Hawks, parrots and street dogs

ND 12 March 07
I like Jor Bagh, it’s sufficiently safe and surreal to make me happy. Our house is on the corner of a little square with a fenced cricket field in the middle surrounded by a few Jacaranda trees. Given my Nicaraguan experience this is definitely heaven. I can even walk Kina at night without any fear whatsoever. Well actually there is a little danger but it doesn’t come from humans, it comes from the many street dogs that are so common around here. In particular there is a pack of dingoes that reigns in the neighbouring block and that don’t make me feel particularly comfortable when I’m with our little scared black furry thing. We noticed dog owners always carry a walking stick when they stroll with their puppies, so I thought I could have my take on that... and I bought a cricket bat! The bloody thing it’s quite nice but heavy and I’m not sure if it makes me look a sportsman or a perfect idiot.
Nature is flamboyant around here, if we were lucky we could have had tiny red-breasted birds on the balcony in Rome, while in Jor Bagh when I pop in the garden in the mornings I am saluted by at least 4 couples of small hawks that fly in circles over the roofs. Tropical parrots chase each over through the Jacaranda leaves and little grey squirrels are all over the place. This is something that makes some parts of Delhi similar to Managua, you face the same contrast between amazing nature and amazing poverty. On the way back home from lunch, to give you an example, at a traffic light we were offered a little show by 2 children who couldn’t have been older than 5: the little dirty boy sported some fake moustaches painted under his nose and played incoherently a drum while this poor girl performed an awesome number twitching his tiny arms in order for an iron ring to pass continuously from the back to the front of her chest. It was overwhelming, I couldn’t look at them in the eyes.