Winter Solstice in the Tropics

Today is the winter solstice -- the shortest day of the year. In the tropics (Vapi is at 20°N latitude), the shortest day is not all that much shorter than the longest day: 11 hours and 13 hours, respectively. In Clifton Forge (38°N), the difference is far more dramatic -- 9 hours and 15 hours, and Virginia isn't really all that far north. Anyway, back to Vapi …

The earliest sunset has already passed, but sunrise is still getting later, and won't turn around until mid-January. (That's true for the entire northern hemisphere, not just Vapi.) In October and November, we were able to enjoy the cool mornings with breakfast on our terrace. Right now it's really too dark to eat outside. And with no heat or hot water, 18°C (about 65°F) can seem quite cool.

I've decorated for Christmas with battery-operated LED lights. Pretty minimalist.
Next year I'll stock up on lights during Diwali.

Back home, everyone is preparing for Christmas. Here, it's merely a one-day holiday. (India acknowledges everyone's Holy Days.) Midnight mass is apparently well-attended -- you don't need to be Christian to enjoy it -- then followed by plenty of "crackers" (the exploding kind, not the eating kind). Why pass up an opportunity to party? While walking along the road today, I could swear that a passing motorcycle was honking a monotone "Bee bee beeeeep, bee bee beeeeep, bee bee bee bee beeeeep" in the Jingle Bells rhythm.

Today's photo has nothing to do with the topic --
just wanted to show that it's not only cattle that like to sleep in the street.

Trucks and Birds

Trucks

I've been trying to get a picture of the largest "regular" trucks on the road. (That is, not including specialty trucks carrying extra-large items such as beams and turbines.) These large, enclosed trucks carry new cars. They are huge, and I finally got a chance to photograph one parked along the highway next to the Vapi RTO (the Indian equivalent of the DMV). Much smaller versions deliver motorcycles -- I saw one unloading at the Suzuki showroom yesterday.

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Birds

These birds, bank mynas, are roosting in drain holes in the underpass under NH8. As I tried to get closer to get a better photo, they flew away. (I was also dodging motorcycles coming through the underpass -- it's a well-used short-cut for two-wheelers, pedestrians, and livestock.)

Laundry Redux

There's a new use for our Bowflex:

I had been hanging clothes on the spiral staircase to the roof (see 1 October post, "Post-Monsoon Laundry"), but there's soot and goop that comes from the sky, lands on the clothes, and damages them, so now I'm drying clothes inside again.

A December Sunday in Vapi

It's "winter" in India. Actually, the weather is delightful -- lows about 18°C (about 65°F) and highs in the low 30's (high 80's F). The humidity is low. It's just about the perfect.

I put up some battery-powered LED Christmas lights that I brought back with me after Thanksgiving. It's really difficult to realize that Christmas is only 10 days off. Not much Christmas in India! (Although it is an official holiday.)

Today's "Sight-of-the-Day" is a bullock cart resting along the highway. I didn't get a good picture of the yoke, but it seemed rather insubstantial -- not much more than a rope.

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This morning was the "Run (or March) for Unity". I'd seen posters for the event, but didn't know much about it, since everything was in Gujarati. It's basically an attempt to have Narenda Modi's BJP become a pan-India party rather than a Gujarat-based party. (Parliamentary elections are coming up, and politics is HUGE in India.) The run/march was organized at over 1000 locations across India.

Anyway, we got caught up in the march as we were walking to our Hindi lesson. There were thousands of students walking/running/jogging -- all wearing their school uniforms or T-shirts identifying their school. And of course, this being India, it was accompanied by ear-splitting music from loudspeakers along the route.

The video below was taken after most of the crowd had passed, but you can get an idea of the loud music.

Mosquitoes

Now that monsoon has ended, mosquitoes have returned. I don't know where they find puddles to reproduce -- just about everything has dried up. But reproduce they do!

They are no where near as bad as back home, but they carry malaria and dengue fever -- two diseases I definitely want to avoid! Fortunately, our windows have mosquito netting (aka screens), which is not common here.

Indian mosquitoes are smaller and faster than back home. They are harder to catch, although I am getting better at it. We also use a "tennis racket" hand-held zapper with limited success -- the mosquitoes disappear as soon as I lift it up to use it.

Strawberries

It's strawberry time in India. Yum!

They come beautifully displayed in a sturdy box, cushioned with leaves -- it's quite a presentation.

Back in India

It was far easier to return to life in the U.S. than I had thought. The comfort foods were back. (And so were 3 to 4 pounds…) I could drive -- and traffic was orderly and on the right side of the road. (And drive I did, 3100 miles during the three weeks I was in the States.) Overall, the U.S. seemed clean, quiet, and -- most of all -- empty.

I was uneasy about returning to India. There was an impending ice storm in Virginia, as well as a lot of maintenance needed on our home. The septic system aerator stopped working over Thanksgiving; the water system needs work; the "yard" and road need mowing badly. And it's time for the annual mowing of the septic field.

The old student nightmares of missing exams and classes you didn't know you had enrolled in have been replaced by those of showing up for flights a day late and without a passport. I didn't sleep well the last few nights!

Somehow it's comforting to be back in India. The smoke is familiar, if irritating to my lungs. The electricity continues to be quirky at best, and the plumbing still leaks. And I have to get used to getting my feet wet every time I use the bathroom, since the shower dumps directly on the floor and gets everything wet.

But it's home for now.