Fully recovered from jet lag, but we missed the laughing club again!
We were out relatively early, dropped our washing to a local dry cleaner, and gave some of Kavitas clothes for repair.
Now the sun is soaking in, and breakfast was poi poi with a bit of lemon…and I even indulged in a bit of chana bhatura and seero whilst Kavita went across to the gym. Meena was still in shopping mood so the rupees are evaporating like water!
Seems the locals are convinced that Narendra Modi is likely to be the next PM, long live Raghuvasis and looies! Will definitely pick up his book in Ahmedabad as per Pankaj’s suggestion.
I bought some trendy Kurta shirts from Options, and Meena and Kavita made their stay at Kala Niketan and Paneri worth it for them…I suppose they can now attend every wedding! The Times of India had a lovely article of an 8 member family living in a 200 square foot flat, and the industrious teenagers of the family doing well in exams by sitting under street lights to revise and complete homework.
Today’s thali meal at Laxmi in Andheri cost us 200 rupees each with four shaks, khadi, bhat, khichdi, dar, and hot thin rotli served while you eat, plus the usual bhajia (patidar), and methai! Don’t worry I did not treat my alimentary canal to the lot, otherwise it would be as congested as the Mumbai traffic!
Forgive me for using so many exclamation marks….India has a habit of eliciting them without much effort! See what I mean?
The afternoon was a rush as we had a taxi driver called Laxman Patel taking us to Kandiwelli West, Charkop, Sector 5, not far from Borivelli. He said he knew how to get there from Juhu, and got lost, and so true to our origins arrived late at the Sangeet for Vishal. The venue was a small, Africa style, hall, with both families and friends have a sing song, and we met up with The Londoners..Sudha, Sejal and Daksha. In one way we stood out like like NRI freshies, as the behavioural tendencies are so different. Sudha, as usual accentuated her behaviour. However, the common Lohana nuances were self evident, as Kavita later remarked ‘ they are so natural’.
There was a sing-song, with small family performances, and a lot of fun, dance and garba ending with an adapted version of ‘ we will, we will rock you!
I came satisfied that the family is well established, that Deepali and Parag are happily married, Vishal in his element, and Jitubhai and Daxabhabhi content, and the last boy Sundip running jitubhai’s business. Daxabhahi’s side has a lot of well educated kids doing journalism, media, accountancy, etc. And they are all doing well.
After a bite to eat the Pau bhaji (again), we made our way back with Laxman patel late again. It takes an hour at least from Kandiwelli! and we raced though mahim, Andheri, and the taxi driver tried to convince me that traffic lights do not apply after 11pm. I had a prolonged banter trying to keep him awake by saying that originally he was a singo, like we were and he not a patlo. And that during the partition, we escaped as did all the Gujrati’s who do not like to fight.
Bed at 1am.