BENGALURU: Last week I wrote about the bad luck that seemed to follow the ‘Ides of March’ without quite realising that some of the misfortune could have rubbed off on me too!
My bff had her young, hot-shot surgeon son slip on a miniscule amount of water and break his right hand. Since he is a paediatric-transplant surgeon, breaking the very hand that sutures tiny organs together is definitely a stroke of ill luck. He lives in the far flung outer arm of our city, next to the fancy hospital he works at, so I immediately asked him to move in with me. I also asked my friend to fly in from Hyderabad so we could look after him after his operation.
The ‘March-madness’ progressed rapidly. My sister, who recently had a pacemaker installed, fell and broke her shin in three places on Commercial Street. The funny thing was that she was flanked by my niece and her friend, had worn sensible walking shoes and was carrying a walking aid when she fell…whew! If she was carrying anymore stuff, she would have needed a private helper! As she realised she had broken her foot, she sat crumpled on the sidewalk and wept tears of frustration as the vendors all brought little religious icons for her to touch for good luck.
She had to be hauled off in a wailing ambulance and when the doctors in Manipal Hospital saw her, they shook their heads in disbelief! “How dare you come back for another operation when the scars of your previous one haven’t healed yet,” quipped one doctor, trying to make light of the situation. I heard my brave-heart sister howl with pain when they manoeuvred her leg to aid circulation, I heard her joke and use her indomitable spirit to raise our spirits and I knew that I was just plain lucky to have her in my life.
Machiavellian March ‘marched’ on as I got the mother of colds and then my son decided he was feeling left out and he too was bed-ridden. Well, sometimes one has to just accept what the universe has in store for you. My sister, now fondly referred to as the Bionic-Woman, could have dislodged the newly-installed electrodes of her pacemaker; she could have broken the already steel-plated right leg (yes! She broke that one too), and both my son and I could have contracted Cardi-V but we didn’t. I think good karma has a lot to do with it!
My dinner companions and I didn’t waste a minute on any good and bad karma talk as we happily feasted on a superb Japanese meal at Edo, ITC Gardenia. Silence only prevailed when Chef Amit Patra explained his work of art to us. A superlative meal with equally good company…what more could one ask for?
To misquote many parables: ‘If I don’t go out looking for food, it comes looking for me!’ I thoroughly enjoyed eating the maverick restaurateur Zorawar Kalra’s latest culinary introduction… gourmet burgers. ‘Louis Burgers’ are large, succulent and super delicious. I could only manage to eat half!
Says a lot of India keeping abreast of global trends and appetites huh?