There is no dryer, so the clothes are pinned on the clothesline that David rigged up on the terrace. Jo and Rita went out to hang the clothes, which dry rapidly in the heat of Delhi, when all of a sudden Jo started screaming, holding her finger, and beginning to cry. I thought she had cut herself on something, but she had been stung by a wasp!
She went into the apartment and Rita continued with the clothes. Although she was very careful to keep her eyes out (or so she thought), she got stung by one or two wasps on her left ring finger.
Since Rita has a severe bee sting allergy, we watched with trepidation to see if she would break out with hives, but she did not. She removed her wedding ring because she wasn’t sure if her finger would swell (more about that later).
Ultimately the wasp nest was discovered, between the glass and the outer frame of the door to the balcony, so that every time that the door was opened, the wasps got disturbed and….well you now know the (part of) the rest of the story!
Now, Jo and Rita headed off to Dr. Marya’s office, where both Jo’s ob/gyn and her husband, an endocrinologist that Jo works with, share space. It was very nice to meet Dr. Dolly Marya who is going to be the physician who delivers NoahBelle (possibly). She listened to the baby’s heart rate and we could hear the heart as well which was very exciting for Rita. The baby is currently in breech position, and Jo is between 27 and 28 weeks pregnant. Mom and baby doing fine.
In the afternoon, we went to FabIndia which is an upscale place to buy salwar kemeez, saris, and men’s clothes as well. Jim wanted to come along so he could “vote” on the potential outfits before Rita bought something Jim didn’t like. He was incredibly patient since we spent about three hours there, trying on many combinations of pants, tops, and scarves. Rita wanted something dressy so it could potentially be worn to a Black Tie function. The outfits we got were pretty but not as “glitzy” as I thought they might/could be. Jo said that “glitzy” is something the nouveau riche do. We bought a pair of black silk pants and stretchy off-white pants that are called churidar which bunch up at the ankle as opposed to salwar which Jim said emphasized every bad part of my body. I also bought a kameez in a wine red, and two pretty scarves and a white kurti which is a separate top. That night I wore the kurti and one of Jo’s black scarves. Complete with my wedding ring (which I put back on so everyone would know I was really married to Jim – more about that later), we were ready to go. All together, very fancy and the churidar pants, the kameez and the scarves will be shown off at a Black Tie somewhere, no doubt.
Then off to Tannie’s and Murad’s for dinner. It was quite amazing. First of all, their house had been highlighted in the Indian House and Garden magazine this spring. It was really neat to be sitting in a room and looking at the same room in a glossy magazine. We also got a tour of the rest of the house, including their bedroom. The dining room was quite large, and was set up with the food all around the perimeter of the round table in the middle. I went into the kitchen to see the food being prepared, and watched them make goat kebabs – which tasted kind of like a pate. Tannie is a cook book author and has written 18 cookbooks – but in her home she supervises the cooking, although she did make the pulao. She gave me three cookbooks which will be a great thing to remember this evening by. The food was FANTASTIC – in fact, it might have been the best dinner I ever ate. There was the pulao, the okra, kebabs, dal, tinda (baked squash with potatoes – baked with cream and some spices in the oven), mint yoghurt chutney to go with the pulao. Mango and ice cream for dessert!
No comments:
Post a Comment