… as seen over the treetops and rooftops from dad’s balcony. Kalyani’s sky is always hazy and cloudy. Makes for some colorful sunsets… although the iPhone pictures don’t come thru as well…

One more time I am excited that I will be able to see my parents back in India. I cannot wait to hear what kind of complaints my mom will have or what kind of comments my dad will make. I know he has to a lot to say. Last three months he has been trying to talk to me quite a few times during my daily call to mom. But since he is hard of hearing, he cannot understand a word I say on the phone. Every time he would get frustrated and say “Tui aay. Tokhon katha hobey” (You come. We will talk then).

My predictions are that he will claim he has become better and that we do not need any more domestic help or the physiotherapist. He will complain that we are wasting too much money on them. My mom will complain that dad is not listening to her and will try to get off his bed when nobody is around (or sleeping). He has fallen three times already in the last three months trying to do this.

I know my dad is waiting for me to get him the printouts of Natasha’s articles (in those various publications she writes in). He is a big fan of her writing and keeps her articles neatly stacked on one side of his bed. He was upset that in December I had not brought the printouts. (In my defense, on Oct 31, he could not even recognize me; I had nary a clue that in December he would be sitting up and reading newspapers).

In terms of intersection points, this may not be an eventful trip in India. Most of the time I will be with my parents. However, there is another country I am going to visit for a couple of days and while I have some work there, I hope to meet some of my long lost classmates and colleagues.

But before all that excitement ensues, I have three flights (one of them nearly 14 hours 🙁 ), two long layovers and a trip by car to endure. And then 100+ deg F temperatures everywhere!!

That said, I cannot help reflect how lucky I have been that I have the flexibility to go see my and Sharmila’s parents and my siblings every three months!! Most of my friends my age are not even lucky to have all their parents and parents-in-law alive. I just hope they will live long enough and I will have the flexibility to do this as many times as is possible!!

The whole spectrum of blue – from turquoise to ultramarine, the Caribbean waters has it all. The picture quality is terrible – we were about 10,000 feet above ground when the airplane banked to its left to head north and I had a few seconds to pull out the iPhone before the plane straightened out again. The clouds in the sky and the greasy window pane in the plane did not help matters much.

But you can still get a glimpse of what it looks like. That is the Cancun beach in Zona Hotelera. A 8 mile long “C” like island. If you can spot the three red roofs towards the very low end of the “C”, that is where we were staying…

So long, Cancún!

Saw this board in Cancun airport. It was very funny – or should I say “punny”?. Brought Nikita from where she was to show it to her.

Sitting in the plane, I was wondering if there was a myth behind the Conch Republic. Found out there is no myth. Only reality!!

There is a micro nation (mostly the Key West) which is called the Conch Republic. It even has an army and artillery – chiefly water guns and stale Cuban bread!!

I lived in Florida and never knew about this. You can read up about the hilarious history here…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic

I can’t recollect in all my flying years having ever come across a gate number 0 !!!
Have you?