Kids

Deepak and I were talking about family the other day. 

"Do you miss your mummy and daddy?" he asked. 

"Course mate" I said.

"Will you and Miss Jacki live with them when you go back to Australia?"

"That'd be great" I replied, "I'm tired of living anyway.  You let me know when it starts snowing in hell, and I'll make the necessary arrangements." 

I didn't even try to explain the complex logistical, judicial and inter-planetary forces that would need to align to make such a thing feasible.

The family setup in India is very different to what we're used to - kids stay with their parents much longer, if not for life, and are treated as children.  News stories (like this one) often start with "Cops arrested a youth, aged 35, in a hooch sting early yesterday...", or "The parents of a 27 year-old girl expressed shock when they found she'd gone to a movie with a 29 year-old boy without their permission...police were forced to lathicharge the cinema" etc. 

Which begs the question - when are you considered an adult in India?  I personally think in a country obsessed with marriage it's when you walk down the aisle.  That's probably part of the reason why it's suggested to us we call our partners our wives (3 of us ex-pats aren't married, the other 2 also have kids here).  It's more socially acceptable and makes life easier.  And we're not seen as foreign devil children playing house.

By the way, next weekend we're invited to the wedding of our senior mining engineer, Debabrata.  He's in his mid-thirties and has just bought a new house near his village.  It's always sad when the kids leave home, but I'm sure his parents will move in with him to keep him in line.

Health update.  Exercise regime is going well - have consistently made the gym every morning.  Except Sunday, when I didn't get home from town until 4.30am.  That also affected the diet slightly - midori and bailey's shots aren't really a part of the 'Spartan' plan.  Weight hovering at about 96kg, coincidentally the number of beers and rumsI had before the shots.  Have reloaded and refocused today - plan not to drink this week, including the wedding.  Don't want to end up in the paper as another unruly youth.