A week in the life of....

Thought I would try a new approach to my blog and for one week, write everyday, to give some sense of what a typical week looks like.

So today started groggily. We had a two hour power-cut in the middle of the night, which means no AC or fan, which means waking up drowning in your own sweat, which generally is not conducive to a restful night. There have been quite a lot of powercuts - apparently more this year than previously and recently there have been some public demonstrations, protesting to the authorities about it.

Tanuj, my Hindi teacher arrived at 9.15 and I blundered my way through my Hindi lesson. Really interesting thing about Hindi is that much of it is 'indirect' - which means that rather than saying, 'I am late' or I am hungry'...they use a construction that translates as 'lateness happened to me' or 'Hunger has come to/attached itself to me'. There is a sense of the subject as passive - a thing upon which other things act. I am not sure where this comes from - perhaps the Hindu religion where so much of one's fate is at the whim of one God or another. Anyway, it makes a great excuse; "Yes, I know I'm late, but you see it's not my fault, bloody lateness, it just sprang out of nowhere, took me hostage and stopped me from getting here on time, what was I to do!"

After this I did some emails and admin stuff - booked train tickets to Calcutta, where I am going next week. Then about 2.30pm I braved the heat and took an auto to Chaya. I Depsite knowing the system, I am currently paying over the odds; the heat is getting to everyone - people are grumpy and fractious and the price of autos has gone up 10 rupees - but I can't begrudge it. Auto driving is certainly not easy work at this time of year.

It was, as ever, great to see the kids. Everyone is feeling the heat - and there seems to be an awful lot of napping going on. Everywhere you look there is a boy crashed out on any available surface. The other day I gave the children I was teaching a five minute break and within 30 seconds they were all asleep - I kid you not!

I have been reading Harry Potter aloud to the kids, but despite a lot of gesticulating, replacing difficult words and translating, I think much of it is lost, so I bought them the Hindi version at the weekend and gave it to them today, which caused much excitement. The junior kids (14,15 year olds) overcame their heat lethargy and we all sweated our way through 90 mins of Environmental Science - me resurrecting my A-level geography and attempting to teach them about atmosphere/weather and global warming! It is so hot that my whiteboard markers have dried up after only two classes of use!

As usual the kids totally amaze me with their enthusiasm and energy and positive attitude. Heck, these kids actually thank me for teaching them...that's right, thank me! And they cant wait to be the first to bring me glasses of water, fetch the white-board, clean the white board. They ask such great questions and are so eager to learn. It is beginning to get harder and harder to think about leaving them.

I finish at Chaya at 5.30 and grab an auto to the India Habitat Centre (Arts & Cultural venue), where there is a free talk I want to hear. On the way a storm erupts - the temperature drops, the wind picks up buffeting my auto across the road and making an already dicey journey, even dicier. Dust is thrown up and gets in my eyes. By the time I get there it is properly pouring down. THE MONSOON HAS COME! A pretty momentous occasion here - it is apparently late this year and should have come on the 26th -well, it wasnt the monsoon's fault...lateness obviously stalled it! I stand in a doorway with others who have been caught out and just enjoy watching the torrential downpour.

When it eases, I head to the canteen for a lassi and then onto the auditorium. The lecture is on the challenge that Black Money presents to the Indian economy. It's an interesting talk and worthy of a blog itself. I am by now unsurprised to learn that India has 1.5 TRILLION dollars (or 20% of its GDP) stashed away in foreign bank accounts (mainly in Switzerland) - this is just leagues ahead of any other country; the UK for example has a mere 390 million dollars of black money.

The speaker's proposed solution is interesting. He suggests that, although it may not be the most morally laudable solution, perhaps incentives should be offered to people to bring the money back to India and attempts to bring them to justice be relaxed somewhat. He argued that after all, the gains to the country (which would be astronomical - it is predicted that much of India's social problems could be remedied using this money) perhaps make a less morally exemplary course of action necessary. This, I am learning, is quite Indian - morals can become flexible, just tweaked a little, if it is to a material or practical advantage. Survival, success...these are the fundamental imperatives. I have to say, he makes a convincing argument! And again, typically Indian - the speaker ends by saying that India should look on the bright side - it is because of its gargantuan black economy that it has been cushioned somewhat from the current gloabl economic crisis...it is a joke, but only just.

I head back to my flat in Jangpura where Gabriela and I take advantage of the cooler air and eat our pasta dinner sitting outside on the balcony. At 10pm Gabi and Emily meet the landlord to discuss our termite infestation (Delhi buildings are just rife with them) - the little critters have already obliterated my wardrobe and have now started on the bathroom cabinet.

It's been a really good day and now I am off to bed - hoping for a power-cut-less sleep.