A few days ago, all residents were notified by the Management of Devonshire that we had a case of COVID - 19 in the community.  A resident had tested positive and was quarantined in his/her apartment.  The identity of the resident remains secret.

Two days later, the resident was again tested and the result was negative and hence, the President of our Council advised this development to other members of the Council and our Informal Club (read Think Tank).

This morning, the Executive Director sent an email to the Council President stating that since the first test was positive, they want to play safe and treat the case very cautiously.  The particular resident is being constantly monitored.

For many years, I have been getting a copy of India Abroad which is a weekly publication with a wide circulation in the eastern United States.  This publication was started by Gopal Raju about 50 years ago and later sold to another person.  Last week, I heard that it has been discontinued because of a substantial drop in revenue.  It would appear that many businesses have felt the need to cut costs in the current economic state and one of the casualties is advertising which forms the main source of the newspaper’s revenue. 

I have never subscribed to the newspaper, but was put on a complimentary mailing list by Gopal Raju and thereby, hangs a tale.

Way back in the 1960s, Goyal Raju owned a travel agency and if memory serves me right, the name was Becker Travel.  Becker Travel used to arrange travel to India for small groups of Indians living in the USA and along with a similar consolidator based in Chicago, offered these groups to Air-India at a price that they negotiated with the airline.  Between the two of them, they had a fairly large share of the market and could negotiate prices to their advantage.

When we introduced the $450 fare from New York to Delhi and Bombay in the early 1970s, these groups “disappeared” and individuals started to book directly or through an agent rather than be herded into a group and Becker Travels’ income dropped substantially.  Gopal Raju complained bitterly and took up the issue with politicians in India who raised the matter with our M.D.

I offered to speak with Gopal and accordingly, on one of my visits to NYC had a luncheon meeting with him.  I must have been very convincing because the upshot of the lunch was that we parted as friends; a friendship which lasted many years until his death some time ago.  During this period, he came to my help when Air-India tried to scuttle Panam’s $999 fare to India and I helped him when he wanted my assistance in a dispute he had with Japan Airlines.

Gopal Raju was honored by the city of New York and was given the Ellis Island Award.  I was present on that occasion.

We are eating a lot of soup and salad these days, as these are integral parts of every dinner that Devonshire prepares for us every day.  Yesterday, when I added some pepper to my soup, I was reminded of my twice weekly lunches after a round of golf at Ramsey, my erstwhile Country Club in New Jersey.  

At this time, let me preface my story by stating that when I first started to travel outside India, I found western cuisine very bland and always ended up by adding pepper in fairly substantial quantity to every dish that I ate.  When Manju and I visited Argentina in the mid-1980s, I was very disappointed to see only a salt cellar on each table at a restaurant.  There was no pepper shaker.

Coming back to my Ramsey lunches, each time I had soup, I added pepper and this habit of mine elicited the following remark from one of my golfing partners - Inder likes his soup with his pepper!!

I seem to be reminiscing quite a bit in this Post and if I may be allowed to indulge in this fashion, I would like to write about some of the memories that I will always cherish.

On my first overseas holiday in 1958, I traveled to Switzerland and London.  The lack of foreign exchange was overcome by an introduction to Freddie Mascarenhas, the Asst. Manager, Geneva, by Mr. J.C. Malani, who was Tariffs Manager of AI and my then boss.   Freddie paid his Insurance premiums in Indian Rupees and was quite willing to pay me an equivalent amount in Swiss Francs if I took care of his premiums, which I gladly did.  

Many, many years later, I was able to assist Freddie’s son, Terence when he was trying to start a Travel Agency in New York.  I am happy to state that Terry is now a well established airline Consolidator with offices all along the East Coast.

As it happens many a time, my new friends here in Devonshire ask for my opinion and advice whenever India and things Indian are a topic for discussion.  The subject recently was Kashmir and the Indian Government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution of India.  I was asked if I had traveled to Kashmir and this is what I had to say.

As a child, I visited Kashmir very often.  My family owned property in Srinagar and in addition, a Transport Company owned by the extended Sethi family used to operate a regular bus service between Rawalpindi and Srinagar, which ceased after Partition and later started a similar service between Pathankot and Srinagar.  So there were a number of pieces of property (Commercial and Residential) in and around Srinagar which were owned by the Sethis.

After joining Air-India, I did not travel as often to Kashmir and my last two trips were 

1. To attend the Cargo Agents Convention in Srinagar.  I forget which year it was, but I do remember that the AI team was led by Nari Dastur and hence, it had to be before 1977.

2. To meet Sheik Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of J & K.  We wanted to get permission to lease a plot of land around the Dal Lake to build a Convention Centre - cum - Resort.  Interestingly, the subject of the Sethi family came up during my meeting with the Sheik.  He asked if I was a member of the family living in Srinagar and when I replied in the affirmative, he told his Assistants (who were at the meeting) something like “He is family - give him what he wants”.

Obviously, he had made up his mind to accede to our request, but decided to put a personal touch to it. 

Life under the Stay at Home orders at Devonshire is getting tedious and many of us are tired of eating the meals served to us.  We no longer have the luxury of selecting one of the 5 restaurants with their wide selection of entrees and our Menu is limited to 5 entrees only.  Many a time, there is no item that Manju can eat as she does not eat either red meat or seafood.  

On certain occasions, she orders a vegetarian meal and the Catering Director arranges one.  On other occasion, she cooks a meal at home.  She makes a chicken dish using the Rotisserie chicken which is a standard item on the menu.  So, we have had chicken chaat and chicken curry a couple of times in the recent past.  Tomorrow, she plans to make Sooka Murg and complete the meal with a daal and grill some vegetables which are usually served with the main course.

It is anyone’s guess when life will be back to near normal, but we seem to be quite resigned to accepting a fairly long “lock down”.

