Back in the UUUK

Back home! And its wonderful, 99% due to the sumptuous autumn sunshine. Enjoying cooking and relishing all the stuff I miss in Mumbai, like the bread and the cheese!

Whatever, the breaking news is that I now have a photostream on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeaunse23/

Check it!

More as it 'appens

The weekend of the Mantis! (Or how I got ill and learned about septicemia).

Last weekend in India for a few weeks and the first this visit with a promise of fine weather and so it’s off to the Jungle reserve at Phansad three hours south of Mumbai with a bunch of mates for two days of savoring the Jungle Experience. The birding is rubbish we know because the post monsoon vegetation is so thick and luxuriant, however abundant insects and amphibians more than make up for it.
Arriving at the little tin roofed bungalow the outside strip light is on and plastered with moths, crickets, bush crickets, lantern bugs, assassin bugs, spiders and beetles but most of all mantids. Mantids of all shapes, sizes and colours stalking the other visitors to the lights. Up above under the veranda massive geckos wait for stray moths while down below is a collection of frogs and toads cleaning up anything that should fall. Outside in the lawn mole crickets are singing their piercing monotonous song while cicadas and tree frogs try to sonically out compete each other all around us. Noisy yes, but also massively soothing.
We waste no time and as soon as out kit is stashed we head out into the forest, the head forest officer has seen Leopards nearby so we hope against hope to see one. Standing in the middle of a jungle clearing, late at night is an extremely wonderful experience and we all soak up the atmosphere. There are a myriad of fireflies blinking on and off in the trees and many pairs of eyes reflect our torch beams, the vast majority of which turn out to be spiders. Actually it struck me that this jungle could have easily been Tolkiens model for Mirkwood, its dense and tangled, gnarled old trees festooned with twisted and
cris-crossed lianas hung with spiders webs and positively crawling with BIG spiders, Wood spiders, Huntsmen, Tarantulas, Cat Legged Spiders, Thorn spiders , an arachnophobes worst nightmare come to life! I have to say we loved it!
Next morning we’re up at dawn and off to a waterhole five kilometers in to check out some vultures nests, the walk seems hard to me and I’m pouring sweat, my mouth is dry no matter how much water I drink and a dull headache makes its presence felt. When we get back to the hut for breakfast I find that I’m not ravenous as I normally would be in fact I cant really face food. I feel tired and listless and decide to lie down. There’s a power cut and the ceiling fan grinds to a halt. I tell my mates to go on out and I’ll just have a lie down. And so I lie there, basically all day, drink water and aching all over. Is this H1N1? I wonder? The start of a stomach bug? Late in the evening I get to sleep and awake on Sunday morning drenched with sweat and still aching. I get up and take a walk and feel fucking awful. Eventually we leave and sitting in the car heading to the local town for some breakfast I feel a little cooler, by the time we reach a breakfast stop I’m actually hungry and notice that the headache has gone. By the time I’m back in Mumbai I’m feeling about 95% better. So: WTF was it? I really dunno but there is a theory: Whilst in Delhi last week I cut my finger, just a very slight nick, no blood raised in factso I thought nothing of it until about 24 hours later when I wake up with a swollen throbbing finger with a large ugly yellow lump on it, I can hardly bear to touch it but stab it with a pair of tweezers and massage Savlon into it and cover it with a plaster. Immediately it feels better and after another 48 hours ( Saturday afternoon in fact) I take the paster off to check that’s its not turned gangrenous or something equally horrid and it looks absolutely fine so I leave the plaster off, but it soon becomes swollen and painful again. Doh! So I repeat the treatment again and once again it seems fine. The plasters still on as I type. It has been suggested to me that this pusy infection of my finger may be related to my mystery malady, maybe I’ll never know…..
The mantids were amazing however, and we did see a Sea Eagle on the way home!

DELHI DREAMING……….

