INTRODUCING OUR MADE IN INDIA BABY....

He came almost 3 weeks early. I was in denial during labour, I still hadn’t finished reading the instruction books & I had a baby shower to have, the new section of the Mater Mothers hospital was to open in a few days, not to mention our shipment of 60 boxes from India was to arrive.

After a day and a half of contractions (which I still didn't believe were real contractions) we went to the hospital early in the morning of Wed 28 May. It was confirmed by a midwife I was in labour and 4cm dilated, so off to the Birth Suite we went. My waters hadn’t broken and the Doctor had told the midwife that they would break them asap, the midwife was quite happy for it to be left a little bit, knowing we wanted to keep the birth as natural as possible. We used the fact that Mark had to race home and get, (or finish packing..) my labour bag to delay the process.



By 7 cm dilated, the midwife did another cervix check, holding a big look crochet hook ready now to break my waters. She hesitated and said she thought she felt a foot or a hand instead of the head. I needed a scan quickly. The scan determined what we hoped wasn’t true, our baby was breech, an emergency Cesarean was needed.

Our midwife explained, although she understood our wishes for a natural birth, this was pretty serious. We were incredibly disappointed, the last scan in India showed a breech bub, but all the check up’s here confirmed – abdominally - that the head was in position. The scan showed one little leg ready to be pushed out first and the other over the shoulder, it could have meant he suffocated and I could have been torn to shreds, much better to come out bum first if delivering a breech baby.

A few tears, but it wasn’t long when the disappointed was overshadowed by pure joy.

Before I knew it, I was being wheeled away, brought into a room with bright lights and a lot of – young people – with one older man. Mark disappeared and came back looking as though he was on the set of Gray’s Anatomy (with the other young funky doctors). I had another contraction before receiving an epidural then another final one. I remember thinking this is the last one I’ll have for this little baby, how sad. Nick Cave & James were playing throughout which was lovely and now our baby has his own Ipod playlist.

In 20 minutes from the time we were told the need for a Caesar, I was being cut, and the baby was being lifted out. It felt as though someone was washing up in my stomach, no pain just lots of movement. The baby was lifted out, as the screen was lowered, Mark took photo’s as it was announced he was a boy. The whole process was totally surreal, a total out of body experience. He was snatched away and taken by the pediatrician and his team, Mark was taken in too and took more photo’s , but soon came out to enjoy our first few moments with our baby together.

It is so surreal, I can't believe how much love one can feel for this squirmy little being. This is our purpose - so hurry up everyone and give Alex some playmates.

Farewell Juhu Beach












Our Veggie Sellers












Roadworks outside our door, won't miss that noise






Our Butcher










Our Chemist






& some of those who visited......

Farewell India

I start by writing a thank you to my hubby, I’ve enjoyed Marks Mumbai Madness and only wish I made the time to add more entries.….I’ve been one slack bum on it, or rather put my energy into work and not into something personally meaningful, that will create everlasting memories.

One of many personal lessons learnt over here.

It’s our last day in Bombay. We came not knowing what adventure lay ahead and it’s hard to imagine the new road ahead. We may be moving back into the same house, the same street, the same suburb, the same city, but we bring with us a ‘made in India’ addition. Our lives will never be the same again and I’m so excited.

We went to Barister Coffee, for our morning coffee this morning and took our coffee’s with the papers to the beach. Such a familiar thing to do, but we’ve never done it here. We were soon surrounded by kids with babies begging, it never ceases to break your heart, but somehow we now are hardened in our response and the time it takes to forget them. (We did give them Rs55 and the dregs of our coffee cups – Mark even made the little fella put the cups in the bin – a sight I’ve NEVER seen in this filthy place, he deserved Rs100!).

It’s been an amazing adventure and it really does make you appreciate the country we come from. To all Aussie’s who expect they’re owed something from the government, from society, from family - you need to get on a plane & experience India. See what true hardship is, and see the incredible innate human instinct of survival and need to strive for betterment for the future for their offspring. I’m not in favour of the Indian government ignoring these poor souls, but it does show how welfare can dilute this human instinct.

It still astounds me to see the basket weavers or flower stringers, smiling as they work on the road and pavement. They actually live on the same pavement, some of them have made their homes in the massive pipes, sit across from the railway near Dada – a scene I will never forget. They cook, bring up their babies, work, sleep and shit in absolute mess & poverty – yet they converse, laugh, sing and have no trouble whatsoever at procreating.

