Damage Control!!

Friday, September 7, 2018
Bombay

Doing Damage Control!

      Namaste from Bombay!
      Today was all about setting my banking error corrected! But, at the end of it, I actually got down to doing some research work. Finally!!! I have all the tools in place to begin working. And it felt so goooooood!
      Awaking at 4.30 am, I checked and responded to email and wrote a new blog post.  Oh, I also did some reading.  I am enjoying quite enormously the murder mystery by Anthony Horowitz, The Word Is Murder, who is one of my favorite mystery writers--God knows I've watched enough of his work on screen (Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, etc). Plus I had loved his novel The Magpie Murders. As always, his novels are cast in the most interesting formats.  In this one, the narrator, a murder mystery writer, is commissioned to write a biography of a retired Metropolitan Police detective.  As part of the research for this assignment, he shadows this detective on his attempts to find the perpetrator of a new murder that has rocked London.  Best of all, the novel is set in my favorite city in the world and I am absolutely loving the journey of the protagonists are they travel from South Kensington to Acton to Hounslow to Piccadilly to Shepherd's Bush to Brick Lane, etc.  It is like the geography of the city of London is unfolding before my very eyes as I picture them on their jaunts through areas with which I am intimately familiar--one of the characters actually lives in Farringdon (where I had lived, ten years ago). It feels almost as if I am re-visiting the London of my last year-away-from-New York-opportunity during the time when I have another year-away-from-New York-opportunity!
       At 7.00 am, I got ready to face my day. I washed, made my bed, got breakfast organized (all super fast as I had to leave my studio quickly). Today it was coffee and an absolutely delectable chicken sandwich from RTI (a Parsee bakery near Bandra Station) which friends had given Dad and which he shared with me. Scrumptious! Then I raced through a shower and left my studio to take a rickshaw at 8.35 am to the home of my cousin Veera to leave a fresh check for her so that the real estate agent to whom she introduced me can be paid. I sat with her for about 15 minutes and then left. Once again, I apologized for any inconvenience I had caused.
    My next port of call was going to be my bank, but I had about 20 minutes to play with before the bank opened.  I decided, therefore, to go and check up on my cousin Ruby and see how she was doing.  She lived just a ten minute walk away.  Ruby, who was doing poorly just a few days ago, has made a dramatic come-back. She looked and felt so much better and was thrilled that the medication she is taking for a skin ailment seems to be working.  I spent about 15 minutes with her and left.
      I still had about 20 minutes on my hands--and so I walked through Chimbai Road, past the East Indian fishing village that faces the sea, assailed by the smells of freshly-caught fish changing hands as Catholic women went about food shopping for the day.  Imagine, if you can, Cornish housewives getting to the beach at Newlyn or Padstow or Mousehole each morning as the fresh catch comes in, to bargain with the fishermen for their day's supper. And then transfer that image to a Bombay morning in a (formerly) Catholic suburb and you get the picture.
      I was at the bank when it opened and with the help of one of the most charming and helpful bankers ever, named Bhavya Kotian, I got my work done in a jiffy.  Would that all bankers were as obliging and willing to help as she is! My wire transfer got done in minutes and I felt the kind of lifting of a burden from my chest that is hard to describe.
     I stopped at my Dad's place then, as it was only across the road and visited with him and my brother Russel for a little while. And then I left and returned to my studio. I got completely caught up with a long phone discussion with Alden,  my Dad's TV techie, who walked me through the paces of buying a new TV set. At the end of this purchase, I am going to become such an expert on the pros and cons of owning a TV set and on its capabilities that I might well write another book! Needless to say, I am still baffled about whether to go in for a second hand 'semi-smart tv' for Rs. 18,000 which will need an Amazon Firestick to make it start (Rs. 5,000) or whether I should simply buy a smart TV for about Rs. 45,000! Decisions, decisions, decisions!
     At lunch time, I stopped to eat from a new tiffin I received today: Goan Shrimp Curry, Gherkins with Coconut and Onion, Elbow Macaroni Indian Style, Spicy Soya (?) Mash. I had washed the containers and dried them earlier and set them aside. There was such a vast quantity of food that will easily see me into the next three days. And it is delicious! So, food-wise, I am in a very good place!
     After lunch, I continued reading and took a short nap. I had to wait for the internet guys to come and tweak something they had set up yesterday.  They eventually showed up at 3.00 pm and did the job in a matter of minutes.  Now that I am all set and secure, I feel much lighter in mind and spirit. Now all I have to do is get an appropriate TV set for my needs.
    From 4.000pm onwards, I finally got down to doing some work.  My initial work will involve reading and that I can now do at home by accessing online articles and books from the bibliography I had created when I put my Fulbright research proposal together.  I began by reading online articles on the origins of Parsee Theater in Bombay. I continued for about two hours--so I did make a start with my research work and I was so pleased about that.  As I told my professor friend Celia who called me in the morning, the entire NYU library plus the Bodleian libraries are now digitalized--so I can access all sorts of material without leaving my studio at all. I hope to continue with my preliminary reading over the weekend and then in earnest from Monday onwards.
       In the evening, at 6.00 pm, I left my studio to walk across to spend some time with my dad and Russel before we left for the 7.00 pm Mass. I was delighted to be asked to serve as Lector and do the Reading from St. Paul to the Corinthians. Dad and I and a friend of his named Flavia walked back together after Mass, parted company at my Dad's gate as I returned to my studio. At the entrance to my building, I met a neighbor named Ambreen who was friendly and sweet and welcomed me to the building.  How cool is that? I had my dinner while doing some more reading--thank heavens for my downloaded book from my Fairfield Public Library and for my IPad which is now acting as a Kindle. I went to bed at 10.00 pm much lighter of mind that I had been yesterday at this time.
     Until tomorrow, ...