Wednesday, January 2

Naa went for her treatment this morning and I sat in the garden playing with the dogs, finishing a very interesting and unexpectedly hilarious book by Mark O’Connell about transhumanism called To Be a Machine.

I went into the house to have a shower and Irma celebrated by taking a rickshaw to a plant shop, and returning with four pot plants for the garden.

At 16:10 Tangaraj drove us to see Uday and Lekha, who have invited us for some home cooking.

I photograph Tangaraj’s rickshaw as he leaves Uday and drives up the hill towards the pool where we all met him on New Year’s eve.

Irma asks if we can look at Blue Breeze, where we used to stay with Auo and Naa. We will walk over and look round. Anib’s brother has removed all the furniture and it stands abandoned. We will walk around and all sorts of memories will bubble up in our minds.

I will remember sitting in the garden at dawn writing my thesis with Auo sitting on the swing with her yellow headphones on, coming over every now and then to look at my writing and ask an unpredictable question.

Naa will decide not to come into the house. I will completely understand.

After this we will cheer up and eat jackfruit curry as always, with two sorts of chicken and pappads.

Later we will walk to the beach, along the path we used for five years or so. Inevitably we will notice changes.

Naa and I will sit in Tippy’s, talking with Michael, while Irma has a pedicure from Prasanth at Bliss.

Afterwards we will, of course, meet Tangaraj by the temple. He will, of course, arrive by magic just as we get there.