Back to the Salt Mines and Dinner with Bombay Fulbrighters

Friday, October 5, 2018
Bombay

Back to the Salt Mines and Dinner with Bombay Fulbrighters

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I woke up at 4.30 am today--seriously, I have no idea why I am waking up so early.  The end result is that I feel drowsy by 12.00 noon and start thinking about a nap. Although I do try to get back to sleep, my mind is so active that slumber eludes me.
     I did not get a chance to blog today as I had a number of calls.  Shahnaz called, then my friend Anil called (to invite me to his place for drinks followed by dinner on Saturday) and with each call, time flew. Then my cousin Blossom called. I did not go for my walk as I wanted to be sure I would reach Dad's place at 7.55 am as he needed me to change Russel's dressing and put on the glycerine solution for his skin infection. I only gulped down a cup of coffee and left.

Dressing Russel's Leg:
     I arrived at Dad's on time.  Russel was thrilled to see me and had a lovely smile on his face. So gratifying to see that slight glimmer of happiness when it sometimes crosses his face. The night attendant had just finished Russel's sponge bath and personal grooming for the day--he does a truly good job and I am very impressed in general by what he manages to accomplish. Then, I began mixing the glycerine to make the solution and having learned from the disaster of yesterday, I used very little glycerine to get a much thicker solution than the previous day. I applied small amounts to the gauze, then covered the gauze with cotton to absorb the excess.  This prevented the solution from dripping down his leg as it had done yesterday. The tape also managed to stay stuck better. So overall, I had learned from my mistakes of the previous day and did a more competent job today.  I was absolutely amazed to find that the eruptions of the previous day had disappeared like magic--which meant that the solution had helped.  However, I saw that new ones had begun to erupt. So I applied the dressing to those as well.
     I did not stay long although Dad invited me to join him for breakfast.  I returned home as I had so much to do. I had my own breakfast, muesli and coffee and watched Travels with My Dad on Netflix while eating (Escape to the Continent had ended--shame!)  and then made my To Do List.

Chained to my Laptop:
     From 10.00 am onwards, I worked. I was transcribing my interview with Jimmy Bilimoria and sending him some questions I had about information I needed him to clarify. And, of course, instead of responding to my email, he called me. So then I was on the phone with him for another twenty minutes to get my questions answered.
     Next, I received the final proofs of my Goa book and I had to stop everything to handle that as I simply do not want any more delay on that front. I also sent a list of questions to the organizers of the Hyderabad conference to find out what pick up arrangements have been made for me once I arrive at the airport there. That ate into a bit of my time as well.
     I also hauled out my Lonely Planet India to read up about Hyderabad and what I should make sure I see in that city as I was returning there after decades. I discovered that the Andhra Pradesh Travel and Tourism folks run a conducted tour that I could book online that would take me around for the day. Apparently, Golconda Fort is not to me missed and as I had never been there before, I decided I would cover it. I also discovered that there are a host of places to go to in the city including the fascinating Salar Jung Museum which I had loved as a teenager. Lonely Planet calls it Hyderabad's answer to London's Victoria and Albert Museum--and indeed that might well be true.  At any rate, I intended to spend a good while lingering in it. So, with all this research done, I realized I needed to photocopy some pages from my 1000 page India book!
    Finally, I had to transpose my lecture and my Powerpoint presentation to a flash drive that I will carry with me to Hyderabad so that I can project it while speaking. I also reviewed my lecture once more to make any last-minute changes, if necessary, and to insert the bits where the slides will come in. The morning flew, as you can imagine, as I took care of all these tasks.
     I stopped for lunch--a new tiffin had been sent, but I ate my leftovers of the previous one: chicken curry and cutlets with half a guava for dessert.
      I was sleepy by this point--which is understandable as I wake up at 4.30am--and took a power nap.  My body clock is this astounding thing that wakes me up in 20 minutes flat--it doesn't matter what time I go to sleep--twenty minutes later, I will be up! And this has been going on for years! It is simply uncanny!
     Back to the salt mines I went as I still had to place my air ticket on my phone for entry into Bombay airport. Meanwhile, the internet man called to say that he was sending the electrician to install something for my fiberoptic cable. The men did come, fiddled around with some wires and left in ten minutes after telling me that someone else would come in tomorrow to complete the job  This is the third set of men who have come in, done something for ten minutes each and left saying that someone else will take care of the next stage! Meanwhile, I am fed up with people trooping in and out of my house for the purpose of providing me with super speed internet options.
     After they left, on the phone, I gave my internet man a piece of my mind and told him to stop sending guys to my house for ten minutes at a time. I said I wanted the job finished once and for all as I cannot sit around waiting of these chaps to show up. He assured me that tomorrow would be the last time someone would come and that would be the end of it. I am not holding my breath!
     At 4.00 pm, I stopped for a cup of tea and then dressed and left my home to get to Jay at the Photocopy place as I needed to get my air ticket printed. I also needed to print out my Hyderabad itinerary as well as photocopy the Hyderabad pages from Lonely Planet.
     It took me about twenty minutes to get my work done at Jay's. I then had an errand to run at our church and what I thought would be a short one ended up being a long meeting with Fr. Colman Carlos, the parish priest, plus some work with the church secretary, Norma.
     Left with just ten minutes to meet Dad before he left for Mass, I raced off to his. I told him that I had a dinner appointment with my Fulbrighters at the Bandra Gym at 7.30, so could not accompany him to Mass. I visited with Russel for about twenty minutes and left.
 
