is pretty much unheard of. I know there are lots of people who find life a struggle at home but at least they have the support of the Government. There is no help in this country for the homeless and unfortunate. How can we help these people? This thought goes through my mind on a daily basis. We are told not to give money to the beggers on the street corner so now we keep a packet of biscuts in the car and we hand those out. It's not what they want, money would be better, but I am not supporting the boss that takes the money from them at the end of the day. Yesterday we had an elderly lady begging at the car window, we gave her some biscuts and the look of disgust on her face was priceless she then proceeded to throw the biscuts on the ground. Not a happy customer. So this is the sort of thing we deal with every day, sometimes you cope with seeing this better than others, but I hope our time here will help our children see how lucky they are. We live in hope that the poverty situation will improve for these people.

Ayudha Pooja

It's Ayudha Pooja. Yet another public holiday.
This is a day of worshiping the tools that you would use for your livelihood.
Andrew experienced this ceremony at work when when they blessed the plant to keep it a safe work place.
Victor wanted to bless our car, so we thought it would be a great way of experiencing some Indian culture. It is said that if you make this puja for your tools you will have a good year ahead in your work place. We saw lots of different pooja's on cars, the local Tailor on the corner had blessed his sewing machine and most businesses had been pooja'd. Victor suggested I make a pooja for my scissors, but I thought maybe I didn't need to encourage my hairdressing too much. (I am enjoying a break).
So off we went to Pondi Bazzar to buy all the bits and pieces to make our offering. And it was so much fun. Lots of people everywhere and all trying to sell us foreigners something. Flowers, drums, peacock feathers, toys, fruit, puffed rice, maps, toy helicopters, the list is endless. Thank goodness for Victor and Margaret who did all the bargaining.




Making the offering. A banana leaf is placed on the ground and apples, quinces, bananas, puffed rice, coconut and pumpkin are layed on top.

They light a piece of camphor and place it on the top of a lemon and coconut, this is an offering to bless the car. They then walk around the car 3 times and smash the coconut.

Now comes the time to make an offering with the pumpkin, they place coins into the top of the pumpkin, light a piece of camphor and walk around the car 3 times. Then they smash the pumpkin and rub kunkuma powder into it. When you drive through the streets you see these smashed everywhere, it looks alot like watermelon.

The guard then put a bindi, made of turmeric paste and kunkuma on each of the wheels of the car, mirrors, bonnet and back window. He also placed a lemon under each of the wheels that when run over would signify removing the evil eye.



I thought the kids would run a mile when it was their turn to have a Bindi put on the foreheads, but after some stern words from Mum they stood still and did what they where told. Mac was having no part of this..

It was our turn to get adorned with these beautiful garlands, I had no idea that we also we be bleesed as part of the pooja.

The family photo along with our merry band of helpers. Guard, one of the other drivers, Victor and us. (Margaret taking the photo)

At the end of the whole ceremony we had to all get in the car and go for a drive around the block. Goodness knows how Victor could see around the huge leaves.

The ceremony ended with us giving out pooja gifts. They where bags filled with the puffed rice. fruit and Indian sweets. We had 7 to give out, Victor, Margaret, 2 guards, gardening lady, other driver and one that I had to give to someone out side of the apartment building. So off I went in search of the very young Mum who lives next door. She always looks so sad, this bag of goodies certainly put a smile on her face.

It was great to feel part of the Indian culture and our helpers got a real kick out of sharing this with us.

Public Toilets

Have I mentioned the toilet situation here in India?

I think maybe I have not as I think I have been saving this subject for when I am feeling like I need to have a real WHINGE.

It seems to me as if there is no such thing as a public toilet here, as everywhere you look there is a man having a wee (piddle, leak or what ever you like to call it) on the side of the road.

This repulses me! It makes me feel sick to the stomach that I have to endure this scene out the car window whenever we leave the house. It also makes me mad that my children have to witness this also. Sam was quite intrigued by all this peeing when we first arrived and would be heard quite loudly commenting "Look Mum there's another man having a pee". Thanks for that Sam, like I need to be reminded ..........

It doesn't matter where they stop to do there business, any fence, pile of dirt, footpath will do. And it doesn't even matter if their girlfriend is on the back of the motorbike at the time when they get the urge, she has to just stand there and wait by the side of the bike. I often wonder what these woman think, "Would you just hang on till we get there?"

Often when we pull up somewhere Victor will check out the footpath situation before he lets me hop out of the car. Sometimes he will say "Too dirty here Madame" and move the car along a bit further.

And the SMELL, It is gross, makes me dry reach sometimes.......

Yesterday we went out with Victor and Margaret to do some very special shopping (next post) and we had to wait for Victor to park the car, as usual I had the camera, so I crossed the road to take a photo of them all waiting, only to get to the other side and nearly vomit as I was trying to take the photo. As I crossed the road back to the others I said "OH it stinks over there!" only to be told "Mum you where standing beside a public toilet"

OH they do exist...............Oh, they do stink....................

Guess Who's Mum "Doesn't" Have A Whirlpool?

This is a typical scene that you see on any Indian street. Washing time. This woman is sitting on a little stool very close to the local water supply to do her washing. With her buckets of soapy water she sloshes the clothes on the ground and rubs them quite vigorously, it amazes me that the clothes can stand such rough treatment. Margaret tells me this is not a good way to do your washing as it is too public. HA. Too public, what about the poor clothes and the poor woman having to do the washing..... OH, how I love my Whirlpool......