This time it's Morrises and Whittinghams back in KVK

 Pam and Brian either doing yoga practice or lying down for another quick rest...

As the usual multitude of crows fly in for the dusk gathering at 6pm,  half  a dozen stop off to perch on the back of a long-suffering cow in the field behind us.

January 5th 2016 

This year we are Pam and Brian Morris and Sally and Andy Whittingham, back for another January happily spent in the rising heat of Tamil Nadu, S India. Andy and I were here exactly a year ago, but it is four years since Pam and Brian's last visit, so they see some very big changes in the environment. We are now here under the auspices of Friends of Vellore (the Bishopston-Kuppam Link having been subsumed now into this much bigger organisation) and this means that we will be visiting all the FOV projects during our stay, as well as doing some more work with the Patchikili centre.  

We set off from a nasty wet grey Heathrow on January 3rd, flying with Sri Lankan airlines (whom I can thoroughly recommend for politeness, food, service and leg room even in cattle class; not so much for their film selection though I watched two excellent ones, Bridge of Spies and Testament of Youth). We stopped over in Colombo but only briefly and arrived around 9 a.m at Chennai. Flying in we saw much evidence of standing water on the land, though the urban flooding which happened just before Christmas is now quite gone. It had some awful consequences, but has also meant that Vellore, our nearest town, now has sufficient water after many years of drought. Many farmers have planted for the first time in years. We were through security/ immigration etc in less than an hour and met by a RUHSA driver, Veejay, which made us a little dismayed as we had memories of near-death experiences back in 2010 when he fell asleep several times at the wheel and did a lot of  terrifying weaving in and out of lorries. We each of us resolved to stay awake to ensure he did too, but alas we failed to do this. However,  you may deduce from this blog that we survived the race down the new motorway!. It took us over an hour to get out of Chennai itself and Pam and Brian were astonished at the enormous increase in car ownership since they were last here. This has taken off with the rise of income of the middle classes, but of course, as with so  much else in India this has happened without the necessary infrastructure, so there just are not sufficient roads and those they have are badly maintained. 

On arrival at RUHSA we were shown to our small flat, the same one which we used last year, and after unpacking we took to our beds to catch up on some of our lost night's sleep. Later we surfaced enough to apply anti-mozzie cream and go to the canteen. More delight from the Morrises at the transformations here, which mean that one can trust it for eating simply and well. Their only memory is of eating there on day one of their first visit, in 2002/2003, and of Emily Georgiou ( ex Bishopston young woman, volunteering at the school at that time) finding a nasty creature in her food. They had never  since returned, unsurprisingly.  

After supper we all strove hard to stay awake as long as possible before retiring for  more sleep, but none of us made it beyond 9. This morning, Tuesday 5th January, dawned with the usual tinny recorded music, birds in the field behind us,  coucal, drongo, green parrots so far, for the bird-watchers amongst you)  and accounts from Brian and Andy of how many trains they had counted in the night. Today has been a great success in that we have wifi passwords, a cable internet connection in our room, and three bikes between us. We have also met up with so many old friends. They are all very conscious that the 'protocol' (Dr Rita's term) requires that she meet with us first, so I had  a few shifty words with one or two before they stopped suddenly and walked away, having caught sight of Dr Rita approaching. It may be an Indian thing; or at least, it is a Dr Rita thing!   

We saw Sekar (much slimmer, which suits him very well), Joseph, Matthew, Sanjeevi the accountant, Vartsala the long-suffering and very humerous secretary, and quite by chance and to our great delight we saw Balaji who had brought his wife Pria to  outpatients'. Anxiously we enquired after her health, yes fine, we are fine, no problem. Pam and I waited whilst our unspoken question hung in the air. Finally Balaji put us out of our misery and told us the wonderful news that Pria is five months pregnant. Cue small weeping from me, followed by laughing at my silliness; but it is such good news after the miscarriage of last year which caused such sadness in the family. 

We then had a chance to meet with Rita over coffee (they have forgotten, of course, since our last visit, that we have 'sacray ille' ie no sugar, for in India the norm is to sugar coffee and it will be boiled in the milk.) All went very well, we remarked upon the incredible progress that has been made with the construction of the new Out- patients' building since the very rudimentary foundation digging which we photographed last year. Rita is on leave from tomorrow as it is her grandson's birthday on the 7th and she is travelling to join family in Kerala. Tomorrow, always supposing that the RUHSA system produces a fourth bike for Brian, we shall venture forth to the Patchikili, as we imagine they will have been half expecting us since yesterday.

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Andy gets stuck in (using right hand only) to the third meal of the day, all of them a variation on curry and rice plus or minus a chappati or dosi. This evening the curry was brinjal (aubergine) with tomato rice and was deliciious and entirely free of creatures...