10/10/2011

Pastery

Nepal is truly the heaven of pastery.
Not good for the body, but for the soul!

10/07/2011

David Steele

Leya and our new friend, the Bollywood super star David Steele, brother to Remington Steele.
Bollywood here we come!

10/06/2011

Ritual slaughter

Yesterday it was a huge holiday here and they had some kind of religious slaughter of bulls and goats on a square.
We didn't go because it sounded so awful and that was a wise decision.
Today we met a friend who was there and witnessed it and he's still in shock.
It was like old time hangings when you brought your children, laughing and taking photos.
Awful!

10/05/2011

Information about Nepal

If you are interested in learning more about Nepal please read here.

10/04/2011

Universe

Today it feels much better. I suppose universe has a purpose with our visit here in Nepal.
Leya loves her new green felted hair and red Nepalese shoes.

10/03/2011

Two months

Today we went to the Indian Embassy again and I humiliated myself to some cold hearted Indians.
There is a rule that you have to stay out of India for two months when you extend your Visa, but I thought that we could talk to someone sensible enough that understands that we are providing Indians work and that we are determent to live in India permanent.
If we had been a liability to the society I would have understood their attitude, but we are doing what ever we can to be a part of the community.

Today we are completely devastated and I'm so worried about our dog Angel that has to spend two months in a shelter.

Please if someone of you reading this has any idea of how we can solve this situation, please email me at nero@ilmaofsweden.se.

10/01/2011

Our arrival to Nepal

The plane was a bit late due to bad weather in Kathmandu, but we arrived safely and managed to go to the Indian embassy 1 minute before they closed for the weekend.

The man behind the counter said we have to stay out of India for two months. I know the rules are like that, but we have to go back as soon as possible.
Managed to get an appointment on Monday at 11 am.

We stayed at one hotel last night, but shifted to another that was half the price and at least twice nicer.

9/29/2011

Nepal

In a few hours we are going to Katmandu in Nepal to extend our Visa.
Cross your fingers that everything is going smoothly!

9/27/2011

Biker

There is an old three wheeler in the house shared hallway.
She cycles round, round laughing.

Visitors

Yesterday we got Swedish visitors, Alex, Frida and Kicki.
Nicholas made a pasta dinner and I had bought different pasteries from Wengers for dessert.

School

Yesterday I tried to admit Leya to a public school here in Dwarka Mor, but after the 31:st of July you need permission from the government to admit your kid to school.
I went to the other side of Delhi to meet with the government people of education, but since we are here on tourist Visa they couldn't give us the required papers unless we got OK from External affairs.
Called External affairs on several different numbers, but they couldn't help us.
If we had admitted Leya before the 31:st of July they would admit her without any problems, but now we are stuck in the system.

9/25/2011

Wooden horse

Anyone interested in buying a hand made, shabby chic wooden horse?

9/24/2011

The new flat

Finally we arrived to our new flat in Dwarka Mor and everything was of course a mess.We invested in a second hand red, cool fridge.And an electric stove with oven. A must for a Swede. Hopefully Nicholas will make a lot of cinnamon buns.
Because the stove is standing on marble it is electrifying if we don't wear shoes or stand on a cloth.

Leya and Kalia

Leya and Gabi's baby Kalia, our last evening in the flat in Pahar Ganj.

9/23/2011

Newspaper

When we went to the Anna Hazare meeting Leya ended up in the newspaper.
Cool!

9/19/2011

Kalia

Gabi rescued this little baby Kalia from Friendicoes animal center a few weeks ago.
He is so tiny, but Gabi is his mom now and when he is not eating she is making him a smorgasbord.
But she never invites us to these feasts.
I mean. Smorgasbord is Swedish, yar.

9/14/2011

Christmas

Soon it's Christmas!

Hood shawl

Love this hood shawl. Both practical and nicely designed.

9/13/2011

Visa

In the beginning of October the Visa expires again. This time we are going to Katmandu in Nepal. Exciting!
But they only extend it for three months, so we have to go Sweden over Christmas.
I hope we can afford it.

9/09/2011

Water colours

Leya is doing water colour painting and she loves it!To mummy!

Wood block prints

Today we went to the old man's wood block warehouse.
You can buy wood blocks on Gabi's website here.

9/08/2011

Beads

Gabi was like a kid in the candy store in the bead shop at Turkman gate.

Dog leashes

One of the animal shops at Connaugh Place are selling my recycled dog leashes.
I hope the customers like them.

9/07/2011

New flat

In two weeks we have to leave our flat, so we have decided to move to Dwarka Mor, about 35 minutes with the metro from where we live now.
We really liked this flat, but it needs some painting.Here we have a possibility to make a outdoor space. Something we have missed.

9/06/2011

Photo shoot

Yesterday Leya had a photo shoot all day long.
The kids were so great!
The label and the clothes are a secret until the end of October.

