It is so much fun having my mum and Carol here in Bangalore to re-experience so many of the fun Indian traditions that have kept us entertained over the last 16 months. Yesterday we had to visit the hospital in the hope to get Max's cast off his broken arm. The administration side of this hospital is hilarious - after ringing and wanting to see an orthopaedic doctor and being told there wasn't one on duty, we decided to see a GP instead. After some 'odd discussions' with the nurses about unpaid bills and which doctor we wished to see, we sat and waited for our turn. We had a lovely pregnant lady sit behind us who had high blood pressure - not the place I would choose to visit with high blood pressure....... Anyway, I buckled over in laughter when the nurse asked her if she had 'pee pee' in her bag !! Only in India.
Max saw the GP and he promptly rang the orthopaedic doctor and told us to visit him in room 20 - "but I thought there were none on duty today Sir ?" Yes madam - room 20' ! So off we went for another wander around Columbia Asia Hospital.......
We waited our turn (quite patiently I thought) and the doctor was of the opinion we could get the cast off straight away - yeah !! We just had to wait for another little boy before us to get his cast cut off. In the meantime, we decided that Max could just slip his cast off his arm and be done with it ! Easy peasy, and a quicker exit from the hospital. Max is thrilled to be free again and I am happy to be free of the stinky cast !
Last week we realised we did not 'Puja' Max (or Jack's) new bikes that they received for their birthdays, so we got Anthony to buy all the paraphernalia to perform the Puja ceremony. After a big monsoonal downpour, we headed outside to watch Anthony scare away bad spirits and bring good luck to the boys and their bikes. Smashing of coconuts, burning of incense, and squashing of lemons should do the trick. Not sure Carol and Mum have ever seen anything quite like it.
We also got Anthony to purchase some fireworks so we could have our own small Diwali celebration in the street, but due to the rain (and some bad boy behaviour) we have postponed this until tomorrow night - stay tuned !!
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| Before the Puja |
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| the powders are applied to all working parts of the bike |
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| Flowers are tied on to the front |
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| The coconut is set alight and waved around to rid bad spirits |
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| Burning incense |
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and finally the squashing of lemons
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| Jack's tires were a bit low in air, causing a few issues with squashing the lemons |
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