I was reminded on Saturday about Sunday being an auspicious day for us by my cousin. I had clean forgotten about that as on that day, we normally prepare a special dish which otherwise would not have been made. Later, Aishwarya on a short visit to Pune decided to wake me up from my siesta to request whether she could visit. Had she not done that, I would have slept through the entire afternoon! She did come and challenged my intellect enough for me to decide to forgo my evening walk. She also grandly announced that she has brought some goodies from Ahmedabad and she would see that I get them on Sunday.
My net friend led me to a book which I could not get in the kindle version but the search for which led me to another fascinating book on receiving which, I almost stopped all other work. I went to it later in the night and I was happy to have bought it.
Just as I was winding down for the night, my father developed serious breathing trouble and was in considerable discomfort. Luckily Ranjan was around and as usual our GP suggested a course of action that was followed after Ranjan went to the chemist and procured the medicines. My father settled down in better shape than when the problem started and all three of us had a peaceful night after midnight.
I did get around to getting Pongal, the special dish made for our Thai Pongal. You can read more about the festival here too.
On Sunday, an old friend who dropped out of view some ten years ago, suddenly reappeared through the good offices of a mutual friend. Shakti, a feisty and ebullient personality of the Osho Ashram was a frequent visitor to our place but after the death of Osho disappeared from view. It was nice to get back in touch with her.
A dear friend in the USA and I have been in correspondence on a matter of spiritualism for some time now. On Sunday I decided to gift him with a book published in India and was pleasantly surprised to see that I could source it at Amazon to be shipped to him in the USA. Indian online stores don’t ship overseas. I am grateful that I could sit at a computer and arrange for this instead of purchasing locally and sending by post or courier which would have been quite a chore as well as far more expensive.
Since I was quite concerned about my father’s condition, I thought it prudent to stay at home with him the whole of Monday. This gave me enough time to read and sort out some other home matters. Luckily, my father stayed stable and rested well.
On Tuesday, my father’s condition improved quite a bit and I took him to the doctor for a check up. Everything is back to normal though he has to take some medicines for a few days. Since he was stable, I was also able to go to the dentist to get my tooth capped. One bridge is damaged and I need to get that done next week! I had enough confidence in his ability to be alone at home and went to the park for my evening walk and meeting with friends. Vimlu was going to the chemist and readily acceded to my request to get some medicines saving me a trip.
My annual tryst with a cold that eluded me last year, came back with a vengeance on Wednesday and laid me low. Luckily, Ranjan and Yakob were able to handle some urgent chores. I was also able to solve a problem for my father by pulling strings on the telephone.
Thursday was bad too with the cold intensifying but other things to be grateful for happened. I was able to get a lead to two old friends from my sister in law with who I had a very long telecon catching up with my late wife’s side of the family. I also received some payments from my principals which was very welcome indeed.
On Friday, the cold intensified further and I was quite listless. The saving grace was the very welcome phone calls from two of my colleagues from two decades ago who called to invite me to a get together in Bengaluru. It gave me an opportunity to catch up with news of many of my old colleagues and was in particular very gratified that I had been given a wrong message about the passing away of one of them, who turned out to be alive and kicking!
I have a great friend in the grand daughter of my neigbour and I was able to cook up one of her favourite dishes which surprised her on her return from school. She promptly sat down at her study desk and made out a thank you card:
She also gifted me with a plaster of paris Angel, hand crafted by her for a Refrigerator Magnet! I am unable to reproduce it here, but it is quite a work of art!
The boredom of inactivity due to the cold was somewhat mitigated by Ranjan getting some light reading stuff from our club’s library.
All in all, a mixed bag of days but much to be thankful for nevertheless.