Monday, December 8, 2008

Up on the roof

It's easy for a Western woman to feel quite trapped in this city. So the rooftop of our building is the one place out of doors where a girl can go without having to cover up and become invisible.



It was just a hard bare space when we came, but nowadays it's much friendlier.



We have a gas barbecue. (That's Paul - he's a bit too tall to get the whole of him in one photo.)
And other furniture ...



and we can sit around and have get-togethers in the coolth of the evenings.



Playing the Game

And then Stanley (our Indian driver) saw a little badminton kit in the shops and persuaded Peter ...



Stanley loooves playing badminton. But the little kit came with only two shuttlecocks.



And soon they had both gone over the side!

But he got them back, and lived to play another game or three



Young "Tiger" wanted to play too ...



... but then ... ! Oh! there goes another shuttlecock!



Where did it go, and what's down there? (I hear you ask).



It's one of the many "light wells" in this place. Some windows are on the inside of the building and therefore open into a light well. But on the top floor all of the windows open into a light well or the roof-top "garden" area - can't risk having people looking into other people's houses or gardens.

Even higher up

I climbed to the top section of the roof (again)



because it's such a good view. Oh, and that's K.

Over the front side of the building I noticed something going on.



All those people down there - pretty unusual. Are they ... ?



Yep, they are! A bunch of Indian chappies playing cricket, in their robes 'n' all. (Of course, this is the "bachelor quarter" of the city.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi ruth
Wouldn't want to fall down that hole in the roof! Can you buy shuttle cocks somewhere?
Jean

Ruth said...

Hi Jean!
We managed to get more shuttlecocks - the feathered variety - but they keep losing all their feathers, and the little rackets develop holes very quickly. But, yes, these things are reasonably available. And we keep losing them and we manage to get almost all of them back. There's a little door downstairs into the bottom of the deep light well. And with the shallower ones Stanley has rigged up a pole with a hook - goes fishing for them.