you live...where?

Phet: "So, tell the school that you want them to give you big bucks because I don't have a job and you need to support me."

Me: "Uh, ok. How do I explain the fact that we live in Golf Links, the most expensive neighbourhood in Delhi? On a currently-combined income of zero dollars?"

Phet: "Just tell them, 'Oh no, not Golf Links...we live in Golf Binks. Very nice area, really, that Golf Binks."

Here's the gate for our house. You can see someone - I haven't a clue who - opening the gate. Lots of people come in every day because our house is home to four different families. Mr. Singh's Mum owns the house, and then she lives with Mr. and Mrs. Singh on the second floor, and then her elder son has an upper floor with his family and her daughter has another floor with her family. We're on the ground floor. You can see that the house is kind of moderny-60s-ish. Kind of Frank Lloyd Wright redux. From the outside it's very rectangular and white. The plants and trees are great. Mr. Singh has a rooftop garden terrace. I haven't seen it yet, but it must be beautiful. In this picture, you can see his balcony and wicker furniture on the second floor. His massive, massive dog Max usually sits there with his humungous head hanging over the railing as he drools at the thought of slurping up Seung Yi. Seung Yi drools, meanwhile, without a thought at all in her head. You can also see that our house number is 97, just in case you want to come and visit, or you are trying for accuracy when you go rotten-egging in the neighbourhood.

The next picture shows the exterior of our floor. You can just barely see our front door behind the shrubbery. It's a lovely garden and our gardener (who gardens for several houses and is not in our sole employ) comes daily to sweep up the leaves (!), water the plants, and remove any imperfect foliage from disturbing our bucolic scenery. Later on, the sweeping lady sweeps the drive. Over the course of the day bill men come (they'll come and pick up your cell phone payment!), the fixers come and go upstairs, the food delivery folks come (free delivery for groceries! and take out food!), Mr. Singh's brother gets out his bike and goes peddaling around, Mr. Singh comes out and polishes his car in his Nike cap instead of his turban, PANKASH (Mr. Singh's man-of-all-jobs, who is always called by Mr. Singh just like this: "PANKASH!") comes out and waters plants and tidies stuff up, our nanny Iaimon comes and goes, and all the rest of the family members make their way hither and yon.

So far we are all big fans of Golf Binks!

[Delhi-19-January-2007]