If we are lucky it comes to us all. Old age. Think for a minute. We all hope to live a long life, therefore we all hope to reach 'old age'. If you do what is going to happen to you? Provided that you are well will you live in your own home, with your children or in a residential home?
If you are lucky enough to have a daughter who works for a travel agent, and whose husband is an overworked doctor, you may even end up living in India. This is the opening for 'These Foolish Things'. Norman has been barred from several local residential homes, mainly due to his overactive libido. When he moves in with his daughter, Pauline, and her harried husband, Dr. Ravi Kapoor, things start to go downhill in the marriage. When Norman sets fire to the kitchen, having left his hankies boiling whilst he went for a girlie magazine, Ravi turns to his wife and asks if they can't send him away somewhere. Preferably somewhere far away.
Little does he anticipate that his cousin, Sonny, may have the answer. Sonny is an entrepeneur with many properties in Bangalore, the up and coming silicon valley in India. He sees potential for a string of residentail homes. The weather is good, the people are friendly, the cost of living is low so pensions will go further. What could go wrong? He flies out to India and visits Dunroamin, a run down hotel opposite one of his buildings in Bangalore. The hotel is a relic from the days of the Raj and is now almost empty, only having the occasional guest.Sonny persuades the owner, Minoo, that running the hotel as a residential home is the perfect way to revive his flagging fortunes. He counters Minoo's concerns as they are raised. If a resident is taken ill Sonny will arrange to move them to the local hospital. They will not need much care. They will love the olde worlde atmosphere. They come from a time of servitude and imperial splendour. They won't want extravagant meals or in-house entertainment. Sonny knows a local doctor whom they can employ as their medical consultant. He works in the local VD clinic, but he is still a doctor. Minoo's wife is a nurse, of sorts. She was an assistant chiropodist but, a nurse is a nurse.
Thus Sonny and Ravi form Ravison Retirement Homes. Pauline arranges the travel details and Sonny arranges the avertising in the press and on the internet. Within a couple of months of the original idea they are ready to take bookings and Ravi already has the first guest lined up, ready.
This is the basis of this story. We join the pensioners as they find out about the hotel, fly out to India and start their new lives. We learn something of their past, their dreams, their secrets and their worries. We watch the ups and downs of their lives at the hotel and we learn of their families and their attitudes to their parents.This is a charming book in which to lose yourself. When you have finished it you may want to reflect upon some of the questions which it raises. What does the future hold for us. We have no way of knowing for sure, so, do some good where you can and try to be good to your family. They are your nearest and dearest, remember. Even when they do drive you mad.
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