Saturday, October 14

 

 

We got up late after both having what felt like long hard weeks. After brunch I cut down a dead bush and swept up leaves from the garden and the road. Irma went shopping and I vacuumed.

At about 14:45 we collected Naa and drove to Munkkiniemi where we looked for somewhere to park. We walked from the car to the school without getting very wet and then wandered into the Mega Diwali that the Finnish Indian Society have organised. We met Sanal and some staff from the Indian Embassy and eventually found some seats for ourselves in the hall.

The concert begins late, as it did last year; as I suspect it does every year. We sit in the school hall through the opening speech from the president of the society in which he introduces all the VIP guests that the compere has just introduced. Finally the Indian Ambassador, her excellency Ms Vani Rao, tells a story for the children who sit noisily around the hall. She speaks well and seems, as she has every time we have met her, a warm and sympathetic person.

At some point I will leave the auditorium and discover samosas on sale in the foyer. I will buy three and we will eat them while watching Finnish women performing Indian dance.

The concert will last over three hours and we will enjoy it all; some for the advertised reasons and some for reasons of our own. Finally the organisers will abandon the last event in favour of starting dinner. We will all troop into the school dining room where we will have a delicious vegetarian Indian meal.

We will take Naa home and get back to the cat at about 21:20.