Handsome Mars

Marianne and John visited the Charles Schulz Museum in California last weekend ... and Mars was the star.

Dearest All,

I am being the domestic maven - there are 2 men trying to fix one of the split AC's which is making weird noises - still have to show them the one in the bedroom that is throwing water out the side and soaking the wall behind the bed.  Then Rout Senior is in the bathroom with 3 men reaming out the drain.  The kabadi wallah was here half an hour ago and paid me Rs. 50 for the paper, plastic and glass he took out of here.  Jack has arrived in Dehradun with Elissa and Jake and are on their way up to Winkie's.  Believe I got the short end of this deal. :-)   I keep checking with each group to see what is happening and why.  Hopefully all will be fixed and peaceful shortly.

News of the weeks varies widely -

Greeted the new Fulbright Scholars at  Monday night reception and met Stew Gilson and his girl friend Molly.  Stew is the son of our niece Cathy's best friends - we discovered the connection after Jack visited his brother Fritz in July.  He will be here all year teaching English in a school just off Lodhi Road (our neighborhood!).

Then Tuesday Mark Tully, the BBC correspondent and writer of several India books came to lecture our students. 

Francesca, Harini, Andrew, Jeri, Mark Tully, Hemanshu,

 

 

Everly, Lauren, Karissa, Evan, Sukrita

We had a "tea" that followed and then took Stew, Molly and 2 students ACSA for steak.
Last night was very busy here - Jack and I had gotten the biopsy slides and the after-chemo meds that our friend Cookie needed on Friday/Saturday.  Cookie and David then arrived from Mussoorie last night at 10:30 with a car fully packed with all their things - they are returning to the U.S. so Cookie can have her treatment there.  They said their farewell at Woodstock was tearful and a great and gracious send-off.  We hugged them good-bye at 4:30 am.
Then at 6 am Jack and Eliss and Jake left for Mussoorie.  We had a full house last night - never had 6 people here at a time before.  Now I have a have a houseful of workmen.
The news is full of the fact that we are having the wettest monsoon in 15 years - there are only 8 wetter on record.  It has rained torrentially every day this week - except today.  That means the water gets ankle deep out in front of the house and on multiple highways.  Almost all the stop lights immediately stop working.  Huge holes are opening up on various highways - on Kasturba Gandhi Marg just after we had been then a hole almost swallowed a car.  The work on the Common Wealth Games preparations is in complete chaos - bribery scandals are on-going.  Now they've appointed some kind of blue-ribbon panel to get everything done in 45 days that should have been done in 45 months to quote one of the editorials today.  (Update - the drain is open - the bathroom is soaking wet and one AC is fixed - so filthy inside it's hard to describe.)

In the category of most remarkable news of the week - Sunita, Subhadip and I saw the Metro running on the tracks I have watched being built from the ground up.  The train we saw was headed for my pet engineering project - the suspension bridge at the Moolchand Overpass.  It obviously worked because we passed there several minutes later and everything was intact.  Huzzah, hurray, etc.  The picture attached shows a) the metro train, b) the almost complete Lajpat Nagar stop), c) the traffic jam we were in for 45 minutes, d) rain drops on the wind shield from the latest down pour.  Almost too much reality in one shot.
And terrible news from Evanston including the death of two friends at church included dear, dear Jane falling and breaking her shoulder/arm in a compound fracture.  I talked with her on the phone before her appointment with the Illinois Bone and Joint doctor (the place the fixed my hip) so I don't know the plan for her recovery.  I will try her tomorrow morning (Sunday night) and hear the progress report.
It is also blessedly cool even if it is terrifingly humid - the high in Evanston yesterday was forecast for 93 and for here it was 89. :-)   The worm has turned or something like that.  It was actually only 78 outside we got up this morning at 4 am.
I've gone on long enough or longer than needed ... mom and dad, did you read this far?!?  We had a good if short talk on Skype last night.  They can't seem to hear us very well but we hear them beautifully - maybe one of my siblings, my tech brother Bob?, could check that out next time you're there.
This is the week for college to begin - Caroline is off to Kenyon, Aradhna Roberts is off to Goshen today from Woodstock ...wishing them both lots of adventures.