Sigh the weather's horribly dull now. Side-effects of the cyclone I think. It's not pouring, thank God, but it rains on and off which is equally irritating coz our clothes won't dry at all. And amma and I are too lazy to leave the house. It's been a week since we got here but we haven't gone anywhere! Not even to the nearby library yet! At least I've got a year's supply of Reader's Digest and puzzle books to keep me occupied for now. I'm also getting thatha to talk to me in Hindi all the time but I end up laughing at my lousy grammar so much that I don't really learn anything finally. My favourite hang-out at home is the balcony. It's cool and breezy so we can save electricity, and the stuff we see from there is really interesting! Compared to sitting in our balcony in Singapore where we can either see the playground or Marine Parade Road. It's a nice change.

Stuff I see while sitting in the balcony from 11am-12noon:

1. Squirrels chasing each other up the coconut trees in our garden.

2. The crow coming to our window sill to eat paruppu saadham (cooked rice with lentils)

3. The vegetable vendor calling out vegetable names in some weird madras accent, cycling along with his cart of fresh veggie.

4. The neighbour's car struggling to get out of the basement coz it's completely waterlogged.

5. The priest leaving on his bike, while wearing saffron robes and a kudumi. (kudumi = a tail kinda thing in his hair. The traditional priests have it)

6. Sari-clad moms on scooters!

7. My grandparents' friends walking past and exchanging pleasantries from the main road (they yell).

8. A sudden gust of wind causing about 50 Neem leaves to fall off.

9. Not-so-well-to-do school kids looking unkempt, but still chattering and running about happily.

10. The road-cleaner who takes ages to clean just a short stretch of road coz he's not doing his work most of the time, but sitting and gossiping with his pals.

11. Americans dressed in Punjabi Suits who come to the nearby school to learn Carnatic or Hindustani music.

12. 2 pigeon couples taking turns to fly from my house to the neighbour's house, and vice versa.

13. The cook maami arguing with my great-aunt and pacing outside to steam off.

And at this point, I run back into the house, in fear of getting caught in some mindless argument. There's never a dull moment here!

Ok, back to my crossword puzzle! byeeeeee :D