Breakfast at the Marriott Hotel and a Condolence Visit to a Classmate

Friday, September 28, 2018
Bombay

Breakfast at the Marriott Hotel and a Condolence Visit to a Classmate.

     Namaste fromBombay!
     Today was a most unusual day--but such a great one! I awoke at 5.30 am and began blogging and reading. I was thrilled to discover that my annual subscription to The New York Times automatically buys me access on my iPhone and my iPad! This meant that I could follow the Kavanagh-Ford hearing in great detail as soon as I awoke.
     This was fun as I got a call from Llew who had been watching extracts from the hearing on CNN and MSNBC. We ended up discussing it at length. I am confident that Kavanagh will be confirmed on the US Supreme Court.  From what I saw of the excerpts of the recording, I fully believe Christine Ford that the sexual assault took place. But it is also possible that Kavanagh was so intoxicated that he has no memory whatsoever of this assault taking place and, therefore, steadfastly denies all knowledge of it.

Off to Jogger's Park:
     I washed, dressed, gulped down a cup of coffee, put on my sneakers, took my ear-phones with me and set off for my morning walk at Jogger's Park. My ten rounds on the Jogger's Track is such a great way to exercise, to get in my cardiovascular workout, to breath in the fabulous salt-scented air of the Arabian Sea and to be inspired by the numbers of other exercises who have made walking or jogging a part of their routine. This morning, I listened to Bobby Darin's Greatest Hits from the 1950s--yes, Bobby Darin!!! I am actually listening to my collection of music on my phone that I haven't listened to for a very long time.

Breakfast at the Marriott Hotel:
     Back home, I jumped quickly into the shower and put on a special outfit with pearl jewelry and better shoes than usual as I had a special morning's date. At 9.00am, I was meeting my friend Shahnaz at the lobby of the Otter's Club of which she is a member right after she finished her thrice-weekly aqua exercises in the pool. She had two free coupons for breakfast at the Marriott Hotel at Juhu (part of the perks of the Club Marriott membership that she once held with her late husband) and invited me to accompany her to get breakfast there.
    I was delighted. First of all, I had never been to the Marriott Hotel which I was told was the first  and only 7-star hotel in Bombay.  Secondly, my brother Roger and his wife Lalita had taken my parents, Robert and Edith, for brunch to the Marriott on the day of their Golden Wedding Anniversary--so I wanted to be in the same space in which they had been. And thirdly, I was starving, as all I had downed was a cup of coffee.  It felt good to be able to sit somewhere and eat a really special breakfast.
     And boy, was it special! It was astounding. The breakfast area is designed around a lotus pool--which is why it is called The Lotus Cafe. The grounds are beautifully landscaped to swoop down to the sea.  Form where we were seated, we could see the vast, lushly-manicured gardens and pool outside and the thunderous waves of the Arabian Sea beyond them. Spectacular!
     And then there was the food.  The 'stations' seemed never ending.  There was everything you could think of--from stations that offered quiches to eggs anyway you liked them, including custom-made omelettes with the works (bacon, sausages, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, baked beans) to a cheese board to a cereals counter with all sort of toppings available, to an Indian area where breakfast such as idlis and vadas were offered (fresh dosas were being made to order right off the griddle) to more counters where custom-made sandwiches and salads could be assembled, to another station where waffles and pancakes were being produced, plus an area offering juices and fresh fruit.  It was quite quite endless.
     Coffee was served at the table and I asked for a decaff coffee--which they were able to provide.  However, when I spied fresh lassi, I decided to get a glass of that. I also wanted to taste their birschersmuesli which was served cold and with just a spoon of that, I moved on to a selection of cheeses.  Next, I turned to the waffle counter and ordered one with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and almonds and I finished my breakfast with toast points with cream cheese, smoked salmon, pickled onions, capers and chives.  Everything was heavenly and I was so stuffed by the end of it that I honestly did not eat anything else until 9.00 pm in the evening when I had my dinner--and I was not even hungry then!
     It was a stupendous treat and I was so glad that Shahnaz invited me. She drove us to and back from the hotel and by the time I reached home, it was about 11.30am. I was left with enough time to make some email contacts and organize my weekend.
     I stopped to put away another tiffin that had been delivered and then had a 20 minute power nap. I could not really focus on much work or start anything new as I had to leave my house for my next appointment.