9/04/2011

Photot shoot

Tomorrow Leya are going to shoot winter jackets for a kids catalog.

9/03/2011

Swedish newspaper

A Swedish newspaper are going to write about our life in India compared to Sweden, so we sent them this photo of our family.

Rodeo

Went to the Mexican buffet restaurant Rodeo at A block at Connaugh Place and we just loved, loved it!

9/01/2011

Anna Hazare

The other day Leya and I went to the area where Anna Hazare was hunger striking against the corruption in India.
Anna is a simple man without family prepared to die for the cause, 74 years old and has worked as a social worker.
Leya and I dressed upp in the colours of India, green, orange and white and we got a lot of attention since we seemed to be the only foreigners there.
Hundreds of people took our photo and Leya even ended up in the newspaper.
I was interviewed by a TV channel and it felt important to be there and give him our support.
The bill is now accepted, if I'm not misinformed, but I'm skeptic.
The importance with this bill is that even the premiere minister and his entourage can face charges if they are bribed, but we just have to wait and see.

Greed is the one of the sins that is going to ruin the human life.

8/31/2011

Parvati Valley

After we closed the cafe we decided to take a vacation in the mountains and that was a very bad decision.
Rain, cold and hours and hours of power breaks.
For a few days we tried to stay at a guesthouse in the mountain village Kalga, but that was too much for us city people.
I managed to snap this photo during two minutes of sun shine.Then we stayed a few days in Kasol, since the road was closed because big rocks had fallen on the only road there.
But Leya and I did some nice shopping and ate good food so it was OK.It was actually a disaster vacation and it got even worse when Leya poured half a bottle of water in to my laptop, so it died forever.

8/30/2011

The cafe

Sorry for my long silence, but I had to work with myself and my energy after the owner of Cottage Ganga Inn forced us to close the cafe.

Almost a month a go Nick had a group of French women, traveling with a travel agency staying at the hotel, that wanted to spend the last night before going home in our cafe.

Before we had served beer a few times and always ordered via the manager in the reception, but this time Nick bough some beer of his own and that was a huge problem that we never thought would end in closing the cafe.

When we ordered beer from the reception the manager put the whole profit in the his own pocket, but this time he didn't get a rupee.

The manager of the hotel told the owner of the hotel to close the cafe and so he did. Because of this! And the irony was that almost no one drank beer since the flight was leaving so early.

We were told to close the cafe on the spot and we and our guests were in complete shock.

Now I've seen the ugliest side of greed and from being in shock and sad, I'm so angry. So, so angry. We put our heart and soul in to this cafe and our guests loved it.

Jealousy and greed forced us to close and nowadays I call myself a warrior against greed.

I've found my place in the world and my naive eyes have been opened and I can never go back.

8/29/2011

I'm sorry

I'm so sorry for my abrupt silence. I had to recover and think for a few weeks before I felt prepared to continue my blogging.

No worries. We are all fine, still in India and still married.
I will start telling about the last months journey tomorrow.

7/31/2011

Beautiful photo

This is Leya's first photo for her portfolio.
Taken by Christina Schneider.

7/30/2011

Catmoss ad

We found this ad in today's newspaper.
I've saved it so we can make a painting of it.

Nuria and Alberto

This is Nuria and Alberto from Spain.
They are spending their summer holidays in Indian and are off to Rajasthan in a few minutes, but they will be back in mid August again.
We say Buen Viaje and love to see you soon!
Read their Spanish blog here.
They write about us.

7/29/2011

Today's special

Kumar made this delicious pizza with his special tomato-garlic sauce and real Indian Cheddar cheese.Nityananda made this brownie before he went with his friends to a tick tack dance event.
Oh, heavenly mother, it's good!

7/28/2011

Tobias and Ida

Tobias and Ida from Sweden.
Ida has been working at an orphanage for a few months and her Tobias came for three weeks during his summer vacation.
Tobias left for Sweden yesterday and Ida goes back to the orphanage tomorrow morning for her last month in India. For this time.

Daniel and Walter

Daniel and Walter from the Netherlands are waiting for their luggage that took it's own rout to India.
As soon as everything arrives they will go to Varanasi and then Katmandu.Andy is showing Walter how to book a train ticket online.
I was so happy when I saw them because that is one of the purposes with our cafe´. We want people to meet and help each other.

Guest baker

Today we had a guest baker, Nityananda.
He is also a masseur, yoga instructor and crystal healer.Apple pie with vanilla sauce.Eggless choclate-banana cake with caramelized apples.

Actress

Gabi got a commercial gig about a herbal medicine and they recorded her scene in her living room.Then they asked if I was interested in making a scene about a memory herbal medicine and I said why not.
Maybe I'll never get the opportunity again. It was great fun!

7/27/2011

Vintage saris

I put up some beautiful vintage saris with heavy embroidery in the doorway.

Sleeping beauty

This is the way to run a business. The princess is sleeping and we are working.