I left India for a while, in order to follow my dream and here I am in London. My daily walk to the Sotheby's Insitute of Arts (SIA) drives me through New Bond Street, where Sotheby's offices and auction space are located. Indeed, I have chosen to follow a summer program at the SIA, aimed at explaining the way the Art Market works and beleive me...it does well, very well. For example, a living artist called Damien Hirst sold his "Lullaby Srping" painting for...more than USD 10 millions last week (22/06/2007)! Contemporary art is THE current trend, but I want to find a way to promote Indian art - A true challenge, this is what I need...so chalo!!!

Damien Hirst's Skull, USD50 millions...for sale...

Nowadays, what srikes me is the way the weather forecast is being annoucned on the radio - For exemple, let 's take last Saturday's anoucement (14th of April 2007): "Good morning on Power Ek Saw Char (104); today, temperature's high is 42, lowest is 26. PVR presents since yesterday "Namaste London"...

HELLOOOOOOOO!! You have just annouced 42 degres to a poor innocent breton girl who, for sure, has never lived under such high temperatures!! I am far from being the only one to suffer though in A111 Belvedere flat. That is certainly why every day, as soon as 7.30am comes, we rush downstairs to the pool, for about half an hour.

Diving is not allowed and we were told that we should shampoo before kindly enter to water..what the hell is that! People here can be so precious here and it seems sometimes as a Too Much attitude for us.

Result: the three of us stand up in the raw at the range of the pool - 1,2,3....splash!!!

Holi Hai !                      

The festival of the Colors took place this week-end all over North India. Satuday night s bornfire was a soft introduction of what was going to happen then on the next morning. Because eventhough Holi is a bank holiday, at 10am, everybody is alreday awake and ready to fight! Drums, bhang drinks, colored powder and water... everybody turns yellow, pink, red or green but beleive me, nobody has the time to get the blues!

Yesterday, people got crazy (I was even told not to go to Old Delhi this Sunday). Therefore, I had a wonderful time with a bunch of Indian friends and their families in Gurgaon - We got wild, completely messed up the grass of the neatest garden I had so far ever seen in India, and ended up sliding in the mud. No way to taste the delicious food which was offered by uor hosts without eating in the same time a freshly-opnened golden paint gel.

Poor me, it was obviously written on my pale white skin that it was my first Holi. As a consequence, I was the favorite target of the day (eggs, tomato ketshup, etc), and you can beleive me when I say that it really turned yucky sometimes! But what a relief to see that even the policemen and guards got some colors on their faces.

Monday, 10am : I enter my office...my elbows, my forehead, my toes and my nails are still completely...pink...

... Pay 500 Ruppees today, save 50,000 tomorrow...

A baby girl is useless... Fortunately, voices start to raise against this secular beleif. Poverty and analphabeptism are the main reasons to "understand" why, within 20 years, police have found more 30,000 baby girls dead corps, in Pakistan only. India suffers from the same plague. You will see that what I write is not meant to blame a country I love, it is just about sharing something which seems out of space for Westerners. That is why I invite you to go through this video (it is in french and I thanks Vincent for sharing it with me). 

http://envoye-special.france2.fr/emissions/27265363-fr.php

http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/search/foetus%2Ben%2Binde/video/xjrz3_un-genocide-silencieux

Let me tell you now what stroke me the most after I watched this video : they are the regions of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi which suffer the most from this threat, and especially rich families, rich women actually who do not wish to see their daughters sufefring the same way they suffered before...

"It is a boy we wanted, we badly wanted a boy but it was also God's will to give us a girl" says this grand-ma. The more I get to know about India and the more I understand the way things are: traditions and families have still such an impact on everyday life! More and more, I feel I am entering this word; soon, some deeper questions will rise in my French mind, and I will have to look for some answers...

Indeed, India enables me to discover what love is, but such in a different way ! Everything is about giving only. Families surround (or maybe I should say monitor) any relationships, what ever the cast, religion or social background the youngsters are from; future is a daily subject and lots of efforts are being put in order to make things happening the way they should. The same word, Kul, is used  to translate and yesterday and tomorrow, and this means a lot : destiny is a matter of fact however, future has to be secured - Relationships in India are not superficial and implie many concepts and sorts of dedications  westerners could never understand. Today, I feel different...but I want to feel the same - TO BE CONTINUED...

...Last December the 13th 2006, more than 30,000 weddings took place in Delhi only...