At Home in Chaitanya Puri

So we have settled into everyday ‘home’ life here in the area called as Chaitanya Puri, which means place of heavenly bliss. The locality in which we are staying is Satya Nagar, which means place of truth. We are pretty wrapped in these lovely place names.

Although we are only 10 km from the centre of Hyderabad, if feels quite country-like here, with dirt roads, empty plots of land (littered with rubbish, but that is the norm), and not really very much traffic noise. We have watched a beautiful full moon on the verandah a few days back, and a soft golden sunset every afternoon from bedroom window.

The breakfast menu really depends on what time we get up in the morning. If we don’t get up by 8am, due to the powercuts we can’t have toasted sandwiches (which Freya really enjoys), and so Sandeep will walk to the little shop 50 metres down the road to pick up fresh, cold pasteurized milk for our cornflakes. If we get up after the power has gone we also have to wait until 10am before we can heat our water for showers. So mostly we have our baths in the middle of the day when the current is on. The morning is spent with much dance practise. Sandeep is planning to organize a performance on his birthday, February 25, so there is much for Freya to learn.

For lunch we usually have Sandeep’s favorite – pasta. This is also an easy dish to cook on our 1 burner gas stove! In the supermarkets here it is easy to purchase pasta, sauces and olive oil, we just miss the fresh basil. After lunch a sleepy atmosphere creeps in over the neighborhood, as the sun gets really hot, quickly drying all our washing on the balcony. It is very tempting to have a nap during the hot part of the day, but luckily this flat is quite cool and breezy. If we do sleep, we wake up pretty groggy, and have to get kick started by a strong cup of heavily boiled chai. By 4 pm the power is again on, and we can check our email, and Freya can use the iPod with speakers for her dance class. At dusk it is time to switch on the mosquito repellents in the power points, but Freya really loves the much more effective mosquito Zapper – it is shaped like a small racquet, has batteries and it literally electrocutes and fries any mosquitoes that as much as touches it. It is the sort of device that would surely be banned in Australia, as it gives quite a little zap if you touch it when it is on!

Freya on the hunt for mozzies

Last night Sandeep cooked a lovely South Indian dinner with fried ladies fingers (okra) and LOTS of rice – people in South India just love their rice. The whole life in the South and the landscape in the countryside is dominated by rice. We got out the laptop, and watched a Hindi movie version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth called as Macbhool – it was very well made. Freya also enjoyed a hot chocolate, made with milk powder, as we have no fridge for keeping the milk here.

We have now also employed a maid, which is pretty standard in India. She comes twice a day to wash clothes, sweep and wash the floors, and also wash up our dishes. It is a great and inexpensive arrangement, and I am sure it is going to be really easy to get used to it. Much harder to get unused to.

We have made a little ‘home-office’ on the bottom marble shelf in our wardrobe, but it gets pretty tiring for the back to sit here cross legged and write…I think we will go out and invest in a few chairs – (sheer luxury)! But we have to wait until Sandeep’s car is back from the smash repairers. A wildly drunk rickshaw driver crashed straight into the side of his new car 2 days ago, when he was moving our remaining luggage. Thankfully he is insured, and the repair work is only taking a few days. Wishing you all a great day from the place of heavenly bliss.