Goldfinch Hotel, Bangalore
Thursday night 1/30/14

One of the first things I did when I arrived here late this afternoon was hop into the shower.  It felt so good to wash my hair and get it really, REALLY clean right to my scalp.  

I put on one of my new salwar kameez outfits, and one of the hotel staff came up to show me how to get to the restaurant.   I'll be able to get there on my own next time.  The hotel actually has three restaurants, and I decided to go for their upscale seafood restaurant tonight.  Sana-Di-ge has an excellent reputation.

I told the waiter I'd like to have him choose some traditional regional dishes for me, and when he said they were rather spicy dishes, I told him not to worry.  "I've been teaching mosaics at the Mathru School for the Blind  here in Bangalore for two months and eating the food there and lolling it."   And then I ordered s cold beer, because that goes better with hot spicy food than wine does.

It was a Kingfisher, and so cold it almost had ice slivers in it.  It made me remember my college summers driving tractors and chopping cotton in century-plus heat.  I'd get home all hot and grimy, grab a beer from the fridge and take it into the shower with me.  Ah, what bliss it was to get completely clean and cool, and sip on a frosty cold beer.

This beer was almost as blissful, and it was perfect for my meal.  First the waiter brought me a bowl of some kind of fried chips, I think it might have been a light cheese, irresistible and way way better than any kind of Cheetos at home.  I forced myself to  savor each one very slowly  so I wouldn't gobble up the whole basket.   The main dish, fish and shrimp covered in a thick tangy curry, was so tasty I couldn't stop eating it, even though it was so hot. The fish meat was wonderfully tender and flaky.   The waiter told me it was one of the traditional coconut-based curries of South India, and when he saw how I relished it, he said that there was a traditional sauce that went with it,"but it is very hot."  

"Bring it on," I told him.   It was bloody murder hot but delicious,  creamy with a tangy undertone that I couldn't quite identify.  "Does this have lemon or lime in it?" I asked. 

"Tamarind."  I recognized the flavor as soon as he mentioned it.   

The naan was crispy on the outside and spongy on the inside.  They served me rice, too, which I didn't order,  "to soak up the sauce," And it was perfect for that job.  

I finished the meal with a kheer -- a kind of thin custard -- made with coconut cream, toasted fresh coconut and other good things.   It is their special recipe, the waiter told me, and it was rich and very good.   I ate almost all of it, which was quite an accomplishment for me as well as a compliment to the cook because I was stuffed.  Definitely one of my best meals in India, and I couldn't have asked for nicer, more attentive service.

I'll be meeting some friends of  Larry Vrieling's for dinner while I an here, and if they like seafood I'll make another dinner reservation at the Sana-Di-ge here.  

The wi-fi here is excellent, and it was lovely to have a good chat with Andy on Skype that ended because we were finished talking and not because the internet connection faded on us.  He's been busy calling and negotiating with the travel agencies and airlines to get my flights changed.

It looks like everything is going to work out just fine.  The Sri Lanka trip is still on, thanks to Mayu.  She made a lot of changes on a dime, and instead of coming in tomorrow for the weekend, she'll be arriving next Thursday morning,  Feb. 6, spend the day at Mathru with me, and that evening we'll take off for our Sri Lankan sojourn.

We'll be back in Bangalore late Monday night, Feb. 10, and stay here at the Goldfinch.   We'll taxi over to MathruTuesday morning, Feb. 11, in time for the little good-bye party that Mukthla, Divya and the rest of the staff are planning for me.   

Muktha said they are putting together a gift for me  (something I can pack easily, I hope), and I'll be able to hand out all my gifts to them.  Mayu will hang around until  the next morning, Wed. Feb. 12, and then catcher her flight back to Mumbai.

February 12th was the original departure day for Linda and me; we were going to leave Bangalore that night for two nights in Hong Kong and then go to Manila on Feb. 15.  Now I'm going to skip the Hong Kong layover and go straight to Manila from Bangalore.  I'll probably leave Bangalore on Feb. 14 to arrive in Manila on Feb. 15 as originally planned.  Prandy's stepping up to the plate and will meet me at the airport and make sure I'm OK while I'm in Manila.   On Feb. 19 I'll take my originally-planned flight home, from Manila to Hong Kong, then San Francisco.

