An Addis Ababa New Year

May the new year bring health, wealth, good cheer and less depressing news feed. And more regular blog posts even if my only audience is the middle of the night net trawler from Ukraine. Hi! Happy New Year and thanks for reading !

I am not alone in starting the year with aspirin and coffee

The featured macchiato

Mixed juice - Guava, Avocado and Mango

I am starting my Addis New Year very appropriately in a coffee shop, fighting and rehydrating an incipient  hangover with macchiato and juice. We had a wonderful end of the year celebration last night at the Indian Embassy which is the mother ship, shielding us from home sickness on the occasions which count. After much debate we decided a toddler free new year celebration would be in the best interest of both parents and aforementioned toddler, considering that his bedtime is at 9.30 pm and that the party would continue till, well, the new year. We executed the toddler bed time routine with military precision, stuff him with food till he is green- trick him into drinking milk twice-hurried bed time book-diaper change-double socks and lights out. Of course the toddler sixth sense alerted him to his impending abandonment and he tossed and turned and fought sleep with his last awake breath until finally succumbing by 10.30 pm, after which we did the change clothes-token make up-wake up nanny and careful right side of the road drive, finally arriving by 11.00 pm. It was all worth it. Drunk dancing under the stars on a perfect chilly night is the best way to bring  in the new year. And we were still back in time for the 2.00 am milk and cuddle.

So why am I rehydrating in a coffee shop instead of having a lazy morning in bed ? Because I work for an Ethiopian company and Ethiopia follows a unique Ge’ez calendar which means it is 2005 now, New Year was in September and Christmas is next week. The Ethiopian Christmas falls on a Monday – two day weekend! We are taking a short weekend break at Wolliso and will be back to start Vihaan off at his new play school after the Christmas break. My new year resolution is to post both a review of the trip and of Play Schools in Addis within this month, we should all keep our ambitions grounded and realistic.   

  

Note:

 I wrote this post on 1^st Jan but did not post because the photos were stuck in my phone because Google including Gmail is suddenly not working on Android devices in Addis and it took me four days to transfer photos by cable. Me and Ethiotelecom are a lethal combo, as of this date the glitch has still not been fixed.

Easter Lunch

Lambs to the slaughter - literally!

Easter was last Sunday and I still haven’t posted about it which means my laziness is now pathological. I have only one thing to say about Easter in Addis Ababa – The Goats Die! From Good Friday onwards there was a goat invasion of Addis with herds of them in every market, even grazing on the grass growing on the road divider on Bole Road. Apparently they cost around 2000 Birr per goat. The chicken cost between 50-200 Birr with the prices being hiked up for Easter. One of the English newspapers had an amusing headline on Monday protesting the steep prices ‘Doro-What??’- a pun on Doro-Wot  which is an Ethiopian chicken dish. I understand Amharic puns now. Clap, clap. Although if you consider that the majority of the readers are probably expats whose Amharic is as sketchy as mine, then  reporter was probably just playing to our limited intellect. 

Grab a plate

When we arrived at our hosts house, the goat had already been butchered and the meat was marinating for the barbeque.The raw meat did make me squeamish as expected and I did not try it, but  even hardened non vegetarians steer clear of it so thats ok. The Ethiopian chilli pastes taste really good and are definitely not too spicy for the Indian palate.  I am developing a taste for Injera but not the wots.I think it will taste rather good with a curry instead. Will report on the experiment.

The more conventional way to eat the meat

Weddings!

When you have two weddings in quick sucession in the family, then your life becomes a mad whirl of saree buying, blouse stitching, parlour visiting and jewellery matching. If both the weddings are out of town and you are squeezing in a conference in between, resigning your job and orchestrating a trans-continental move, then your life is on steroids.

Roshni, my younger sister got married on the 30^th of January in a traditional Tamil Iyer ceremony. The festivities started   on the 28^th with a cocktail party, followed by the Nitchyathartam or engagement on the 29^th and the wedding on the 30^th. 

Who shines brighter ?

Roshni’s wedding was a far cry from mine because the financial strain was much less. At my wedding every saree and beauty parlour visit was budgeted and accounted for. I remember long discussions over Roshnis sangeet lehenga which cost 5000 Rs at that time. This time you had Appa swanking around like a nouve riche Russian splashing out on hotel rooms and chauffeured taxis. Good times.

Necessary audience participation to maintain interest

Her wedding photos are absolutely sensational because she had two full time professional photographers covering all events as well as a horde of wannabe friends with SLRs and zoom lenses. One of her best friends, Khushi, was wonderfully focussed on documenting every moment of all three days. Sometimes you couldn’t see the homam smoke for the paparazzi !

Introducing the bride and groom

Rahuls wedding was a much more intimate affair. While Roshnis wedding had a predominantly firang flair to it thanks to her and Balajis classmates from Columbia University and Oxford respectively. Rahuls wedding party consisted chiefly of close relatives which meant he had an exceptionally pretty baraat. And Vihaan danced. At the sangeet, at the baraat, and everytime the music played in between. He is definitely over compensating  for parents with two left feet. 

All dressed up

The sangeet at home

When the bridegroom is really happy to get married

Vihaan had an absolutely great time with his cousin Sahil running around, throwing things and taking his first steps towards turning into a little boy tornado. I need to find him more kids his age to play with.

Learning to be a boy

And of course, the wedding

No food on Id

Id Mubarak to all. Kept planning to go to Jama Masjid all month to eat awesome Ramzan food but just didn't happen. I don't blame the baby for the lack of time, I blame the Delhi traffic. I can sneak out of the hospital at around 4.30 p.m. on a light day, it would take me half an hour to get to Chandni Chowk by rickshaw ( autos are few and far between in old Delhi ) Assuming an hour and a half to sample lots of street food and another richshaw ride back to the hospital, that would leave me stuck in peak traffic at 7.00 p.m. when it would take me a couple of hours to wind my way home. Of course if I were a truly dedicated foodie, I could take the Metro to work and catch the Metro back home from the Chawdi Bazar station. There's always next year. Enjoy the biryani. 

Holy Smoke

Woke up on Wednesday morning to find that the pavement in front of our house was converted into a tiny market. Closer inspection revealed that these enterprising urchins were making a tidy profit selling cannabis leaves on Shivratri ! These leaves are placed as offerings to Lord Shiva besides being used to manufacture bhang. It is also magical how the numbers of children multiply in a space of a few seconds when a camera appears.