The Chinese New Year just passed, which means that it is early February, and that we have already been living in this INCREDIBLE country for more than 6 months.
A lot of things start to seem normal and the friendships we've already made seem to be so spontaneous, authentic, true,,.
Temperatures are getting warmer, people on the streets are putting their blankets away, and the street views seem to become normal again after the cold nights we had during a few weeks.
The electrical heaters which we used (to try) to warm up the rooms in the apartment can be put back in the closets till next year, because we know that in a few weeks we will need the air-conditioning to cool down the place.
This incredible country brings pretty cold winters during a few weeks: mostly from December till January. Of course, the cold is pretty relative when you compare it with the colds in the northern countries of Europe or America, but for India the differences are huge.
The average temperature in winter time wouldn't be that cold, but it can drop till around 4°C during the night and 9°C during the day: which means very chilly and cold rooms in the houses and apartments because there is no central heating system, no proper insulation yet (big challenge for McCoy Soudal ;-) ), and no double glazed windows.
And as you can imagine, these colds are shocking for people and kids living on the street, under the bridges without having a decent place to warm up.
And this seems to be so normal again. It is horrible to say, and very confronting when I am writing it (and re-reading it) but you get used to the poverty, you get used to the kids coming and begging for money at every traffic light in Delhi.
Don't get me wrong, and don't think that we don't feel sorry for those people. It is really hard and of course we see a lot of injustice but it is all part of the image you get from the streets in India.
We experienced also the opening of the first real supermarket in Delhi. A pretty exciting happening for us. Groceries shopping needed a lot of organization because there was no central place to go to. Now that 'Spar' opened its doors, we nearly feel that 'home feeling' that we have when we go shopping in our respective countries.
And all these little evolutions prove again, that India, more specifically Delhi is growing, learning and evolving! And we are convinced that there is much more to come! The potential of the country is huge...enormous!
Next week, more stories about incredible India+ article of the Trends about nobody less than my husband Manu! A few weeks ago, a Belgian journalist from the magazine 'Trends' came to Delhi and interviewed Manu. He seemed to be the perfect person to interview and write an article about. (Business wise it is a huge challenge to be here)