Janet was away in the US for a bit less than 4 weeks and she returned this past Monday- safely with no major problems on her return trip. She flew on Qatar Air and found it to be quite good. It is convenient that they fly OVER Europe during volcanic ash spells.
She seems to be adjusting well to being back in India. Ziggy and Zoe were a little "stand-offish" at first, but seem to accept her now.
The day before Janet arrived an Air India plan crashed at Mangalore, which is a city on the west coast - a bit more than half day drive from Bangalore. Indians generally try to avoid flying on Air India, except that they often have the lowest fares and fly to places others don't go since it is the national airline. Almost 160 people died, but about 8 survived. Not too much other news. Still a little hot and humid.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Temps. are temporary
A few days ago a "cyclone" was reported to be coming toward the east coast of India and the reports were that we could get 2- 4 inches of rain or "up to 11 inches"... whatever that means. The result was that it was overcast and much cooler for the past few days! The low temps at night being around 70F and highs maybe 80- 82F which is a huge improvement over every day above 90F and humid without much cooling at night. We have A/C here, but with the frequent power cuts the units have periods of going on and off so frequently that they just managed to keep the place comfortable. Old time Bangaloreans say that it will stay cooler now. Monsoon "starts June 1" according to people here- without much hesitation over specifying the date. We will see.
The cyclone did not bring large amounts of rain to Bangalore, because it turned north. However, it brought a lot of rain to the areas closer to the coast. Of course, that means flooding and deaths too! Toll is 36 according to the newspaper, but our impression is that these numbers tend to be low estimates.
Meanwhile, Temperatures in New Delhi were expected to reach 120F yesterday- this not being too unusual there for this time of year! Certainly, we often see 110F reported often.... but "its dry there".
This morning a plane crash has been reported by CNN in "western India". Upon reading a bit, it is actually in "southern India"- Mangalore- which is less than half a day drive from Bangalore. It is on the west coast, to the CNN headline is correctly describing the location in that sense. The early reports suggest about 160 people killed.
Before coming to India Jim read a book written around one hundred years ago by someone who seemed to be an English Gentleman who lived in India for awhile. In one part of the book, the author talks about how an English farmer would describe a catastrophe as the year "when half his wheat crop was destroyed by a hail storm and a third of his corn while he lost 2 cows and 5 sheep to a drought" (These are not exact quotes- just similar examples based on memory of the meaning that writer tried to pass on). The Indian farmer would describe a catastrophe as the year "when he lost his entire crop, all of his animals, two sons, 2 daughters and 4 members of his extended family to the drought and subsequent starvation and disease". That perspective still seems valid to a large extent, though better today than back then.
The cyclone did not bring large amounts of rain to Bangalore, because it turned north. However, it brought a lot of rain to the areas closer to the coast. Of course, that means flooding and deaths too! Toll is 36 according to the newspaper, but our impression is that these numbers tend to be low estimates.
Meanwhile, Temperatures in New Delhi were expected to reach 120F yesterday- this not being too unusual there for this time of year! Certainly, we often see 110F reported often.... but "its dry there".
This morning a plane crash has been reported by CNN in "western India". Upon reading a bit, it is actually in "southern India"- Mangalore- which is less than half a day drive from Bangalore. It is on the west coast, to the CNN headline is correctly describing the location in that sense. The early reports suggest about 160 people killed.
Before coming to India Jim read a book written around one hundred years ago by someone who seemed to be an English Gentleman who lived in India for awhile. In one part of the book, the author talks about how an English farmer would describe a catastrophe as the year "when half his wheat crop was destroyed by a hail storm and a third of his corn while he lost 2 cows and 5 sheep to a drought" (These are not exact quotes- just similar examples based on memory of the meaning that writer tried to pass on). The Indian farmer would describe a catastrophe as the year "when he lost his entire crop, all of his animals, two sons, 2 daughters and 4 members of his extended family to the drought and subsequent starvation and disease". That perspective still seems valid to a large extent, though better today than back then.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Weather continues to be
Hot and humid! Temps seem like they have been above 90F almost every day since late February. Most Indians don't seem to mind it too much, but many complain about it too. It really limits what you feel like doing in a day. Mostly, we just want to stay inside where it is A/C'd. However, many places like some of the newer shopping malls do not have especially good A/C. last weekend Jim went to one mall to a book shop, but the combination of big crowd and mediocre A/C made it unpleasant to stay very long.