Today, we successfully found Katherine, our lovely non stop talking maid, a new home of employment. She’s loving life at the moment with all the goodies she’s keeping from us, although she’s genuinely upset that we’re leaving. We even received a call from our other little girl, Renuka to say bye from Israel and may have found her husband Roshan a job driving for Kaisa & Apurv. I swear, you could make a successful business out of passing around good house staff. I wonder if this will sound strange to us soon, but it’s so normal at the moment.

So I say a sad farewell to the place that captured our hearts and souls. A happy farewell to the same place that drove us insanely mad with it’s hypocrisy, noise and traffic. We’ll miss you India, your heartbeat that now pulses in our veins and can’t wait to come back.

Pics from the Rick

Last night was our last trip in a Mumbai rickshaw for some time... we had to take some self pics from the back just one last time...

Quote...

"To accomplish great things, we must,
not only act, but also dream;
not only plan, but also believe."
- Anatole France

So long Shantaram

Mumbai's favourite reformed Australian convict, Gregory David Roberts, is setting sail for Europe for a spell whilst the film of his book, starring Johnny Depp is under production. He will be returning in November for Diwali for his wedding to fiancee Princess Francoise Sturdza of Switzerland. So if you'd like your book signed, head to Leopolds later in the year...

Around Juhu...

On a wander around Juhu you'll find quite a few regulars to greet on the street.
This family live on the pavement behind a bus stop on the banks of the dirty drain pictured below. Now these kids don't attend school which is a shame and most of the time we see them at the lights holding out their little hands. Oblivious to anyone walking by this morning the children were absorbed in their colouring books, which was fantastic to see! Rarely do we see the poorer children sharing in the experiences of the well to do.. Unfortunately once I was seen their concentration jumped from colouring books to of course rupee and wanting to see themselves on camera.

The young fella was especially proud of his drawing...

Should you ever be on Juhu beach and feeling a wee bit parched you may like to try your luck at one of the many drink carts set up for evening walkers...

Mumbai - It's not that dirty...

It's official, Forbes magazine has rated Mumbai as the seventh dirtiest city in the world!!
Mercer Human Resource Consulting's 2007 Report on Health and Sanitation Ranked 215 cities as part of a Quality of Life report, addressing 29 civic criteria including, levels of air pollution, waste management, water potability, hospital supplies, medical services and the presence of infectious diseases. Bonanza!!!
For the record all cities are positioned against New York, the base city with an index score of 100.
The worst on the latest list is, Baku, Azerbaijan with a score of 27.6, the cleanest goes to Calgary, Canada, with a score of 131.7. Delhi was ranked a few pegs higher than Mumbai at 24th.
The local authorities reject the ranking claiming the survey conducted contacted too many expatriates giving a biased opinion and discounting the city efforts and spending to clean up the city infrastructure and the social needs of the population. Following are some of the survey findings:
Drinking water: Marks: 0 /10
You cannot drink tap water directly — it needs to be either boiled or filtered. The water is filthy and not potable.
Dangerous animals and insects: Marks: 3/10
The city is infested with stray dogs and insects that spread diseases and are dangerous.
(Actually there are fewer dogs now than when we arrived. There is a sterilization program in action. As for the mozzies, Yardaf was a victim of Malaria late in 2007)
Infectious Diseases: Marks: 3/10
Infectious diseases are widely spread among citizens and the population of HIV+ citizens is more than that of foreign cities. This makes dwelling in the city for long periods of time dangerous to one's health. It is also harmful to the environment.
(There are more NGO's making inroads to the HIV epidemic with Hollywood and Bollywood celeb's educating the masses. Unfortunately life is cheap and education is limited)
Hospital services: Marks: 5/10
Hospital services are satisfactory, but most hospitals are located in the island city while the suburbs lack specialised facilities.
(Hospitals are a sight, straight out of the 1950's with some select modern equipment. Bombay Hospital is a large building surrounding a courtyard, trouble is the courtyard is buried beneath building material and waste thrown out of the windows and not removed....)

Waste removal: Marks: 4/10
The garbage collection system is ineffective, and garbage piles are a frequent sight on city roads. However, South Mumbai is comparatively cleaner.
(I would have marked them at 2/10 for this one... check out the pic and some may remember the image of the rubbish washed onto the shore last monsoon..)

