Report of 14 Jan 2024

 Good morning and happy Pongal!

Pongal is the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, called by various names nationwide.  Very important for all, especially farmers.  We celebrate by doing a puja (worship) to the Gods, make rice sweetened with jaggery and eat sugarcane.  We have bought the sugarcane and the flowers, and esposo is sound asleep, so we will do the puja when he awakens.  

I am in a perennial bad mood these days.  There are things about the wedding that could have been better.  Scott states everyone remembers it as a happy time, so that's what counts.  It was all new territory for me, I guess, and I was learning as I went.  The important thing is that my Dad came a great distance - he does not normally leave the house - and did not fall ill.  He also said he enjoyed himself immensely and was happy to have been invited.  We have a video of Nat and James touching his feet and seeking blessings, and that is priceless.  

We are also glad James's parents came.  They learnt new things and were immensely helpful at Christmas.  We had to drop various people off at bus stations and such on Christmas night, and returned to find food put away and dishes cleaned.  That was a relief.  

We were at a non-profit called Wild Ideas about 10 days ago and spent 2 days there.  It was good to work with the rural women.  They are economically better, appear to be happy at this endeavor and listened quite intently to my advice.  We had to cut our trip short as our guest room was needed for the next guest.  We left, visited the Ramana Maharishi ashram and the Tiruvannamalai temple.  On the way back, we saw Ginjee (Senjee) fort and it called us to climb it.  So off we went.  Thankfully, my workout shoes were in my bag, so I changed into those and we climbed the 400 steps up the hill.  Senjee is called the "Troy of the East," and it was truly awe-inspiring to see rich history in our own land.  

It is now back to work with telemedicine and giving talks.  It helps me to write.  The bad mood is dissipating.  

I talked to my Dad yesterday - our usual Sunday talk - and that was nice.  I told him of our week.  

We visited Vaishnavi's mother yesterday.  V is one of the 2 founders of the Banyan, and now does yeoman service in the arena of disability rights.  It truly is an arena: she files Public Interest Litigations, and the Government contests.  She does not give up and has been an inspiration to all of us.  Anything our state has achieved in the disability rights arena is largely thanks to Vaish.  She is also a fan of Nat and was at her wedding, which we are grateful for.  Vaish's Mom is articulate, erudite and jolly good fun.  We had a fabulous visit, though we reached a bit late thanks to some confusion with Google maps.  

We also went to the Chennai book fair and that was lovely.  So many people interested in printed matter.  We bought a few books and enjoyed our time there.  

Unw -

R