Its Sunday! And it Was A Fairly Fun Day!

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Bombay

It's Sunday! And it Was A Fairly Fun Day!

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I had a nice day--somewhat different from usual Sundays. This had a bit of work and a bit of fun thrown in.
     Up at 6.00 am, I downloaded the weekend edition of The Times of London and spent some time with it. I checked my Twitter feed and responded to urgent email. Then, I made myself a salted tongue sandwich with Theo Broma's multi-grain bread, garlic and herb flavored butter and mustard and a cup of coffee...but by the time I finished my chat with Llew, I had no time to eat it as I dressed super fast and went off for the 9.00 am Mass.
     It happened to be Fr. Colman's birthday--so cake and ice-cream were distributed to all attendees after mass in the Meet and Greet area where we sang for the good priest and stood in line to wish him. How lovely! I passed on to him the card and gift on behalf of Dad and Russel and took a slice of cake and a cup of ice-cream for Russel. I then walked off to Dad's to drop it off. Russel was disappointed I brought it for him and did not actually have it there! He kept asking if I took cake and ice-cream for myself and I said No, I brought my share home for you. He was not happy!
     That done, I left and returned to my studio where I finally sat down and enjoyed my breakfast. Then, I blogged, hauled out my suitcase and started to put together the things (mainly papers, files, research notes) that I would like Llew to carry back to Connecticut for me. I also responded to some email that I had received from friends after they got my last newsletter. If people write me a personal response, I always get back to them. All that done, it was time to return to Dad's place for lunch.
     We did not order lunch from Bandra Gym today as we thawed out some of the frozen food from Dad's birthday of a couple of weeks ago. We had Goa Sausage Pullao, Paneer Achari, Mixed Vegetables Kohlapuri, Chicken Satays and fresh Alphonso Mango for dessert. Dad is not at all in his elements. I find him looking very tired, haggard and depressed. There are new hassles he has to deal with daily such as the changing of the cable service in his building which is vexing him, the leak in his water-filtering system in his kitchen and, to make matters worse, all technicians, etc. are out of Bombay during the month of May. It is impossible to find anyone here! I tried cheering him up but it simply did not work.
     I told Dad that I would not be going home as the afternoon sun is rather oppressive, but would take a nap at his place and wait until a prospective new domestic helper come in this afternoon to be interviewed. He sounded great on the phone but after the interview was carried out, I do not think he will be the right person for the job. Once the interview was done, I left and returned home to continue sorting through papers to isolate the ones I will carry to South America. I also updated our itinerary to reflect the seminar schedule that was sent to us by NYU which will allow me to plan which lectures and excursions I wish to attend.
     When all this was done, I took a shower and then called my friend Radhika to find out if she was free for a walk or a coffee. She called me over to her place, which is just a short stroll from mine, and we sat down on her terrace in front of a fan to catch up on what's been happening in her life. Turns out she finishes her academic year in two weeks' time and shall be spending five weeks in San Francisco before she returns for the start of the new academic year to Bombay in mid-July when we shall met again. It was a very productive chinwag as we talked about so many exciting things that I can do in the future in collaboration with her.
     I then walked back home and got ready for my dinner: meatball curry with mixed vegetables and Waldorf Salad with one chapati. I too had fresh mango for dessert. While eating, I watched a movie called A Long Way Down based on a novel by Nick Hornsby who wrote Hi-Fidelity and About A Boy. This had a good cast: Pierce Brosnan, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette, Rosamund Pike, etc. but the script was not so great although the idea was a fairly good one.
     It was time to go to bed by 11.00 pm after I finished downloading a new novel on my I pad: Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs. I finished reading Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner this afternoon. It was absorbing but not that great.
     Tomorrow brings a new day and a new week and a new opportunity to go out and make all this time given to me really worthwhile. I intend to spend tomorrow in the library at the NCPA--thankfully air-conditioned.
     Until tomorrow...