I took Amma, Indu Shedde, 98 years, on a memory trip to our hometown Dharwad, in Karnataka, in July. It’s where she grew up: we were revisiting Dharwad after about 66 years. I told Amma to give me a wish list: avoid people you knew please, they are mostly dead, I said; only places. If they are likely to be sort of as she remembered them, I’d take her -- garden, school, university, ice cream shop…Sorry, I’m not taking you home, I told her, as Google maps showed me apartments where our beloved house was. Our close family friend Vishakha Patil very generously made time to travel with Amma and me for a week.

Now, planning a geriatric holiday is very different from planning a regular holiday. First, very luckily, I was able to find a doctor, a wheelchair and a wheelchair-friendly hotel in Dharwad. Indigo Airlines was brilliant, arranging a wheelchair right till her plane seat. Then I arranged that, in case Amma was disappointed by something she saw in Dharwad, we went onwards to Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal, stunning UNESCO world heritage sites, to distract her.