The Mother Uncovered

Since this blog is focussed on Maya, you may well wonder what the devil I do with myself all the time. So I thought I'd write a little blog on me and what I get up to here in Bangalore. As you know, we are hugely, massively, astonishingly privileged to have the wonderful Deepa helping out for three hours in the morning. By the time she's purged the place of ants, I get anywhere from one and a half to two hours to myself and this is time for me to write. During the past years I managed about this much in a whole week to satiate my passion if I was very, very lucky so I still have to pinch myself sometimes as it feels too good to be true. I write anything and everything from articles to haikus, short stories, blogs and, up until going back to England, I was writing my novel (about half way there - watch this space!). Since being back this time round, I've put the novel on hold to devote my precious morning time to my latest idea - a creative writing website for busy women which I'm reeeeeally excited about. It's still early days but it's slowly but surely coming together, so watch that space too!

One morning a week I go to a creche to help out with kids aged 2-6. So often we see families labouring on the roadsides, building houses or carrying heavy loads of cement on their heads. It is heartbreaking to see many of their children also helping with the work, but if they're not, generally they are playing on the side of the road and obviously not getting an education. The place I go to is a convent which also runs this small creche for such children at the cost of 50 rupees a month (about 7o pence) to enable them to be educated and to be in a different environment. I finish my morning covered in chalk, glitter, snot and God knows what else and I don't know about an education but on the whole, the children love being there, playing with others and with us. When I walk into the room, their little hands fly to their foreheads (it's bizarre, it's like a military salute) and they screech Good Morning Auntie! They are wonderful and I'm going to miss them.

Two evenings a week I go to a very unusual yoga class. It's called Bharat Thakur Artistic yoga and whilst I don't kid myself for a second that I look artistic, I definitely get some good exercise. I also have Reiki to help me sleep sweetly. What else? I seek out places that have good cake, feel the leaves of the bushes to keep myself grounded in nature in the middle of this crazy city, drink lots of chai, curse the frenetically noisy dogs that yap through the night, write pages and pages in my diary (yes, as well as all the other writing) and stick in little things that will one day remind me of India, stand at the vegetable stalls and marvel at the colours and textures, buy TimeOut Bangalore just to torture myself with what I'm missing (we can't find a babysitter!), stick Maya's artwork all around the walls and think to myself again and again, how lucky we are to be here. Oh, and I take lots of photos, especially of Indian film posters peeling off walls (like the one above) - people think I am craziness personified.