Abundance and blessings
BENGALURU: I keep wondering why people only talk about our good weather. Our infrastructure sucks for sure! Pothole-ridden roads, chaotic traffic, unfinished projects and the abject failure of our public transport system plague our everyday existence. My ‘ever-wise’ Laxmi, our hardworking cook for many years now, is livid about the free transport for women on the buses.
The ‘powers that be’ haven’t thought this through by introducing the frequency or adding more buses. But as a populist move have made travelling on buses gratis. This causes undue hardship on the working women who use the buses as transport to and fro from work. The buses are now ferrying non-working older women from nearby mofussil towns who visit Bangalore and nearby temples thus over-crowding the buses. Laxmi says it takes her 2/3 hours to traverse a distance of 7 kilometres to get home! Talk about a knee-jerk philanthropic gesture! No guesses for who is paying for this.
I have had an eventful week. I ultimately gave in to the nagging of my well-meaning friends to ‘relax’ with a foot massage. Well, the next day I discovered a little red bump on my foot, which was very painful. I skedaddled to my dermatologist Dr Brian Nobby who advised me complete bed-rest! I looked at him askance as I was due to go out for dinner to the JW Marriott for a Hakkasan pop-up. I wasn’t going to miss that for the world! Firstly the GM Gaurav Sinha extracted a solemn promise for my presence (I didn’t need much coaxing as it is one of my favourite restaurants), and secondly I was flying off to Mumbai the next day for my munchkin’s first birthday.
Mumbai was lovely! We landed a day before Alaia’s birthday and only family were present. Of course ex-Bangalore boy, Kunal Chauhan who headed Leela Palace here and now handles the largest JW Marriott there, made sure we had a spectacular time at their special Italian restaurant, Romanos. After a glorious and happy lunch, a late afternoon swim capped the deal. (Alaia is a water baby). My munchkin is a chip of the ‘ol block because after every little cutesy thing she does she beams into a clicking camera!
My short stint in Mumbai was lovely! I managed to catch a dekko of the immersive art experience at the NMACC and was mesmerised at both the centre and the art! All that walking against doctor’s advice had me laid up with excruciating pain the entire week. Not too bad because, the enforced non-activity left me with all the time in the world with the baby. I came home in a wheelchair and went directly to my friend/doctor Dr Sushila Suresh who put me on a massive dose of antibiotics and painkillers. My parameters are haywire and she has sternly admonished me to walk at least 5,000 steps a day, at which I shamelessly retorted, “You will be the first to know at my first 500 steps!”
I returned to love, concern and lots of pampering. The sweetest and most touching surprise was a charcoal drawing of Hampi, which my friend and numero-uno artist Gurudas Shenoy presented me. I was blown away to receive the painting that simply said, ‘For you Rubi’.
Surely I am blessed!