Friday, February 27

I have come to the German Bakery to have breakfast with Chad and Sally. I pause outside to take a photograph that shows two of the big ships that now sail in and out of the new-last-year Vizhinjam port. One of them looks like a military boat.

The photo also shows the completely featureless and gloomy greyish sky over the blue-grey sea.

Sally wanted to have breakfast because she wanted to return a book she had borrowed: A Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari. His debut novel, it won many prizes in India. It takes place in northern Kerala, where he grew up and still lives.

She would have returned it on Wednesday night at Mary’s birthday party but Olya persuaded her that you had to have an invitation to the party directly from Mary, and she therefore would not get in.

Misinformation, we love it. Especially when it keeps people from donating to the dog rescue operation that Mary and Steve run.