Return to India! (A "deja-vu" of sorts...) The Ashram and Environs, Madh Island, Mumbai

Disconcertingly reminiscent of when I attempted--unsuccessfully--to return to India last December, I was met with yet new trials this time. Whereas the last time I was denied my flight back to India owing to the Indian government arbitrarily revoking all visas issued prior to the pandemic (mine being a 10 year visa issued in 2019), this time I was horrified by the very real possibility that I might not get my PCR test results back in time to make this new, long-awaited flight back. Not MY fault: the incompetent P.A. in Sacramento had ordered the wrong test! By the time I got the situation rectified, my new testing time was hours later on Friday...my flight was going out on Sunday, October 23rd. The technician who did the test (or whom, more accurately, had ME do the test on MYSELF, inserting my own swab up my nasal passages), was adamant that the results would not reach me for 48 hours. "But", I objected, "that won't give me enough time to submit them prior to boarding my flight!" "48 hours", was her curt reply, clearly devoid of any concern or compassion for my plight. I just had to let it go... truly, the situation was out of my hands.

Anxiety-riddled and unable to sleep, I decided--at 11:30 Saturday eve-- to once again check my email, on the off chance that the results MAY have actually showed up sooner. Miracle of miracles! Results were in--negative, of course-- and I heaved a tremendous sigh of relief as I inputed the PDF doc into two forms required by the KLM airlines and Indian government. At last! Dropped off into an exhausted slumber.

Not finished with trials yet, though! My mother, who had promised to drive me to the train that would whisk me away to LAX, declared in the morning that she wasn't feeling well and couldn't take me. I panicked: Uber drivers and myriad others got utterly lost in her senior community... I simply couldn't chance missing that train! But-- I had no choice--and the Uber driver was called. Of COURSE he got lost! By the time he dropped me off at the Irvine train station, I had to quite literally make a run for it--up three flights of stairs and down again, to the other side of the tracks-- just barely jumping onto the train before its departure. My poor heart!!!

Once at the airport, things got better: all was in order at the check-in counter, and I had plenty of time to kill. I was even able to take a very leisurely stroll down the exceedingly long corridor to my gate. Once there, I relaxed and ate my Mexican dinner left-overs (from a restaurant the night before) prior to boarding my plane.

However, all was not quite hunky dory: the airline--for no explicable reason--forced a mandatory seat change upon me, and I wound up in a row of seats that backed up against the center of the plane's bathrooms. What ensued were10 of the most uncomfortable and excruciating hours I have ever spent on an airplane! Because of being up against the bathroom walls, the seats could not recline. Also, owing to a full-to-capacity flight, the two bathrooms were constantly in use. The loud suctioning sound of each toilet flush literally occurred every 2 minutes! Not able to sleep or relax, I amused myself by calculating that, by the end of the flight, I would have heard that horrific toilet flush approximately 300 times!!! (Not to mention, the thwacking sound of the two bathroom doors being opened and closed an equal number of times.) Indeed, it was a nightmare. I couldn't have been more grateful when the plane finally touched down in Amsterdam.

After a 5 hour, fog-brained, sleep-deprived layover, I boarded the second flight, this one being the final leg to Mumbai. The cheerful staff--bedecked in beautiful sarees to honor the important Indian holiday of Diwali--greeted the passengers with Diwali cards and candy. It was "sweet" in every sense, to be sure! (KLM flight attendants, by the way, are the nicest and best of ANY airline I have EVER flown! And I have been on many flights/airlines over the course of many decades!)

Once settled into my window seat--thankfully AWAY from bathrooms this time-- I was joined by a couple who crowded in next to me, wife in the middle seat hunching over me in order to admire the airborne view out the window. Seriously?!? Now THIS?? However, my luck finally improved: one of the amazing KLM flight attendants--observant and compassionate--kindly offered to change my seat to one where I would have more space. I was thoroughly bowled over with gratitude! Though the seat she took me to was on the isle, it was at least closer to the front and the middle seat was empty. There was only one very quiet, reserved gentleman in the window seat, and he was quite tolerant of my spread of "stuff", tending to overflow into the vacant, middle seat.

When the lights were dimmed, he suggested that I relocate into the empty-but-forbidden "comfort-economy" seats directly in front of ours. These were more costly, of course, but by then the staff were relaxing in their nook at the back of the plane, and most everyone else was either watching movies or sleeping. Grateful, I followed his suggestion, strectching out luxuriously across three seats. Only then did I actually sleep! What an incredible blessing... even if way too short.

Finally--after no less than 30 actual travel hours---we arrived in Mumbai! It was then 5 a.m on Tuesday morning, October 25th. It took forever for all of us passengers to crawl our way through the miles-long customs line (longer for me, because I had to repeatedly place my fingers on the fingerprinting screen--nothing registering-- I must be a ghost!) and collect baggage.

My taxi driver, commissioned by the Ananda ashram, gently complained that he had been waiting for me a good 90 minutes by the time I actually made it out to curbside. I could not feel even remotely bad for him, as surely experience should have indicated that international arrivals always entailed a good hour--or more--following the landing time, for custom clearance and baggage claim.

As we traveled the mostly empty, early morning roads to Madh Island, I admired all the Diwali lights, much like Xmas lights in the U.S., dripping from office and apartment highrises all along the way. It was a sweet and cheery welcome, indeed!

Arriving at the ashram itself (7 a.m.) was an even greater welcome--- lovely, peaceful, gorgeous... The resident staff person, Meetha, kindly took me in and up to my lovely room. Though jet-lagged and pretty out of it, I could not fail to appreciate my good fortune: having this wonderful abode as my first "home" in India, even if for only 5 nights.

Here, you can see what my room looked like, as well as the view out onto the balcony:

Because of the nearness of the ocean and its subsequent breezes, the skies were filled with many circling hawks. I was delighted to see this one alight on the satellite dish just outside my window!

However, not all was as perfect as it initially seemed: for one thing, I arrived at the tail end of Diwali, as mentioned above. It seems that many Indians, like Mexicans, like to celebrate holidays by making as much noise as they possibly can! Specifically, they like to shoot off fire crackers and fire rockets at all hours, including well into the night. The only way I could sleep the first two nights was to put my earphones OVER my earPLUGS and play white noise through them, volume up all the way! Most unpleasant, to be sure... and not helpful in my jet-lagged state, as my ability to sleep through a normal night was already greatly impaired!

Then, not far away on the local beach, fishermen hauled in their daily catches and dried them in the sun. The sea breezes blew the reek of the drying fish (akin to a rotting smell!) inland, filling up the inside of the ashram--and all its rooms--with this seriously dreadful stench! Each morning (of the five I was there), I rushed to close my windows and door in order to keep it out of my room. Oddly enough, the main ASHRAM doors were kept wide open throughout the day, so the rest of this lovely abode filled up with the objectionable smell. The others in residence--along with the people working there--seemed impervious to it. Truly, an unfathomable wonder..one of many about India and its people!

On the plus side, the "society" in which the ashram is located has a clubhouse available to all of the local residents. In this clubhouse is a positively divine swimming pool! I went swimming--twice!--for a mere 150 rupees fee...slightly less than $2.00. A steal of a deal! Somehow, there in the blue waters doing my laps, I didn't notice the fish smell at all...only the heavenly sensation of sliding through the water, while hawks glided through the air above me.

Photos of the clubhouse and pool: