Our Colourful Home

Nearly three months after settling into our Delhi apartment, I took some "snaps" to share with the rest of you, and eight months later, I'm finally posting them; for safety reasons I thought it wiser to wait till we moved.  Welcome to our home!

Looking straight back the hallway through the front door.

This first room is our dining/study area.  Second on the left is the kitchen, followed by a bathroom-cum-laundry room, spare bedroom, and the master bedroom at the end of the hall.

 Our dining/study room and table.

 It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the walls are pale yellow.

One of my aesthetical favourites about our apartment is the ceilings.

Here, the yellow dining/study room ceiling on the right,

and the pink hallway ceiling on the left.

Our kitchen!  Actually, this was one of the things that sold me on this apartment.  I knew we'd be spending a lot of time in here, so when I saw this kitchen - spacious, with lots of countertop space - it was love at first sight.  Clockwise from the bottom left:  green-handled broom; dustbin (trash can) and dustpan; drying rack; water purifier; gas stove; cooking oil, an essential in every Indian dish; fridge; Domino's and Pizza Hut flyers on the fridge.  And hidden in the top right corner, in the window above the stove, is an exhaust fan.  Which helps to remove some of the hot air, but doesn't do a whole lot for keeping the cooks cool while cooking.  Because everyone uses gas stoves, as a safety measure, there are no overhead fans in the kitchen.  Which explains how the kitchen comes to be 90+ F in the summers.

Bathroom-cum-laundry room.  That's our colourful washer and rinser on the left :)

Master bedroom, complete with makeshift curtain. Temperature-wise, the coolest room in the house.
 

Master bathroom.  Aka "wet bathroom," very common in India.  Above the toilet is a geyser (pronounced "geezer" by Indians), since homes don't come with a centralized water heater.

The picture on the right is our shower.  There is no ledge to stop the water from running out (hence the name "wet bathroom", but the floor is slightly angled so that the water runs into the drain.

Our choti-choti (very small) back deck and clothesline.

(And don't miss those trees in the background!)

ETAs Visit the Village

We departed at 5:30 Saturday morning for one very bumpy car ride to the village.

Stephanie and Aileen

Nick

Stephanie battled the bumps and tried to sleep.

 

 

Enjoying lunch, Indian style!

 Everyone was keen to sleep on the roof--not something we get to do every day in the US.

The sky was clear and starry, and the mosquitoes didn't hang around for too long.

Good morning, sleepy heads!  We all were pretty exhausted.

Joanna

Kim

Stephanie in the background, Kim, Aileen, Joanna, Abby in the foreground, and Amma (paternal grandmother) in the blue sari

My mother-in-law used cement to mount these broken glass bottles on top of the brick wall surrounding the rooftop to keep away the pigeons and monkeys.  This shot is taken on the roof looking out from the backside of the house.

Another shot of early morning India from the rooftop.

On Sunday, Amma Ji invited us over to her house.  There we enjoyed more sweets and aloo/pyaaj pakora (fried potato and onion).  And got "bindied" by Amma, who seems to be a popular favorite!

 

Kim gets bindied!

So does Jo...

And Stephanie...

Aleen bindies Amma...

...and then gets bindied herself.

Jo's beautiful mehendi/masquerade

Kim gets silly with some of the village boys who stopped by.

Amma wanted us to go on the roof to see all the cow patties she's made so that we have something to remember her by when we go back to the US.  These are special cow patties.  Most are only half this size.  If you look closely, you can see a finger mark pattern in the patties.  These will be burned for fuel.

Now Jo can officially say that she's touched a cow patty!

These four are still in the process of drying.

...more pictures to come soon!