The sky is falling... and don't let the closet bugs bite!

Very happy no one was in bed when the ceiling fell!

When we came home from Neemrana, Karen found large chunks of our bedroom ceiling on her side of the bed and on the floor.  We noticed cracks forming a few weeks before, but never thought it would be such a disaster.  Thankfully, we went on vacation and Karen was spared!

Now to our closets.  When we moved in last year, we noticed wood powder and cracks in the tops of our closets in both our bedroom and guest room along with some dead bug skins.  We notified the maintenance department that takes care of our home, and they promptly came in blazing with a bug spray.  They ended up drenching the closets with termite spray diluted in kerosene (I just found out about the kerosene part...another story), leaving us with a uninhabitable house for a few days.  We ended up staying at a friend's apartment while the clean-up crew (one poor guy who is ordered around by 4 "supervisors") eventually cleaned up the mess dripping from our closets.  I figured any living creature was now dead in our home!

Fast forward 8 months.  When we came back to India at the very end of July, we noticed a chirping or gnawing sound coming from somewhere in our bedroom.  We ignored it for a few weeks as we thought it was probably our air conditioner or some other noise India makes.  The chirping grew louder over the next few weeks, so I started to investigate.  While doing the manly job of testing the closet's wood integrity, I just about put my entire fist through the paper thin upper-side panel.  I shrieked.  I remembered I had pictures of the bugs from last year and so began a Google investigation.  After 20 minutes, I came to the conclusion that the bugs were known as "old house borers".  They are known to make noises after their 4th year of infestation (after their pupa stage).  You don't want to see what they look like the 5th year!!  Nasty!  Karen and I immediately placed a work order to have these closets taken down as they were infested!

Below is a slideshow of pictures with an audio clip of me talking to the bugs.  You can definitely hear them in this clip...especially after the 3rd hello!!  I wish I got Karen talking to them...they respond to her voice more!!  I don't know what they are saying.  I don't know if I want to know...

What a day!

Turns out is was only a 4.4 earthquake!

Our home is "A" and the Delhi High court is "B".

BOMBING

When I hear the deep sounding far away rumbles of thunder here in Delhi, sadly, my immediate though is, man, I hope that's not Pakistan dropping a nuke. I don't know why this always quickly runs through my head, it just does. Yesterday, a bomb went off at the Delhi High Court. It is less than a mile walk from our home (on the map A is our house and B is the High Court). Sadly it killed 11 people and injured many more.

According to news sources, a terrorist group based in Pakistan and in Bangladesh, took responsibility for the attack. The email warned that attacks on Indian courts would continue unless the death sentence against a former Kashmiri insurgent involved in an attack on India's parliament in 2001 was repealed. Karen and I will make sure we don't hang around any courts.

EARTHQUAKE

About 13 hours later around 11:30pm, Karen had just lay down in bed and I was transferring Hindi notes into my new notebook. While I was writing, "Give me a good price," I heard a very loud rumble and about a second later felt heavy shaking for about 4 or 5 seconds. The quaking moved like a wave across the room. The shaking stopped and Karen and I both ran down the stairs and went outside. The birds were chirping and squawking and all the street dogs were barking. It was a strange feeling. Our landlord thought it best to run outside too. At first Karen and I both thought maybe this was a bomb... because that was on our minds from earlier today, but we knew better that it was an earthquake. This was Karen's first earthquake and my second (New Zealand 2003). We sat outside in the garden with our landlord for the next 2 hours just in case the BIG one was about to hit. The epicenter was 90 km outside of Delhi and thankfully, there was no noticeable damage or injuries (although you might not notice damage since there are so many holes and cracks around the city anyway).

Finally we nestled all snug in our bed while visions of bombs and earthquakes shook in our heads... What a day!

Back at Neemrana Fort Palace!

We made our second trip to Neemrana Fort-Palace this past weekend.  We went in March for a weekend trip.  This time we went with a large group of Karen's coworkers from AES.  Highlights include, exploring the village of Neemrana and playing cricket for the first time.  I hit the ball at my first at-bat ever.  The bowler got me out with the next pitch though....seemed like he put a lot more spin and velocity on the second bowl!  Another highlight was meeting a young man sitting on his front step learning statistics.  He proudly showed us his work....looked much like my notebook in college stats!  The weekend included many really good food buffets, emerald green swimming pools (something was wrong with the pools...they blamed it on the rain.  I went in but not for long), and our room which was huge!

Here are some pictures we both took during the trip.

A picture of the top of the fort palace from our trip in March!

The Fort-Palace was converted into a "heritage hotel"

Beautiful view from the entrance

Three Porters

Karen spent about an hour on this swing reading a book!

Our room - "Malabar Mahal"

Our room

Amazing views from our room

The before-dinner show: "bicycle wheel boy"

Fire-breathing people.
You can't see me (Karen) cringing--as I inhale his kerosene fumes. 

On our walk into the village, we attracted the attention of a "friendly" group of Indian boys, teenagers, and even an interesting man with a lot of hair (can you see him in the background?) and a few gold teeth.  The boys are all telling Tim that he has to do a Punjabi dance... or play cricket!

He chose cricket!  Oops I think the stick that fell down is a bad thing...

They are all telling me that I have very soft skin.

They are playing "push the boys into the foreigners".
It's similar to bowling.

This is much of what we saw.

Village woman

Quality time with grandpa!

Neemrana Village

Streets of Neemrana Village

An advertisement for a local jewelry shop.  Makes me want to buy a nose ring
(and grow a mustache).