Diwali

We’ve been lucky enough to experience the biggest festival of the year in India over the last week – Diwali, the Festival of Lights.  Diwali marks the end of the Hindu year and is probably the most important festival of the year, across India.  It is called the Festival of Lights as it involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.  The lamps are kept on during the night and the house is also cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome.  Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and she is welcomed so that she brings luck and wealth for the coming year.  It’s a festival that is celebrated with family and friends by visiting each other, giving sweets and setting off A LOT of fireworks, or “firecrackers” as they call them here.  It’s a bit like bonfire night and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one, and we started the celebrations on the eve of Diwali with a fireworks display at the Madras Regiment Centre.  The display was fantastic, but what really made it was the drum and pipe marching band, who wore black uniforms and then appeared out of nowhere when they suddenly turned on rows of lights sewn all over their uniforms!

The Luminous Band!

Not being Hindus ourselves, we thought we’d just have a quiet day at home, but as usual we were overwhelmed by the generosity and hospitality of all our friends here.  Neil had the day off work and we gave Fathima, Anandh and Vasa the day off too.  The girls decided to have a bit of a lie-in too (well till 7.30am anyway!), so we had a lazy morning and bacon and eggs for breakfast.  We visited Ashleigh (one of the US officers) and Ian and Elaine before lunch, and then both girls were persuaded to have a sleep in the afternoon – bliss!!  The fireworks had been going off since 6.30am and we’d been invited round to a few people’s houses that night, so we set off at 6.30pm and visited as many friends as we could, whilst trying not to eat our body-weight in Indian sweets or get rocketed by stray fireworks as health and safety guidelines seemed to be non-existent!  We had a really great night and only came home at 11.30pm as Ava was falling asleep on people’s carpets!  We are now trying to prevent Daisy from eating sweets non-stop throughout the day, we were given so many!

Rangoli Decorations outside a Friend's House

Our Meagre Diwali Lights!

Diwali at Prashant and Aparna's House

Diwali Decorations

Last weekend we had a dinner party, British-style, and invited 3 Indian couples to join us: all British food, a couple of drinks before dinner, dinner at around 8.30pm, sitting around the table and chatting.  It was a good night and it was nice to sit down all together at the same time and talk over a shared meal, but we hoped that our guests didn’t find it a bit formal.  Hopefully, they enjoyed the “British Experience”!

For Neil, the exercise season is most definitely upon him.  He spent a week working with the Indian Navy hunting ships and destroying oil rigs, and now he’s working with the Army targeting bridges, fuel dumps and logistic storage areas, although he says he used smaller bombs on the last target in solidarity with the loggies.  The exercise with Neil’s colleagues in green involves both the Air and Army Wings and has over 300 students taking part.  At times it appears to be bedlam, with students racing everywhere to attend briefs and give presentations; yet through the chaos some semblance of order prevails and the work seems to get done.  The Army exercise started with Neil working in a joint syndicate to plan the resupply of a deployed Army Division and then move them, via strategic and tactical aircraft; something he’s had a little bit of experience of over the last few years.  However, when Neil first arrived in the new joint syndicate, a number of the Indian Army officers were concerned that they were being hamstrung as both he and another International Officer were in the Syndicate.  On hearing this, Neil used a few choice words and phrases to explain that he may be able to assist in the planning exercises, and if they didn’t need his help, he was more than happy to take the downtime.  After this ‘friendly’ exchange, everything worked well and the exercise completed on time; some members of the Indian Army can now say that they have a basic understanding of what an RAF Logistics Officer gets up to and they were also introduced to a new range of words within the English language!  As we write this, Neil is one week into a 2-week Joint Army exercise.  He is still smiling, but is looking forward to next Friday when the exercise draws to a close.

On the golfing scene, Neil’s handicap has dropped to 20 from the 24 score he had when he arrived.  For all you non-golfers out there, dropping 4 shots in 8 months is pretty good.  It also means that Neil can enter a number of tournaments at the WGC Golf Club.  Last weekend he played in the Indian Navy Golf Open and came third in the 15-18 Handicap category.  Neil was very pleased and he would have come second if he hadn’t been pipped to the post by a Maj General who shot a great round; although Neil feels that the General’s handicap should be slashed with immediate effect!  It’s good to see that all the practice time Neil spends on the golf course is really starting to pay off; he says that if he improves the same amount professionally, promotion to 2-star is assured!!