A quick and, I have to say, uncharacteristically enjoyable three nights in Delhi. Delhi: It may as well be on a different planet to Mumbai with different food ( yummy, more North Indian in character ) , architecture ( older, more colonial), infrastructure ( wide roads and open spaces) and for once the weather was nice, made a  change from Mumbai which has been rainy and grey for the past n weeks and is now stinking hot, hazy and humid. Delhi was clear blue sky and low humidity which made the 36C easily bearable. A series of quite agreeable meetings during the day and getting hammered every night with an interesting mélange of people made for a fun time. Stayed in a ‘guest house’ in an up market area of Delhi ( Friends Colony) belonging to an associated Japanese company, after the cramped style of accommodation that seems to be the thing in Mumbai this guest house was almost comically the opposite, my en suite was so huge that I needed to sit down for a rest twixt wash basin and shower and really needed binoculars to see the loo. My bed was built along similar lines and lying in bed I could just make out the edges far off in the distance. Food was all freshly cooked by the Nepalese HB and bleedin’ delicious it was too. Every morning I was woken by a very pleasant and rather exotic blend of sounds comprising a water seller ambling along the road ringing a bell and shouting rather like rag and bone men used to when I was a child. Then there was the squawking of the Parakeets and Mynas on my windowsill and the distant calls of the Muezzin. Warm sun streaming in through the window lighting up a zillion drifting dust motes at 7.00 rounded off the atmosphere. And the plumbing, gosh, well, what can I say?  Indian plumbing is always entertaining and here in Delhi, in a large old house it was re-mark–able. Just the shear complexity of the water heater in my bathroom was enough to keep me amused for minutes as I desperately tried to work out how to turn it on and how to get water of the correct temperature to supply the tap that I required. There was a ‘double pressure’ boiler resplendent with switches, dials, lights and multifarious metal tubes and valves, some with nice brass in-line taps. An array of unlabelled electrical switches and some suspicious exposed copper wires completed the picture. It turns out that several electrical switches had to be thrown (one in the distant bedroom) and the correct lights illuminated before the intricate process of directing water through the labyrinthine system could commence, only then, when the hot water was flowing would the final winking red light come on to announce that the process was nearing completion, a spluttering torrent of near boiling water that sprayed both into the bath and across the vast bathroom floor simultaneously. At this point the merest touch of any of the many switches, taps or valves would change this water to cold in an instant and the reinstatement of heat would then require several minutes of speculative fiddling. Great fun tho’.

And hey! WOW! Delhi airport has had a serious facelift! It now looks pretty much like any modern airport instead of the wonderfully pathetic disorganized and archaic mess that it used to be ( even worse than Mumbai if that’s possible) but now its all gleaming and spacious. I need not have worried; it’s only the appearance that has changed however, underneath the gloss its still lovable old India with its finely crafted blend of madness, ineptitude and plain belligerence that I have come to love….. Went to a café airside ( A café! Whatever next? Clean toilets?) And after getting over the shock of being offered a variety of fresh food that was not dried up and encrusted with flies I opted for a stuffed croissant and a cup of coffee. After being charged a very reassuringly European price I retired to my (rather wobbly, but shiny and new)) table to await this feast. Although there were only about three other customers it took the fourteen or fifteen staff twenty minutes or so to deliver a mildly warmed through puff - pastry style snack that was only extremely loosely based on a croissant ( the general shape was roughly correct)  and a creased paper cup of warm brown but disturbingly tasteless liquid. Naturally the ‘coffee’ was spilled onto the table in a most professional manner by the waiter. Seems to me that they have taken ‘International levels of service’ to their bosom, I haven’t had such excellently crapulent service since the last time I was at Heathrow. Well done India! You are getting there!

And after the mandatory unannounced one hours delay that is the norm for Mumbai-Delhi flights these days ( Mumbai blames it on Delhi’s pants ATC and vice versa). I was back to my cosy apartment and planning my last trip of this visit. Off to Phansad with ‘the lads’ Girish, Swapneel, Samir and Parag, not forgetting Ashok my birding driver. The forest guest house is fully booked which is a bit of a sod and so we are banking on finding some accommodation in the nearby little seaside town of Murud. Looking forward to a weekend of chilling with me mates over beers and snacks with intervals of natural history adventures in the jungle early morning and late at night. At this time of year , if the sky is clear, which it looks set to be then the heat anytime after about ten in the morning is impossible.

More as it happens………..

A BIRDING WEEKEND

Although not quite the clear and sunny weather that was promised (probably just as well) the has rain held off and I have been able to get out and about. Kicked off 6.30 am on Saturday morning with a drive up into the Ghats, only 30 minutes drive and it feels like a million miles away from Mumbai surrounded by wooded mountains, everywhere bright green, waterfalls and rushing torrents, a bit like the Scottish highlands but with palm trees. Lots of birds about and our progress is slow as we drive and stop, drive and stop as new birds come into view. Highlights are amazing bright orange- brown Cinnamon Bitterns, a Slaty Breasted Rail ambling across the road in front of the car and a pair of Pied Cuckoos amongst the thirty odd species. Then we drove back for a hearty breakfast of Vada Pav, deep fried chilies, Sweetlime juice and copious Chai before heading down to the mangroves for a plod around a favorite piece of turf. And WOW the vegetation has grown up so much since I was here last, so much so that the paths I know are now obliterated and a birding stroll turns into a mammoth bushwhacking adventure as we try to avoid mud and marsh, end up seeing FA birds and becoming plastered in evil stinky mud. And it’s HOT and humid, when the cloud thins the temperature soars and so we get back to the car sweaty, muddy and stinking. Home for a shower and change of clothes and then out again back up into the mountains for more good stuff. Cracked my bottle of Sula ‘Dindori’ in the evening, very nice indeed. Yesterday morning up again at first light and then off to Kanala bird sanctuary on the Goa road for a Jungle walk. Brighter than Saturday and even hotter, the jungle is steamy and wet and my glasses are constantly steamed up and/or splashed with sweat. The woods here are full of big spiders, crabs and biting flies but strangely, few birds, a few Orioles and Drongos and that’s about it, and so we give up after a couple of hours and head off to the Uran wetlands where we score with a list of over sixty species with flamingos, spoonbills, lots of mongoose around on the trails and swarms of butterflies, fantastic! We stick around birdwaching until after midday when the heat finally defeats us. Brilliant!
Last night went for Chilli Tiger prawns at the ‘Golden Punjab’ in Vashi, ( I heartily recommend it should you ever be in Vashi) several beers and a plate of Kulfi rounds off my best weekend of the trip, fell asleep last night listening to the Brown Fish Owls calling outside my bedroom window.
And so to Delhi…. I’ll Blog from there hopefully.

