How month are we going back?

"Daddy. How month are we going back to Reading?" asks my daughter every alternate day.

I start by correcting her that it is "which month" and then her it is an year-long assignment that will finish next September.

"Can we have a party when we go back to Reading and invite all my friends to it? And can we get a bouncy-castle and do face-painting?"

Sure, my angel.

They say kids are the quickest to adjust to a newer place, while grown ups can never fully adjust even at a familiar place. Both I and my wife have a history in the city, while the little one is totally alien to it.

Making new friendships will take time. Like most eastern countries, kids sleep late in India. They wake up early to go to school. Once back, they catch up on sleep and are only out and about after six in the evening.

My girl still goes to sleep at 8.00-8.30 in the night and is up and about from 7 in the morning. She wants to go out and play but there are hardly any kids about. By the time they come out to play, it is a couple of hours until bedtime for her. And then most of her games are different from those of the kids in Delhi.

She does know hide-and-seek, but isn't aware that it is called chupan-chupai in Hindi. She knows catch-me-if-you-can, but doesn't know it as pakadam-pakdaai. The kids are impressed with her English, but struggle to continue speaking in the language themselves.

The little girl definitely misses her park in Reading. And the swing. And the slide. And the booya. And the sandpit. And the paddling pool. And I miss these things too.

Delhi always was a green city. Even even with relentless contruction and ever-growing number of cars, each locality still has more than one park.

Conducive weather (lots of rain and overcast skies) keeps the parks in the UK lush green. The parks are maitained by the local council, and paid for by tax-payers. In Delhi, it is a labour of love by tax-paying residents of different localities.

Like civic amenities, security, transport and education, most public parks are also privately maintained. Local residents spend on a park to be watered. They spend on keeping it clean. They spend on keeping it well lit-up. They spennd to have a jogger's/walker's track along the periphery of the park. They spend on maintaining the swings, slides and monkey-bars for children. And one has to admit, they are doing a pretty good job of it.

But 10 years of Health & Safety have taken away the spirit of 25 years of rough and tumble. As children, we would always have cuts and bruises. And before these could heal, we would pick up newer bruises.

Not my own child. It was one thing letting her go on the monkey-bars and see her fall on loose sand in the park at Caversham. A big cry, a few tears, a cuddle and she would be back to playing again. A fall here would be on hardened soil and that is bound to leave a bruise.

There are also the screws protruding out of the slides. And the swing looks a bit rusty......OK, now I am talking like a paranoid parent!

Being a labour of love, Delhi parks miss the variety my little one was used to in Caversham. She could play on the swings or let her imagination flow in the sand or just take a dip in the paddling pool, if the day was warm. In Delhi, you'll mostly get a monkey-bar, a swing and a slide.

The parks also reflect an interesting change in India. In middle-class localities, children (as young as three) run around for hours without any adult keeping an eye. In well-off areas, the maids and drivers bring the children to play in an air-conditioned car. The parents are completely missing from the scene, with strict instructions that their kids should not be mixing with unknown people or kids.

In the park in front of our flat, there are only three kids supervised by their parents. My daughter and the two girls of an ironing lady who works by the park. Komal and Didi are my little girl's best friends at the moment.

She is yet to figure out Delhi (or, shall I say, the general inequalities of life). Mum, my friends' house isn't very nice - it is broken. Mum, their Mum forgot to put their shoes on. Mum, their clothes are dirty and broken. Why don't they wear nice clothes?

Every morning, she heads straight to the balcony to check whether Komal and Didi have come. She wants to share her sweets, snacks and toys with the girls. She thinks they are good girls and don't do her tang (bother her).

But will this friendship last once she starts going to nursery/childcare?

A posting on our (more specifically, my wife's) search for a nursery tomorrow.