Ponto de Vista

This was Delhi. Two sadhus. Two monkeys. I asked if I could take a photo. The man in the photo said “Kyu nahin?” (Why not?) The sadhu behind him called out for money, shouting, “Paisa to de do!” I ignored him. As did the monkeys.

You know you’re eating in a high class joint when Marie from the Aristocats is the art up on walls 🙂 As I ate, I had “Scales and Arpeggios” in my head the whole time 😀

Crrunchy AND frrunchy, too!? What do you say this tagline was thought up by a Punjabi? (probably the “chachaji” for whom the brand is named). 😀

Also from Rishikesh, this machine purports to read your mind, calibrate your thoughts (see the odometers?) and then broadcast your past, present and future through the headphones 😀 I loved it. For 20 bucks, I was told that the things I was worried about would resolve themselves, my health would improve and I’d become rich. 😀 Paisa wasooli 🙂

so if you can read Hindi, I’ll assume your first impulse was to take your tea and snacks down to the Ganga’s  edge, along with your trusty cake of Medimix soap, and then really laugh loudly and kick up a huge ruckus. Even if we weren’t already laughing out loud, everyone who read this sign out loud was laughing by the time they finished 😀 Big Brother is Watching Mother Ganga!

Rourkee station, a sudden storm of freezing cold rain. The mendicants and homeless huddle. And this magnificent Brahma bull with them.

We reached Haridwar and got to the jetty for crossing the Ganges by boat and clapped eyes on this sadhu, smoking a chillum as he surveyed Ganga Maiya. What was he thinking?

Finally, inspiration for what to do with the only shape and size of anything I can kinda crochet. I found this in a very badly named children’s furnishing store (“SotoMoto.” Yes, that tells me everything about what you retail. Not.) in Delhi’s Hauz Khas village. I thought the lamps were delightful and inspirational. Yay! Finally something I can make that is useful (as opposed to scarves, which are ridiculously impractical for the climate of Mumbai). 😀

Indians never fail to amaze me. We want to etch our names on every space we can find – “Yes, I was here. I really was. So what if I’m never coming back and that it destroys the serenity, sanctity, authenticity, or aesthetic of where I am. Dude, *I* was here!”
I’ve seen celebs try to talk sense into the junta, I’ve heard academics discussing white boards and pin boards at monuments so people can scribble on those rather than the walls, but this … this is the first time I’ve seen something like this and it’s all over the Hawah Beach area of Trivandrum’s Kovalam beach. Unbelievable!

That’s me. I’m proud to have voted. I’m pleased to be able to exercise my rights and do my civic duty. This time was MUCH easier than the last time in 2009. I’m still the wrong age, have the wrong name, and am listed in the wrong gender, but they overlooked all that. I only drew attention to the spelling and the ‘purush’ part but both the list booth and the polling agent brushed it off as a typo. And after 3 minutes of being in line, I had verified my identity, pushed my selection, and I was out. I didn’t even get to crack open Kiran Manral’s The Reluctant Detective that I’d thought to bring along with me based on the long wait last time! 🙂

P.S. I’m very disillusioned by my friends who haven’t voted. What do you do with your friends whose ideologies and basic values don’t match yours? Demotion? Deletion?