August 23, 2016
I arrived home on Saturday around 5:00 a.m.
and had not slept on the plane. On the trip from Colombo to Mumbai my seat mate
talked with me the entire trip. The trip from Mumbai to Ahmedabad is all of 50
minutes so no time to sleep. When I got home, I couldn’t get the door to open
with my key and after trying a few times I slapped my forehead as I realized
Ron had bolted the door. I told Rahul I would sleep in the tiny car until Ron
woke up and came to look for me. Rahul went around to the side yard and came
back. “ Madam come with me”. He shined
his cell phone flashlight and he showed me how he could climb up the gate and
get to the second floor and tap on the window to wake Ron. I said I thought it
was too dangerous in the dark. Have I mentioned that we hired two buttheads who
are working for two buttheads? So up he went, tapping on the window saying “Sir
come open the door”. He could see the light go on in the bedroom so Rahul and I
went to the front door. A sheepish Ron opened the door and said ‘I was stupid’.
We all laughed. Rahul headed home and I went to bed. Unfortunately I couldn’t
get to sleep but it felt good to be in my honey’s arms and to be prone. Ron
comforted me regarding my sadness. We gave up trying to sleep around 6:30 and started
our day. Around 10:30 I crashed for a 90 minute nap. The rest of the day is a
blur.
August 24
On Sunday we went to the Calico Textile
Museum, run by a private foundation. The collection which is a fabulous
collection of Indian textiles, some over 500 years old, is housed in a palace.
So it was like a double treat, seeing the beautiful architecture and the
exquisite textiles from all regions of India. Some were woven with gold
threads, real gold. There were so many styles; some very sophisticated textiles
and some were primitive but each and every one was special.
The museum is free, does one tour a day with
20 people and has a small shop that sells books and photo reproductions of some
of the textiles. That’s it. 
We were served tea and boiled peanuts afterwards.
The tour is tightly controlled and no one is allowed to tarry. The technical
section had samples of how some of the textiles are made. For example there
were the intricately wood blocks that are used for wood block print fabrics. We
talked Rahul into going with us. Sometime he stays with the car but I have been
encouraging him to join us since what we see is part of his culture and his
history.
He said he enjoyed it. While I was away he and Ron went to a vintage
auto museum. When I asked Rahul if he enjoyed it he exclaimed ‘Yes Madam, there
were cars older than I am’. He is in his early 30’s.
I am enjoying our cooler weather. I wouldn’t
call it cool but it is no longer blistering hot. Today it is 84 degrees with
79% humidity which makes it feel like 101 according to our weather site. As I
said I don’t call that cool!
Ron had a class scheduled for today, his
first and it got moved yesterday to next week. He isn’t happy. We will leave
here on Thursday, a national holiday for Krishna’s birthday, and go to Navsari
about six hours south of here to see our friend Raju and his family. It will be
our third visit as Ron did a professional exchange with Raju when Ron worked
for the city of Portland and Ron came to India for his part of the exchange
when we lived in SL. We came one other time for a visit. On those visits 12
people lived under one roof, a large lovely home that Raju had designed. There
were four generations of one family living there. Rahul will drive of course as neither of us
ever intends to drive here unless we have a lobotomy! I was so impressed with
the driving in SL after living here for four months. It is sane there; they
stop for traffic signals, they drive in their lane going in the correct
direction, etc. On Friday Ron will meet with municipal managers in Navsari to
try to get some interest in his program. The program is moving very slowly and
Ron really wants to get it rolling.
I am enjoying cooking more but it takes an
inordinate amount of time because veggies are so dirty, must be soaked in
filtered water and picked through if it is lettuce, cilantro or parsley. I
don’t have tubs of filtered water sitting around so each task requires that I
draw some water for the washing. I have mentioned before this is not like
turning on the spigot. It filters slowly, slowly. Anyway, today I got a recipe where I have all
but one ingredient for a Thai veg curry. That is the other deterrent to cooking
here: finding the needed ingredients. I haven’t seen canned tomatoes for over a
month. For awhile I couldn’t find black beans. Now I shop like a hoarder. If I
see it I buy three of whatever the item is. I squealed with delight yesterday
when I found Thai red curry paste.
My neighbor Kamla has not been able to cook for
over a month so we have pretty much been on our own regarding food. Her live in
manservant does the cooking now and he is not as accomplished as Kamala. I
usually don’t pay attention to the price of food. If I want it I buy it but I
did notice that a small bottle of maple syrup from Canada is $15 and a small
jar of marinated artichoke hearts is a little over $11.’Who cares?’ as my
friend Dottie used to say. I am so grateful for familiar foods and eating here
is quite cheap for the most part so I can easily splurge when I find a treat
like these two items.
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