Random thoughts

- There are over 3 crore (30 million) cell phones in India. My parents have 3 each (one for work, one for business and one to communicate with staff), my servants have one each. It costs my parents Re.1/min to call the landlines at home - its free to call the cell phone (outside of the flat rate). It costs my servants Rs.5-7/min to call their villages. It's Rs.2/min with their cell phones (their families in the villages have one too). These villages have a short supply of water, and more blackouts than working lightbulbs - but they all have cell phones.

- The roads are all being constructed at the same time. The death of a politician causes the already limited roads for a mad city like Bombay to be even more limited. What's the point of all these multi billion dollar investments in India when there are still large masses of people who decide when and how the rest of the city commutes or works?

- My dogs have terrible breath. If you get within a 5cm radius of their faces you get slobbered.

- My allergies are frustrating me now (I'm taking 2 antihistamines a day). And so is my jetlag. I think i finally got into schedule, and last night my dogs didn't let me sleep. I let them in my room and one of them kept sleep-kicking the closet and the other kept getting on and off the bed. Stubborn brats refused to leave the room.

- Getting drunk at Mondys (Cafe Mondegar) and embarassing Shekhu last night in front of his 'titli' (new slang word for sex groupie type chick - titli literally means butterfly) has never been more fun. As bawa said after they left "man, I think thats the first time I ever met anyone slower than me" (referring to the titli). You can be 25 and still get away with regressing to 15 with old friends.

- I definitely don't like Kavandaa's (now rechristened to Gulabo - because of her newfound obsession for pink) new boyfriend. He's thuggish, uneducated, overly possesive and lacks a sense of humor. He (jokingly) threatened to beat me up with a hockey stick because I was teasing her with Jeetendra's son. Freak! He makes Damu look like a gentleman. What is it with my friends and bad boys?

- I don't like that smoking is allowed indoors in Bombay.

-My cook cooks brilliantly. I had totally forgotten what real gujju food tastes like - I had undhyu, kadhi and val ni dal today - mmmm. With fresh ghee-soaked soft gujju rotis. YUM!

I feel like such a "foreign-return!"