Entering India

Mixed emotions today. Shall be again in the land of my birth, with which I have a love/hate relationship. Love because of the assault on the senses of colour, smells, friendliness, NOISE, music, culture...all at once! Hate because I don't do heat well these days, or high humidity and edespite it's proximity to the sea, even those breezes are hot. It is an overwhelming place to step into from an air conditioned, American ship! But nevertheless that is what we shall all be doing in a couple of hours.

I think always of my parents when I'm here in Madras...my Dad's last posting before he retired to the cold dampness of Scotland. He returned there with such enthusiasm and high hopes only to be laid low with clinical depression from which he suffered on and off until his death in 1966. He took early retirement after being offered the post of Manager of the Cochin branch of Grindlays Bank. When I walked round in Kochi last year I thought how prefererable it would have been as a posting after Chennai...to give them both their post independence names. They never would have believed that their daughter, who had been in a South African boarding school during their 6 pre-retirement years in India, would so many years later return to the country in which they had lived for 24 of my father's working life. They both seem very close...as if they're saying...this is the place where we were, take it in and remember us!

They would also have found it impossible to believe the growth in population, modern buildings, pollution and CARS! Each car hooting continually as it drives along avoiding crashes and sudden death every second. Plus the other amazing fact: that I shall be flying to Sri Lanka to stay with my father's brother's grandchild and great grandchild who have chosen to live there. The Hutchisons are a family hugely addicted to travel and the tropics. Only those who remained in Scotland know where they truly belong. When anyone asks the rest of us the simple question 'Where do you come from?' we sigh and start a long tale which sounds exotic but is the story of our separate lives. My children I know 'belong' in Canada....and I do too these days...I think...do I?...well, maybe!

We shall be gone for almost 6 days so bear with me and I shall try to make up for lost time when we get back on the 15th or 16th at the latest....because that's the day we set sail again....for Malaysia and Penang.