The weekend tally:


House Crow
Jungle Crow
Jungle Babbler
Puff throated Babbler
House Sparrow
Rock Pigeon
Little Brown Dove
Longtailed Shrike
Red Vented Bulbul
Red Whiskered Bulbul
Black Kite
Brahminy Kite
Shikra
Marsh Harrier
Cinnamon Bittern
Slaty Breasted Rail
Glossy Ibis
Gull Billed Tern
Whiskered Tern
Brown Headed Gull
Black Winged Stilt
White Breasted Kingfisher
Coppersmith Barbet
Large Brown Barbet
Night Heron
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Indian Pond Heron
Grey Heron
Purple Heron
Purple Swamphen
White breasted Swamphen
Coot
Spot Billed Duck
Pygmy Cotton Goose
Redshank
Sandpiper
Black Drongo
Bronzed Drongo
Golden Oriole
Black fronted Leafbird
Greater Coucal
Greater Flamingo
Spoonbill
Red Avadavat
Scaly Breasted Munia
Black Headed Munia
Barn Swallow
Wire tailed Swallow
Palm Swift
House Swift
Ashy Prinia
Plain Prinia
Clamorous Reed Warbler
Baya Weaver
Pied Cuckoo
Common Cuckooshrike
Indian Cormorant
Brown Fish Owl
Small Minivet
Asian Pied Myna
Indian Myna

Eye eye....

Back to the eye doctor this evening for another round of ‘guess what’s wrong with Jeaunse’s eyes’ the three sets of eye drops that were prescribed for me last Wednesday have eased the irritation but they’re still red and inflamed and they’re still watering like crazy all the time. So, it’ll mean a trip to Vashi – The Big City – with all its manifold glittering attractions. I’ve decided that I’m going to go mad and treat myself to a bottle of Sula ‘Dindori’ Shiraz. Which I am going to drink all by myself tee hee. A colleague from the UK is flying out on Saturday so I am going to savor my last couple of solitary evenings, he’ll be here until after I depart so the rest of my stay will be more social. Got my air tickets for Delhi today as well, I’m off on Monday afternoon, not my favorite place to be honest and looking at the weather forecast, 36C and torrential rain I fear this feeling will only be compounded. Still I will be staying in my companies guest house which I have to say I love, its in a very middle class area which means only five beggars per person rather than the more usual ten, and theres a nice park around the corner where one can pick ones way through the litter and turds for a stroll of an evening. I’ll be being looked after by the venerable ‘Panditji’ who does so like to ply me with his wonderful fragrant Chi and who makes the worlds best masala omlettes, he’s a little wizened old guy of an indeterminate age who always wears and old blazer over his dhoti and who always calls me ‘Chris Sir Sahib’, his home cooking is renowned throughout the company, almost makes the journey worthwhile ( but not quite). Delhi is a pig of a place in general, a huge sweaty crumbling traffic jam with a small area that’s quite picturesque where the government buildings are and a huge new modern ( but already crumbling) industrial area called Noida which is where I’ll be spending my days. However, I just know that the time will simply zoom past as I’m going to be very busy doing presentations and training courses in the day and wining and dining in the evenings, before I know it I’ll be back in Mumbai again and will have only a week remaining before returning to the bosom of my homeland.
And today the sun has come out and with it swarms of butterflies, it almost feels like being on holiday, driving to work this morning my driver spotted something in a tree and we shuddered to a halt, a beautiful Spotted Eagle sitting impassively in a tree by the side of the road and me without a camera! Still a good omen for the weekend when, if the sunshine continues I’ll be out in the local mountains for some serious birding.

Fingers crossed.

Jeezus Friggin Christ Almightly

"India wants a fair and equitable agreement. There should be no barriers
to its own economic growth. We are deeply concerned over the issue of
global warming and climate change. The best way to mitigate the problem
is that countries should do things on their own. We are doing it and
over the next two to three months more countries will know what we are
doing," he said.