Making a Condolence Visit to a Friend:
     I had made plans to meet my classmate Iris Dias at the BEST bus stop depot outside Khar Railway Station at 4.30 pm. Accordingly, I left my home at 4.00 and sat at the 220 bus stop on Perry Road awaiting for the bus which came about ten minutes later.  I had not been to the last stop (Khar Station) for ages and I rather enjoyed the bus ride along the Carter Road Promenade with the sea waves lashing the mangrove plantings near the shore. We passed by the fishing village of Danda with its tell-tale smells and the deeply congested area surrounding it before we eased into lovely verdant Madhu Park in Khar and from there to the station where the last stop was located.
     I spied Iris already waiting for me when I got there on the dot of 4.30pm. She was told that Sacred Heart Church at Santa Cruz was walking distance from Khar Station and suggested we walk there.  We did ask for directions once and were clearly set forth in the right direction.
     Our classmate Nilu who lost her sister Shahnaz Pinto, two weeks ago, had given me the address and detailed directions to her mother's home in Santa Cruz. Nilu herself, like me, had made her way to the USA forty years ago to do her Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Michigan at Kalamazoo where she eventually became a full Professor of Maths and where she met her American husband Steve, also a professor of Maths. Nilu had come down to support her sister Shehnaz through her battle with pancreatic cancer and to help her 88-year old mother Kamela cope with it. Both Iris and I had attended the Memorial Service for Shahnaz, about ten days ago.
     We found the flat easily enough as Nilu's  directions were perfect and in very little time, were seated in her living room and talking about so many things.  It was hard to keep track of the tenor of our conversation which remained free-wheeling as we flipped from one subject to the next. Shehnaz's loss was the trigger for so many other subjects that we discussed as we walked down Memory Lane as we caught up on our lives in the intervening years as we were all close pals in high school who have not seen each other in decades.
     It was about 7.00 pm when we left Nilu's mother's home--which meant that we had been chatting for over two hours. Iris and I then walked to Khar Station from where she took a train back home to Goregoan and I jumped into a rickshaw to go directly to my Dad's home.  He too had skipped Mass today as the India versus Bangladesh finals cricket match was on the telly and he was keen to watch it.
     Once at Dad's place, I visited with Russel for about half an hour.  He too had been watching the match in his room but by 8.00 pm, he was keen to have his dinner. He seemed a bit less serene today and did not speak much sense.  I showed the day and night attendants how to put the supporting brace on his leg.
   A little later, once Dad got Russel's dinner ready, I decided to leave. But just at that minute, the rain came bucketing down and I had to wait until it abated.  This was exactly the time my cousin Blossom called me from Madras.  It was her birthday and I had been trying without any luck to reach her to wish her all day.  She, therefore, decided to return my calls and we chatted for another 15 minutes.
     During the time of our call, the rain abated and borrowing one of Dad's umbrellas, I picked up my freely-done laundry and left. En route, I stopped at the local grocery store to pick up a pack of almond milk.
     Once home, I put away my clothes and got organized with my dinner. This time I ate part of the new tiffin I had received: cutlets, Goan shrimp curry and cabbage. I also ate half a guava and part of a fresh pomelo that my Dad had given me to take home.  It was delicious. I was eating pomelo after years and it was very good indeed.  Pomelo for me today is one of my favorite perfumes. Made by Jo Malone under her new line called Jo Loves, Pomelo is her best-selling fragrance.
     While eating dinner, I watched Tunnel on my Ipad--it has become very interesting indeed and I am enjoying it enormously.
     By about 10.30, I decided to call it a night.
     Until tomorrow...