This is a must every time I visit India

Next morning, I had breakfast at the hotel and was fetched by one of Vikram Singh’s drivers.  Bhiv joined us, and we drove on the newly tarred road to Artiya Kallan – Kiddo’s village, where I received a fantastic welcome as always.  It’s a bit like coming home.  Tinu painted my hand with henna and the rest of the day was spent relaxing in true village style.

It was the 11^th of March – my birthday, and Kiddo and his family had been planning a birthday party for me for ages.  I was dressed up Indian style, and the party was ready to start.  I danced and laughed and basically had ridiculous amounts of fun.  I cut the cake that Bhiv had arranged or me with my name written perfectly on top.  I also got a fair amount of the cake spread on my face.  We finally decided to go to bed at about midnight completely pooped.

The next morning was sleep-in time, but to my amazement, Kiddo’s mom was up before the birds busy cooking and cleaning.  It always amazes me how unbelievably strong the Indian women are, especially Kiddo’s mom and Himmat’s mom – they are made of pure steel.  We were all so lazy after the revelry of the day and night before, so actually getting going was a major effort, but that’s what holidays are for, right.  Village life on a normal day is really chilled.  The men go to work in the morning, and the women stay home and take care of the household. 

I started a game of balloon volleyball, and to my utter amazement kept up with all the others who are much younger and fitter.  I come from a mean gene pool.  If you have any balloons (not blown up with helium), then do yourself a favour and play balloon volleyball (no net required) – it’s the best thing/the only fun thing to do with balloons.