Asia 2006: Random Bozo goes to Maharashtra

(This is also seriously edited at a friend's request.)

I check out of my hotel but ask to leave my rucsac there for a few hours while I get my souvenirs posted home. For this I'm charged Rs100. I'm inclined to argue but eventually realized how little this is for keeping my stuff safe.

Back at Kashmiri Arts Palace, I give Wahid a wee donation towards the Goa street-children organization and ask him to recommend someone who can sew some parcels ready for posting back to the UK because there isn't a sewer/packager at the post-office.

Wahid takes me to some lady tailors who run their business in their home. I'm offered chai and gujurati bread (a deep-fried chapatti) that are very welcome as I sit on the bed in their bedroom/lounge/workshop and gurn at the wee child while the younger woman sews up my parcels. So much friendliness, I feel like Polyanna and this work cost Rs20 rupees (the cost of 2 litres of bottled water).

Wahid takes me to the post office. They weigh my parcels and tell me the price to post them but that I need to get Mr Podhar, back at the main bazaar, to seal them with wax.

So we trudge back to Mr Podhar's stall but he's away for lunch.

I then ask Mr Shah about getting a room for tonight because he tells me that I've been paying over the odds for an off-season room. His other colleague takes me to a hotel on Mesjid Road who charge Rs150 a night for a nicer room.

I pay for it with a Rs500 note but they don't have change so, once I've received my receipt, I tell the receptionist that I'll collect my rucsac and then get my change from him.

I collect my rucsac, dump it in my room and use the blessed sit-down, flush toilet and pick up my change.

Back to Kashmiri Arts Palace to collect the parcels I left there while hotel-swapping and then to Mr Podhar's to get the parcels sealed. Back to the post-office but now I am 25 rupees short of the postage cost so leave the parcels there while I visit the ATM.

Back to the post-office to pay the 25 rupees I owe them, then sit on the post office's steps and write this drivel.

I recall watching India win the second ODI at Faridabad that afternoon. Young Raina and Dhoni were very impressive and it's a shame that India didn't have a slightly bigger target to win so that Raina could have scored a century.

I also recall encountering the local policians and civil servants at the panchayat office - and some sticky moments when I tried to ask who did what.