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.