This is a random scattering of observations, not an exhaustive recipie:
- Force-feed him weird smelly red paste with rice. If he makes faces at the gross stuff, force-feed him all the more quickly.
- Act like nothing’s wrong when, while sitting not a foot from his parents’ faces, screaming out Mummy!!! Daddy!!! at the top of his lungs.
- When you feed him water, make sure to jam the bottle into his mouth qucikly, before he’s had a chance to breathe following his last gulp. Do this at least fifteen times in a row.
- Reserve the right to smack him until he does something really distracting to everyone in the train car, namely, until he touches daddy’s glass of chai.
- Take him to the potty for help… at age ten. (Or is that not weird?)/li>
I finally did make friends with the kid, and we exchanged biscuits, which was quite an experience. The one he gave me was a mutant oreo-styled thing, with green paste-cream in the middle. The green stuff tasted like something of a cross between some greenish cleaning fluid, and mint mouthwash. But I ate it politely, anyway.
Got to Ritu and John’s house by 11:00-ish, and was still quite ill then… reamined so until after noon today, and I’d say I’m not so much “better” now as much as it’s just a case of “things being under control”. Ritu and I spent a lot of the day talking about some of her writing, and I discovered that packing is gonna be hellish for me.
Tomorrow we’ll go to the book fair and I’ll probably alos dash off for a bit to buy my tanpura. Then a few errands on Tuesday morning, and I’ll need to be at the airport by mid-afternoon. I’ll be in Korea in a couple of nights, and it doesn’t quite feel real yet. It’ll be busy couple of days, I think, so for now I’ll just apologize in advance if I don’t get a chance to call or email. I will catch up once in Korea as long as I am indeed better from this bout of being sick.