Roshini & Kuru's travelogue: Summer in Sophieland

This summer, Roshini and I were tourists in an all-new, never-discovered-before place called Sophieland. Here’s what happened.

Nine years after Jess and Ishaaq got married and eight years after Elishba and Joe, Roshini and I have finally become grandparents. The Lord has blessed us and vindicated us. His grace has sustained and enriched us.

The last bit of waiting was followed by Ishaaq turning surgeon.

At last, the family is complete…for the time being.

Grandma Pam, Grandpa David, Uncle Jacob, the chosen godparents Anand, Ru and Rebecca all have a turn at carrying baby Priya Kate Chandy.

Roshini and I wanted to go to Melbourne to see our first grandchild, but Jess and Ishaaq urged us to go to Sheffield to be with Elishba and Joe, as they have no family support there. They promised to bring Priya over at Christmastime. Meanwhile, we’ve left it to Grandma Pam, Grandpa David, Uncle Jacob and godparents Anand, Ru and Rebecca, along with little Anika to spoil her for us.

Elishba’s baby was due on May 9th, but we got tickets for the 12th as Elishba said that she would need all the help after the baby arrives, whereas at delivery time she would be attended by midwives. The ninth came and went. We were taking the train on the 11th night, and right up to then there were no signs of the baby getting out. Folks here said that the baby was waiting for the grandparents and wasn’t going to make an appearance until we got there.

We were pleasantly surprised to see Martha and her girls Sandy and Sneha at the station to see us off. Sneha brought chocolates for her Kuru-uncle, but failed to tell her Roshini-auntie not to take any of it.

I had asked my friend Lisa Shah, who is in the travel and tourism industry, to make a room reservation for us in a hotel that has clean bed linen, a clean attached bathroom, good food and decent room service, and Wi-fi connectivity to the Internet. Zafar jumped right in, and teasingly wrote that they have clean bed-linen, good food, and Wi-Fi connectivity and we could stay with them, and they would have their car and driver available for our station pickup and airport drop.

We were taken to our friend Lisa’s mother Averil Haider Ali’s place. (Averil is a friend too, in her own right). Lisa stopped by en route to her office, and in the evening, after finishing work, Lisa picked us up and took us to her home in Gurgaon. We had a lovely evening with her, Zafar, Michelle (seated on the sofa arm, right next to Roshini) and Serena.

The Shah of Gurgaon was right on all counts about their home, but he never told me what the best part is. Because they are several floors below the overhead water tanks, the shower has a very powerful stream of water. Nothing like that high-pressure water-massage for someone with a bad back.

At Delhi airport Airtel provides free Wi-Fi connectivity to everyone. The only problem is that if one doesn’t have a mobile phone, he can’t get the code that will help him connect to the Internet. Luckily for me, Roshini was carrying hers and I was able to get the code.

We arrived on the 13th evening. The baby hadn’t arrived while we were in the air. I was glad that we had got there in time to see my “Olibabare” looking great—with child.

The day after we got there, Elishba’s water bag broke. Elishba and Joe had opted for a home delivery. The midwife arrived to take charge and after some time she called for the second one to come in to help Elishba was in labour from Friday morning to Sunday morning, at which point the midwives decided to move her to the hospital. Within moments the ambulance was there to take Elisha to the hospital. (From the time labour had started, I had not seen my baby girl and before I could see her or put my hand on her head to bless her, she was whisked away).

The next few hours were spent in some anxiety, until Joe called from the hospital that Sophie Elizabeth Chacko had arrived.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the hospital. Seeing my baby girl looking “terrible” (weak, exhausted) and as she described

her helplessness when she was brought out of the labour room, I was overwhelmed with emotion and cried. So there I was, being comforted instead of being a comfort.

While Elishba and Sophie were in hospital, Elishba’s university friends Fareeba, Anit, Dejanira and Sabreen dropped in to see mother and baby.

Joe was the only one allowed to stay with Elishba and baby during the non-visiting hours—except during the night. I think the Indian system is better, because hospitals issue a pass for one person to go in and out, so that when one needs to be relieved, the attendant gives the pass to another so that the patient always has an attendant to help in all sorts of ways. When Joe needed to catch up on sleep or attend to other errands and stuff, Roshini could have been with Elishba, but that wasn’t allowed according to Brit rules. Anyway, Joe was there most of the time.

Roshini was there during visiting hours, and so was I,

except for one day when I was slightly indisposed.

Right from the start Sophie seemed to be observant and expressive.

Elishba and Sophie came home on twentieth and that was when we discovered Sophieland and remained sightseeing tourists in this one place for the rest of our summer.

After they came home, Sophie had a number of visitors from Christ Church Central, the church that Elishba and Joe are members of: first was Louise, who works in the church office, and is also one of those who lead in the singing at services.

Fi and Chris Brondson were next. (Chris is a doc. Chris, Fiona and their son Sam live in the neighbourhood). Fi and Chris were chosen to be Sophie’s godparents.

Emma and her baby boy Josh spent a long time with Elishba and Sophie. Emma is kind of special, as she was the first one to welcome us to Christ Church last year when we visited Sheffield last year. Elishba and she have bonded well, as have a few other young mothers. Emma was chosen to be another godmother.

Sarah was another young mother who connected well with Elishba. Sarah is married to Jimmy Ddamba who is from South Africa. Their little boy Luke is a few months older than Sophie.

The man in the middle is Pastor Tim who came to discuss the christening, which was later held on Sunday, June 13th.

The first home that Sophie visited was that of Sarah and John. Sarah is from Pakistan. Sarah was our first encounter with a Pakistani. Very friendly girl. She liked Roshini

and me from the start. Later on, one Saturday morning, she took the trouble of taking us out to see what a “car boot sale” is like.

As they did last year, my cousin George Matthan and his wife Remani came from Lancashire to see us all.

One of the things that we enjoyed a lot was having Jess and Ishaaq and Priya visit all of us while we were there:

On the thirteenth of June, we were invited to lunch by the Brondsons, who, along with Emma, were to be Sophie’s godparents. The Brondsons invited Emma and her husband Dave and Josh too. Presumably Sophie was the chief guest, but she and Josh, the one guest she could relate to, never got to even taste all the good stuff that Fi had cooked up. The dessert was tops. I’ve never been able to figure out why people don’t start by serving all the sweet stuff and leave the vegetables for the last—if they want to. Woe is me! Even Roshini doesn’t follow my suggestion on this.

That afternoon Sophie was christened: http://picasaweb.google.com/kuruvilla.chandy/SophieSChristening?

authkey=Gv1sRgCLedwo6_5L-JVA#

Fareeba, Sabreen and Dejanira who visited at the hospital came visiting to the house. Amir, another student, came home to see the baby.

One afternoon we visited two little villages. One was the little village of Eyam, which has a claim to fame for having quarantined itself during the Plague to prevent other villages catching it.