Report of 15 June 2014
Good morning from a small apartment in Los Angeles!
We are here to see Naren's play. He, his co-star, Mohit, and Navin are asleep in the next room. This apartment is lovely and in Hollywood, where the theater is. We are near major attractions and inexpensive food. As with any city, there is expensive food if you want it.
We moved to Jasper, Indiana, about 2 weeks ago. Scott landed the day before Navin turned 21, and that was nice. We celebrated Navin's b'day in Lebanon at an excellent small cafe, their chicken-fried steak being one of the best I've ever had. We moved to Jasper that weekend, and I started working. The following Monday, Navin interviewed at Memorial Hospital, and now works there also.
Jasper is very beautiful and the surroundings are hilly and verdant. I imagine fall here will be spectacular. The people are nice, and genial. Work is good: this hospital commands serious loyalty, with some nurses having worked here for over 15 years.
There are a couple of memorable patients, one of them being a lady who came in with bleeding from her bottom. She was obese, which prompted a lot of discussion. Obesity is a complex phenomenon, isn't it - no easy solutions, no fairness in the question "Why did she let herself get that way?" Scott and I saw the documentary "Fed up" and were aghast at the vehement defense of soft drinks in schools, by the soft drinks companies. "Our beverages are part of a way to get some fluids." Some years ago, I read that impoverished neighborhoods do not have grocery stores. A bunch of spinach costs twice the price of a giant bag of potato chips. It is easier and cheaper to get overweight.
We flew to L.A. last week, and saw the play "The abridged history of Modern Day India" on Friday and Saturday. Naren and Mohit did a good job in spite of a small audience (de rigueur for small theater festivals, I hear), and appeared to have a whale of a time. They are staying with friends Peter and David, who came to the play yesterday. After the event, the younger adults veered off to do other things and the older adults went to get dessert. It was great to see Peter and David, and talk of all things family, and work, and life.
I think the small audience will teach our young thespians the erratic nature of the acting world - that revenue depends on the viewing public, that it will be hard to get folks into the theater, that you'd better love what you do because there is currently not much money in it. Naren has wanted to write more than act, and the play was indeed well-written (by him); let us see where that path leads.
In L.A., we were very privileged to see a friend of many years - Gohar Teherani. She is now 97 and remains feisty and fun. She moved from Iran to India to the U.S. and stays accepting of her surroundings. If I'd had a daughter, she might have had the name "Gohar." Mrs. Teherani's memory is failing, but we spoke of many things - India and her warm, beautiful home in Chennai (then Madras); Iran; her children and grandchildren; food. Flashes of her old sense of humor emerged when her caregivers interacted with her, and it was a phenomenally lovely visit. I was blessed enough to see her, and it is one of the highlights of this trip.
There was a tournament of "League of Legends" in a suburb of L.A., and we dropped Navin there. He was lucky that he saw that the event was on during our stay in L.A. While this is an entity I do not understand, I was very happy for Navin that he got to see the matches. He was quite euphoric when we picked him up, and showed off some merchandise that he had bought. Truly, it is nice to see our children happy, isn't it.
Unw -
R
We are here to see Naren's play. He, his co-star, Mohit, and Navin are asleep in the next room. This apartment is lovely and in Hollywood, where the theater is. We are near major attractions and inexpensive food. As with any city, there is expensive food if you want it.
We moved to Jasper, Indiana, about 2 weeks ago. Scott landed the day before Navin turned 21, and that was nice. We celebrated Navin's b'day in Lebanon at an excellent small cafe, their chicken-fried steak being one of the best I've ever had. We moved to Jasper that weekend, and I started working. The following Monday, Navin interviewed at Memorial Hospital, and now works there also.
Jasper is very beautiful and the surroundings are hilly and verdant. I imagine fall here will be spectacular. The people are nice, and genial. Work is good: this hospital commands serious loyalty, with some nurses having worked here for over 15 years.
There are a couple of memorable patients, one of them being a lady who came in with bleeding from her bottom. She was obese, which prompted a lot of discussion. Obesity is a complex phenomenon, isn't it - no easy solutions, no fairness in the question "Why did she let herself get that way?" Scott and I saw the documentary "Fed up" and were aghast at the vehement defense of soft drinks in schools, by the soft drinks companies. "Our beverages are part of a way to get some fluids." Some years ago, I read that impoverished neighborhoods do not have grocery stores. A bunch of spinach costs twice the price of a giant bag of potato chips. It is easier and cheaper to get overweight.
We flew to L.A. last week, and saw the play "The abridged history of Modern Day India" on Friday and Saturday. Naren and Mohit did a good job in spite of a small audience (de rigueur for small theater festivals, I hear), and appeared to have a whale of a time. They are staying with friends Peter and David, who came to the play yesterday. After the event, the younger adults veered off to do other things and the older adults went to get dessert. It was great to see Peter and David, and talk of all things family, and work, and life.
I think the small audience will teach our young thespians the erratic nature of the acting world - that revenue depends on the viewing public, that it will be hard to get folks into the theater, that you'd better love what you do because there is currently not much money in it. Naren has wanted to write more than act, and the play was indeed well-written (by him); let us see where that path leads.
In L.A., we were very privileged to see a friend of many years - Gohar Teherani. She is now 97 and remains feisty and fun. She moved from Iran to India to the U.S. and stays accepting of her surroundings. If I'd had a daughter, she might have had the name "Gohar." Mrs. Teherani's memory is failing, but we spoke of many things - India and her warm, beautiful home in Chennai (then Madras); Iran; her children and grandchildren; food. Flashes of her old sense of humor emerged when her caregivers interacted with her, and it was a phenomenally lovely visit. I was blessed enough to see her, and it is one of the highlights of this trip.
There was a tournament of "League of Legends" in a suburb of L.A., and we dropped Navin there. He was lucky that he saw that the event was on during our stay in L.A. While this is an entity I do not understand, I was very happy for Navin that he got to see the matches. He was quite euphoric when we picked him up, and showed off some merchandise that he had bought. Truly, it is nice to see our children happy, isn't it.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
8:01 AM
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