Bookaroo - Children's Literature Festival, Delhi Nov 28-29, 2015

Maia and I have had a very inspiring and exciting day - a day in the world of books!

"Thanks to book lovers BOOKAROO has grown from strength to strength over the years. While in 2011 it featured over 60 speakers participating in over 90 events. Speakers from 12 countries including India spread the joy of reading through their talks, readings, performances, music, craft… In 2012 we had 97 speakers.

Bookaroo is much more than just storytelling – although we have plenty of that!
The festival includes workshops on everything from mathematics to cartoons, from building alien worlds to recycling paper; as well as story sessions under the banyan tree, puppet shows, and a doodle wall to let your imagination take flight!"
On bookaroo's facebook page you can read more.

 

We walked around the area in Shankar's Centre for Children and the British School. There was a lot of activity - painting, arts and crafts, and an amazing list of guest speakers. Maia and I decided to go to "The Thetre" and listen to Roopa Pai talk about "By the Power of the BG" - the power of Bhagavad Gita - a part of an epic Hindu poem called Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva. It is a very important literary work in Indian history and tells stories of the Lord Krishna.

Roopa Pai has written a book called The Gita - the stories about Krishna written for children.

Looking to pass the time before the next workshop, we continued checking out what was on offer, and suddenly walked into ...

... Martin Widmark!! Here is his Swedish site. Maia has read several of his books about Jerry and Maya's detective agency (Lassemajas detektivbyrå) and looooooves them. And so do I!
It was of course a thrill to meet the author in person and have a chance to talk with him. Maia had brought one of the books from home for him to sign.

He had come to Delhi and the Bookaroo festival to promote his latest project together with 3 other authors. "The Sherlock Holmes Connection" Two Swedish and two Indian authors--Martin Widmark, Anushka Ravishankar, Katarina Genar and Bikram Ghosh--follow the journey of the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes in four gripping mystery stories. Here is a link to an interview with them about this project.

Yeah, well, worth a try at least.

 

It was interesting hearing the four of them talk about this project and of course we went to the book store afterwards and of course we got that book signed as well. Martin Widmark and Katarina Genar turn out to be very nice people.

 Stacking up!

 "So nice to meet you, Maia!!"

 Yes, we hope so too.

INA market, Delhi

Time for a dinner party with friends. What to serve, what to serve .... hmmmm ... let's go to INA market and see what they have to offer. Off we went, Ian and I. It was a great experience - my first time at INA market, which I have heard a lot about.
The selection of spices and herbs is amazing. Whatever we asked for they produced in an instant. They even had soap nuts, which we use for our laundry. A lot of people here use them to wash their hair as well. Check this out about soap nuts!

"The Indian National Army Market, popularly known as INA Market, is known as the food bazaar of Delhi. Fresh seafood, meat, spices, vegetables, fruits - if you don't get it anywhere else, you get it at this market. You can also get some rare wine and liquor. The shops here sell varieties of imported foodstuff and the shopkeepers speak even in languages like French, German and Japanese." (source)

Wikipedia gives this information: "INA colony is a residential colony maintained by the Airports Authority of India for their employees. It was named after a former private airline, Indian National Airways, which was amongst those nationalised and merged to form, Indian Airlines in 1953.
Situated on Aurobindo Marg, across Dilli Haat and behind INA Market, the colony lies near Safdarjung Airport, on Sri Aurobindo Marg, opposite to Laxmibai Nagar adjacent to Kidwai Nagar east. The INA market also has shops selling varieties of imported foodstuff and wines for expatriates due to its proximity to Chanakyapuri diplomatic enclave. Starting 2010, it is serviced by the INA underground station of the Delhi Metro. INA market is also famous for its Sea Food items."

Reading about it and actually seeing it are two very different things! Live chickens, raw meat, fish and sea food share the space with flies, dirty feet, cheese, food stalls and fresh vegetables.

Hustle and bustle and lots going on, and at the same time friendly and with a smile mostly.

Hmmm, salmonella anyone?

Some of this fish and sea food is actually fresh - just come in from either the west or the east coast that morning probably.

Imagine this work space all day every day! Where is HR when you need them? Oh, ... yes, right.

Pork!! And lots of it. Strange to see here.

Slightly mixed up, or?

WHAT is this?!

Make way, make way.

I don't think I have lived in India long enough yet to stomach this. Maybe ... never?

In the end Ian went for wonderful grilled mackerel with rösti and poached vegetables. For dessert he made a divine banoffee pie with a hobnob base. If you have not tried it, do next time. For a starter Om and Durga made samosas that went down very easily! And they learned a new word - in French no less: crudité.
All in all we had a lovely day and evening.

Diwali party at The World Spa Nov 2015

Remember the Diwali party last year? We were still fairly new to everything that is India - well, I admit it is so much of everything here - smells, flavours, sights, culture, music, colours, dust, light, sounds, the list is endless - that I don't think we would ever really integrate even if we stayed for a very long time. India would always have a surprise around the next corner.

This year there were 590 tickets sold and over 90 residents performing on stage! An amazing turnout and commitment in the complex of which we have the privilege of being part.

 Lights are up, tables and chairs in place and an army of staff in the "kitchen".

An entrance was built up and made beautiful to set the mood.
Is that one of our Indian neighbours?

 Oh no, that is my husband very handsome in his kurta pyjama.

  Fresh merigolds everywhere! So beautiful.

 Some of our friends came along - as residents we can bring guests.

Even the decorations hanging behind JD and Steve are garlands of fresh merigolds.

Some ladies from our older population performed a dance that was a prayer for good health and prosperity carrying candles in their hands.

The girls 5-8 years old had a coach for weeks and performed a dance to some of the songs we hear on the radio at the moment. They had so much fun, and so did we.

These guys did some really cool bollywood dancing that blew us all away.

3 bars on the premises, yeah, nobody had to go thirsty this night.

Maia and friends - Keone from Mocambique and Radikha from India.

 

I took 1 picture of this guy and he did not leave my side! "Can I get you something, madame? A drink? Ice-cream?" 

As last year there was a huge buffet with food from different regions of India, all very good, some very spicy!

Our good neighbours Louise and Dinesh.

Time to go home. It was a great experience - AGAIN - and hope to be here again next year.

Happy Diwali