Off for Dinner to Bandra Gymkhana:
     When I arrived home, I discovered that my dinner appointment at Bandra Gymkhana was at 7.00 pm and not 7.30 pm--so I texted my friends to inform them that I would be late by 10 minutes and off I raced.
      Richard (whom I know already), his student Petra who teaches Modern Dance at Shiamak Davar Dance Studios in Bandra and Michelle who is working on a project at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences were already there at the entrance when I arrived and made profuse apologies for mixing up time. Yanky, who was also supposed to join us, had cancelled. And Rebecca is in Delhi right now--so could not be there.
       It was another warm night followed by a very warm day--air-conditoners are now on everywhere.   It is amazing how September was so gorgeous and then as soon as the calendar hit October 1, the heat and humidity arrived with a vengeance. But I do remember October was always like this in Bombay--hot, muggy, very enervating. So my friends decided not to sit in the ballroom downstairs where there was music and dancing, but to go to the cool air-conditioned restaurant upstairs where we could actually talk and get to know each other. So that's what we did. I signed them in as my guests and up we went.
     Michelle and Petra had cocktails, Richard and I had tonic water with ice and a twist of lemon. Sadly, the Blue Riband Gin that used to be manufactured in India seems to have gone off the market--in fact, I am told that all Indian gin has disappeared from the shelves--good job I bought a whole lot when I had the chance (from the duty free stores) on my two recent trips back into India (from the US and then from China).
    For starters, we chose to eat Lemon Grass Chicken (which came on skewers like Chicken Satay) and Fish Cutlets. They were both superb. For dinner we chose to eat Goan Sausage Chilli Fry, Chicken Xacuti, Garlic Spinach and steamed white rice. Needless to say, all the food was simply outstanding and the garlic spinach was a most unusual dish. We had no room for dessert, so we refrained. However, our conversation was fun and very funny. I got to know Petra and Michelle a little bit and was glad to find that they both live very close to my place. We have created a whatsapp group and intend to have many more fun meetings of this kind.  However, I leave for Hyderabad and will be gone all of next week and Richard leaves for Delhi where he will be based for the next 6 weeks. On the other hand, Rebecca and Yanky may join us--so the group will evolve as we go along. I am very glad to have the company of American fellow-Fulbrighters in the vicinity. Later in January, Abigail McGowan will be arriving and we will have one more member in our group.
     So that was my day--phew! I came back home to find that the publisher of my Goa book had actually carried out the last of the corrections I had requested and that the final proofs needed my approval as Editor before the manuscript went off for printing. But that was not something I was going to do at that point--it can wait!
     Until tomorrow.....