Christmas Here and There

I haven't done a very good job of writing every day.  I want that discipline of finding the time of day that works and doing it.  Being consistent.  Thinking in a writerly way - hard to do when I know I am so distracted much of the time.  But here it is Sunday evening and I have some minutes by myself.  The activities of the day were all around Christmas.  Here are the pictures that tell the story ...  The Christmas pageant at church - the shepherds with their sun glasses on because of the dazzling angels.  It was lovely but I realize that I don't have a lot of nostalgia about Christmas pageants in America because I don't have any memories of

 them as a child.  Now if I was in sitting in the moroom out in front of the church, in the cold evening in Bisrampur with Sashi and Poona dressed as Mary and an angel I would be back home.  The strange event on Friday night of being at film club and everyone going around the circle to say what their favorite Christmas movie was made me realize, once again, I am not from here.  I hadn't seen most of the movies they mentioned - some I knew the titles to but I've never seen any of them all the way through.  Maybe bits of It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas but not the entire movie. 

 Here is Casey with her gingerbread house at Kathy & Bob's gingerbread Christmas window.  It is a wonderful fairy tale vision they create every year and go down to the south side of Chicago to a community center and build houses with children there.  Great tradition!  They are wonderful, generous hosts and it's always a treat to go and see the outcome of their efforts each year.

Some one built the coliseum with the Bears and the Penguins in mortal combat - the Bears winning.

 And the view of the whole window.  It was fun to go and see them all. 

Lunch time was with Mark and Lori on Devon Street for chat papri and masala dosa.  Both of them had thalis and they did a good job of eating it all.  One month from today we leave.  I bought Wet Ones and Pepto Bismal and gave Lori her share to pack.  The suitcase is out and soon I will start filling it.  Virgil has sent kneelers for Christ Church and they are sitting next to the suitcase.

The transition of going from Christmas to India is going to be quite a muddle.  We are making all the preparations we can ahead.  Today we talked about maybe reading the same book so we can have some common basis for the literary festival.  I like the Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All Things.  Hoping maybe that's the one Lori will read too.  But I am interested in Chetan Bhagat just because he seems to be so well know and popular.  I am not liking the "Three Mistakes" one that I'm reading now.  Way too much about cricket.

Enough for today.  Trying to stay calm and focused.  Always praying for clarity.

Walking by the Lake

It is damp and but not below freezing so I just walked back from campus.  Everything brown, chilly and blowing.  The Lake seems to have come in to shore at the Lake Street Beach.  Grey.  Today was Kripa's Mehendi party.  I watched part of it on YouTube.  They were joyful and looked cold in the early evening.  Gorgeous saris, lots of hugging and saw Deepak briefly, the proud papa.  I love that the wedding is at noon - so sensible!
Counting the days, trying to savor the anticipation.  Counting the days was one of the things I learned to do first in life - days until going into boarding, days until going down day, over and over each year.  I used to make calendars to mark off the days.  There weren't any bought calendars, just those white scrap books they sold at the tuck shop.  I would line off a double page and write in the dates.  Now I let Google keep track although I have to do the counting still.
Preparing for the literary festival Lori and I have read several books.  I am not impressed with most of them.  So many authors - they are saying over 200.  It will be fascinating to see what we learn out of this.  That I want to write and can't.  I just ordered 3 novels by Chetan Bhagat - never heard of him before.  This will be at least an adventure.

Concentrating or not

Daily writing is going to take concentration.  I am certainly exerting enough concentration on getting ready for the trip.  Today I told the Drs. Singh in Khariar about the service on February 13.  There are more people to notify in India too.  Pradipta, the son of one of dad's Gaon Sathi's will surely want to be there so I have to tell him.  He might also help in notifying other's.  This morning on the desktop picture rotation there was a picture of Rev. Sushma Singh in Tilda - I need to notify her and ask her to be part of the service.  And I need to find the picture - she married the Hindi teacher from East West Language in Delhi who taught my IES students.  Have to keep looking once again everywhere on the PC.
This never got posted because the day came to an end first.  I heard from Ajit and Pushpa - they will come on February 13 barring any other unforeseen events.
The things to ask Anil about include who can cater the meal (someone from Raipur?) and who can make the headstone?  I know where to go in Dehradun but Raipur not so much.  Maybe someone in Bilaspur - they make fancy plaques for new buildings, surely someone can do a headstone.  And I have to talk to Patty and John and Bob about what to put on it.
Next is a message to all other  family members - in case anyone else wants to come along.
Enough for these two days...
Today is the Senior Christmas luncheon and the League Holiday reception of which I am in charge.  Things to do calling me.

Going home to India....again

I am making a promise to myself - to blog every day before my trip to India on January 15 and while I am gone.  So why the coins?  I meant to blog about them before - about how I find money and collect it.  The pennies are an almost daily occurrence - I do watch on the ground for the familiar, precisely round shape which is not often shiny, usually black and grimy from being on the pavement or sidewalk.  The coins below are the ones I found in England this spring on our trip to London for our anniversary.  People are so casual about coins - drop them or discard them.  I seek them out and gather them up and keep them separately in my little copper box that I bought from Doma forty-eight years ago.  I find Indian money too ... but not so often.

So I am going to blog.  Partly so I can reflect on what this trip will mean to me.  Partly to keep a list of things to not forget.  I have to remember the note about the money at the Tibetan Women's Coop that all my friends in India have not helped me retrieve.  I've asked a four or five and everyone of them has ignored the request.  I think it's quite a lot of money - Rs. 900.  I've printed out the latest email from Tenzin and am taking it with me.  I'll get it eventually.
And I have to remember to take the USB phone connection that I can load Rupees on and have an internet connection wherever I go.  That's going to be crucial.

Let me connect the good fortune of finding money and the good fortune of being able to go to India again, with my dear friend Lori, and to fulfill my dad's final wish, to be buried in Bisrampur.  It's an emotional thing, knowing that he trusted me to do this for him.  And that dear Anil is going to help make this happen.  There are so many details to take care of - making sure I have a good bio piece and the right picture - probably will use the one in his black Gandhi cap but this will always be my favorite.  The good fortune of having a dad who loved me so dearly is beyond words.

Springtime in Mussorie and Delhi

Notes on being at home ... in Delhi...in Mussoorie.
A blessed morning at the Arpana Guest House in Vasant Vihar.  Beautiful, cool, fragrance of frangipani drifting in the shafts of morning light. It is good and peaceful.  And friend Katy sent a David Brooks column with these words, reflecting on a TED talk by Sting:
The person going back home has to invent a coherent tradition out of discrete moments
and tease out future implications. [She] has to see the world with two sets of eyes: the
eyes of [her] own childhood self and the eyes of [her] current adult self. [She] has to circle
back deeper inside and see parts of [herself] that were more exposed then than now. No
wonder the process of going home again can be so catalyzing.
The process of going home is also reorienting. Life has a way of blowing you off course.
People have a way of forgetting what they originally set out to do. Going back means
recapturing the original aspirations.
Here are views of my life in the last week ... my miraculous gas heater which kept the temp above 50 in my little room .. I'll be back with comments later.  A wonderful 8 days of work, reminiscence, looking back and forward, truly informing whom I am.