An Expat In India

My Shortest Post Yet: What am I talking about, you ask? None other than the Trump dominion over the entire world... truly the stuff of nightmares! So here I am, literally on the other side of the world, thousands of miles away from the good ol' U.S. of A.... I spotted both of these signs on my very own street in Koregaon Park of Pune...the main road.  The first,  I spotted going right....and the second, when I turned left!  Both within about 10 minutes of my new digs.  Beyond belief!!! Now, this one is surreal...was the misspelling intentional? And if not...really?!?!  How could anyone mistake the spelling of this infamous American president?! And....is this where Trump comes to get his toupee fluffed up before paying his visits to Prime Minister Modi?!

I initially spent two weeks in Pune in the Bhosale Nagar area; home of the main Pune Ananda Center. It is a lovely--rather upscale--part of the city, primarily residential and peaceful.  However, I found that the peacefulness was often disrupted by the "gangs" of dogs strutting their stuff and barking furiously at every passing motorbike. Oh, and there was also a domestic dog in an apartment directly across from my room in the Ornate Villa guest house that barked at all hours as well, driving me bonkers! That, and the fact that the guest house was overpriced for what it was, and so often dirty, led me to find new digs in another nice part of town. That will be explained in the next blog post. So, here you will have a little pictorial presentation of my time in Bhosale Nagar, at the Ornate (a misnomer if ever there was one!) Villa guest house: Not too bad on the outside, when you first see the sign from the street...so one has cautiously high expectations... ...

A pictorial essay of what you can--and SHOULD!!--try at home! Chin puppet! have a conversation with your own chin! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Hide-n-seek! shhhh...don't tell that I am here in the closet! Never beats scritching the little local pooch... this street dog was in heaven, as was I! Be careful about the furniture... but you can create your own makeshift "raquetball" against a wall of your room! Clear and clean wall to bounce the ball off of... good for hours of fun! Nothing like a "spit-shined" tile floor, wiped 50 times at least, to enable you to see your reflection! Truly one of my faves: catch a moving fan blade with an article of clothing! Exercise extreme patience with this one... but rest assured, glory awaits! "On-the-bed" aerobics: done most comfortably and hygienically in bare feet! Earplug sculptures (does require a sizeable container of earplugs, which happily I...

My lovely mouth, as it appears to Dr. Darshan, who now knows it extremely well after 7 hours' worth of digging, poking, prodding and cleaning.....and more is yet to come! OK, picture this: I am in a dental office office chair, humming along while Dr. Darshan sings along to Neil Diamond, playing in the Apple app on his phone. I would be singing too, but that is a little impossible while he is poking, drilling and so forth, inside of my open mouth. But humming works! We sync pretty well, in fact! My foot keeps the beat, back and forth like a metronome. Periodically, Neil is drowned out by the noisy, whirring sounds of dental machinery. So, there might be a little pause in our joint accompaniment. But then we hear, "Sweeeet Caroline.....dah dah dah...." and we both join in once more. Ahhh, yes. Apart from the strange juxtaposition of a folksy American icon being played in an Indian dental office, this picture could be seen as somewhat normal. Of course everyone is ...

Yours truly, in the latest COVID fashion! I must say, I remind myself of one of the spies in the "I SPY" cartoon from the old Mad Magazines! At least I think that was what it was called... Either that, or I am preparing for a stylish sort of bank robbery!!!! Root canal, how fun!  Yes, friends...this is the unfortunate destiny that caused me to take my departure from the heavenly sanctuary of the ashram, my home for the past 10 weeks.... And so it was that, at 4:45 a.m. yesterday, I said my many sad farewells to dear friends in the ashram, climbed into the taxi and was whisked away into the great unknown. I really was curious to know what the world outside looked like, after being so very sheltered and insulated inside of the ashram. And, management made it quite clear: once anyone departs from the ashram, they are absolutely NOT allowed back in... not at least until COVID 19 is no longer a threat. So...curtains for me and any hope of returning! The 4 hour drive int...