For House Maid

I decided to create a new page with all my India blogs on, since I have so many – http://www.tanya-n.com/?page_id=192.  I still haven’t gone through all my pictures from my September 2008 Mumbai trip, sooo six months later, here are some left over images.

During Eid, there’s a big night market and the restaurant below is really popular.  It might not look so appetising but the chicken there was some of the best I have ever had!

I’ve mentioned these ‘hijra‘ before, also known as eunuchs.

They aren’t an uncommon sight around Mumbai.  They saw me taking pictures of them, and they came and sat next to me.

There are superstitions linked to such hijra.  For example, if you manage to piss them off, they will pass bad vibes your way, and you could end up being cursed.  So it’s wise not to get on their bad side, apparently.  I don’t really believe in such things but when you’re in India, it seems like anything is possible, and as irrational as it sounds, I would really rather not have someone wish bad things on me!

So, traditionally, you can appease them by giving them some (surprise surprise) money.  Every time I have come across them they will say nice things about my appearance, and perform blessings on me.  It’s basically their way of saying ‘give me some money or else you get cursed, not blessed’.  Anyway, there’s obviously a lot of debate over hijra and whether they affect society to a great deal or not, is a different story.

Some protest was happening to do with religion, specifically dealing with an issue between Hindus and Christians.  Let’s face it, most of today’s problems are down to religion, but I digress.

Unfortunately I wish I had more information about it.  I remember seeing stuff about this in the news at the time, but I didn’t do much research.  A quick Google search gave me this.

I don’t know what this temple’s called, but it’s literally adourned entirely in bells, of every size.  Amazing, really.

A view of Mumbai, taken from Farah Khan‘s appartment:

It’s not a very attractive picture, but believe it or not, these flats are inhabited by the richer citizens of Mumbai, many of them in the Bollywood industry.  They might not look particularly great from the outside, but then, residential buildings in Mumbai aren’t the prettiest of sights.  Inside they’ll be a completely different story.

If only we all had maids to keep our houses clean : )

I’ll end with the first picture I took on this trip..

I’ll be back in Mumbai very soon : ) Yay.

Snow Day!

2nd February, 2009 – South London

Last Monday, I woke up to this:

10cms of snow : )

I was starting work at 7am that morning, so I left the house before 6am, knowing it’d take much longer to get in.

It turned out to be impossible.  You see, when it snows (which it rarely does on this scale – but even a sprinkling has a similar effect), life in London comes to a standstill.

All buses had been suspended the night before, and this was the state of my train station:

A train arrived but the driver said it wasn’t going anywhere because a train in front had broken down.  Not surprising.  In this city, public transport isn’t the most reliable on a good day.

Normally at this time my station would be busy, but most people had clearly decided to stay in.   People stood around, staring at the screens wondering when any train would arrive.

My camera clearly couldn’t cope with the extreme change of temperature:

It was amusing seeing people loitering around wondering what to do and how to get into work.  I’ve never seen so many strangers talk to each other!

Eventually, it was announced that all trains were suspended.  With literally no way of getting into central London, I walked back home.

There was only one shop open on the high street – a butcher’s:

I asked the butcher why he had bothered opening.  He told me that the shop had been around for 100 years, and a bit of snow wasn’t going to stop him now.  Even during wartime it had stayed open.  That is serious determination and resilience! Quite rare really these days.

He invited me in and showed me some old pictures.

Until now, I had never even noticed the shop even though I walk past it every day..

Of course, the snow was headline news for days.  It’s funny how a bit of white fluffy stuff can bring lives to a standstill.  I was happy enough to see my town looking the best it’s ever looked.

The next morning was a similar sight:

This time I managed to just about get on a train, although most of the snow in central London had turned to grey slush by now.  The ice that followed, on the other hand took about a week to clear, and meant that walking to the station was a seriously dangerous mission!  What would normally take 5 minutes took 20, and I could dedicate an entire blog entry to just how bad the roads were!  Us Brits love to rant about the weather.

Bring back the snow I say!

I never got to build a snow man.