Before now I have only ever heard about monsoon. Before you have felt something its easy to be sceptical. OK it feels like a Turkish bath, but that thing about gallons of rain maybe doesn’t happen except in Indian novels. Day 2 we were visiting a controversial novelist in his gorgeous house in Dehra Dun when it started. After some hours of hospitality we decided to brave it. He insisted on driving and it was more like a boating trip. The few steps from car to house where enough to entirely drench us. And on and on it went all night through open windows. Wonderful!

But now after some days with thundering rain I realised had I not heard monsoon, but “There’s going to be loads of rain” I might have been less enthusiastic. As it is its thrilling.

First stop shopping, large green umbrella. I once tried to make an umbrella that looked like a huge tree. This has been Tree year for me and one of the big ones here is the Peepal tree. It grows on other trees, engulfing them and sporting its roots all over the trunk. Bless me if Rini didnt tell us that people sometimes get married to a Peepal tree. Single ladies and gents, what an opportunity!
Opportunity here is abundant indeed. After a death defying ride we will now be living in this Himalayan village for several weeks.

Here its actually possible for us women to have several husbands. The kind of thing you hear of in a fairy tale, like the one the grandmother told us yesterday about a woman marrying a frog.

The photo at the top is nice but I’m sorry does no justice to the scale of beauty here where we were cutting grass yesterday.