Oxford Diary: Snores, doctors, Thames, fairs and what not....

While Indranil snores in the next room, I sit with my midnight snack, a double chocolate sundae, none less. Whosoever said eating after sundown is a bad idea, obviously failed to impress me. To go back where I begun this post, Indranil and his snores. Oh well the last ten days he has been really sick, high temperature, terrible body and eye ache, constant head pounding, sore throat...you name it he had it. It started with him feeling lowly and us thinking that he is jet lagged, then it got promoted to flu. Then at one point we thought it was swine flu....I spent a terrible night with Indranil withering with head and eye ache and the NHS website shouting to get an abulance. By some sixth sense I hung on, felt this terrible night and the terrible aches would pass. The next day we went to the GP, who bless his British soul seeing that Indranil is from India thought he has malaria. From there, he was reffered to the Department of Tropical Medicine in a far away hospital, where after loads of blood test and oodles of other tests, with threats of typhoid, malaria, chicken guina, dengu....has come to the conclusion that whatever the disease, it is self limiting so he will get better on his own. So he survived this entire sickness on Crocin. Long live Indian Crocin. One impact of this sickness is that Indranil has started snoring rather loudly,maybe he cant breathe properly. But I think I prefer snores any other than those terrible sleepless nights with high fever and pains.

While trudging to the nearest NHS surgery, we crossed the Thames river. I must say I was expecting Thames to be much more grander, but sadly at least in Oxford it is not. Some pictures of Thames which flows through Oxford.

Oh found this dainty fair going on in one of the city squares in the City Centre. Though did not buy anything, though was itching to pick up some cane baskets (on two grounds: no money and we were on our way to the far away hospital). All kinds of stuff, though old and used were on sale, even gold. Some photos of the fair.

Another thing that I wanted to talk about is the community centre which housed the NHS surgery. Now I have always heard about community centres neven been to such a thriving one. It is such a lovely place and the people managing it are also very nice. There are all kinds of activities and classes going on. It is nice to see a bunch of old ladies having fun dancing, some sitting in the cafe just chatting. I am really impressed. And there is a retirement house just next to this community centre, which I guess makes the centre all the more thriving.

In the heart of greenery and solitude....

In the mad rush after our marriage,one good thing that Indranil and me, we did was to go for a small weekend trip. I got to know about this place from Anuradha who had gone there before. The village is called Kamarpara and the resort if it can be called that, is called Aro Aakash. This place is about 10 kms from Bolpur station. Once we booked the room, pickup from station was organized. Friday morning we caught Shantiniketan Express and reached Bolpur by 1 ish. From there it took us for 20/25 minutes in the car.
We were there for 2 nights and 3 days. All we did was eat, sleep,take walks, sit in front of our mud house and chat. On Saturday we ventured out to see Shantiniketan, it was an aborted home coming for me and then we went to see this haat and went shopping.
This trip was a much needed rest between super hectic schedule. The place was so serene that it kind of took our breathe away just by its simplicity. There was no television, no radio, no space for any laptops, in fact there was barely any electricity. All we could see was green and water and all we could hear was the cricket and frogs. Some photographs from the trip.

View from our house. There was nothing except green and ponds all around us. Since it was the middle of monsoon, the two days we were there, it kept raining, making it all the more lovelier and greener.

This is where we stayed. My first experience of staying in a mud house, though with a modern western style toilet.

The mud house where we stayed was called ekka (meaning one floored). It could be seen far away in the distance beyond the pond.

Way from our home towards the main gate. The house that can be seen in the distance is another mud house, this one is called dokka since it is two storied.

Water drenched paddy fields.

Just some random landscapes.

We visited a haat (market) which happens every Saturday, some 5 kms from Shantiniketan. This is a new phenomena when I as a child used to visit Shantiniketan, never saw this. That afternoon it was raining cats and dogs. Most of the stalls could not be displayed. Found this potters' stall who had braved the rain. This lady in the middle of the photograph is the potter who had done the cups, vases, ashtrays etc. Picked up a small fish shaped ash tray.

Inside Shantiniketan.

Chadimtola.