The truck was unloaded with help from the Army and for that I am eternally thankful. There were all kinds of scenarios running through my head when I left with Rehaan from Gorakhpur. Thankfully things could not have gone smoother and must share my heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped me.

I reached on 19th, the truck reached on 20th and my hubby reached on 21st. By which time I had hung up the curtains, unpacked the kitchen, made up the bedrooms and had the hired furniture cleaned and placed. I must also say that the location of the house is great because I could walk down to the local market and pick up WHAT EVER I needed.

The icing on the cake was my parents who are on a trip of north India and had essentially come for the Bhuj Fatehpur day celebrations to the regiment. Still they reached within two weeks of our reaching and both of them took over many of the settling down aspects. Dad turning handy man and Mom turning cook.

The boys are also more or less set in the routine now, although poor Rehaan has tons of making up syllabus as the books here are different from the ones he had in Gorakhpur. Still he’s made enough friends in the colony for one of them to come ring the bell and ask for him to come down and play one evening, so I’m happy.

He is also learning to skate. Can you imagine the school has skating and abacus as a part of its curriculum. Its such a welcome change from his last school. The class teacher is nice and the co-ordinator is really efficient. Plus there is the added advantage of having a friend there as a teacher.

Jamshed is learning to deal with the long drive, the long hours are not new to him. On my own front, I am happy with all the restaurants that provide home delivery in the area. I have baked precisely two cakes here since the time I have come, because I really don’t need to.

I have ventured into main Delhi just once when we went with Jamshed to do a route checking for his way to office, but like I have come to discover, you really do not need to move out of Dwarka at all. Every thing is available here!

Now I am gearing up for the move next month and may not be blogging for a while.

Bye bye termites,

Bye bye monkeys,

Bye bye seepage,

Bye bye kitchen taps,

Bye bye birdies

I promise I won’t miss you,

As I sing bye bye Gorakhpur

* My sincerest apologies to the original lyrics writer, but hey, I needed to get that out of my system.

We finally got our posting out of here and yes, my heart sings with joy to leave the borderlands of UP and Bihar to head for more civilized climes. It may be a tough deal to get the house at the other end, it may be more expensive a city to live in, it may be a whole lot worse for getting local help, but I’ll take it all the same.

I know when I signed up to be a fauji biwi that its never all the same in every station. Being a fauji baccha I was no stranger to the situation. And yet when its time to pack up and move with your bags, this is one place I leave with no regret. It may have been good in some ways, but it was equally bad in others.

They always balance out in the end, but for now I hear the beat of that distant drum to which I must march. The sound of the drum that calls to me as I pack trunk after trunk. It tells me its time to move on. The past is long gone. Its time to build things anew. So I move with a slight bounce in my step as I pack my curios in bubble wrap.

I don’t know when I’ll have time to update the blog next. The next couple of months are going to bring a mess. In more ways than one if you get what I mean! I’ll see you when I see you, and until then I’ll still be singing Bye Bye Gorakhpur.

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Plus this time round I was able to play guide and take them to the right shops all along the way. I picked up a beautiful Baransi silk sari for a friend of mine and was seriously tempted to pick up one for myself. Then I stopped myself, with great regret, and indulged in picking up a couple of embroidered suit pieces.

This time round the trip was not quite as long as we left the cantt only after 11 in the morning and were home by 5 in the evening. We missed lunch but managed to grab some roasted bhutta on the way. Each one of us claimed that none of our husbands would have ever let us go walking the streets eating bhutta and shopping the way we were.

It was a fairly relaxed outing as compared to the last time. I also managed to see the famous Geeta Vastra Vibhag, but personally I prefer going up to the Krishna cloth house bang opposite. the guy has more our kind of stuff than the Geeta Press people do. Picked up some pillow covers with nice bright flowers. Should cheer up the room. That’s it for now.

We bought everything from plastic containers and mugs to cheap pearl earrings. From lace and appliques to material for kurtis. From card making stuff to curtain making stuff. From fridge magnets to a bartan rack made out of steel. It was like we were on a scavenger hunt.

And then not satisfied with the small street shops we headed over to the City Mall and did grocery shopping in Spencers. On the way back home someone had the bright idea of hitting the canteen and we did that as well.Loaded with shopping bags we bundled back into the auto and got stuck at the railway crossing for twenty minutes.

We left the house at ten in the morning and got back only at quarter to six in the evening. After which I had a splitting headache and went straight for a bath. After having washed off oodles of dust and mud I sank face first into the bed and stayed that way for half an hour.

The next day duly recovered from the trip I sat down and hand stitched a couple of window curtains using the cloth and the lace jhalar that I had picked up in Urdu Bazaar the previous day. And this is what they look like.

The Photo does not seem too bright as I took it from my mobile camera and not with the regular one. Still I think it gives you a fair idea about what I managed to make.

This was an old folder that I made for an Afwwa Competition last year. I thought I might share it with you guys too. The concept was mother earth on her sliver of green with the oceans of blue on which she floats. The tree was the symbolic tree of life which binds all creatures of earth. And of course the butterflies were to show the teeming life that flutters its wings in the world.

He’s okay now and the bandage is off. The swelling is down and he’s back to school. So I guess all’s well that ends well. I could do with a little less excitement of this kind in the future, but I don’t know if I will get my wish.

The call of the elements was also well answered with each of the sisters having her own. Air, Earth and Fire each with her own strengths and weaknesses. All rounded off by the masculine Water. Of course I had no idea what a silkie was before I read the book and now i’m keen on experiencing more of the Celtic folklore.

Mythology of all kinds has always interested me and as soon as I am done with the last round of Nora Roberts books that I have with me, I’m going to begin a study of Irish and Welsh folk stories. They are almost the forerunners of the fairy tales that we grew up on although we have Hans Cristian Anderson to thank for taking them from the oral tradition and putting them into a book.

What I like about Nora Roberts is her ability to take an everyday place and convert it into a magical one. The fact that we don’t ever really outgrow our childish believes about fairies and princes is exploited by her in such a manner that you truly feel that even in the adult world there is magic. You just need to look for it.

Rehaan is now a big boy and is in the “big” school having shifted from the KG wing into the Primary school building. He is in the first class and has learnt a lot of Hindi, while his English is now beginning to suffer from the Bhujpuria twang. Really can’t be helped, but I’m hoping the accent will not stick for long.

Jamshed is of course busy as usual. He picked up his rank in June and is now a Wing Commander. I’m still getting used to it, as was made evident when I called up his office one day and asked to speak with Sqd Ldr Lashkari. Thankfully I can’t be docked for beer bottles for making that mistake.

I had the unique privilege of teaching 9^th and 10^th class students in the Air Force School here English Literature for a couple of weeks. A stunt that I never hoped to pull off, considering that I am not a BEd, but these were desperate times for the school management and called for desperate measures.

It was a very interesting exercise as I am used to dealing with college students and this was very different. Hats off to all the school teachers I know for the patience that they have in dealing with young kids. The incident also made me more visible to kids and now when I float out to buy bread or something from the neighbourhood shops I am often accosted with a Good Evening Ma’am by one or more of my ex students.

Other than that life goes on as usual, there is no major change in the AFWWA, Ladies Club circuit, and of course we still manage to get bounced and raided once in a while. That’s about all my news is for now. Do keep in touch.