A Fairly Relaxing Day and a Lovely Dinner at the CCI with New Friends

Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Bombay

A Fairly Relaxing Day and a Lovely Dinner at the CCI with New Friends

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I had a pretty relaxing day today--so relaxing that with a couple of hours of being free-ish, I actually did not quite know what to do with my time.
     Awaking at 4.30 am, I began tossing, turning, worrying, brooding...this seems to be the pattern of my days for the moment. I finally decided to pull out my iPad and continued reading my book. But by 6.30 am, my eyes were closing again--so I put the iPad down and went back to sleep. And I slept till almost 8.00 am. I feel as if I am joining my neighbors in their Ramadan fasting!
     I ate a paratha and cutlets (spread with a lot of HP brown sauce!--Yum!) with coffee for breakfast as I am trying to finish up all the food in my fridge before I get Valerie's meal again tomorrow.
     Then, I sat down and edited a keynote lecture I gave at the University of Nagpur and after spellchecking and revising it thoroughly for footnotes and other minor matters, I sent it off to the Editor. I received an acknowledgement right away. Nest, I sent off my finalized manuscript of my forthcoming creative  non-fictional memoir to my editor at Hamilton Books in Maryland. With this, my initial work on my book is complete. I now need to wait and see where I go with this publication--fingers crossed!
     By this time, it was about 11.00 am and I decided to go off to pay electricity bills for Dad and myself. It used to be so easy to do it online--but something has gone wrong with the Adani program I use and it is no longer allowing me to make credit card payments online. Thankfully, the Punjab National Bank that accepts payments on behalf of Adani, is only a ten-minute walk away from my studio--so off I went!
     That done (and it takes barely minutes), I walked to St. Anne's Church at Pali Hill to pick up the petitions for Dad--he reads them out in church every week at the Novena.  I had to ask Joe for his assistance as the church was locked but the watchman (at Joe's orders) opened it up for me in minutes, I was able to get hold of the petitions and walked to Dad's place to hand them over to him. I also visited with him and Russel for almost an hour and then, when it was time for their lunch, I left, bought some limes from the vegetable vendor, a box of Bagry's muesli from our grocer and then got home for my own lunch. I finished up the last of my chicken curry, white pumpkin and lentils and one chapati while continuing to watch The Flowers. It is one of those dark comedies that the playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd might have penned. Wonderful acting although the plot and sub-plots are bizarre.
     That was when it occurred to me that I had a free-ish afternoon. Now, of course, I could have transcribed one of the eight interviews left that I still have to do (after loss of my computer files), but I decided to do that tomorrow. Instead I wondered if I should read? Watch TV? Do my Nails? Well, workaholic Me decided that day time was too precious--so I whipped out a chapter from an anthology that the theater critic Shanta Gokhale had couriered to me, a few days ago, and began to read it. I found it super-enlightening. It is amazing how much stuff people send you or how helpfully they refer you to other sources to enable you to go further in your research. That done, I had a call from Dad to tell me that his phone was not working--neither his land line nor his mobile. He gave me the number that would allow me to make a compliant, but it seemed to me that the entire Bandra network was down and I could not get through to the folks with whom I could lodge a complaint.
     It was time for a shower and for deciding what I would wear for the dinner to which I had been invited this evening. My new friend Jeevan (whom I had met at a party to which I had been invited by my Connecticut-based friend Angie, a couple of months ago) wanted me to meet his wife, Liz (who was not at the party). It turned out to be a lovely evening with the two of them and their friend Nalini. I took a regular cab as the collapsing of the telephone network in Bandra made it impossible for my Uber driver to be contacted. The cab took me on the Bandra Sea Link in exactly ten minutes to their place in Worli--what a boon that Sea Link is!
     At their place on the Worli Sea Face with a full view of the mighty Arabian Sea at their feet, I had a shandy--in this kind of muggy weather, it is the best drink--no wonder Rajwallahs invented it! Then, we were in their car and zipping off to the Cricket Club of India--I have lost count of the number of times I have been invited to meals here by sundry folks--and it is always a pleasure. This time, we were seated in the upstairs Polly Umrigar Lounge (air-conditioned, mercifully) and gazing at two huge murals by the one and only M.F. Hussain, India's Picasso, that depicted cricketers on the Brabourne Stadium pitch (on which the Club was created).
     Nalini joined us before long down as we sat down to drinks--I had a G and T with delightful nibbles--Asparagus Mousse with crackers (fab) and Fried Stuffed Mushrooms (they were incredibly good). I have never had mushrooms deep-fried before (Believe me, these were astonishing and I had two big ones).
     And then, we ordered and decided to go with Continental Food--about which I was so excited as I have had really too much chapatis and curry for so long that I could not wait to sink my teeth into a good pasta. We ordered Prawns Normandy (super delicious) which I had over bowtie pasta and Ham and Cheese Stuffed Crepes which were delectable. Dessert was mango cake and orange and nougat cake which we all shared. How great a meal was that???
     More importantly, conversation was so much fun as we all discovered so many common connections--I guess it is inevitable that when Indians get together, they will find some connection with somebody they know who is also known to someone else. And so it went on. We discovered that Nalini and I graduated from the same high school. We also discovered that so many of the folks I knew during my high school and college years (and with whom I completely lost touch after my emigration to the US), are people they know well.
     After dinner, Liz (who hadn't had a drink at all), drove and kindly dropped me right back to my studio--which was indeed very kind of her. I was home by 11.00 pm by which stage I was really sleepy and ready to drop off after what had been a really relaxing day--I so needed one like it after what has been a few really crummy ones for me.
     Until tomorrow...