I used to go to the same restaurants over and over again in LA -- Lala's, Bossa Nova. I suppose as I was traveling so much when I lived in LA it was always nice to get back, see friends, and go have some reliable good food. Well, now it seems that instead of going to restaurants... I revert to gardening. Not gardening, per se, as much as buying new plants. Seriously, I think I have some sort of addiction to buying new plants. I've run out of places to put them.
Matching my new addiction to plants with my old one, to coffee, I've managed to bring them together today. We have this great gardener, Babulal (I always think of the Yiddish word - Bubbula - as in "you cute boy" - something a grandmother says to her grandson). Anyway, Bubulal is our CNN gardner and I've learned that when we leave the office we are currently working out of -- we will also lose Babulal. So, my boss Phil, Tess, and I are all working on our own to keep Babulal employed. I've been wanting to have night-blooming Jasmine hanging from my roof down onto this overhang above my terrace -- ultimately I want to put lights on it. I think it'll look very cool to look up from the terrace and see this blooming, creeping Jasmine.
So Anand the driver and Babulal spent the day with Sibi and me and did some gardening. In the late afternoon I went down to my new favorite coffee place - Barista - and I bought my old-school americano and three cold coffees for the "team". Here Babulal (pictured left and forward) and Anand are taking a coffee break on my terrace.
I had a really good week at work. It has been quite slow for the last few weeks and I've been searching for something to get excited about. My boss Phil and I are working on ways to "raise my profile" at CNN and I think we've made some headway this week. We're looking at a trip to Nepal next week to cover the political developments there. I'm going alone and will shoot (a la Maldives) which is really quite a bit of work for me but it is creative and cool as I get to determine the entire pace and editorial direction of the trip. It looks like we've got a good "in" with the Maoists there and I'll spend some time in Khatmandu, as well, trying to get the government/King's side of things. Our "news representative" there expects the situation to heat up again as it did this spring -- so hopefully we'll be ahead on this story. It would be cool if I could build a reputation for doing some rapid-deploying, cheap, interesting story-telling.
Brief interlude... here is a plant that I've just realized has some beautiful pink flowers. Sibi brought it inside the other day -- I guess she likes it. I really need (and want) to learn Hindi and it would be great if I could communicate better with Sibi. She's so great. We did have a little mishap the other day. I got home from work quite late and was looking forward to dinner (which she always makes for me and leaves out for me to have once I've gotten home). Well, I open up the pot and look inside... to see peas and beans peeking out from some white goop (this is not the technical name for the dish). I always try everything she makes and I decided to try this as well. I thought it might be some bad alfredo sauce (I only had a bite). I was concerned as last weekend I bought some bad pesto which I left in the refrigerator. I was worried that this episode might cause her to think that I like bad, packaged sauces. But, no, I looked in the fridge and saw a half-used bottle of mayonnaise... and some missing eggs. Oh dear, I thought, she's covered peas and beans in mayonnaise??? Yes, she had. In my copious free time I thought about how I might convey to her that I didn't like this. Ultimately, I decided to put my hands on my stomach and puff out my cheeks and say "too heavy". She got it - no more veggies in mayonnaise. Tess told me that "Russian Salad" is a real treat here -- was THAT Russian Salad? What are the Russians thinking?
One of the other ways that we're trying to raise my profile is to send me to Hong Kong to meet the editors and assignment desk staff with whom I work on a daily basis. It turns out that I may get a week in Hong Kong to meet/greet the staff and then a week to work from there. I suggested that I do a story or two while I'm there to get to work with some of the staff in a way that I might not get to by just doing a quick visit. Well, it turns out that I'm going to get to work with one of their great producers and we're looking at pitching a trip to the Philippines to do three stories there. Very exciting... to get some regional travel.
I've mentioned the construction workers at the site across from my house. I really like them because these families all LIVE on the construction site. It's quite typical for workers to come in to Delhi to find jobs -- but they have no place to live. So they sleep on the streets or on the sites of their jobs. Every night around 6:30 or 7pm after the work of the day is done - this group light fires and cooks dinner ON the construction site. I've felt a little odd about taking their picture -- but I finally snapped one tonight. The photo is a little dark, but you can make out the fires and the women who are squatting down next to the fires, tending to the food. (Yes, this is my neighborhood - one of the nicer in Delhi).
And.. this evening my fears were allayed -- I thought that the three green parrots from the tree across from my house may not actually be living there. Well, I saw the three of them again tonight -- with three or four OTHER green parrots. Very nice to have all of these parrots just outside -- tonight at dusk they were all singing, or chirping, or whatever parrots do.
I took a walk down to the site of my "sealed" gym. It's funny that I manage to hold on to some hope that my gym will reopen. This hope is based on my conversations with the security guards at the gym. Again these are not really conversations as much as they are a series of misunderstandings, pointing and smiles. Tonight I'm under the delusion that my gym will reopen because the man said "Monday". "Monday" is the only thing I got out of our discussion. "Monday" COULD mean that the gym will reopen Monday... it could mean that it will be demolished Monday -- but, most likely, it means absolutely NOTHING.
An old friend from LA is stopping through Delhi this week and will stay here with me for a night. I'm very excited to have him visit. It's quite funny that we probably haven't had a single dinner together (even with a group of friends) in five years... but I'll be seeing him here in Delhi.
My old apartment in LA was in a Soviet-era/looking complex called, "The Dell Apartments". My friends refer to me as living now in the "New DELL-hi" Very funny.
xx-