A Day Devoted to Email! And Tea with a College Mate.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Bombay


A Day Devoted to Email! And Tea with a College Mate.

     Namaste from Bombay!

Morning Rituals:
     After a better night than my previous one, I awoke to another day. I had decided to stay home today as I had so much to do on my laptop that it made sense to stay put in Bandra.  Besides, as I had no interviews lined up, it made sense to remain home and catch up with my work.
     I had a swift coffee, got dressed and went for a workout to Bandra Gym. This usually leaves me feeling pretty virtuous for the rest of the day and allows me to indulge in a few sweet treats, guilt-free.
     On returning home, I had a quick shower and sat down to my breakfast--I just adore this concoction of birschersmuesli which consists of oat-based muesli (with some rice and cornflakes thrown in--it is made in India by a company called Bagrry's and it is delicious!), plain yogurt, grated apple, chia seeds, almond milk and honey. Truly, I could eat this breakfast quite gratefully and greedily for the rest of my life.

Work and More Work:
     And then my work on my computer began. I made a long To-Do List and was shocked to discover that I ran out of juice before I could go through half my emails.  This meant recharging it and going back to work again. Email from NYU and from friends, in the US, UK and Bombay kept me tied to my PC for the entire morning.
     I received the great surprising news that my friends, the Colcloughs from London, had signed up for a cruise that would be in Bombay for 2 days in January--and then, just imagine our frustration on both sides, when we discovered that they would be here on precisely the dates that I would be in Chennai giving a paper at the International Anglo-Indian Reunion Researchers Conference! I could have cried with disappointment. Anyway, there is nothing to be done. I am not destined to meet them anywhere outside of the UK or the US--I had also missed them by two days when we were in Assisi in Italy in July! And now this!!! Really hard to believe. However, since they will be boarding their flight from Abu Dhabi, I have offered to introduce them to my cousin who lives there with his family.  I hope that they will serve as guides for my very special friends.
     Still not done with email and with so many items still pending on my To-Do List, I stopped for lunch.  A new tiffin had been delivered in the morning and I tucked into Chicken Curry, Okra with potatoes and Potato Chops--so good! I had a very raw, really awful guava for dessert (I threw most of it out) and one of the Almond Rocks I had picked up yesterday from the Taj.
     Then, it was back to the salt mines for me as I continued to work.  I finally finished emailing and turned to transcribing the interview I had done with Farrahnaz Irani of the NCPA.  But then I got a call from my college  classmate and friend Sunita (Sue) Hariharan informing me that she had finished her work on Hill Road and was ready to meet me for a cuppa. She has just returned from New York where she had met Llew who had sent my Aetna Global medical insurance card with her and my new ATM card from Chase.

Afternoon Tea with Sue:
     I dressed speedily and took a rickshaw this time to Hill Road as I did not want to keep Sue waiting. I was there in ten minutes at Trendy--the new super-smart coffee shop right opposite Elco Arcade where Sue as already waiting for me. As they did not do decaf tea or coffee, I had a scrumptious Hazelnut Chocolate Granita which was so good it knocked my socks off.  Indeed, I wish it had been a never-ending drink--it was that good! Sue had a cappuccino with a double shot of espresso--would that I could survive on so much caffeine!
     We departed by 5.00 pm as she had another appointment and I crossed the street to get to a new Italian ice-cream parlor called Giannis that my cousins had raved about when I met them at Reuben's birthday party.  I sampled a variety of their chocolate ice-creams and then settled for something called Chocolate Almond Fudge as it was the only one with nuts in it--and I do like the texture of nuts in ice-cream. Then, I too hopped into a rickshaw and got home as I did not want my family size tub of ice-cream to melt.
    Back home, I returned to work and continued transcribing my interview. I was almost finished when I got a call from Dad asking when I was coming over.  As it is a Wednesday, it is Novena day and Dad needs to leave early to conduct it in church  I told him to carry on as I really needed to finish what I was doing.
     A little later I joined him in church but after the novena and Mass, I returned with him to his place so that I could meet Russel. He was very proud of the fact that he had made progress and is now standing independently with the walker and without the aid of 'walking sticks' in the form of Dad and his assistant. With that bit of good news, I returned home to my own dinner--a repeat of my lunch and sat down to watch Episode 5 of The Bodyguard. Llew and Chriselle have both finished seeing it--and I need to catch up. Before going to bed, I did, however, finish transcribing my interview with Farrahnaz.
     Although I was busy for most of the day, I still have so many pending items on my To-Do List.  I have decided to stay home tomorrow also and complete them. It is amazing how quickly the pace of my life has changed and how busy it has become. But, at the same time, as the last day of October rolls around, I am proud of the fact that I have completed 14 interviews in the city in a single month and have acquired many more contacts through networking that will take my work forward in the next few months.
     Until tomorrow...