We went and said goodbye to Ankita today. It was, as many of you encouraged it would be, a really great experience. Ankita was in fine form. We moved to a hotel closer to the orphanage for the last couple of days in Delhi. We were sick of the noise of renovating going on next door at the apartment - constant banging vibrating through the wall. Boom, boom, boom. Neelu is really over not getting Ankita and therefore homesick. How do you deal with the constant unsettled depression of a five year old? Only one thing to do - move to a five star hotel with a pool! Bingo - the kid is in heaven. Now all I have to put up with is "can we go back to the pool."
So at twenty to mid-day we walked the five minutes from the Maidens Hotel to the Shishu Bhavan and took a seat on the long sofa to wait for Ankita to arrive back from school. We have all come to terms with the fact that we will have to wait. Shayne is getting on with the next count down already. Neelu is resigned and I am still sulking. Five star sulking isn't really that tough. Except that after they upgraded us to a deluxe suite because they messed up my reservation - we discovered that the entire fourth floor is being renovated! Boom,boom boom down into the third floor suite! You have to laugh. Our room(s) ( as big as a Sydney 2 bedroom flat) are newly done, very tasteful, Shayne says the suite is all huge white bed, squishy pillows, marble bathroom complete with mirror in the sunken marble bath and a shower recess big enough for an entire family. Huge wide screen tv in the family room - cartoon network cinema style - sofas and walk in robe where Neelu has her cubby. But I digress, because we really wouldn't be feeling this chipper if the goodbye had gone badly.
We get the video camera and the still camera ready for a farewell shoot out and we wait. We hear an auto rickshaw pulling up outside. I walk quickly to the door and video a pile of kids dressed in red uniforms with "tinker bell school" embroidered on the back of their shirts bundling out of the auto. I see Ankita and shout to her form the balcony. She looks up the couple of meters and smiles and waves. "Hello Dada." She comes up the stairs, in no particular rush, cranes her head as I lean down to her and she kisses my cheek. She sees mamma and Neelu and gives them a kiss and then tells mamma " school, school" only the hindi accent way, which sounds more like "a-shshkool, a- shshkool". We hang out with the kids for a while - photos, chatting and then once all of the other children have gone through to the lunch room and Ankita has had some time alone with us, she looks around and says - bye - and off she goes to eat. "She must be hungry." I say to Sister,"She knows her mind" Sister replies. She comes back into the room only because her plate is yet to be dished up and Shayne goes through a small album with photographs of our house and rooms and garden and talks to her about it. As Shayne says the names of the places in the house, Ankita repeats them.
We go through to the lunchroom and join in. She gets out of her uniform before she eats and she is happy to let Shayne undo her shirt and get her ready. We hang in the lunch room and play with all the kids. The sisters and the helpers are relaxed and going through the normal routine - all be it disturbed by our presence. Then it is time for sleeps. The children have been up since five thirty and go to their beds reasonably happily. Ankita and Shayne, with sister interpreting, have a chat about Shayne and Neelu coming back to pick her up as soon as the judge signs the papers and she seems to be quite at ease with that. We hug and kiss and look. Then we leave. Waving goodbye. Out the door, back to the hotel and into the pool. Gin and tonic, long, cool swim, play with kid, done. But not finished.
We return to Welby on friday night and fifty to one we will be freezing. But we are, even sans Ankita, ready to come home. But just as ready to come back...
