What is that noise?

When you have guests you start noticing things again that have become normal or unnoticed, things you have gotten used to. At least that is what happens to me. My dad says it is like living next to a railway: at first you can't sleep because of the trains passing, but after a while you wake up when a train is off schedule.

India is a noisy country, I don't think there is any time, day or night, when it is quiet. In our first week here one of the boys said: "It is never Silent Night in India!"
During the day you hear the traffic, helicopters from the air base close by, people talking (loud), music from a neighbour's house, the clinking of a little bell to set the pace for a dance class, squirrels, birds, dogs and the maid next door doing the dishes and dropping half of it on the floor (at least 4 times a day!).
At night you can hear the trains (VERY loud horn), packs of dogs fighting and of course the traffic. Early morning it is the mosque, the temple, maids on their way to work talking out loud together or (even louder) on their phones and the drivers getting the cars washed and ready.
As I said, we have become used to it and the only thing that still wakes me is the cricket game on Sunday morning, 8:00 o'clock, when all the men from the community have great fun in our street.

I have started noticing it all again now that my parents are here and are commenting on it. Funny thing is that we all noticed how silent the nights were when we were back in The Netherlands.

Lazy day (for some)

Mum & Dad had a lazy day today. They slept in till 9:00 and spent most of the day sitting outside on the terras reading and drinking coffee/tea. They had a walk on the compound in the afternoon and then sat outside again until the mosquitoes became too active.

I went to the slum this morning to try and teach some English (got 4 ladies interested today) and then joined my parents on the terras.

Mum and I baked a cake for Baburaj's birthday today. It smelled lovely and looked jammy and Babu texted to confirm it was indeed really tasty.

Tomorrow will be more action packed (we have to do some grocery shopping at least, haha) and Saturday we will do a sight seeing tour around Bangalore.

History, Technology and an Interesting Man

Simon had a field trip today to the State Archaeological Museum, the Venkatappa Art Gallery and the Vishweswariah Technological Museum. We (Mum, Dad and I) decided we would come along. To safe Simon from embarrassment (nothing worse than having your mother and grand parents tag along at his age), we took a different route.

The technology museum was very interesting, with lots of interactive displays. It reminded me of the Science Museum in London. Simon's class wasn't the only one to go on a field trip to the museum, we were surrounded by school children. It was very busy and very noisy.
At first we were being observed from a distance, till a brave little boy came up to us, stood right in front of my parents and stared at them with his mouth open. We moved on and soon a group of children came over and started "Hello Auntie, Hello Uncle, how are you?" We greeted them back and my mum and I moved on, but dad started to talk to them and soon he was the sole object of interest for most of the children there. He was completely surrounded by kids that wanted to shake his hand. Unfortunately I didn't get my camera out in time, but this is a photo of the last group that stuck around after dad tried to escape.

After touring the 3 musea, we had a lovely lunch, al fresco, at UBCity.

I think my parents have had a good taste of Bangalore today. We all had a great time. Day two of their holiday in Bangalore was an informative and eventful one.

Where do we belong?

This posting in India is our 4th posting and Adriaan's 6th job since he joined Shell. We have been together since 1988, when we were neighbours on campus at University. We have lived in many different houses, met lots and lots of people, made friends for life, have seen numerous parts of the world and had 3 children along the way.
Our boys are Dutch, but have only lived in The Netherlands for 3 years in a row and some months in between postings,due to evacuations. Only one of them was actually born in The Netherlands.
It makes me wonder sometimes 'Where do we belong?' I think for Adriaan and myself the answer is still The Netherlands, but for the boys it might not be. Should I worry about that? How important is it to feel you belong somewhere? Is it part of your identity? Can you really be a global citizen?

When we go on leave to The Netherlands, "Home leave", we say we are going home for the holidays. We do have a house there. But when the time comes to go back to Bangalore, we also say we are going home again. Sounds schizophrenic, but it feels quite right and we really do feel at home in both places.

Adriaan and I love this way of living, moving to a new place every 4 years, but the children have no say in the matter. So far they seem fine with it, but how will it affect them in the long run? Hard to tell and I do worry sometimes.

So far it looks like we belong wherever we live at that moment. One thing I know for sure:

We belong together as a family! 

Fun filled chaos

Today was my first day "solo" at the slum to give English lessons. I came well prepared and ready to go, so after greeting everyone, I told the ladies I was going to start in 5 minutes and went to the class room to get the books out. Soon someone came up to me asking if I was planning to teach there, because they were expecting a group of American students to come in any minute and they needed the room...

So 10 minutes later I managed to get 3 of the 7 from the group to join me for the lesson in the store room, the others were too busy making the bags* or just couldn't be bothered because they had too much fun chatting and listening to music.
The lesson went well till all the American students were shown around and all filed into the store room to have a look at the bags for sale. So that was it for the morning, 30 minutes instead of 2x 45minutes.

In the midst of all the chaos I had some nice conversations with different people and cuddled the cutest baby ever (apart from my 3 babies of course).

It was a morning well spent!

* The women I teach are working for Anu. This is what it says on the label that comes with the bags:


"A sustainable business enterprise set up for and by women from the slums of Janakiram, Bangalore. Anu provides respectable work and creche facilities for young mothers with children aged 3 and under."


The women make bags from discarded cement bags which they embroider or from juice cartons. There are 19 women from the slum working at Anu at the moment and a lot of volunteers, to help out with day to day things, to teach English or to raise funds.

Starting up again

It is always hard to get back into a routine after the holidays, but somehow it seems to be extra hard this time. We arrived back in Bangalore last Friday around lunch time. Except for Simon, non of us slept for about 24 hours, so lack of sleep and a 4.5 hour time difference made us feel like zombies. Luckily we had the whole weekend to catch up on sleep and synchronise with Bangalore-time. Yesterday it felt like we were there, but when the alarm clock woke me this morning at 5:45 hr. I was totally disoriented.

So now the boys are back in school, A is at the office and I am pottering around the house. I have a long list of groceries to shop for.

Tomorrow will be my first time to do the English lessons at the slum, so I will have to make some preparations for that this afternoon.

Next week my parents will arrive for almost 4 weeks holiday in Bangalore. We are looking forward to having them around.

Now it is time for coffee, strong coffee, to keep me going!

Photo collages part 2

Red Fort, Agra



Taj Mahal

Amber Fort, Jaipur