The man with ten heads...

This week we headed back to one of our favorite kid spots--the Reading Caterpillar. We went to hear a story about Dussehra. We learned about Ram, Sita and Ravana and the conquering of good over evil. The story was well told and animated with lots of audience participation. The kids then got to make a 10-headed mask of Ravana. Fun!

 Dorian was held captive:

 Arthur stayed interested for a while, then found a toy:

 But, he went straight for the painting:

 While Dorian had other plans...

 Finishing his mask with markers at home (full of 10 scary faces):

For more info on Dussehra, check out: dussehra

One good...

Door boy...

I was going through the massive amounts of photos on my blackberry the other day when I came across a series I had taken while on our trip to Chandigarh last year. We visited the Rock Garden: rock garden visit. It's funny what you remember over time. We arrived at the end of the day, it was cloudy and looked like it would rain any second. My big boy was fussy, no doubt  because he had been in the car most of the day on our drive to and from Kasauli: kasauli but, I was determined that we would visit the famous Rock Garden and we would all enjoy it. Ha! My four and a half year old was good a proving me wrong. He was not happy at all to be walking through the maze of rock creations. And, even less so about all the people wanting to take photos of him. But, then something happened. I don't know if was because they were scaled to his size or he actually started enjoying the garden, but...I found this series of Dorian and the Doorways:

All slightly different, doors and poses that is, but all the same theme. It was like his own castle with doors just for him. Luckily, it changed his mood and he gave me this happy pose before leaving:

And then it poured down rain...

Mall art...

I make it a point not to go to malls too often. I find them pretty overwhelming. But, doing a little shopping with a girlfriend of mine the other weekend, we found ourselves at one of south Delhi's big malls. And, I came to a full stop when we saw this:

I remembered hearing about a new contemporary art museum opening a branch at the mall and I wondered if this was part of it? That day I didn't have time to check out the museum, but will definitely do so another day. I did, however, check out the museum's website to see if there was any link to this huge inflatable work machine: KNMA. I didn't come across anything. And, when I did a search for Alan M. Eddison I found that he's the director of Green Earth Affairs in Zimbabwe. The mystery continues...is it modern art or a statement about ecology or both...?

A week of...

Last week was quite a week. My big boy started kindergarten, the little one still heads of to school with a smile each day (thankfully), there was a bombing about 15 minutes from where we live followed by a late night earthquake, then topped off with massive rainfall and flooding. At least the week ended with a sunny day and some swimming.  But, it was full of downs and ups and I feel quite shaken after such a week of unexpectedness. The newspapers say another bombing is likely for this week as well. So, what do we do? Just wait and hope for the best, I guess.

Some headlines:

earthquake

delhi blast

flooding

Here are some pics from our side of town:

front yard becomes a lake:

nearby streets:

these guys trying to move a massive, fallen tree:

Here we go!