Monday. July 15, 2019
Bombay
Feeling Rather Frazzled on Russel's Birthday
Namaste from Bombay!
Today turned out to be much too packed for my liking. But, hey, Russel only has a birthday once a year--so I am willing to pull out all the stops for him!
My day began on Twitter as I read about the results of theWorld Cup Finals Cricket game between England and New Zealand (including the message that went out from the Queen congratulating the English players as well as commiserating with the Kiwis). I suppose there will be some substantial gongs next year for all the members of the team--or at least for the Captain. But what a heartbreaking finish and how awful (and how unfair!) for the New Zealanders who put up such a good show throughout the tournament! And at Wimbledon...the anxiety was no less! To hear about the tie-breaker between Federer and Djokovich was equally gutting. I was on the phone with Llew who told me that he missed both games as he was busy volunteering at the annual summer picnic of our church--he kept up with the games through the number of friends who texted him as they wore on. A little later, I was on the phone with Dad talking to him about the cricket--he could not watch the tennis as the games were simultaneous and he could not cope with switching channels to go from one to the other.
My breakfast followed: muesli with the last of the apple in my fridge--trying to finish things up and not succeeding as new food keeps pouring in! I had a cup of coffee and through it, I watched Joolz Guides in Hampstead--he was at Highgate Cemetery looking at the grave site of Karl Marx--as these are all trips/walks I have taken through the years, it is fun to re-visit these lovely places.
I did not have time for much else because I had to dress and leave for Dad's place. He and Russel have developed a birthday tradition--they gift fruit loaf cakes to neighbors and to their priest friends at the church. As Dad is still rather poorly (very weak and lacking in energy), I had volunteered to undertake this task for him. He has also asked me to type out a letter that he needs to send to Russel's medical insurance company. I finished typing it last night--which means that I needed to get to the photocopy man, Jay, to get it printed out so that Dad could review it again, make corrections if necessary, and then sign it.
When I got to Dad's, I found that Nafisa had arrived with her workers to start work on Dad's bathroom. We are leveling out the floor to make it possible for Russel to go in and out with his walker. We are eliminating a step he needed to climb to get up, and then another step to get down before he gets to the commode. Nafisa and her workers spent a while in close consultation with Dad and me before we understood exactly how the work would be done. They were to begin in another hour after the tile had been purchased. As Nafisa was coming from Byculla to supervise the beginning of this job (she is the interior designer and main contractor), I had told her that I would take her for lunch to the Bandra Gymkhana, later in the afternoon. She then left to buy the materials needed--anti-skid flooring tile, cement, etc.
With Nafisa gone, I sat down with Dad to wrap up the cakes that needed to be distributed to about four neighbors in the building. With that task accomplished and the cakes for the priests kept ready, I set out to kill three birds with one stone: I went from door to door to the main building (my Dad lives in the annexe) to four neighbors distributing cake; I went to the church to leave the cakes and crisps in the refectory for the priests; and I stopped off at Jay's to get the letter photocopied.
When I returned to Dad's, Nafisa had not yet come back from her materials buying spree. I sat down and reviewed the other tasks I had to do for Dad and then my cousin Veera arrived to wish Russel for his birthday. When she, Nafisa and I had been provided with cold Cokes (it is dreadfully humid in Bombay right now although the rains have cooled the place down), we sat chatting. Veera went inside to his room to visit with Russel and upon her finally leaving, Nafisa and I also turned to go for lunch.
We reached Bandra Gym only to discover that the Gym does not do a lunch service on Mondays as the kitchen is closed for weekly cleaning. We were about to leave for Candies when a man who was witness to our being turned away, volunteered to sign us in at the private club next door--the D'Monte Park Recreation Club. His name is Jude Soares and he is a very nice man who knew the folks at the door. They let us in for the fee of Rs. 60 per head (non-members are merely Rs. 30 each at the Bandra Gym).
Nafisa and I settled down in the quiet, peaceful, air-conditioned interior and ordered Thai Coconut Soup and Meat Lasagne for our meal with a virgin Bloody Mary (for her) and a virgin Mojito for me. The soup was good but the lasagne left much to be desired--it was nothing like lasagne ought to be. It was more like a shepherd's pie with minced meat (too greasy) at the base and a cheese sauce on the top. Still, we were grateful for the quietude when a large group of Sindhi and Punjabi ladies (members of a Kitty party club) came in with a friend I know called Loretta who signed them in. Loretta and I had a long chat as I thanked her for her offer to assist Dad with any tasks as part of a Connect and Care group to help Senior Citizens that has been initiated through a retired physician called Dr. Ivy Almeida (no relative of mine) at our church.