As I said, Andy's still working on the changes.  Singapore Airlines is being reasonable and accommodating, but Andy's struggling with the Philippine Airlines Hong Kong-Manila connection that  Linda and I booked through Expeida.com.  The Expedia folks are being totally unreasonable.  They're refusing to refund Linda's flights and they  won't  let me take the very next Philippine Airlines flight so that I can make the connection directly from Bangalore.  Linda has a legitimate medical reason for canceling -- she had emergency surgery! -- and I am not being unreasonable to ask them to please let me just take the very next flight.   I'm grateful Andy's taking care of this for me.

And now I'm off to dreamland.

Mathru School for the Differentlly-Abled 
Thursday  1/30/14

This morning I finally have the plywood bases for the murals and coffee table-top, and spent a couple hours getting the edges all sanded smooth.  

Then I went for the black paint.  That was when it dawned on me.  Yeah right, Dignan, YOU are gonna paint these boards???  Really good thinking, toots…

Well DUH.  I amaze myself with my own obtusity.

Fortunately, Divya and Akshatha were not so dense.  They were just waiting for me to finish sanding so they could paint the boards. 

While they're painting, I'm getting cleaned up and packed to take off very soon for my Goldfinch Hotel respite.  Woo hoo!!

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Tuesday 1/28/14

Instead of getting on a plane tomorrow for Singapore and then Bangalore,  Linda will be busy recovering from an emergency appendectomy.  Andy called me this morning with the news, and now I'm busy sending Linda my best healing thoughts, and working on Plans B, C and D.

The deafblindness makes it difficult for me to travel alone -- the deafness is more of an obstacle than the blindness -- so I have to change my plans for the rest of my adventure.

If I can get someone to go to Sri Lanka with me, I can still do that trip Feb, 6-10, and won't have to cancel my Sri Lankan Airlines flight or Kingsbury Hotel reservation. 

And if I can get to Manila straight from Bangalore without any overnight layovers, I might still be able to make that trip too and visit my friend Prandy Yulo there.  If getting to Manila on my own works, I could come home as originally planned on Feb. 19 (fly Manila-Hong Kong-San Francisco).   If it doesn't, I guess I'll  fly straight home from Bangalore.

Andy's not crazy about me flying straight to San Francisco from Bangalore, because it will be a very long flight -- he thinks 30 hours or more including layovers and changing planes -- but if that is what I have to do, so be it.   The communication issues for me in a foreign city are just too overwhelming.  

Andy's checking with our travel agent and the airlines for me to find out what options I have,  we'll see how the plan changes work for Prandy, and we'll see if the Sri Lanka trip is still a go.   One way or another it will all work out.  

In the meatime, life goes on.   I'm still counting down the hours to my Goldfinch Hotel respite and visit with Mayu.  Now that Andy's not going to be able to send me some audiobooks, AA batteries and other items with Linda, maybe Mayu can help me find an audiobook store here, if there is such a place. 

Apart from my preoccupation with  plan changes, I spent the day polishing up my mosaics  and  gluing my business card to the backs of them.   I won't be getting any hanging hardware from Andy via Linda, either, so I told Divya I'll have to leave it up to her to arrange for Harish or someone to get them ready to hang.

And unsurprisingly, Harish did not bring the plywood bases for the murals today.  He did bring me sandpaper and black paint, though, so we're making progress.   If the boards come tomorrow I should still be able to get the murals put together by Thursdayafternoon, when I'm off to the Goldfinch Hotel.

Less than 48 hours away!

Mathru School for the Differently Abled 
Monday 1/27/14

All is grouted, now all is left is to get the murals put together.  We'll get the mirrors ready to hang after Linda arrives with the hanging hardware Andy is sending me.

I spent three hours grouting the Muktha's Children mosaic, and Akshatha and I grouted  six more mosaics by the students.  Divya said the plywood bases will be here tomorrow.  We'll get the edges shaded  smooth, paint the boards black, and mount the mosaics on them.

