Home sweet home...

So I have returned home (Delhi) from visiting home (London) and realised how nice it is to have two homes and appreciate the experience of living in two very different places...

The main reason for my return home was for my sister’s wedding, which was amazing. I could gush endlessly about it for the next several paragraphs, but it might be pretty boring for you. Before I left for London I was rather stressed about the wedding and was having a slight bridesmaidzilla meltdown for two reasons.

The first stress was over my dress. My sister and I decided it may be easier if I got my bridesmaid dress made in Delhi. I managed to track down a designer who sketched out something suitable and all seemed to be going well. Alarm bells should have been ringing when she kept referring to it as “the gown”. I first got a glimpse of it a week before leaving. She’d been a little ‘over creative’ with the colour and it was dip dyed two shades of purple. Perfect for a hippy wedding in Goa not the best for Babbington House in Somerset. So the dress was remade. It wasn’t quite the right fit and I was not too sure about the voluminous netting at the bottom that allegedly gave it “shape and style”. The second viewing 48 hours before getting on the plane was a slight improvement but not quite right. Let’s just say if I ever need to go to a party where the fancy dress theme is ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’ or ‘Muriel’s Wedding’, my outfit will rock. Anyway, thanks to the genius of my sister’s speedy online shopping a suitably divine dress was found and the problem was sorted within 2 hours of landing at Heathrow.

The second stress was over some secret stealth plotting that had been underway since February. I decided to organise a surprise hen party for my sister but as I would only be home 5 days before the Big Day, it had to be the weekend before the wedding. Most brides are probably at meltdown stage by then so I was a little nervous it was cutting it a bit fine. But all was not lost as my sister’s amazing friends rallied around, sent emails about fake hen lunches, carried on the subterfuge and we managed to keep the secret going until the second she opened the front door to be greeted by all her friends for a proper send off to married life.

So let me return to the gushing, the wedding was wonderful it was even more wonderful to be home, see my family and catch up with as many people as I could. London was a balmy 30°c; I came back with a tan and had my fill of as much wine, meat and cheese as I could. It was so clean and calm compared to Delhi, I loved the luxury of pavements and rubbish bins, sleeping on a soft bed and the feeling of carpet between my toes. It was lovely to be greeted in the office so warmly by my colleagues on my return. It was great to show them the wedding photos and explain some of the traditions of a Great British wedding. On seeing the size of my mother’s wedding cake I was asked “how many kgs was the wedding cake?” Also, “had my sister chosen her husband and met him before the wedding day?” and “with the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold, what would you do if you had a fat wife and lived on the top floor?” All very valid questions, particularly as I could compare the two different types of weddings having been to an Indian one a few weeks before.

So now I’m back home and it’s a nice feeling to know that my two homes both have amazing things about them that I can appreciate even more. And this week’s photos? Well it’s my dedication to my fellow volunteers who are missing and craving Western cuisine. Please enjoy the food porn, it was all worth the wait and tasted all the more divine for having a curry based diet for 8 months – enjoy!

Highlights: the wedding – ok this is the end of the gushing but I have to say we Brits know how to throw a good bash, what an amazing day and loved the fact we were up dancing until 3.30am, it’s hot, it’s steamy and very unpredictable – sadly I’m not describing an attractive young man sitting next to me in seat 39D on the flight home - it’s Delhi in the monsoon, never have I enjoyed grey skies and rain in my life so much. If you haven’t seen it already, enjoy my Bollywood ‘debut’ in a soap opera spoof, so far it’s had 4,793 hits on YouTube and apart from securing a role in a chewing gum ad, I don’t think I need to get an agent quite yet...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0xc_XK51YQ&feature=related