From Pop pop

Janice: (Monday, Dec,19, 6 p.m.)
Good to hear that I am valuable (or more correctly, my absence is
missed). The hotel has free internet cable connection in the room and
it works very well. I am glad I brought my laptop. Sara has her
i-phone and uses it for internet and e-mail, but she cannot use it to
make phone calls.
We did not do anything this morning; the kids slept till 9 and we
had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. If you want to see me eat a
huge breakfast, you should come to one of these restaurants. They had
South Indian dishes as well as western dishes (including an omelet
made to order). Our driver showed up around 1:30 (significantly late
to the point of our getting worried) but when I mentioned the
lateness, he said that the Temple doesn't open till 4 p.m. and implied
that there was no need to start too early). He is very nice and we
like him. He is probably 40. He is going to try to get my phone
unlocked and put a simcard in through one of the many phone stores
here. Right now, we don't have access to a cell phone; only e-mail.
We first went to a shrine near here in honor of St. Thomas, who was
one of Jesus's apostles and came to Madras in 53 A.D. and established
the Christian Church. He was killed in 72 A.D. After the shrine
(which is the oldest Christian church in India), we went and had lunch
at Madras Woodlands restaurant (attached to the same hotel where K2
and I stayed in 2008). Excellent food. Then we went to the
Kapaleeswaran Temple and then came back to the hotel around 6.
Everyone is fine and the twins are coping quite well. They are
watching TV now: cartoon shows with Tamil dialog.
I got Venkat's phone number from Jayanthi and talked to him a few
minutes ago. He is coming here to the hotel in another hour.
Jayanthi also told me that Kalyanam had a fall and hurt his shoulder;
so they are still in Madras and going to Trichy on Thursday (instead
of today, Monday). I talked to Kalyanam. He slipped and fell when he
got out of the shower (at Priya's house). There was no fracture but
his shoulder bone got pushed into a portion of his neck. The doctor
suggested that he needs pain killers and physical therapy. He has no
pain and seems fine. We will see him on Thursday. Incidentally, the
people who bought the Woriur house are not razing it down. The guy
told Kalyanam that they are doing some interior renovations and
leaving the outside as it is. This is very heartening news indeed.
We will be seeing that house on Friday.
Feel free to forward this e-mail and future ones to K1 and K2.

Love
ELH