Other Classes and a Walk in the Cold [Brrrh]

Off campus classes
During the summer semesters, Ramu and I took two interesting classes off-campus. One was on Defensive Driving that has stood me in good stead since, especially in the chaotic Bangalore traffic. The other was on speed reading. This was good too, and we were certified among the fastest readers ever. Sadly, this skill has since deteriorated and I may have entered my slowest reading levels with sinking into UN jargon, trying to make sense of office papers, translating from French or Spanish as I went along reading documents etc.
One of the serendipitous effects of this latter course was that we made friends with an elderly lady, who lived on a farm near Urbana. She invited us to Thanksgiving lunch that year, and we had a good time with her extended family over a groaning table laden with all the festival goodies. There were plenty of veggie dishes as this is a harvest festival, but they ranged from bland to sweetish to sweet, and we felt it was too much of a good thing . We soon got on to the subject of saris and our friend and her mother wanted so much to wear them. So one day they came over to our apartment, and had themselves photographed in their 'fancy dress'!


The Coldest Walk
The winter of '69 saw some pretty cold days. For me the nadir was on the very last day of December, as the weather forecast predicted -51* F with the wind chill factor. I was jealous that Ramu had for some reason did not have to go to work. But I had to, and so I bundled up with layers of clothing, acrylic, wool and cotton, and two pairs of socks and two of gloves too. But despite keeping my hand in my pockets, one thumb was so cold and numb when I reached office after a 30 minute walk that I instinctively tried to warm it at the heater. In a trice, Mary Black, who was luckily then in the room, pulled me away from it to my hurt astonishment. But I was most grateful when she told me I would have had 'a frozen thumb' that might even have to be amputated if I had exposed it to such heat after such a numbing cold. She taught me to gradually bring it to normal by massaging it for several minutes – an useful lifesaving lesson I never forgot.

Even though this was an unusually cold day, Urbana kept one pretty miserable all winter. Also, being a student taking various courses in different disciplines made it worse. I had to go from building to building, and each time, I needed to bundle up in overcoat, headscarf, boots, gloves – oof what a life and then to shred all this in the next classroom, as otherwise, the overheating that Americans are so fond of made one sweat and melt. Then the entire process would start over again. On bad days, one might have to do this four to five times. Further, every winter, I skid on the icy pavements at least once. But then as Shelley said, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? And spring brought the flowers, the bracing air and the spring break when we went off to see various parts of the country.