She Lives to Tell the Tale!

After 3 doctor consultations and 10+ medications over the past 6 days, I am happy to report that the tide has turned in my favor in the battle of the good-gut-guys and the bad-gut-guys! I’ve given myself more than one mirror-pep-talk about staying the course, and about not letting this get me down. Also, when I say that there are angels watching over me… I cannot tell you how completely I have been cared for and nurtured (emotionally and physically) by people around me. One of those people is Triveni (a Fulbright-related connection whom I met on my first day in Pune). Turns out, Triveni lives 2 blocks away — I can see her flat from my window! This photo was from our first get-together at a place called Hippies at Heart.

Another set of people have been my landlord and landlady — Sandeep and Kanchan. They have made me food, gotten the doctors’ consults, picked up my meds, and more. They are such a blessing. I don’t yet have a photo of them. And there are others — my friend Priyanka in Delhi who has been checking up on me (I previously showed photos of meeting up with her cousin); the folks at Fergusson College who have been infinitely patient about me getting started; and so on. So many people filled with light and goodness.

While I previously joked about “cavorting,” I do exercise moderate caution about what and where I eat. There are basic “rules” I (almost?) always follow, but avoiding food poisoning here is a bit like avoiding darts with a bullseye on your gut. I’ve been incredibly lucky over 5 previous visits with little more than grumbly-tumblies on occasion. I have convinced myself (rightly or wrongly) that (1) it was a random take-out order I had on Thursday, and (2) my pre-trip bout of Covid weakened my immunities. So, yes, an epic battle, and that’s all we’ll say about that.

I’ve done little in the past week, so I thought I’d just post a few fun photos and video about “ordinary life” here. Here is the building I live in:

You probably can’t see it even with zooming in, but in the window to the left of the one with colorful laundry, there’s a little boy (about 7) who is waving wildly and calling down to me: “HELLO!! HOW ARE YOU?!” I responded, “I AM FINE! HOW ARE YOU?” He replied, “I AM ALSO FINE!” I realized that it was an adorable boy named Vian whom I had met about a week ago in the stairwell. So I called out, “I REMEMBER MEETING YOU!” He replied: “YOU LIVE JUST ABOVE ME!” (Technically, my window is not the one directly above — it’s at the back of the building, a floor above him.) Such a cutie-pie!

And here is the playground where all the kids and moms and grandmoms gather in the early evening:

Today, my landlady Kanchan took me to the terrace of my building, where I can go any time (if I get the key from her). It was just dusk, and so beautiful! And the air was fresh and warm, with a gentle breeze.

In my kitchen is this cute little shrine:

And on the corner of my road is this temple:

Today I finally got outside and took a walk around the area, and bought some potatoes. Triveni had brought me two that tasted so good, I had to have more. I got these potatoes for a grand total of 25 cents.

I will leave you with this little video of my morning sights and sounds from my table I eat at... it is always varied, and this clip doesn’t highlight the extreme variety of bird calls… but it gives you a little “taste” (to bring it all back around to the eating motif! 😀 ) of what I hear and see in the morning. (Evenings are different sounds, and nights are different again. Maybe one day I’ll capture those too.) Toward the end of the video, do you see the kite tangled in a wire? Boys often fly kites from rooftops.