Guests from a land far, far away

This December we are expecting guests from a land far, far away from ours. My husband’s Uncle and Aunt and their two lovely children- a son and a daughter, are coming from Australia to visit us here in Delhi (India). His aunt is his Mother's sister. And my husband quite enjoys her company.

Uncle and Aunt are Indians by origin but they chose to make Australia their home land to spend the rest of their lives, or rather to begin a new journey of their life. Uncle had been with merchant navy and had sailed through almost entire world. And when he married her, they chose Sydney to start their new quest. Since then, they have been visiting their family here in India once in three to four years. Last time they were here in Delhi our engagement was being planned. Because their next visit would not have been at least 3 years thence, they pressed my husband’s mom hard to get both of us engaged before they leave. They knew, otherwise, making for our engagement and wedding couldn’t have been possible. So I thank both of them for getting both of us engaged earlier than expected.

There is a vast difference in the climate and culture of India and Australia. Well, culture wise their family is an Indian by heart. So there isn’t any appreciable culture GAP. Though their children were born and brought up in Australia but they, as parents, have deliberated a lot of hard work in inculcating Indian values in their children. So culture isn’t a problem at all. But climate certainly is a BIG problem. Unfortunately, apart from boasting a rich cultural heritage, India also abounds in pollution and dust. On the contrary Sydney has far better and cleaner environment. It’s quite hard for their children to put up with dust and pollution, esp. for the youngest one who is very sensitive to dust. All our family members here in Delhi are busy nowadays to prepare their homes for the guests. We all are specifically focusing on the cleaning part. Unfortunately, there is so much dust around everywhere that if we don’t dust clean our homes regularly our homes will look as if they have been deserted for months. All the siblings of my husband’s aunt, accompanied with their children, will be spending time with her. So we need to prepare our home for at least 10 more guests milling about my house.

So what am I waiting for? Even I need to prepare a checklist of what all things I must do to prepare myself and my house to welcome them. They will be visiting us for the first time. So it’s time to get my home in order, from the perspective of a “happy slob” ;-)