India Expat Life Chapter 4 ~ Life is Good

 {The following post was written almost a year ago. I’ve been writing posts steadily as the months have gone by, but then failed to polish and publish them. It's never easy to write when things get challenging, as they invariably do when living abroad, but I'll get to that later. For now we'll go back in time to the "honeymoon phase" of life in India. My plan now is to publish all my, until now, unfinished posts from the previous year in quick succession. It suits our times I suppose: Stephen and I binge watch whole seasons of TV shows in a couple of days. ha  So my first post of 2023 describes life in 2022. Hopefully the other posts will follow and I'll catch up to present time. Maybe then I can start publishing in a more timely manner going forward. *fingers crossed*}

 

August 20, 2022

“Life is good.” This thought has popped into my mind several times over the last few weeks. There are just so many things to enjoy about this expat life of ours, the India chapter.

I made tropical fruit smoothies this morning, like I have nearly every day now for the past three weeks.

Mangoes, papayas, pineapple, bananas…all so much more delicious here than they are in the US because they are local. But mango season is nearly over now, so I’m making the most of the days/weeks that we have left to get them.

At the market where I bought mangoes and papaya, I stopped at one of the flower stalls. Shops selling the same type of things are regularly grouped together here in India. I’ve bought from this florist before. He sold me the most beautiful lilies I’ve ever had. 

So, I’ve made a point to seek out his shop specifically even though every shop owner will try strenuously to get my business. This time I asked him to make a bouquet for a gift. I selected the flowers: white lilies, white carnations, purple orchids, lavender, and some greenery. He made the most beautiful bouquet I have ever held.

It was also enormous. Much too big for the size gift I was intending. Stephen suggested we keep it to enjoy ourselves and get a different bouquet for the gift at a different time. This guy is now my go-to florist. His work is art. 

From the market, I caught a bicycle rickshaw home. This driver actually met me at the entrance to the market and offered to wait until I was done. He patiently waited by the flower stall until I had finished my other shopping, I gave him an extra tip for his trouble. He said, “next time?”, so I think he was pleased.

Earlier this week, one of the owners/landlords of this apartment building kindly took me shopping for curtains in yet another local market. We went to three different stalls until I found a fabric I was happy with at a price that I was willing to pay. That afternoon a tailor came out to measure the space and said he would return with the new curtains Sunday or Monday. He arrived Sunday and quickly hung them for me.

Wow, right. They turned out better than I even expected. 

As the owner and I were about to leave the market, I noticed a pineapple cart just across the street. So, I bought a pineapple and asked him to cut it up for me.  He asked for 90 rupees so I gave him 100. $1.25 for expertly cut pineapple. 

Mrs. Gupta drove me to the market in her car, but our main mode of transportation here in New Delhi is the auto rickshaw. 

Although you can hail an auto, Stephen and I mostly use the Uber app. The price is preset so there is no haggling and we don’t get hoodwinked and overcharged. Most of my one-way trips are 60-85 cents. I always tip so it’s really generally $1.25 per trip.  I don’t need to speak any Hindi and the drivers don’t need to speak any English. I’ve taken 100s of trips this way, and I always get to my destination promptly. The added bonus is there’s no need for me to try to figure out parking. One autorickshaw driver drops me off and another one to takes me home or to my next stop. Before we moved to India, we thought we might buy a car. And then once we got here, we thought we might also hire a driver for that car because traffic in India is pretty wild. But in the end, autos meet most of our needs better than our own car and driver.

Now that we’ve moved to a more spacious and comfortable apartment, I’m painting in acrylic again. We’ve designated a room for my studio so I have the space I needed to paint large scale, something I’ve been so longing to do. I finished a large ocean scene so Stephen had something on the wall behind his desk. 

He has weekly calls for work and he wanted a nice background. 

I almost set a record for how quickly I finished this piece. India seems to have sparked inspiration. I’ve already started another ocean scene in acrylic and it’s coming along nicely. I had hoped India would be like an artist’s retreat for me. I think that’s exactly what it is turning into.

September 22 was the first day of Autumn. Living here, there aren’t the same markers for the start of my favorite season. In the Pacific Northwest, there is a crispness in the air, and the colors of red, orange, rust and ochre start to become more prevalent. What we’ve been getting in Delhi, this year at least, is rain. Finally, the monsoons have truly arrived in our area.

Other parts of India have been flooding, but in our specific neighborhood there has been very little rain until now. The skies are grey, almost white. This means less natural light for me to paint by. But I’ve moved to a corner of my studio that’s amazing in any light.

The rain has brought cooler temperatures. I haven’t had to use as much air conditioning. I can open the windows and let in some cool air. Saving on energy costs is always nice. But more than that it’s nice to have comfortable temperatures again. We moved to India at the hottest time --- from winter in the US. Quite a shock to the system.