Return from Munnar to Cochin to Bombay

Sunday, March 3, 2019
Munnar-Cochin-Bombay

Return from Munnar to Cochin to Bombay

     Namaste from Bombay!
     Today was all about traveling--back from Kerala to Bombay! And it all went well.
     Michelle and I awoke in our hotel room in Munnar at leisure. I was fully absorbed in my book Something in the Water and spent an hour reading in bed before getting out to take a shower, pack up my case and get ready for departure.  We had told our driver Abhijit that we would leave at 9.30 from the hotel for the long drive from the mountains of Munnar to the plains of Cochin. I had a 4.00 pm flight back to Bombay.
     Accordingly, we enjoyed out last lovely buffs breakfast in the hotel--I had uttapam with sambhar and chutney, two slices of hot buttered toast, one pancake with local honey and two cups of coffee. I knew I would be eating a very late lunch (perhaps at Cochin airport close to 4.00 pm just before my flight).
     The drive down to Cochin was lovely. We left the hairpin bends of the mountains behind with their tropical fruit trees--mango, cashew, jackfruit, banana, even tamarind--and passed by a ton of strangely architectural churches representing various denominations of Christianity (in some Mass was going on in Malayalam) and arrived finally in Cochin where Abhijit took me straight to the airport. Michelle would be spending two more days at a B and B in Edapally and he would take her there after dropping me off.
     At the airport, where I arrived about three hours before my departure, I saw a number of Fulbright scholars returning to their respective grant sites after having spent a few days in different parts of Kerala. Holly and her husband Murli were there with their little one, Saira, and I also met Brinda who has arrived in the US with her Indian-American family. We had a nice reunion for about an hour together during which time I had a chicken burger from KFC--the only fast food place in the Food Court.
     I then sat finishing up my last blog post for Munnar before getting to the Gate to continue reading my novel. I had a very nice flight--we flew alongside the Southwest coast of India passing by one long beach after the other and eventually, about 90 minutes later, made a smooth landing in Bombay. I had hoped we would fly directly over the city, but the pilot chose the inland landing flight path after offering us a tantalizing glimpse of the southernmost tip of the island of Bombay.
     I then hopped into a rickshaw from the station and arrived home at exactly 7.00 pm. I just left my case in my studio and walked off to Dad's--I wanted to see how he and Russel had got on during the week I had been away and I found them simply great. All is well--thank heavens for that. I stayed there for about an hour and a half and then once Dad's Man Friday Rohit came home from his Sunday afternoon off--very late at 8.45 as opposed to 7.30 when he was expected--I picked up my laundry bag and came home.
     Back home, I went to make my bed, only to discover that my bedsheets and other items were missing. I made half my bed and will pick up the missing items tomorrow. Then, I sat on the phone and had a long chat with Llew. Connecticut and New York City are being plummeted by snow and NYU is closed tomorrow--must be a bad one if NYU is closed as we only close in very dire circumstances. I also had a whatsapp chat with my friend Leslie in Connecticut as I discovered that my young Fulbright friend Michelle with whom I had spent three idyllic days in Munnar will be entering the same program at Harvard (Masters in Public Health) in which her daughter Sitara is also studying. I wanted to connect Michelle with Sitara and brought Leslie into the mix.
     I finished unpacking, sorting out the items that needed to be laundered, and then got down to have a short chat with my friend Roz in London. We had last chatted a week ago on whatsapp when I had just arrived in Cochin.  Amazing how quickly a week had passed!
     I did some more reading--my novel is so exciting--ate a very late bowl of cereal and then went to bed at about midnight.  Tomorrow, I will be back to routine again...I have so much with which I have to catch up.
     Until tomorrow