'Walking' to lunch at La Belle Vie

Latest Face-painting exploits - Butterfly!

Halloween Witch

US Halloween Party

Halloween!

Pondicherry and Remembrance Sunday

Well, while Neil was away enjoying himself on his trip to the north east of India, Nana and Grandad came to keep the rest of the family company in Wellington.  We had a lovely fortnight with them visiting Ooty, riding the Toy Train, going to Yoga (just Nana!) and generally showing them the sights of the Nilgiris.  Neil got back a few days before they left and we were all very sad to see them go, but at least we know that it’s only 6 months now until we’ll see them again.

Waiting for the Toy Train to Ooty, with Nana and Grandad

Louise took part in her big dance event at the last Ladies Meet.  It went very well and she didn’t embarrass herself too much.  There is a video of the whole thing, but this is under close guard at the moment!  Neil has also finished another term of his course (3 of 6) so he was allowed a long weekend off and we went to Pondicherry, on the east coast of Tamil Nadu, for a few days.  It was very hot and humid there, but we managed to see quite a lot of the town, which still has a very French influence.  We also visited Mamallapuram on the way there.  Mamallapuram is a UNESCO World Heritage site which has several historic temples and monuments all built between the 7^th and 9^th centuries.  We had a good look round one of the best of the sites, before the heat overcame the girls and their tempers, and we had to retreat to the air-conditioned comfort of the car again.  Pondicherry was lovely.  Quite small, but right on the coast and our hotel was on the beach-front promenade with a nice pool for Daisy.  The French influence also meant good food!  Steak and frites, croissant, baguettes, pain au chocolat, cheese, basil, proper ham and also sausages!  Lots of things that we don’t get very often in Wellington, or if we do, they’re not very authentic, but the bread especially, was amazing in Pondicherry.  Or maybe we’re just easily pleased after 6 months of living in a remote part of India!

Five Rathas site at Mamallapuram

Strolling along the Promenade at Night

For Neil the course has moved into the Joint Exercise phase, with the first combination of forces involving the Navy and the Air Force.  Neil was selected to be the 1 Star Officer in charge of all Maritime Air Operations, which was a challenge and one he enjoyed as he strutted around pretending to be a pilot.  That said, he was soon brought down to earth when he realised he had no staff, and all his inputs would require quite a lot of writing.  The exercise lasted a week, with quite long hours and rather a lot of frustration.  Initially the Navy and Air Force were working as separate entities, so the joint co-operation was very limited.  However, as the exercise progressed, so the integration improved, however, as the overall 2-star debriefing stated, on a scale of 1 to 10, we are at about 3!  And Neil thinks that was being generous.  There was quite a bit of hanging about as well, but Neil managed to amuse himself on one of the Samsung Mobile Phone games, carrying out Maritime Strikes in an F-18 and competing with a Mirage F2000 and Mig-29 Navy pilot on Carrier landings.  He didn’t do too badly in the competition; clearly his hours with the RAF MicroLight Association are paying off.  Next up for Neil is a 3-week exercise with the Indian Army.  He has promised his sponsor student, Kash that he will pay 50 Rupees for every time he swears in frustration at the Army and has set aside 5000 rupees for the occasion!

This weekend we should have been in Delhi for Remembrance Sunday, but for the first time in many years, the College wouldn’t allow the students the time off, so we did our best to mark the occasion here instead.  There are about 60 Commonwealth War Graves in Wellington Cemetery, so we went there on Sunday morning, along with the Australian and Canadian officers and their families, and had our own Remembrance Service, 2-minute silence at 11am and a wreath-laying ceremony.  It was a lovely ceremony, simple, but personal.  Each of the 5 officers on the course laid a wreath on a grave and on all the other graves of British servicemen we laid a small garland of jasmine.  The weather was quite misty and eerie during the service, but we all agreed that it was the warmest weather we’d ever experienced for a Remembrance Service before!  And after the Service, we all went back to the Army house for lunch and drinks and spent most of the afternoon there marking the occasion…

The Five Officers and Wreaths

About to lay our Wreath

Paying our Respects