You can see why I ranted about
Indian environmentalism
yesterday. This was the alley next
to the cybercafé.
Again, I spent most of the day exorcising last week's tension. I did add a few driblets about the day's events:
I woke up with this in my head
A bim bam-boogie and a booga-rooga
my cassette's just like a bazooka
a bligger a blagger a blippity-blop
well I'm going down to the record shop
What were you doing and where were you doing it when you first heard this?
Yesterday evening, the lights and fans in the cybercafé periodically turned on and off, indicating that the mains electricity supply here is very dodgy. (There's a huge UPS and a rack of batteries in the corner of the lobby.)
Later, after eating a supper I wanted and enjoyed, I was talking with the restaurant staff when there was a bang and crackle from behind me and the lights went out. Sparks were flying from some of the mains electricity stuff across the road. I was given a candle to find my way to my room but when I got there, the lights and fan worked.
Not much later, as I lay in bed, there were repeated cracks or thumps (which sounded like people switching things on and off with mallets). The lights and fan would go out, there'd be another thump and then they'd switch on again. I was just about dressed enough to go and try to persuade the noise-makers to keep it down when the noise and interference stopped. This morning my room's lights and fans work but the socket which I was using to charge my spare camera batteries and phone isn't. I guess the distress on the hotel's fuse-box has blown this circuit or their UPS isn't doesn't supply this circuit. The overhead fans are just about essential, lights are fairly useful and everything else is considered non-essential.
There's a hospital across the road from my hotel. I imagine it relies on the supply from the mains kit that blew last night (and some hefty back-up batteries). I wonder what happens when those run out?
Last night I got the food I wanted: two chapattis and three glasses of extremely drinkable black tea. This morning I got the samosas I'd been craving but couldn't persuade the staff to leave the milk out of my tea. I drank it but I wish I hadn't - you know the main reason and it didn't taste anything like as nice as last night's khala chai.
I've realised why my room is so hot - it's right above the kitchen! Also, my room has a conventional key-lock. The rooms on the floor below have flaps through which you can put your own padlock. (The hotel does provide them.) The paranoid part of me prefers the sort of room I don't have.
It's still very hot and humid - I'm told the monsoon will arrive next month. So to sleep, I close my bathroom door (it has a slatted, unclosable window) and windows (this mutes the traffic noise slightly), turn the fan to the lowest setting, spread my towel on the bed, and either crawl into or sleep under my sheet sleeping bag.
My morning ritual consists of
I love the Indian tradion of washing hands and mouth both before and after eating. Eating with my fingers is delightfully messy.
Is there a way of uploading .AVI files to LiveJournal? Some of the best 'entertainment' is sitting and watching the world go by, trying to guess at what folk might be up to, relationships and social status, etc. I'd love to share some of the street scenes with you.
© (except the blatantly ripped-off bits) Random Bozo 2006