Swine Flu

How quickly things change. I no longer need to worry about what Maya will wear for her Independence Day fancy dress competition on friday because there will be no fancy dress competition. Literally twenty minutes after I'd finished writing Maya's blog the day before yesterday, we received a call from her school to say that they would be closed for the rest of the week (tuesday to friday) as a 'precauation' against swine flu. Yes, swine flu panic has well and truly hit Bangalore and whilst there have been confirmed cases, as far as I'm aware there have been no fatalaties as a result - just a huge amount of confusion.

When I told Maya yesterday morning that she wouldn't be going to shcool, I underestimated her - I thought she'd just assume it was the weekend again come early, but in fact she was well aware that we'd just had a weekend, looked at me highly suspiciously and said in a demanding voice 'Why not?' Hmm...I wasn't quite sure how much detail to go into with a three year old but whilst I was pondering this, she was off, whizzing around the apartment on her scooter (see photo) and didn't seem at all bothered suddenly that she was missing out on school. I know she really enjoys herself at school now, but Maya is aware that there are benefits to staying at home. A large one is that I try to do some writing every day (I'm attempting to get a first draft of my novel completed before we leave India...hmm....) which means Deepa will look after her and Maya has Deepa wrapped around not just her little finger but every finger she has. As soon as I had retreated to my room, no sooner had I closed the door than I heard her saying in her best little I'm-a-hungry-orphan-child-voice saying 'Deeeeee-pa, can I have a biscuit? Actually, two. Can I have two?' Yes, I think Maya will be fine at home.

New friends

Maya's best friend Aanya is off school for two weeks at the moment, visiting her mother's family in Delhi so Maya's been feeling rather folorn. I know she has other friends at school but the poor love can't remember any of their names (in fact, it's just occurred to me that maybe this has something to do with why Aanya is her 'best friend' - because with the likes of Baijayanthi's and Balasandhya's she plays with, Aanya is the sole name she can pronounce, let alone remember!).

Anyway, the photo above is of a couple of new friends, Anou and Jaya (which she can say - hooray). Their parents are from England but their mother's parents moved over to the UK from the Punjab and since moving to Bangalore just before us, they're feeling very at home being in India. We met them at the Kutteeram hotel a couple of weeks ago and yesterday they had us round to their house for an amazing lunch. Maya was in heaven. Since they're out here permanently, all their bits and bobs came with them from England and Maya spent about 2 hours just sitting in their room, staring open-mouthed at their pink walls, pink duvet covers, pink dolls house and pink doll prams. It all nearly ended in tears when Maya tried to kidnap one of those dolls that sucks their thumbs and whose eyes open and close but in the end she was talked out of it and settled on a purple balloon to match the outfit she'd chosen for herself.

On another note, it's Independence Day on friday and to celebrate this anniversary when the Britts finally let India come in to its own, there is a fancy dress competition at Maya's school. She has to wear something that celebrates Indian culture. Maya is completely obsessed with her purple skirt at the moment and has screamed so heartily the past few days when I've suggested she wears something else that I've just given in and let her wear the darn thing! Any ideas on how I can get her to participate dare I say it?!

A wee story

A very short short story of mine has just been published on a poetry and prose webzine called Ink, Sweat & Tears (it was written as a result of an exercise we were given in a creative writing class in Cambridge last year.) Click here if you feel like having a quick ganders.

A few photos

Andy commented the other day that whilst I have a ton of photos of Maya on this blog, there are barely any photos of anything else. This is true. Although I absolutely love taking photos, when I'm out and about, I'm always with Maya and Lily and can't really take pictures 1) for fear of directing too much attention towards whatever I'm taking the picture of and Maya going AWOL and 2) because I have Lily in the sling in front of me and on numerous occasions I've clunked her poor little head with my hefty Canon camera!

I have managed to take hundreds of pictures since being here, but looking through them realise that the vast majority are of my family and it's not at all obvious from them we're in India! So I've chosen just a few in which I hope bring out a teencey weencey bit of the colour and fabric of this amazing country.