Sewerage system; Marks: 3/10
Fifty per cent of city's waste is dumped into the sea without undergoing any sort of treatment. This poses an environmental hazard.
(For those who have visited, you've seen and smelt it... It's not pretty but 15-18 million people living in such a small space it's gotta go somewhere...there's currently limited ways to pipe it and the big question is pipe it to where! The land is so expensive here... although the BMC promises to have NO human poo to the ocean by 2011)

Jamie Durie's - Bombay Blitz - Landscape Tips

The Bombay Blitz team have been busy this week bringing a new face to the walls and public spaces around Bombay.
Graffiti or street art in Mumbai is currently limited to the busiest beanbag bloke in Bombay, with nearly every spare space covered with rough aerosol "Beanbags 2640 7329" and glossy product advertising taking up much of the remaining eye height vertical space. For the spaces below waist height, Bombayites have come up with a novel way to achieve not only a well balanced, interesting visual scene but they've also stumbled on a way to keep those pesky pissers from stinking up the place.... Yes, with minimal effort and little spend of the Rupee you too can bring art, religion and a little sanitation to the mases.
OK time for this weeks Blitz tip..

If you have a wall on your property get down to you local religious tile store and grab a few tiles of any faith or following. Don't be shy the more the merrier, Christ, Ganesh, Sikh or God... Mention this article and get 15% off any purchase of 30 or more tiles.

Next get yourself a work gang together and stick your new tiles to the wall!
You'll be surprised how calm you'll feel with all that Godly goodness around you and best of all.. those pesky pissers will eventually run out of walls to piss on and use the public toilets 30m away!

Til next week, good gardening and remember to watch where you walk...

Team India of the future...

The Indian boys love being in photos... We're not sure who these young blokes from Kerala thought they were, but bets are on that they see themselves as India's cricketing future..

Been an' gone to Goa.

A few weeks ago "Ram Krupa" played host to a final few guests. Jane, "Mata Ray Jane", passed through on her way to Thailand and Vietnam before heading back to Western Australia. Jane had a crack at the life in Mumbai, experiencing being a 'first class lady' on the trains before heading to Kerela to soak up the relaxed South Indian way. A day after Jane was off in the rickshaw, Darren "Sharpie",arrived fresh from bringing in the year of the Rat in Hong Kong. What a contrast, HK to India.. He to took on the peak hour train experience, a Mumbai must!
Whilst Sharpie was here we were able to finally get to Goa, crazy that is only a 45 minute flight and this was our first time.. We stayed at Candolim Beach at the quiet end of town and did a lot of very little for a few days. Actually as Sharpie described, it was like an English retirement village, and from their accent and array of tattoos on the lads, they were all from the same part of England. Now the beaches of India are nice and the culture is moderate to say the least so it is normal/respectful for the women to keep their tops on.. Well.. not the English ladies and we think some of the Russians.. It was a boobs out blitz. Actually in the ladies defence I think there was a standard set by an older gent, who had a lovely all over leather look with his modesty limited to a leopard print lap. I would call it a lap lap but there wasn't that much fabric..


The beach was well tended by countless beach shacks serving rough tucker and cool beer to your beach bed. What better way to round out a day of sun than to retire to one of the choice shacks with some decent tunes for happy hour!
As luck would have it our good Bombay buddy Ash flew down and joined us for his birthday.
Ash was popular on the beach, the ladies gave hime massages and pedicures and there was also this Indian bloke in white budgie smugglers sipping a tin of Fosters through a straw keeping a watchful eye on him...

We headed up to Baga Beach in the evening to check out the more lively part of Goa, with its many, beach shacks, bars and restaurants. The Goan beaches are busting at the seems, these once quiet now villages packed with tourists, screaming along on rented scooters or walking on the side of the busy rural roads doing their best to navigate their way from shop to beach to restaurant to pub..
Goa has a rich history with links to Roman times and 400 year rule of the Portuguese.
Apart from the many churches we went past, Fort Aguada, a Portuguese installation was the only historic site we explored. From our guest house on the beach it was a nice walk sown the beach to the fort which took us past the rusting hulk of the River Princess, a 240m long ore carrier which went aground off Candolim in a storm in 2000. Each year there are renewed promises to salvage and re float the ship but with mother nature doing her worst, the ship looks like it'll be there quite a while.
As usual the cows take centre stage and these ones looked particularly fresh in the early morning light....