Today, Jim was going to visit a craft fair, but it just seemed too hot, so he just picked up some art works from a framer and visited a bookshop and a small art show before going back home to rest. The heat and humidity at this time of year really does seem oppressive, but considering that much of Northern India experiences temperatures routinely above 105F these days, then it doesn't seem so bad. The North is not expected to cool down much until Oct. It has been raining more often- about every other day in the evenings. Monsoon officially starts June 1. Last year it was not much of an event.
While in the bookstore, Jim was browsing some shelves and twice was asked to move to another location because they wanted to clean a shelf off. He was asked to move a third time when they wanted to sweep the floor in the area where he was looking. The tasks, undoubtedly needed to be done, but it just seemed odd to ask a customer to move away, during business hours, so they could clean shelves. They don't seem to appreciate customers the same way as in the US or most of Europe.
On Thursday, Ziggy and Zoe went to the vet to have their teeth cleaned. The vet had recommended this when they went for checkups about 6 weeks back. They had to be sedated for this because they would not sit still otherwise, but the vet did not have to give stronger stuff- at least. Zoe came through it just fine and seemed quite normal later in the day, but Ziggy has been more sluggish. The vet said that Ziggy has a cavity or two in his teeth that should be attended to. Here, they do not fill cat teeth, so it means extraction. Fortunately, it is not deemed urgent, so we have time to consider whether we really want to do it here. The vet we use seem pretty good, but the sterility of all the tools, people and facility is very hard to judge. Jim did see them mopping the floors in the place with what smelled like an antiseptic liquid.
Janet has been in the US the past 2.5 weeks. She reported that things at our primary home seemed fine. She went to the Cape Cod house too, with friends, and there, unfortunately, had to spend some time trying to have contractors come in to look at water damage to the living room floor. We know there were heavy rainstorms on the Cape about 6 weeks back, so it may have happened then, but we don't know. We pay someone to check on the house periodically, but we have to guess he doesn't do it often! At any rate there is some damage to be fixed, but we are not really sure where the water came in. The winds can be fierce on the cape and blow the rain horizontally. That makes it a little harder to figure out.
Friends who were in India about a year before we arrived and who returned to the US about 1 year ago said that as soon as the new year past they started thinking more and more about going back home. We found that we also started feeling that time is short here. We are supposed to return in October- just about 5 more months. Time really flies by here! It really is astounding to think we have been here for more than 1.5 years!
Today, Jim was going to visit a craft fair, but it just seemed too hot, so he just picked up some art works from a framer and visited a bookshop and a small art show before going back home to rest. The heat and humidity at this time of year really does seem oppressive, but considering that much of Northern India experiences temperatures routinely above 105F these days, then it doesn't seem so bad. The North is not expected to cool down much until Oct. It has been raining more often- about every other day in the evenings. Monsoon officially starts June 1. Last year it was not much of an event.
While in the bookstore, Jim was browsing some shelves and twice was asked to move to another location because they wanted to clean a shelf off. He was asked to move a third time when they wanted to sweep the floor in the area where he was looking. The tasks, undoubtedly needed to be done, but it just seemed odd to ask a customer to move away, during business hours, so they could clean shelves. They don't seem to appreciate customers the same way as in the US or most of Europe.
On Thursday, Ziggy and Zoe went to the vet to have their teeth cleaned. The vet had recommended this when they went for checkups about 6 weeks back. They had to be sedated for this because they would not sit still otherwise, but the vet did not have to give stronger stuff- at least. Zoe came through it just fine and seemed quite normal later in the day, but Ziggy has been more sluggish. The vet said that Ziggy has a cavity or two in his teeth that should be attended to. Here, they do not fill cat teeth, so it means extraction. Fortunately, it is not deemed urgent, so we have time to consider whether we really want to do it here. The vet we use seem pretty good, but the sterility of all the tools, people and facility is very hard to judge. Jim did see them mopping the floors in the place with what smelled like an antiseptic liquid.
Janet has been in the US the past 2.5 weeks. She reported that things at our primary home seemed fine. She went to the Cape Cod house too, with friends, and there, unfortunately, had to spend some time trying to have contractors come in to look at water damage to the living room floor. We know there were heavy rainstorms on the Cape about 6 weeks back, so it may have happened then, but we don't know. We pay someone to check on the house periodically, but we have to guess he doesn't do it often! At any rate there is some damage to be fixed, but we are not really sure where the water came in. The winds can be fierce on the cape and blow the rain horizontally. That makes it a little harder to figure out.
Friends who were in India about a year before we arrived and who returned to the US about 1 year ago said that as soon as the new year past they started thinking more and more about going back home. We found that we also started feeling that time is short here. We are supposed to return in October- just about 5 more months. Time really flies by here! It really is astounding to think we have been here for more than 1.5 years!
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