Nafisa and I passed up on dessert as we were both too full--I did actually pack up half of our lasagne--you see what I mean by filling my fridge with food? She then dropped me to my Bank where I had another errand to run before she drove back home.
The line at the bank moved at snail's pace--I cannot wait to go back to my peaceful little village bank at Southport where there is never a wait and where you get instant service from clerks and officers who know your name! Anyway, about a half hour later, I was done depositing my money in my account and I made my way back to my studio for a rest, a read and a nap.
When I awoke, I ate a portion of my chocolate eclair as it is much too rich to scarf down in one sitting. I also opened a pack of Fruity Flapjack Biscuits (from M and S Food, procured on my recent stopover in London) and enjoyed a pot of tea while beginning a new TV series called Wycliff. It is set in Cornwall which makes it visually very enjoyable as I can recognize a few of the sites--Truro, for instance, and St. Ives.
A quick shower and shampoo later and I was dressing and heading off to Dad's again. But on Dad's driveway, I met his neighbor and my friend, Gora, who told me to stop by at his place as he had two necklaces to give me that belonged to his mother, my American friend, Roberta (Skaggs) Naik, who had recently passed away. He picked out one of them for me and the other for Chriselle who was also very fond of Mrs. Naik and devoted to her. I was very grateful for the necklace with its yellow and red crystal beads (made in America by one of Mrs. Naik's friends called Lucrezia) as it will remind me of my beloved friend. Gora also showed me some very interesting photographs of his family members in their younger days. He is on his way back to the States now having completed most of the post-mortem formalities that one needs to undertake when one is overseas and loses a loved one. I could not visit very long with him as I needed to get to Russel and be with him on the evening of his birthday--so I thanked him but excused myself pretty soon and left.
When I arrived at Dad's, I had a big surprise: my cousin Blossom's daughter, Menaka, was visiting from Bangalore on work--she has a couple of meetings to attend in Bombay and wanted to make sure she arrived on Russel's birthday to wish him in person (which was very nice of her indeed). Russel was also quite delighted to see her (as was I) and we visited for the next half hour as I offered her (and Rohit) Russel's birthday cake. Dad also gave me a packet containing jalebis that had been brought by my cousin Ruby and her daughter Linnet for Russel as a birthday gift.
It was about a half hour later that Menaka and I left together--I was headed to church (Dad used his better judgment and decided to take it easy and stay home as he is still very weak) while Menaka went off in the opposite directions.
At church, I discovered that I was the Lector. I barely had time to practice my reading in the sacristy before Mass began. My friend Neil then gave me a ride up Pali Hill to the Bandra Gymkhana as I had another appointment there for 8.00 pm. I made a swift stop at my place to leave a bag behind and then I walked to the Gym.
I had invited my Fulbright supervisor from St. Xavier's College, Pearl Pastakia, and her husband Kaizad to have dinner with me as a way of saying goodbye and thank you to her for having been such a wonderful support to me through the technicalities of the Fulbright program. She is really such a lovely person and I feel grateful, in so many ways, that things fell into place for me so well during this past year. We settled down in the air-conditioned restaurant upstairs with a bottle of beer (that Kaizad and I split) and a mocktail called Spice Girl for Pearl and then we ordered. As she is a vegetarian, she had Traditional Baked Vegetables while Kaizad and I had the Fish and Chips. Well, the fish and chips were nothing like you get in the UK--these were small pieces of rawas, breaded and shallow fried. They were not batter-coated and they were not very tasty. The chips were like shoestring fries--very thin and insubstantial (nothing like the hefty meaty chips I expected). However, the paneer achari with which we started was really delicious and we enjoyed that. By the end of our meal, no one had room for dessert. I gave Pearl a small gift (a necklace with matching ear-rings) and was very surprised when she gave me a gift too: a bunch of incense sticks and a drawer perfume sachet that she had purchased on a recent visit to Pondicherry. It was exceedingly nice of her indeed to leave me with these thoughtful gifts.
By the time I reached home, I was ready to drop. It had been such a full day that it was no wonder I felt frazzled and ready to hit the sack with just a spot of reading before I called it a day.
Until tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment