Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

I may have not written a lot lately but I haven’t stopped reading.

And like often, my books are about India…

In English, I just finished East of the Sun by Julia Gregson.

Beyond the mushy romance (that I personally love and I’m not ashamed of it!), this book makes you travel in the twenties when you British girls were crossing the sea to go to India and marry officers.

And what a party time it was for most of the colonizers! The novel however finishes with the end of an era, with Independence coming up, and many Britishers leaving…

But at the end, the three heroines settle down in India!

 

Conversation with a faithful (French) reader somewhat hygiene-maniac ;)

 

Me: It's cool, the rain has arrived in Delhi, temperatures have dropped, we lost 15 degrees...

 

Him: Regarding temperatures I found online that it is still 32°C in Delhi! So a drop of 15°C would mean that it was 47°C... You wouldn’t be from the South of France by any chance?!*

 

Me: Nope but I’m not joking it goes up to 47 degrees in the summer!

(Thinking about it he must not read my blog so faithfully after all!)

 

He: Ok! With this temperature (48°C) you liquefy don’t you? And I guess there is a local ULTRA powerful deodorant... or a dedicated research lab?

 

Me: (Indian) grandma recipe: talc powder!

 

Him: Just a question about the talc... They put it everywhere??

 

Me: And you? You put deo everywhere??

 

Him: Yeah... ok! You are quibblingl! But I find it "strange" to put talc powder under the armpits! So it's cool in the morning…Talc on the feet! Under the arms! We never know, maybe on the buttocks! Moisture can cause erythema... Can you buy it in bulks?

 

Joke aside, most Indians use talc as a deodorant (it absorbs odours) and it is more eco-friendly.

Even if marketing people in L’Oreal who keep fighting white traces may find it horrible…. In the morning, in the metro, most women have large white traces around the neck... And I saw once a man with the back full of hair and talc. Yuck...

 

* People from the South of France have a reputation of exaggerating everything…

 

I have not yet fully understood how water works in Delhi. For example water cuts are very frequent. In fact there is a huge problem in some areas.

In my warehouse, for example, there is a guy who comes to fill the tank twice a week.

In my house I do not know how it works exactly. There are tanks on the roof and when they are empty, someone activates a pump which gets them filled. If the person in question is not here, not pump so no water!