A hug heard 'round the world

All doubts are now behind me...I really did hold and hug and laugh with Delanie, in New York City, after a whole bunch of years. I have proof. I have photos of her and Duleep and my girls on the subway. I have some of my family and Delanie posing with Nicholas Cage at Mme. Toussauds. I not only have a snapshot of Doug in a sarong and I in a sari, I have the actual sari; Doug has the actual sarong. I have a big fat ball of Jaggery. I have a Ceylon cookery book, which I will use if I can figure out what all the words mean. We have clothing, which Delanie says is dirt cheap in Columbo. I have photos of my nangi Virasmi and beautiful jewelry she sent for me, and another hematite ensemble from Delanie herself.

She is home now, back in her beautiful home in sunny Mt. Lavinia, and last night on the phone we verified for each other that that it was all real. Duleep is off already on a flight to London, Dinesh was so bored while his parents were away that he cleaned the house and did all the marketing and cooked them dinner. I didn't ask where the maid was.

Our lives, our countries and traditions are so different, yet the bond we made in 1975 is so strong, we can both still feel the relentless clinging we did at the Best Western when we saw each other after so, so long.

So now I can get to the photos.