Today was all about Tying Up Loose Strings and Dinner at the Willingdon Gymkhana

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Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Bombay

Today was all about Tying Up Loose Strings and Dinner at the Willingdon Gymkhana

            Namaste from Bombay!

            I awoke at 6.30 am in Dad’s flat, read Twitter feed and finalized and shortened my July newsletter with the aim of sending it out today while the rest of the household still slept. Breakfast today was porridge with coffee. I then began cleaning up the living room show case which took a while as it involved removing all of the novelties, washing the crystal and glassware, washing each glass shelf, getting rid of much of the stuff that should have been placed elsewhere—a bunch of mortuary mementoes were placed in a pastic bag and kept away in a cabinet.

Having done a great morning;s work, I left to run errands—I went to the bank (to update passbooks for Dad, Russel and myself) and to get a form for a new fixed deposit for myself. A block ahead, I stopped off at the Grocer Savla’s to buy a bottle of bleach as I was keen to do a deep cleaning of the bath mats.

Back home, I discovered that the CCTV men had arrived and had no idea where to place the cameras—which was something I had discussed with their boss, a couple of days ago. Once we went through those decisions again, they left to buy the wiring. I had lunch with Dad and Russel (who is now mobile and walking to the living room again). It is good to see that he is participating again in the life of the household. However, he remains temperamental and keeps changing his mind frequently about where he would like to sit.

I had accomplished a good morning’s work and was ready for lunch—another one of Valerie’s meal: chicken curry, beans, one patti and a chappati. Sandy’s saffron-flavored china grass for  great for dessert—delicious. Determined, ater lunch, to finish the clearing up of all the dusty clutter on top of showcase, I got rid of a lot of old nonsense and put into a big red tin. I was then ready for a quick nap. When I awoke at 3.00 pm, I left for Hinduja Hosp to pick up Claim Form B and Vital chart recordings (for medical insurance folks). That done, I went straight to Jay to use computer at his cyber cafe. I did finally send out my newsletter and jacket blurbs to the folks at Hamilton and I printed out Dr. Bhende’s letter to be sent to the insurance folks. With all that done, I got back home to find that my cousin Veera had arrived to say bye to me.

With her still around, we aid rosary in the bedroom as a family. We were barely done when my cousin Ruby arrived, also to say Bye. She too sat chatting for a little while. Meanwhile, Dad cleared off a lot of the accumulated bags that were in the living room through the raddiwalla. I had a cup of tea, then left with Ruby as she was taking a rick home. I needed to stop to delivered the books that I did not want at the Bandra Gym. I discovered there that when books are in as poor a shape as the ones I was donating were, they, in turn, give them to the raddiwalla and use the funds to support the poor!

I only had time then to go straight to Mass. Dad did not accompany me as he is still taking it easy. When I came home, I had a quick shower and got dressed to go to Willingdon Gym by rick to meet my friends, Ewell and Nina who took me for dinner.  Thai meal of green curry with rice, Pad Thai, beef Tongue stir fry and beef with chilli sauce. Dessert was Choc Icecream with Choc Sauce.  I had lovely time with them and was glad that I finaly managed to carve out the time to have this quality time with them. We talked about the alarming turn that things have taken in India with the Kashmir issue. It is terrible what this augurs for the country and for democracy under majoritarian rule. It is equally worrying what is happening in US—two blatant shootings from white nationalists egged on by current policies. It is indeed a grim world and, for the first time, I have actually begun to pray for the world and for the brutal ways in which it might eventually affect all of us who are minorities in a mainstream society.

Back home at midnight, Ewell and Nina dropped me off. Dad was still up, watching a cricket match. Russel had a terrible night. He woke up several time throwing up—a really sad expression of his depression at my departure. His psychosomatic reaction is definitely the result of anxiety at my leaving. Because he is not able to express himself, it is manifesting itself in this manner with nausea. How terribly sad!

Until tomorrow…