Thursday, January 16

We decided to make our annual visit to Varkala, and then decided to take Shanti with us. Sanu likes her and she seems to like Sanu and his car.

She sits in the back and falls asleep for almost all the journey.

When we get there the sun beats down, much hotter and more relentless than I had expected. We walk along the north cliff and I look down at the beach below, filling up with tiny dots representing tourists.

Shanti behaves perfectly, even when we stop for lunch where I have a salad nicoise that contains a mound of perfectly grilled and shredded tuna. Other people react to her in several ways. Some scream and jump back and some don’t.