Outing # 2 Starbucks and Bollywood....

Starbucks

Ritu at Starbucks

Bina continues to get better and stronger. But, I think, the chemicals in the Chemo drug are accumulating in her body and she is beginning to get ot a point where she cannot tolerates the nausea and discomfort without complaining. Today , for the first time, she told me that she does not feel good and constantly has nausea. Fortunately, she has not thrown up yet but the Chemo is taking it's toll. She is developing some blisters in her mouth and was complaining about nothing tastes good. We try to distract her by little outings. Today, we drove around a little and then went to nearby Starbucks. 

Mumbai being the home of Bollywood, there was some shooting going on ( turned out, it was for a local news station) You can see the model in the background in the picture below.

Art on the wall

Towing service

 Driving around the neighborhood, we saw Picasso and other famous artists on the walls ( instead of graffiti) and a cleaver way of "towing service".  They put a lock on illegally parked cars and the owners have to pay appropriate ticket before they unlock it :)

Havan for Shiva

On the other note, my nephew is going through some health issues and it is making the environment very stressful. The investigations are going on and we are back to the hospitals and MRI's and so on. We are hoping that the results and treatments will be decided soon ( in next few days). In the mean time, they have arranged the pooja and havan for Shiva for last four days.  This involved chanting in sanskrit and basically asking Shiva to bless the family and remove the bad vibrations. I am not a religious person ( probably as atheist as they get) but i also know that doing something like this fills the house with wonderful smells and sounds and diverts the mind from dwelling on negative thoughts. The fire probably was used to sanitize the little homes in ancient times and the act of gathering things for pooja and then chanting keeps mind and body busy. Positive energy and vibrations help in coping with what is and accepting it...May be having faith on something, makes the unknowable and ever changing universe little more friendly place. Sanskrit chants are very soothing ..