Report of 20 Dec 2015
Two young men are asleep, the Bay of Bengal is blue and beautiful again, the sun is shining.
This is bliss. We are grateful Naren and Navin made it safely; there are random security checks and Scott, the Caucasian among us, has been tempted to mouth off to TSA so I can only imagine the annoyance these checks are to those that look Middle Eastern, like our sons. And to Middle Easterners themselves. I used to think these checks were for our safety, and sometimes still do; then, one year, I heard Naren get it in Singapore when the authorities thought he was travelling alone. It was relentless and repetitive - "So you study in Chennai? You're not going to the U.S." 'That's right.' "You are going to Australia and then the U.S.?" 'No (very patiently), Chennai-Singapore-Australia, then Australia-Singapore-Chennai. With my family on holiday.' "Oh, your family's here?" 'Yes." The authorities turned around and spotted the mother vulture (me) who asked, "Is there a problem?," and they quickly answered, "No, no problem!"
So the boys are here, hooray!
We are well. This past week was spent working at the B and at a couple of medical camps for the flood-affected. These camps are massive efforts at examining a large number of people and they went well. I worked with 3 young doctors from Bangalore, here for the purpose, and it was fine. We had a ton of attendees, many for "The old lady with the grey hair, who must be experienced" (me). It was hilarious, but honestly, I do have a ton of white hair now and must look old. If that helps win me patients, as it has done my father, so be it. We saw a lot of arthritis - not necessarily flood-related - and other ailments. It helped to be in the community and check everyone. On the first day, we were in the Banyan's own neighborhood; the second day, in a community about 10 miles away, where the place still unfortunately smelt of sewage. On the 3rd day, everyone was harking to a village about 2.5 hours away and I chose not to go: the Banyan staff, who had been through the flood themselves, had to be examined and I stayed for that.
Scott and I saw a play that is a Chennai tradition: the pantomime is staged to raise funds to send underprivileged children to college, and Naren has acted in it some prior years. It is grand fun, with heckling and irreverence, singing and dancing. We enjoyed this year's show. We have also done a massive amount of shopping in preparation for Xmas. I like to ensure a ton of food in the house - better too much than too little - and we did the shopping on a weekday, for traffic reasons. We have also ordered chocolate tarts from a bakery that trains underprivileged youngsters in the trade, long a favorite locale. Bring on the gluttony!
I spoke to my father and that was fun. We will get together later this week.
May the peace and joy of Christmas be with you now, and through a happy and healthy 2016!
Unw -
R
This is bliss. We are grateful Naren and Navin made it safely; there are random security checks and Scott, the Caucasian among us, has been tempted to mouth off to TSA so I can only imagine the annoyance these checks are to those that look Middle Eastern, like our sons. And to Middle Easterners themselves. I used to think these checks were for our safety, and sometimes still do; then, one year, I heard Naren get it in Singapore when the authorities thought he was travelling alone. It was relentless and repetitive - "So you study in Chennai? You're not going to the U.S." 'That's right.' "You are going to Australia and then the U.S.?" 'No (very patiently), Chennai-Singapore-Australia, then Australia-Singapore-Chennai. With my family on holiday.' "Oh, your family's here?" 'Yes." The authorities turned around and spotted the mother vulture (me) who asked, "Is there a problem?," and they quickly answered, "No, no problem!"
So the boys are here, hooray!
We are well. This past week was spent working at the B and at a couple of medical camps for the flood-affected. These camps are massive efforts at examining a large number of people and they went well. I worked with 3 young doctors from Bangalore, here for the purpose, and it was fine. We had a ton of attendees, many for "The old lady with the grey hair, who must be experienced" (me). It was hilarious, but honestly, I do have a ton of white hair now and must look old. If that helps win me patients, as it has done my father, so be it. We saw a lot of arthritis - not necessarily flood-related - and other ailments. It helped to be in the community and check everyone. On the first day, we were in the Banyan's own neighborhood; the second day, in a community about 10 miles away, where the place still unfortunately smelt of sewage. On the 3rd day, everyone was harking to a village about 2.5 hours away and I chose not to go: the Banyan staff, who had been through the flood themselves, had to be examined and I stayed for that.
Scott and I saw a play that is a Chennai tradition: the pantomime is staged to raise funds to send underprivileged children to college, and Naren has acted in it some prior years. It is grand fun, with heckling and irreverence, singing and dancing. We enjoyed this year's show. We have also done a massive amount of shopping in preparation for Xmas. I like to ensure a ton of food in the house - better too much than too little - and we did the shopping on a weekday, for traffic reasons. We have also ordered chocolate tarts from a bakery that trains underprivileged youngsters in the trade, long a favorite locale. Bring on the gluttony!
I spoke to my father and that was fun. We will get together later this week.
May the peace and joy of Christmas be with you now, and through a happy and healthy 2016!
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
10:48 PM
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