Last leg - Bombay.

Okay, this is the last bit of our India trip. By now, I was looking forward to getting back home to a schedule and to disciplining my son. I didn't particularly want to punish him for anything, but by this point, he'd developed certain behaviors that just needed to go. Primarily, he screamed at the drop of a hat, and sometimes for no reason at all. He'd just stand in the middle of a room and let loose, probably to get attention. His sleeping was also all screwy again and he'd beat things with sticks at the drop of a hat and no one would gainsay him, so some of those things included glass doors, windows, china, etc. Fortunately, he only managed to break one thing.

Anyway, getting to Bombay was very welcome - we were there for six days and spent most of our time lounging about my father-in-law's flat and visiting friends and family or taking visitors. The best part of our visit was meeting my husband's best friend from high school. He has a very similar sense of humor to my husband's. I loved it.

We also met his wife, a very nice lady, and my husband's best friend's mom and dad, who live in their flat. Additionally, we met the best friend's kid. If you want the perfect example of an Indian child in my husband's family's circles this is it. The kid is brilliant and ridiculously indulged. He speaks three languages, two of them fluently, and is working to pick up a fourth. He's given more or less everything he wants and is literally hand fed by his mom at every meal. There's usually a special, multi-dish meal made just for him before the adults, then the adults eat a different, equally elaborate meal (granted, adult food and kid food is pretty different - kids' food is less spicy, though there are still lost more chilies than Ragsy's used to). Anyway, this child is three and a half years old and makes me and most linguists I know look like yokels.

We also saw a lot of my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, which was actually really refreshing. The brother-in-law I met when he was living in the US was kind of a jerk who painted everyone he met with a broad brush and did it straight to their faces. This guy has matured considerably and has learned a lot of diplomacy and far more tact. Plus, three years after dropping out of college, he has his first paying job and is actually doing quite well as an ecological consultant. His girlfriend was wonderful - very intelligent, very nice. And very different from all the other Indian women I'd met thus far. She was a lot more opinionated and direct and participated a lot in the conversation even in mixed company.

Not that Indian women are demurring nimrods - every single woman I met was really well spoken and very smart, especially my husband's grandmother, who never went past the fifth grade in school because she was being groomed for marriage. But most of the women I met don't speak up much in male company and are very rarely contradictory.

Let's see here - we met a lot of interesting people throughout. Quite a few characters. My father-in-law's girlfriend was there to meet us at the airport and took us to meet her son after we'd had a nap on landing. Her son is in Bollywood and is currently shooting two films. His girlfriend I think is an artist and teacher. Regardless, both are insanely beautiful people, though not plasticky looking like Hollywood types.

The last two or three days in Bombay were mostly spent shopping during the daylight hours and visiting friends at night. We shopped a heck of a lot and still having a dining table full of stuff that we have yet to dole out to friends and family or start using ourselves.

Anyway, like I said, we didn't do a whole lot except for meet some really cool people and hang out a lot. But it, along with Rajkot, were probably some of the best parts of the trip, not because we don't like to see things, but because Ragsy was relaxed. And when Ragsy's relaxed, everyone's happy. I think he spent at least a third of his time playing in bowls of water dressed in nothing but his diaper on various people's terraces.

Still, I was pretty happy when the day came for us to get home. My husband was homesick just being in India and asked me several times if I would be interested in moving there. I told him I'd be willing to talk about a temporary move, but that a longer-term move might be harder. Then we got stuck in traffic one day in Bombay for more than two hours and he decided he didn't even want to move there temporarily, but that we'd visit more often. Which is just fine with me. Especially because the next time we go, Ragsy will be required to have his own seat and will probably be old enough to know to stay in it.

And that, at last, is the end.