Wednesday, March 20

Thiruvallam, 12:40
After an early breakfast, in which I ate nothing, we met Paul at SISP, a mere twenty four hours late. I learned immediately that the cat I had assumed had the name Ginger actually gets called Princess.
We had a two hour meeting in which a lot of ground got covered. Irma presented a series of ideas and suggestions for various possible projects and Paul modified them based on his experience. I added some points towards the end, and by the time we finished everybody had the same plan in mind.
We left feeling pleased and excited.
I have an interestingly upset stomach courtesy of too much Indian beer that I drank yesterday evening while feeling “on holiday”. Indian beer has a strange metallic aftertaste, and too much of it causes stomach disruption well before it causes drunkeness.
I know: I have that stomach!
When we leave Irma suggests that we go and get some Sri Sri face wash, and I agree. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has an interesting approach to the job of guru. Not only has he entered the fast-moving consumer goods market, he has also embarked successfully on large and long-term international mediation. He brokered a peace deal in Columbo, and he has a new role on a mediation committee set up by the Indian Supreme Court.
Sri Sri makes the face wash for me!
As Irma pays I step out of the shop and look up and down the road in Thiruvallam. I watch old men walking and young men riding motorcycles. I will see a caravan of young women pass on Honda scooters.
We will have an afternoon of mailing and organising. I will deal with Nobanet, the summer course description on ASTA, student theses, meetings for next week, and more.
At 17:30 Tangaraj will drive us to Raahath where I will shock my upset stomach back to normality. I will have malabar fish curry, which has turned into a favourite Kerala dish, and malabar falooda, an ice-cream thingy that has the virtue of making my meal all-malabar. Warning: it contains sweetened string noodles, or possibly spaghetti!
While we eat the staff will fight with a boa constrictor that has arrived outside. The staff will win.
We will go home and watch Arnab Goswami for five minutes and HARDtalk for thirty.
Choice: we love it.