The weekenders

This morning, Maya's school re-opened, but only about twenty kids turned up out of one hundred or so, scared off by swine flu panic. Maya was overjoyed to be reunited with her friend Aanya and probably even more delighted to be dished out with an endless supply of sweeties and chocolates by her teachers. I am so over this one. Honestly. (Do I sound convincing?) I was longing to make a monday morning nose-dive for the laptop to catch up on some of the writing I'd missed out on last week, only to be greeted with a power cut that lasted from 5am-3pm...sigh!

We had a lovely, relaxing weekend. We realised that it was our third to last weekend in Bangalore so decided to visit a few new places. We went to Bangalore Palace, a huge turreted affair modelled on Windsor Castle and owned by the King of Mysore. It was a historical treasure trove but our toothless 'guide' (who demanded a large tip at the end) didn't really speak English and every time we asked him a question he just guffawed and said 'yeeeeees, very very old'. It may be modelled on Windsor Castle, but I don't know if the British Royalty would approve of its hugely kitschy interior (I loved it!) and large number of paintings all over the walls of large-breasted naked women (I say!) and even some lesbian action pictures. Maya kept losing us and skipping off down narrow passageways only to be chased after by Mr.Toothless and found under a picture of two huge breasts before being returned to her family. I tried to take a photo of the palace for Maya's blog but was almost set upon by a baton-wielding guard. When I asked him why I couldn't take a photo he didn't give me an answer. Maybe they just want to keep the fact that the Maharaja of Mysore is an old perve a secret?

We also went for a late afternoon stroll in Cubbon Park, one of Bangalore's two huge parks, this one named after Mark Cubbon, a British resident who was responsible for much of the city's development in the Victorian years. It was Independence Day (or 'Pennance Day' as Maya called it) and fun to see dozens of families and people out and about with their green, white and orange Indian flags and balloons. Maya was thrown into a frenzy of excitement each time she saw either of these as she was counting them all day. When all the attention and cheek pinching all got too much however, she just retreated to the haven of her Daddy's back (picture 3) like she always does!

We also went swimming. It was a lovely warm day and as I've written before, Maya has become a little mermaid (as has Lily) and we can pretty much guarantee she'll be happy when we're at the pool. In fact, we all love it at this particular place, the Jayamahal Palace (picture one), surrounded with beautiful gardens. It struck me, as it often does here, what an amazing life we have here. We are very, very, very lucky and we never forget it. We are living in a country in which children of Maya's age are already helping their parents work. Maya's little friend Ashiswini who plays on the roadside whilst her mother sells food may never even go to school. But what an amazing privelege it is to be here. And when I first started this blog, I wrote that one of the reasons I wanted to do this was because Maya would remember so little of it. But you know what, I think I was wrong. Maya remembers are talks about Godmanchester a great deal and we lived there only up to the age of two. She will remember India. She calls herself an Indian girl, now has a brilliant head wobble and wears bindis and bangles. So yes, Maya will remember India and India will remember her.