Bombay, 1:08pm

Had dinner with Farhad (journy friend) at this coffee shop type place on Colaba Causeway called Theobroma's. Food was pretty interesting, but the conversation was waay more fun. The place had this whole high class irani air to it (It was in Kusroabaug after all) - I had a vindaloo sandwich - not half as spicy as I'd expected it to have been - I think the whole place generally reminded me of the old Bakery at the bombay gym.

In anycase, I was talking to him about how I think the Indian media is absolutely pathetic and unidimensional, and he sort of told me that it was that way because papers needed to get sold. I don't really know if I believe this. I was reading the supplement that he works for (and my other journy friends - After hrs in the DNA) - and granted it is a glam Bombay Times-esque papparazzi type thing - but there was not a single story I was interested in. There used to be a time when I was addicted to this kind of news, and now I'm just so indignant about it. It's almost as though the paparazzi is taking over Bombay, and the rest of the city is either too apathetic or too ignorant to give a shit. Perhaps it always was this way - I was fairly apathetic and ignorant to the goings on in the world when I was growing up - probably because I was spoilt and everything was laid out for me. But I don't know - maybe it's living with Marie that's inserted this activist gene in me, or maybe it's just the anxiety of realizing at what a precarious point India is at - and the general public not realizing how much they're responsible for it. I suddenly feel like I'm a foreigner here - people have accepted that India's a growing super power (not realizing it still has a long long way to go) and talk about it all day as though they've been responsible to push it to that status - but still have this whole lax 'hota hai chalta hai' attitude about life and work.

Granted, I'm no Gandhi, but I'd be a happier puppy if I saw the same vision that Indians internationally see being executed.