Saturday, February 23, 2019
Bombay
Preparing for Departure to Kerala, Goodbye Satyavati and Hello Roger and Lalita!
Namaste from Bombay!
Don't even ask where the day disappeared! I seemed to have done just bits and bobs and, before I knew it, it was over!
It felt good to wake up without anything pressing on my agenda. At 5.30am, I began blogging and was done soon enough. I had my breakfast of muesli and coffee while continuing to watch travel clips on You tube. Then I got dressed and went to a gym where I enjoyed an hour-long workout before getting home for a shower. I then returned to my packing and with most of it done, decided, on impulse, to contact my friend Sunita (Sue) whom I have not seen probably since September of last year when she was the first visitor to my studio. Her travel schedule and mine have kept us away from each other and I really thought the time had come to reconnect. Fortunately, she happened to be free to day. I asked her to join me for lunch at the Bandra Gymkhana and, as she was game, we made plans to meet at 1.00 pm.
I then went ahead and began stripping my bed and bath linen off to take it to Dad's place to be laundered during my absence. I have this gigantic bed for which I had purchased an oversized counterpane. I wanted to make sure that Dad's housekeeper Satyavati is able to show the new male help, Rohit, how to wash it (individually) in the washing machine and where to dry it (as I am not sure how she manages to dry such a huge thing). Also, since Satyavati usually gets Sunday off and will end her employment with us at the end of this month, I wanted to make sure that I would be there to say goodbye to her and to give her a monetary gift before I left. It breaks my heart to know that she will no longer be with us after eight long years during which she has basically run my Dad's home like clockwork. It will be next-to-impossible to find someone as honest, reliable, hardworking, clean and caring as she has been. She was truly an angel that the Lord sent to us in our time of need and we are deeply grateful for her services. I get emotional just thinking about it, so I was sure that I would be in tears when saying goodbye to her.
Luckily for me, there was an auto rickshaw right outside my building when I was leaving and I jumped into it and took it to Dad's place--I was happy to find it as the bed and bath linens in my superb roomy laundry bag were a heavy load.
At Dad's, I found that his hearing was almost non-existent as he has developed a huge wax build-up that has rendered him almost deaf. He had gone to the doctor (his local GP), Dr. Abbas, this morning and was given ear-drops to be used over the weekend. On Monday, he will return to the dispensary to syringe out the wax. Hence, communication with him was next to impossible--as he simply could to hear what anyone was saying! However, I did tell Satyavati to show Rohit how to launder my humongous counterpane (and, no doubt, she will). Dad then told me that since my brother Roger's family are arriving from the US tomorrow, he has invited them over to his place for lunch and wanted to know if I would make a salad for their meal. I said that I would without any problem. I just had to try to find out how to fit it in within my day.
With that, I left Dad's and walked briskly to Bandra Gym to meet Sue.We had a fantastic reunion and I told her I feel as if I had just arrived from the States in Bombay--I was seeing her after such a long interval. We made our way upstairs to the restaurant and had a really lovely meal together. Settled in a quiet corner, we decided to pass on drinks--neither one of us can afford the calories. I left Sue to decide what she would like to eat and she chose Prawns Goan Masala with steamed rice--with the remark, that in Bandra Gym, one should have Goan food! I also chose to have a salad with it--a Greek Salad and for dessert, both of us had Caramel Custard. Honestly...you could have have a better meal. Everything was simply terrific. Needless to say, we could not stop talking--there was so much to gab about and we did. About two hours later, when we had polished off everything )except for a small bit of salad which I asked to be packed up for my dinner, we left. Sue dropped me off to my Dad's place and I got off just outside his gate.
My idea was to pick up fresh vegetables from the vegetable vendor just outside. I got a variety of produce: iceberg lettuce, broccoli, red pepper, red winter carrots, cucumbers, limes and garlic (for the lime-garlic vinaigrette that I would make as a dressing). Armed with these, I returned to Dad's. I requested Satyvati to wash them thoroughly for me and to remove the large platter on which I usually arrange the salad. Then, I set off for Jay's, my photocopier, to photocopy a few pages on Cochin and Munnar for my travels in Kerala. So you can see, I felt as if I was on a treadmill, as one after the other, I undertook a variety of tasks.
Back from the photocopiers, I found that everyone is Dad's house was awaking from their short afternoon siestas. Dad had also had a clear-out (especially of his balcony which he had been using as a dumping ground for a long while). He had a bag full of stuff that he was sure was mine and he wanted me to have a look at it. He was right. It turned out to be a few books of which I am very fond or which have sentimental association for me from my growing years--my French Dondo (the grammar book I had used in high school and my French Cours de Langue et de Civilization Francaise which I had used in college and then at the Alliance Francais, my Penguin Book of Contemporary Poetry which is one of my favorite books of all time and which dates from my college years at Ephinstone, some brand-new Enid Blyton books which Lalita had left for me as I had told her not to get rid of them...that sort of thing). I also found a whole bunch of cards that I have sent to my parents over the years that they have assembled together. It was impossible for me to simply discard those--so I held on to them--not sure what I will eventually do with them. There were also a few books that I did not need and which I kept aside to be given away to Bandra Gym (including some very old text books of Chriselle). So, there you have it. I had not intended to have a clear-out, but with Dad simply thrusting the lot upon me so unexpectedly (in order to make room for Rohit's things in the balcony), part of my afternoon was consumed.
