Trying to Relax on a Sunday

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Bombay

Trying to Relax on a Sunday

I have probably not had so relaxing a Sunday since I arrived in Bombay.  And that has much to do with the fact that I came home early in the morning from my night out spent clubbing with kids about quarter my own age and not having my laptop to keep me engaged.

So when I awoke at 6.00 am, my first thought was still on the fate of my deleted files on my Mac as I still have no positive word with which to go forward. Hope resides bravely in my chest refusing to be cowed down by the spate of still-morbid thoughts that continue to threaten my mental equilibrium...but you would never guess on the outside what I am suffering within.

Such a situation enables me to understand why mentally ill patients are able to hide their afflictions for years—one never knows what it is going on in the mind of an unstable person who suddenly decides to open fire on innocent people or hold an entire school hostage. This is because victims of such mental disease offer no indication of their turmoil. The mind is wonderfully compartmentalized, I realize. Even while a small corner of it might be raging, other parts of it remain fully functional—one might even say normal. I am savoring all the lessons I am learning from this hideous experience and they are many...

So when I heard the breadman’s bicycle while I was in mid-draft of a blog post, I summoned him upstairs. But then I realized that I had no time to eat breakfast as I had to leave for the 9.15 am Mass where I was doing the Second Reading.  So I dressed and was off with just two bites of broon with peanut butter in me (as I did not want to feel faint in church). 

The homily was absolutely appalling today. The more I listen to what this priest says, the more I realize how frightfully conservative he is and how impossible it is for me to reconcile by own broad liberalism with his narrow views. The gospel was about Jesus being tempted by Satan and he waxed nonsensical about the many sins (especially sexual ones) that we, the laity, commit—he actually named them by enumerating them, one after the other, while I sat cringing there! All this without saying a word about the same temptations that the clergy are facing and that are now being exposed through Pope Francis’ recent Summit in Rome and vast number of cases that are being heard internationally of abuse of the laity by the clergy. I sat there fuming with irritation and kept thinking that no priest today has the right to preach to his congregation about sexual indiscretions unless he is also willing to acknowledge the culpability of the clergy. Having belonged for decades to a very liberal Catholic parish in the US, where the late and most beloved parish priest was the most Christ-like minister I have ever come across in terms of his acceptance of all human weakness, to listen to someone like this, speak in such explicit terms about human sins “of the flesh” and in so punitive a vein really bothered me as I found him offensive. I picked up a vada for Russel and vented when I got to Dad’s house about the absolute arrogance of this priest. 

Ok, so there, I vented again. I am seriously thinking of writing an article about my feelings for The Examiner, because what I have realized through the homily today is that there are very conservative priests in the clergy and we will never share their ideology if they happen to be completely different from our broader ways of looking at life. Well, they are, I suppose, best ignored. 

I read out the Notices for the Week to Russel (I take a picture of them from the church Notice Board each week) and then I left and returned home. I created a very different kind of breakfast for myself today with my broon and meatball curry—yes, I did what I have not done in years! I had leftover curry for breakfast! It was delicious and I enjoyed it enormously. I remember having weird breakfasts like this while I still lived at home as a youngster in my parents’ home right here in Bandra. 

Well, that done, I downloaded the Sunday Times on my Ipad and started reading, but then I felt sleepy and off I went for a good nap. When I awoke, I ordered lunch from Bandra Gym and you can tell that my mind was troubled because I ordered steamed rice instead of Fried Rice or Noodles with the Chicken in Ginger Honey Sauce and the Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce for lunch. I felt really bad as it was too late to change my order. I picked it up from the Club and then walked over to Dad’s to eat it with him and Russel.  Of course, they were disappointed, but then so was I.

I got back home and guess what? I went back to sleep agin! This time I took much more than my customary 20 minute power nap. I slept for at least an hour.  When I awoke, I sat mending (hemming) a pair of shorts whose hem had ripped and I worked on an itinerary for a trip that Llew and I are thinking of taking. 

I then had a cup of tea while watching a documentary on the one and only John Thaw, my beloved Inspector Morse. I did not realize how much of a national treasure he was in Britain and how well decorated an actor he was—so many awards. I also learned much about his complicated family life (abandonment by his mother at age seven was only the beginning of so many emotional challenges he would face)—all the depths of which he plumed in his roles. But then I had to leave to go and spend an hour with Russel and Dad.  They were in the midst of watching the India Versus Australia cricket match; but we chatted until Ewell came back to get a signature from Dad. I also vented on my annoyance of the morning with Ewell who works closely with the Catholic clergy through his own spiritual activity and then I left as Bernard entered to give my brother Communion.

Back home, I finished watching the John Thaw documentary while finishing the last of my tiffin: dal with a small bit of meatball curry.  I shall eat the rest of it tomorrow again for breakfast. I then spent a while chatting with Llew and finalizing our itinerary together before I sent out an email to NYU to have my travel arrangements made for a conference at which venue Llew will join me so that we can make a vacation out of it. 

I managed to get Himanshu late in the evening.  It seems that the download of my hard drive and the retrieval of my deleted files is done. I could very well pick up my laptop tomorrow...but I have a busy morning and afternoon with an interview first thing with Brian Tellis (in whose car I shall drive to the NCPA where I will interview him) and a lunch appointment with Lawrence Powell whom I had met and made friends with in Goa. I can only pick up my laptop after 3.30 or 4.00 pm tomorrow. Fingers (and other extremities) still tightly crossed.     

Until tomorrow...