Monday, July 13

We have returned to Helsinki for an event at the Indian Embassy where people will say goodbye to Vani Rao. She has completed her term as ambassador and will return to Delhi to act as co-leader of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The event will not take the form I expected. I thought it would have a small number of guests with little in the way of food and drink. In fact, it has about 150 people, a large buffet, and a full bar. Even better, the buffet includes samosas.

The ambassador makes a speech and I make an attempt to photograph her in the act.

We will spend a couple of hours in the embassy garden while rain starts, stops, starts again, and finally goes away. We talk with a number of interesting people, including Vani herself.