Farewell until next time, when I shall take us back on Memory Lane.

I ended my last Post with a hope that next time, I will have only pleasant things to speak about.

I am glad to say that with the good care that Manju has given me, my health is better and until the latest developments that have taken place, I have resumed my normal activities.  I was playing both Croquet and Golf, but all that has been put on hold once again due to the Coronavirus.

Some of our children visited us in February.  Akhil, our older son came with his younger son while Sarat, our younger son came alone.  We were expecting Akhil to return with his younger son and Sarat with his younger daughter in March, but they had to cancel.  Sarat had also planned to bring his older daughter in April, but all that has gone by the board.

Sarat started visiting us every month since December.  He has clients in Florida and hence, makes it a point to add an extra day or two to his business visits.

Devonshire now has another Indian couple residing in the Community.  Ravi and Neera Seth have moved here and will be the third couple of Indian origin; the other two being Ed & June Macedo and Manju & myself.  Both the Seth’s are retired doctors who lived in Syracuse and also had a place in West Palm.  Manju and I are working to help them settle down.  Ravi has joined my golf group while Neera is now in Manju’s golf group.

There have been few interesting mix-ups since their surname very closely resembles ours.  Their laundry & dry cleaning has been erroneously delivered to us, while our dining slips have got mixed up a few times.

Our “esteemed” President went to India for two days and was invited by the Indian P.M. to speak at a large gathering at the new cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.  He put his foot in his mouth by mis-pronouncing some names and didn’t have the courtesy to apologize.  He made it very clear a long time ago that he has never apologized and never will.  I wonder why he was asked to mention Swami Vivekanand.  It is not an easy name to pronounce by a foreigner.

In any event, the visit seems to have achieved to Indian P.M.’s main purpose.

Air-India continues to be in the forefront of aviation news in India.  I was surprised by the overnight change in the post of CMD but have learnt from more that one source that Mr. Lohani was apparently working behind the scenes to upset the Government’s decision to sell the airline.

With the onset of the Coronavirus, the sale of the airline is likely to be delayed.

A short while ago, I learnt about the passing away of another former Air-India stalwart, Choubi Chellaram, nee Mazumdar.  Choubi was the Counter Supervisor at the New India Assurance Building when I joined Air-India in January 1957.  I spent a full month at the  Ticket Counter before being posted to the Tariffs Division.  She was a very gentle and pleasant person and the mention of her name brought back very pleasant memories.  May God bless her soul.

We now have a major crises with the onset of Coronavirus.  Here in Devonshire, the Management has taken many steps to guard against it, but with the average age of the residents being in the 80 to 100+ range, the relatively lower level of built-in immunity presents a major problem. I recommended that we substitute the handshake by folding hands and say Namaste.  I am glad to state that many members of the staff and also residents have adopted it.

If I may digress, Devonshire has a Stay at Home order and the only time we can leave our apartments is to go for a short walk or an emergency visit to a Doctor.  We must leave by the door leading to our building (Devonshire has 3 buildings in addition to the Clubhouse - all are interconnected) and also return by the same door.

This morning on my return from my walk, I pressed the call button and was greeted by “Good morning, Front Desk, Conchshena speaking”.  I responded “Hey Sheena, you are again on duty after last night” and I was pleasant surprised by her response “Namaste, Mr. Sethi welcome back from your walk and yes, I slept here last night - let me buzz you in”.  I replied “Thanks, little one”.

We have run into a major problem by the lack of hand sanitizers and wipes which have disappeared from the shelves of all supermarkets and even Amazon has no supplies.  The Supermarkets and big box stores such as Costco have run out of all paper products such as Paper towels, toilet paper, Kleenex and paper napkins.  

The Florida Governor issued a “Stay at Home” order which allows people to leave homes for visits to grocery stores, banks, gas stations and other similar purposes.  However, Devonshire has forbidden all residents from going out except in an emergency, such as a visit to a doctor.

Fortunately, we were able to find some supplies by remembering the old adage - the early bird gets the worm.

I got up earlier than usual for many days, opened the website of both Costco and Amazon and managed to find some essential items.

At the same time and completely out of the blue, the daughter of my very old golfing friend Amar Singh from Bombay days (he passed away some years back) sent a text message to Manju indicating that she is sending us a box of wipes and two small bottles of sanitizer.  She works at a major hospital and was able to get some supplies.

Devonshire is providing us with dinner every day.  Obviously, the menu is limited (unlike the regular menus in the 5 different restaurants, when our lives were normal), but the quantities and quality is great.  With our dinner, we get an item for breakfast as well.  Unfortunately, Devonshire’s efforts to help us with our grocery shopping has not been successful, and they are looking for alternatives.

Manju had some frozen Indian food and she supplements that with a little cooking once a week.  She is also planning to cook a whole batch of a daal today. Unfortunately, we may soon run out of essential spices if things don’t get back to normal soon.

I am sure the lives of all our friends and acquaintances have also been upset by the various restrictions and hope that many, if not all, have found some things to keep oneself busy and occupied.  On our part, Manju and I have been watching television shows.  We have just finished Episode 47 of Ramayana - we see one episode each day.  After this, we intend to start with Buddha.  I also work on jigsaw puzzles.

All public libraries are closed and Devonshire even closed its own small library after it was discovered that some residents were not abiding by the social distancing and wearing of masks directives.  It is indeed sad that some residents have flouted all the rules designed to keep us safe and secure.  Some of them were playing cards in the public areas and having drinks and snacks.  Some even invited other residents to bring their dinner and have pot luck in individual apartments.

I am now reading books on my iPad but it just doesn’t feel the same.  I like to hold a book in my hands.

Time to close and say goodbye for now.  With every good wish to all to stay well, safe  and secure.