A Day of Work Relieved by Lunch with Cousins

Friday, May 17, 2019
Bombay

A Day of Work Relieved by Lunch with Cousins

     Namaste from Bombay!
     Summer days in Bombay are long and lovely. Although the heat and humidity can make the afternoons oppressive (if you do not have air-conditioning), the mornings and evenings are delightful. I find things quieter here as the Muslims (who are the majority in my building) live quieter lives--fasting all day in the summer heat (without even a drop of water) must be intolerable for them. Also, as in Paris in August, so too in Bombay in May--half the city disappears to cooler climes. It is tough to get service men to come in and attend to household maintenance at this time when physicians too take time off. With children off from school, the shrieks of their playing in building compounds follow you everywhere.
     I awoke at 6.00 and began blogging and reading my novel in bed. I took a glance at Twitter and at my email, had my brekkie of a cold roasted tongue sandwich and coffee. I wanted a light breakfast as I knew I'd be having a heavy lunch as I'd invited some of my cousins to join me at the Bandra Gymkhana. The salted tongue was made by my cousin Meera who left a chunk of it for me with Dad when she visited him yesterday as she knows how much I love it--I usually buy cans of it from Marks and Spencer in London and stock up as we do not get cold tongue in the USA.
    That done, I sat down to take care of email. I had some correspondence to go through with regards to the publication of my memoir in the US. It was a slow-ish morning as I had a call from my cousin, Bonnie, who wanted to talk to me about possible domestic helpers that she has in mind for me. We were on the phone for more than half an hour, but I felt optimistic, at the end of it, that we might be able to find someone more suitable than the person Dad has at the moment. I also had a call from my
friend Susan Petralia via Whatsapp from Connecticut. Her daughters (to whom I am very close) graduated this past weekend from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and she has invited Llew to dinner at their place this coming Sunday. It was a great joy to catch up with her and get a lot of local Connecticut news (I will not call it gossip!). After a long chinwag, I was able to get back to work again.
     At 11.00 am, I stopped and went in for a shower and then left for Dad's place. He needed my help with some paperwork as his poor eyesight no longer allows him to read the fine print on correspondence and bills that he receives. I feel so sorry for him. He told me, with such regret, that he used to be so meticulous about putting things in the right place, into appropriate files, etc. in order to keep papers well tagged and organized. Now, he says, that with his failing eyesight, everything has gone downhill.  It is so sad to listen to someone with an ace mind express his frustration at the limitations that old age and failing faculties are placing on him. As always, he is eager to talk and to discuss politics and we have so much to share. I show him things that keep appearing on Twitter and when we talk about it, he takes such pleasure in thinking about them and discussing them.
     I left Dad's place at 12.35 to walk to Bandra Gym where I had invited my cousin Meera and her husband Cyril and my cousin Veera (who had helped me find my studio as she is a real estate agent) with her daughter Sybil and her grand-son Nikhail to join me for lunch, I wanted these small groups of my relatives to get together over lunch to simply catch up and chat with them as my place is much too small to invite them to my home for a meal. Bandra Gymkhana works out superbly.
     We were a cozy six-some as we ordered Thai-Basil Satays with Peanut Sauce and Chilli-Cheese Toast for starters with lemon sodas and Cokes, Fettucini Alfredo with Chicken, Chicken with Cashew Nuts and Vegetable Manchurian for our main dishes--all of which were served family style--and a choice of desserts (Chocolate Mousse, Kulfi, Serra Dura) for dessert. The food was delicious, as always, and I was glad to be able to introduce them to some of the better-known dishes of the house. Best of all, I had a chance to spend time with them and gab. It was especially nice to have the company of Nikhail who, as a Xaverite, has just completed his H.Sc. Exams and is now hoping to do his B.A. in Management Studies.
     My cousin Meera and Cyril then accompanied me back as they wanted to see my studio and they stayed for about 15 minutes before they left and I returned to my work. I spent a long while looking at possible cover designs for my next book based on templates that have been sent to me by my editor, Brooke, in Maryland. I also went through a number of pictures from my files of my time in London in 2008-09 which is the year of which I have written in my forthcoming memoir. Hopefully, one of the pictures I have chosen will be suitable enough for the cover.
     Next, I began and completed transcribing another interview that I had done ages ago (one of the files I lost when my computer got busted) and it took me until 6.15 pm by the time I was finished. It was time then to get to Dad's and spend just a few minutes with Russel before I left for Mass with Dad. I returned to his place after Mass as he has some more bank work he needed me to do and finally got home at about 8.15 pm after picking up Coffemate from the supermarket nearby.
     Then, followed another chat, this time with my cousin Blossom, and when I was done with that, I made myself a soup as that was all I was going to have for dinner. My lunch had been heavy and I wanted to stay lighter. While enjoying my soup, I decided to watch a movie on Netflix and when I entered War Movies, a bunch of them came up. I chose to watch Eye in the Sky, a really good war movie, set in, of all place, Kenya, with satellite settings in many global corners. I found it compelling--such a humane picture of the kind of warfare that is being carried out today--remotely and through the assistance of drones and computer technology. Superbly done. It might not sound like a very exciting boots-on-the-ground kind of war movie but it was every bit as riveting. Highly recommended.
     I then read a few more pages of my novel and fell asleep after another deeply rewarding day for which I gave thanks to the Lord.
     Until tomorrow...