Russel got ready for his tea and when he was done, it was time for Satyavati to leave. We got together to take a few photographs by which to remember her and her long and devoted service to us. Then it was time to say goodbye to her and after tight hugs and yes, some tears which I tried hard to control, I said goodbye to her and she was off. There was so much I wanted to say but I simply managed to say Thank you and to ask her to forgive me, if over the years, in anger, I might have hurt her. She, on her part, said the same--she told me she was sorry if she had ever offended me and I said I felt nothing but gratitude to her for everything she had done for us--for me and for my family members over the years. And that was it. A chapter comes to a close in our lives. I repeat: she was truly an angel sent by the Lord to help us in our time of need--when my mother had taken ill and could no longer undertake her housewifely duties, Satyavati had come in and taken over our household. My mind was filled with memories as I said goodbye and Thanks to her. My mother had been very resentful of her presence and had wanted to let her go right away as she could not bring herself to accept that she was unable to do what she had done, so efficiently, for years. As it turned out, she had assisted Mum and done simple personal grooming jobs for her and then after Mum passed away, she had taken over the running of the home and had proven to be such a boon to us. For Dad, the best part of having her was that she did not need to be told what to do--she had a schedule on which she ran: she had days on which she changed bed linen and bath linen, a time of the day when she washed clothes and dried them, a time of the day (and the month) when she would gather up piles of newspapers and sort them in piles for the recycling man...There is no telling whether Rohit will develop such a schedule himself (I rather doubt it...he is much too young and inexperienced at housekeeping to know how to keep a home running smoothly). Besides, Satyvati and Dad's 'top woman', Meena got along really well. They enjoyed their daily natter and worked in tandem quite beautifully to substitute for each other, in case one was not able to make it. But, I suppose, all good things must come to an end and Satyavati's leaving truly marks for me the end of an era in our lives.
With her departure, I set about to make the salad. As I had instructed, Satyavati had washed the vegetables well and I chopped them artfully and arranged them on the platter and set about making the lime-garlic dressing. With that done, I placed the whole thing under plastic wrap and made room in the fridge to accommodate the platter. I left and went home to continue the last bits of my packing for Kerala. I also started working on the transcribing of one of my interviews with Zane Dalal--I had two more interviews to transcribe and had hoped to finish both of them before I left for Kerala...but I do believe that my interview with Raell Padamsee will be kept pending until my return.
I was in the middle of transcribing when I had a whatsapp chat with my friend Delyse in Connecticut, with whom I had last spoken about 10 days ago. We try to chat once a week...but oftentimes our time zones clash. However, I could not speak long with her as I had to get dressed again to go to the 7.00 pm Mass with Dad as I did not think I would have the time to attend Mass tomorrow before leaving for the airport. I told Delyse I would continue our conversation when I returned home from Mass and off I went.
I met Dad at his gate--his hearing was really still pretty bad. After Mass, I met Sharon, my friend from Canada, whose Dad's Month's Mind Mass I will also be missing. I wanted to visit with her before I left but she told me that she would be around in Bombay till almost the end of March--I will have time to go over to her Mum Selda's place for a visit when I return from Kerala.
It was only on the way back from church that Dad told me that Roger's flight was landing at 6.00 pm and that he had already called Dad an hour previously to say that they had landed! I was quite surprized as Dad had told me, two days previously. that their flight was coming it at 10.00 pm (not 6.00 pm). Hence, by the time we walked to Dad's, Roger and Lalita had already been at Dad's place for over 45 minutes. They had spent it catching up with Russel who gave them a ton of news. I ended up spending the next hour with them at Dad's before they left to have dinner with their former neighbors (with whom they are staying). I told them that I was leaving for Kerala tomorrow morning and would be gone for a week.
After they left, I said bye to Dad and Russel and told them that I would be back briefly tomorrow morning to drop off my bed sheet which was the last thing I would strip off my bed and leave with him to be laundered. Back home, I got my dinner organized--half a Paneer Tikka sandwich from my Nagpur flight and the remaining Greek Salad were quite wonderful. I got back to my conversation with Delyse and then called Chriselle and Llew to let them know that Roger and family had reached and that I had met them at Dad's. As the children stayed behind with their former neighbors, I will only see them upon my return rom Kerala.
It was after midnight by the time I finished chatting with Llew and had a lovely long chinwag with him. As I lay down to sleep, I asked myself where the time had gone. I would like to finish transcribing my interview with Zane Dalal tomorrow morning as I will need to resume my schedule of interviews when I return from my Fulbright Conference in Cochin next Sunday.
Until tomorrow...
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