Aftershocks

The autodriver gave me the first big shock, post-vacation. He has jacked up the fare by another Rs.10 because petrol prices are going up tonight.
The weather continues to be as bad as it was when I left hot and sweaty. Chennai reportedly got a couple of rains while I was away.
As for Kerala, thundershowers continue. I did not get to see the southwest monsoons though it was expected to set in by Thursday.
The kids enjoyed watching the rains and playing in the puddles in our frontyard. Ash, the nature-lover, accompanied me on one of my morning walks in the fields and was enraptured by the butterflies and cranes and cows grazing. But then he began to insist on going there so often that I had to dissuade him with tales of snakes in there. And I wasnt lying when I said that. Our manservant's son was bitten by a watersnake which luckily wasnt too poisonous. The fields and the backyards have been left uncultivated and untended. Daily labourers are an expensive proposition in Kerala. The only person I saw working in the fields was a retired schoolteacher who has always beleived in doing his own field chores.

Bidding goodbye to Chandanapally and home was a doubly sad affair this time as I was leaving Ash behind. Everyone wanted that, and we parents thought it was best too, as he is on Ayurvedic treatment now and needs better monitoring and care than we can afford here. I have been making frequent calls ever since but Ash doesnt seem to be missing us at all. But Mira is beginning to miss her brother, now that she is alone with the maid in our little flat.