I'm counting down the hours as well as the days to Thursday afternoon, when I check in to the Goldfinch Hotel.  If there is a bathtub in my room I may want to kiss the concierge.   I yearn for a decent shower, and even more I yearn for  a nice long soak in the tub.  I yearn for a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed with sheets and pillow cases.  This afternoon, when I was finished grouting and headed back to my room,  achey and sweaty, I yearned for a cold beer,  For any cold drink,  Iced tea would be lovely, and cold water from the fridge would be just fine.  Then I wanted a nice glass of chilled chardonnay.    I am not sure they'll have wine at the Goldfinch but maybe they'll know how to make a good Manhattan on the rocks there.  I'm looking forward to finding out.

It occurs to me that I've never described the bathroom here.   It's about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide.   The floor is painted concrete, and the walls are covered with ceramic tile from floor to ceiling,  At the  far end of the room  is the toilet,  with the "poor man's bidet" spray nozzle mounted next to it on the far wall.  At the near end closest to the door is a pedestal sink. On the wall above the sink is a switch,  not  for the light (that switch is about ten feet away in the bedroom), but for the hot water heater.  On the wall between the sink and the toilet are two waist-high faucets.  One is for hot water and the other is for cold water.  On the opposite wall, facing both the sink and the toilet, is a shoulders-high towel rack.  The bathroom is equipped with a five-gallon bucket and two small half-gallon buckets.

When you want to get clean, you switch on the hot water heater and wait for about twenty minutes.  Then you fill the big five-gallon bucket with warm water, and use a small towel to soap yourself down.  The small half-gallon buckets are handy for scooping up water from the big bucket and pouring it over yourself to rinse off.

After you're clean, you use one of your precious towels to dty the floor, because it's not pleasant stepping on slippery wet painted concrete when you need to pee in the middle of the night.

And there you have it, the two-bucket shower.   I'm off to have one.

Mathru School for the Differently Abled 
Sunday 1/26/14

I finished gluing in the rest of the Muktha's Children mosaic tonight  -- took me another seven and a half hours -- and grouting should take another three hours or so.  Altogether that brings the total time on this piece at 54-55 hours.  That's  not unusual for a piece of this size (16 x 18 inches) and complexity, but it is a little on the high side, because it took extra time to get all the glass globs ready, and to cut all the little mirror rounds for the star spirals.  

I am relieved to get it done tonight so I can grout it tomorrow and get it all finished and out of the way.  Divya has promised that the plywood bases for the murals will be ready tomorrow or Tuesday morning, and there's a lot to do to get all the student pieces grouted and the murals finished.  I'm really feeling pressured to get everything done and properly finished off before I leaveThursday afternoon for my respite at the Goldfinch Hotel and my visits with Mayu and Linda.   (Of course, the pressure is all mine; I suspect that if I left everything a mass the way it is now, they wouldn't mind.  But I would.)

The Independence Day or Sovereignty Day celebration at the School for the Blind this morning was nice.  They had a little flag-raising ceremony on the terrace, then spent a couple hours singing patriotic songs (Muktha says "pat-tree-a-tick songs") and  listening to speeches, including a lecture on the Indian Constitution delivered by Muktha (who is an attorney, after all).  My speech, however, was blessedly un-attorneyishly brief.  I said,  "In America, we celebrate our independence from Britain, too, and we also admire Ghandi very much.  He was a great man.  You are right to be proud to be Indian, and I am honored to be a part of your celebration today.  Thank you."

The kids were cute, all dressed up in white uniforms ("White for peace," Muktha said).  When one of the boys came up to me at the beginning of the flag-raising ceremony, Muktha whispered to me, "He's saluting you."  So I snapped him back a salute that  would have done Jay Solmonson proud.  During our Visalia Times-Delta newspaper days in the late 70s, I used to tell Jay, "Yessir, yessir!" and salute him -- a bit sarcastically -- when he wanted me to do something (usually write captions for his feature photos).  Jay was fresh out of the service, and even though he was about the most un-military type ever, he was appalled by my sloppy salutes and insisted I learn to salute properly.  So here I am, four decades later and a couple continents away, snapping a proper salute, thanks to Jay.

After the ceremony Muktha took me to a shop where I picked up some shirts and a couple more saris for gifts, and we were back here in time for lunch.  I was glad it was a short day, because I really wanted to get the mosaic done today if at all posseble.

So… Ghandi and Indian sovereignty appropriately commenorted, mosaic finished, shopping for gifts all done, and a snappy salute to boot.  A very good day.