Babu, why does he carry my bags?

8.3.14

6am-Rain and fog begin the day, will it stay, it looks like it ain’t going anywhere.  This is the perfect day to catch up on all the work such as…such as, you’re on vacation.  And I didn’t bring any work with me.  Do you wish you had some work? 

The walls in the rooms have to be painted again.  Water damage cannot be remedied it appears and if the walls aren’t painted it will effect business.  The ordered screens should arrive and be installed in a few days.  I keep my window open all the time, risking large blood sucking insects.  

I know I should purchase plane tickets in advance, ensuring the journey and paying for lower fares, but I’m not doing any of that because I don’t want to go but I don’t want to stay.  Pretty confusing, eh? Join the club and relax.  The rain has stopped but the clouds remain.  Maybe this is a good time to trim the toenails instead of pulling and ripping them out by hand. 

The sun breaks out by mid morning but is shrouded quickly.  The sun is always welcome I do love the rain though.  Maybe a trip to Pokhara with this pc to get the sound working, but I won’t leave it.  I can’t believe I can’t make up my mind about returning to the states. I forgot my drivers license, an unfortunate mistake, it wasn’t planned.  And what will happen next summer?  On the move again, we’re trying, I’m tellin ya, to find one place, one job and that ‘s it.  I’m open for suggestions. 

1.05pm

Bright and overcast.  No tourists, all children are in school, Maya cleans rice, Laxman and I discuss the merits of buying an Indian made smart phone.  I inspected Maya’s mobile, all the swiping and tapping and the tiny keyboard thumbs only please, for about sixty bucks.  And I can’t decide.  I have enough money, get one dammit!  You can listen to the greatest hits of Bread anywhere. 

A representative of the Brahmin priestly class paid a visit and we sat and talked for two hours and then it was lunch and taking a nap doesn’t sound bad right now.  The driver wipes down the new car, I give him cigarettes and wonder if I’ll lose my front teeth.

I can’t imagine staying in Dubai for ten days unless there was a great pool to submerge in every morning.  How much are you willing to cough up?  That is scary.  Summer deals should be around, I mean it’s the end of August, the worst time of the year to be there.  High temps high humidity.  What would you do, aside from spending money, aside from staying indoors.  Well, I can stock up on books to read, a new pair of work trousers, I can look again for grapefruit seed extract, maybe even look up a dentist.    

Beem cuts grass below.  Everyone works on this mountain, there’s not a lame hand, good honest work, yes, with sometimes little to show for it.  And that sometimes drives many to Doha and Kuwait where they learn the hard way how insignificant money is valued when you lose everything else. 

A pair of tourists check into room 2, their boots sit outside.  It was almost a week of no business after a week of steady business.  Any business at all during the rains is a surprise, and welcomed I think, even business owners want a break though they know it’s not the most affordable way to live. 

5.16pm

A thick white cloud comes out of Pame and wraps the mountain’s waist and is slowly engulfing as it rises but it rises no further.

I know I can stay here until it is time to go, the advantages are plentiful, the disadvantages are unknown, played out in my head and never coming to truth.  And the worm fungi medicine is a ruse dating as far back as the Chinese.

I definitely need the sound on this computer fixed.  The states.  It’s all about next year?  Sure, if resigning after the next year is a certainty well, here comes mister Ram with a bowl of egg noodles, warmly accepted and thanks to the kitchen!  Fog has engulfed the mountain top.  Yes, after one year will a new job be lined up?  Can’t say yet.  Will you have decided to return to the states with the intention of enrolling in a school to change your career and way of living?  Can’t say yet to that either. 

It feels like I am waiting for something but I don’t know what that is.  Be engaged in something and the waiting disappears.  For four years I was actively engaged, anticipating, there was no waiting, there was too much to think about.  Now, what is there to think about?  Ok, the Middle East problem.  I’ve read some stuff on what’s going on.  Historical information, duly noted, quite relevant. 

One interest in a website mentions the problems beginning from Ismael and present day Palestinians don’t believe God gave the Israelis the land.  But everyone else does, mister Abbas even the Hindus believe this, your fight is illogical.  Recognize their sovereignty anyway you want and yours will come, it’s a promise from the world and it’s a promise from the Book.  Really. 

 

Ishmael, I haven’t gone near this dude because I don’t know how the narrative can be so different.  How to explain what the Book says is Isaac and later, thousands of years later, is someone else in another book?   

A big car pulls up, a Bangladeshi  family of six get out and head for the steps.  Room six for all?  Ah, no privacy tonight.  Grandmother is pretty slow up the steps.  They’re looking at all the rooms.  The driver unloads five pieces of luggage from the car roof rack.  The men and women argue and all have to see what is available.  Ram carries luggage, they’re in room six.  Hope everything that is here works, one woman is not happy and looks at the other rooms.  Poor room four.  There are no Indian toilets, sorry.  In heavy fog Laxman points out where the mountains would be and where the lake would be. 

The man of the family is a doctor, how else could they travel, perhaps a generalization but one that’s more true than not.  ‘Will I see mountains in the morning’?  You only wish, dude. 

I originally gave Laxu money for a round house, but I knew when I gave it to him it wasn’t going to be for a round house and I was alright with this.  And since then, I have given money simply because I wanted to.  I saw a need and they accepted.  Improvements in the kitchen and the dining room, the upkeep of these necessities and of course the eight rooms.  Screens are being installed.  I suggested painting the rooms, will I offer to pay for the supplies?  What is this business to me?  I suggested it is an investment but I don’t think that is understood since on my part it isn’t my investment as long as I am not a resident of this country.  There is mutual trust and after five years our relationship needs to be defined because life changes.

The historical interpretation of the Bible has to be redefined because life changes.  Ending the war in Palestine is possible and ya can only hope, you can only wonder, if a higher power will inspire. 

The Bangladeshi six are moving all about.  I think it’s time to go up.

9.31pm

Heavy rain comes and stays.  I think it has rained every day I’ve been here.  So what’s wrong with Sri Lanka for ten days?  Well, it’s cool up here and not on the island.  Three years ago the daughter of the Bangladeshis and her husband were here and described the white American who carried up their luggage from the steps below.  Doctor doctor give me the news, I gotta bad case of loving you.