First Steps

STOP PRESS - Lily is walking!!! (She is also looking rather strange at the moment after Deepa attacked her eyebrows with an eyeliner pencil as you might notice from the photo, but we won't dwell on that...)

She only started two days ago but is already zooming quite confidently (albeit unsteadily) around and is one happy little baby. She'll be giving her big sister a run for her money soon.

Colour Strike

This week and last week at Maya's school, the children have been asked to go in wearing a different colour each day to help them get a handle on the colours. Now theoretically, this is a great idea, if your child agrees to it. Which Maya doesn't. It all started off quite well with Maya decked out in green on one day, dark blue on another....but then on about day 4 Maya went on strike. No explanation. She just simply will not 'play ball' and she is soooo stubborn. (I have no idea where she gets it from). We're not going to force the child into clothes she doesn't want to wear, but it's funny seeing all the other kids in yellow or orange or light blue and Maya...well, Maya simply not subscribing.

Yesterday was orange day and, like every day now, she's having none of it. Arguably her hair colour would have sufficed anyway, but by the end of the morning, I'd convinced her to don an orange hair scarf. Sulkily, she relented, but by the time Andy had reached the school with her and she'd seen all the other little tangerine flavoured kids, she'd pulled it defiantly off. Will she be a contrary child, I wonder? Or is this more to do with the fact she's obsessed with pink?

Maya, Maya quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
and pretty pink crayons / felt-tips / t-shirts / pants / hair clips / ice-cream all in a row.

I am a ballerina (with crazy curls)

I think I've talked about Maya's love of dancing several times over the course of this blog. But I'd like to recount a little tale to you about last night's happenings. Maya often announces these days the words I am a ballerina! This is generally followed by a brilliant little twirl or pirouette, wild curls flying, with the panache that only a three year old can muster. After her disinterest in the Bollywood dance class, I've thought that for the time being, she is happier either dancing to her heart's content at home or going to watch others performing.

I read in the paper that a local cultural centre had an evening classical dance performance. Phoning up to check the directions from a friend, she said that children were not permitted in the auditorium, so Lily and Andy had to stay behind but I thought that Maya and I would give it a whirl anyway. We turned up and not only were there large, ominous signs on the door saying NO CHILDREN UNDER TEN ALLOWED but the man selling the tickets shook his head very firmly and said it was out of the question that Maya be permitted entrance to the show. Oh, pleeeease I begged. He shook his head once more and said that there was nothing he could do. I'd been preparing Maya the whole way there in the rickshaw about how wonderful it would be and felt pretty bad about it.

Maya got the wrong end of the stick and thought the problem was that there was only one ticket left so she said to the man Don't worry, we can share! Bless her. I sighed and explained to Maya that children under ten couldn't go in. But I'm a big girl! she protested. I thought I'd give it one more shot. Please, I begged the ticket seller. She loves dance so much. And she'll be very, very good and quiet. The man loooked at me, then he looked at Maya. And Maya shot him one of her best little oh, go on cheeky grins (much like the one in the picture above, which is why I've included it). At this stage, the man looked around him shiftily then said whispered conspiratorially, Ok, get in there quick! But sit at the back, and the second she makes a noise, out you come. We darted in before he could change his mind. And Maya did indeed love it. We only stayed for an hour of the two hour show. For forty five minutes of that she was transfixed by the stunning costumes and graceful movements of the dancers. In the final fifteen minutes she started getting tired and fidgety and I decided that enough was enough when she got folded up in her seat - you know those seats you get in cinemas that you have to push down - well, these ones were extra heavy, presumably because they never have little under-ten-year-old bottoms sitting on them, so I'd been holding it down for her but had got distracted by the performance and up she shot, legs now up by her ears. Maya found this hilarious but I didn't want to risk the wrath of the organisers or get the ticket-seller in trouble so we nipped out as quietly as we could.

So yes, a successful night out and now Maya has a few more moves in her dance repetoire.