We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming...

I haven't blogged in a few days, partly because things have slowed down and I haven't done much of anything worth writing about. But also, I caught a case of Writer's Block, which tends to happen to me after a few days of writing. I love to write (I originally got into journalism to write) but I can't do it consistently enough to make a career out of it.

Anyway, yesterday was an interesting day. The events led to a lot of retrospective thinking.

At about 9am yesterday, my aunts cell phone rang. It was in her bedroom, but we were in the living room talking, so I ran to get it for her. It was my cousin Samira's best friend. From the moment she answered the phone, my aunt knew something was wrong, so she went into Samira's room and woke her up.

About two minutes later, Samira came out of her room and told us that her best friend's mom had just died. Samira's friend had just left home and was on the train headed for work when she herself got the call that her mom had died. She wasn't sick. So within the time she had left the house and 9am, something had happened to her mom. It's amazing that your life can change that dramatically that quickly.

The original plan was for all of us to go to Samira's friends house, but eventually, I ended up going to Zahir's office, while Samira and my aunt spent the entire day at her friend's house. A big part of me wanted to go because this friend had helped me just this past weekend look for gifts for friends. Even though I don't know her that well, I do know that she's a sweet girl. But I also knew that since I didn't really know the family, it wasn't my place. Samira and my aunt picked me up at 7:30 and that's when they told me that the lady had suffered a stroke and passed away on the way to the hospital.

For those that don't know, my mom suffered a stroke and died in 1996. So this whole situation really got me thinking about how the whole episode unfolded for me, and if it had happened like it happened to Samira's friend, how would I have reacted. Back then, I was unbelievably close with my mom. If she were still alive today, I imagine we'd be just as close. I can't even begin to imagine my reaction if, while on a packed BART train, I got a call from my dad or a friend telling me my mom had collapsed and died just like that. The idea that it could all be over so quickly, to me, defies logic.

Anyway, enough of the depressing rambling. Back to our regularly scheduled programming: Photos!

Today, we went to Bandra to take care of errands so we stopped by the Mount Mary church for a few minutes. Simply beautiful. There are two parts of the church. Across the street from the main building is the statue of Mary. The statue is encased above a small chapel. This first photo is of the chapel and the case containing the statue of Mary.



This is the main building. The front entrance was closed, so I couldn't go in.



While waiting for my family to finish their business, I stopped to admire the palm trees.



Two nights ago, we went to Colaba to do some shopping. We passed by the woman on the way to a shop. On the way back, I stopped for a minute. I had hoped to catch someone giving her some money.



I didn't post anything about our weekend road trip to Lavasa, a hill station 4-5 hours outside of Bombay. I'll keep it brief. It was magnificent. Because it was secluded from the city, there wasn't much smog. I felt like it was a combination of Lake Tahoe and Anderson Lake County Park in Morgan Hill.





Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone enjoys the Super Bowl. It's not on TV here this year (Ten Sports used to broadcast it, as recently as two years ago), so I'm going to have to try to stream it online. Gotta wake up at 5am on Monday here. I'm rooting for the Steelers for two reasons. 1. I grew up hating the Packers, so despite the fact that Aaron Rodgers is their QB, I can't root for them. 2. Despite his numerous stupid personal decisions, I'm a huge Roethlisberger fan. The guy just finds ways to win games.