The minister said that Himalayan states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim,
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand need to be given
special incentives for maintaining the forest cover and expressed hope
that the Centre would respond to the suggestions made by him.

The fact that around 15,000 Himalayan glaciers are receding is beyond
doubt, Ramesh said, adding, however, that what still needs to be
established is the cause of the recession.

He said that while the western school of thought attributes the
recession of glaciers to global warming, Indian scientists are of the
opinion that there is still not enough solid evidence to substantiate
it.  

Wankers....... 

I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO QUITE FIGURE THIS ONE OUT……

A train is running along a straight railway line, doesn’t matter how fast but let’s pretend it’s really, really fast just for the fun of it. It’s an old fashioned engine with flat vertical forward facing windows, not the most aerodynamic of designs but functional. Ahead of the train a small fly is busy flying along minding its own business, it is heading straight for the train window and…. Well you can imagine the result.
Or can you?
Let’s analyse what happens in a bit more detail……….

The fly impacts the window and its remains rapidly find themselves moving in exactly the opposite direction. Something quite remarkable has happened in fact. The fly has reversed direction without ever being stationary because the window that it hit was already moving. But how can this be? Think carefully about the last few moments of the flies life, one moment it is moving in one direction, the next instant it is moving in the opposite direction but at no time did it actually stop.
Can you imagine reversing a car and then putting it into a forward gear without stopping in between?
OK so let’s imagine a car on a long trailer being towed by a lorry. Start the car at the front of the trailer, reverse it down the trailer and then stop and drive forwards again. Is this situation analogous to the fly on the train window? Maybe it is. The car clearly stops relative to the trailer before proceeding to move forwards again but in truth the car is only stationary relative to the universal reference frame when it is moving backwards at the same speed as the trailer is moving forwards. Once it starts to slow down it is in fact moving forwards. Hmmm, does this help with the fly /train quandary? I’m guessing this is a ‘reference frame situation’, that is, viewed from one frame of reference something impossible appears to be happening whereas viewed from another it is not so it is the use of a false reference frame that is the problem. Consider. From the point of view of the fly’s vector firstly it has velocity in one direction and then it under goes a very short period of extremely strong deceleration followed by a movement at a constant velocity in the opposite direction, it does not appear to go through an acceleration phase for if that were the case it would imply that the train were accelerating which it is not. Agreed the train is slowed very (very) slightly by the impact of the fly but the fly after decelerating strong is somehow instantly moving at a constant velocity in the opposite direction and without passing through a stationary phase for, if the fly were to be stationary then that would imply that the train were also stationary, if only for an instant……
So lets try and develop and alternative reference frame. This time we take the train as the reference, relative to the train in fact the fly decelerates to a dead stop. Indeed, the fly is no longer moving once it has spread itself out on the window. So that’s it, problem solved… I guess, but I still come back to what I see as an observer of the fly’s vector. First it has a constant velocity in one direction and then it has a constant velocity in the opposite direction. In fact, if we replace the fly by a mathematical point then there is not even a period of deceleration merely an instantaneous change of direction with no period of being stationary.
My head hurts…… Ideas on a postcard please….

A WET WEEKEND

And how! It has (and there is simply no other word as appropriate I’m afraid) PISSED down for the last 60 hours. This is of course excellent news for the huge majority of Mumbaikers as the severe water shortages have already meant rationing (still no water in my apartment and it’s been three weeks now, however that is for a different reason, a broken pump at a local reservoir). Going out on foot is pretty nearly impossible due to the shear heaviness of the rain, however as one cant see more than about 30 meters and there’s nowt to see anyway as the wildlife hunkers down to escape the drenching deluge, there’s really very little point. But it’s a drag for yours truly as it means being confined to the apartment with the hopeless TV choice and its associated astonishing density of commercials which drives me absolutely fucking MAD! I tried watching The Nat Geo Channel (what a load of purest shite that is and what a sad demise of what was once such a respected name) pathetic, factually incorrect, short attention span drivel it may be but it’s the ads that defeat me. Having nothing better to do and being a right contrary bastard I decided, just for your edification dear reader, to note down some facts and figures. Ads on Indian satellite channels maybe divided in to several equally annoying types: Firstly there’s your actual commercials, now the problem here is that on each channel there’s a very limited number of commercials available and so they have to show each one multiple times, its not uncommon to see the same ad three times a single commercial break and with three breaks every half hour one somewhat rapidly tires of them – an understatement actually, I find my blood starting to boil and the urge to throw something heavy becoming almost uncontrollable. Then there’s the ‘sponsored by’ or ‘bought to you by’ messages, which are nothing more than a list of the advertisers that have already driven me perilously close to the edge of sanity. That however, is only the half of it, for those nice people at Nat Geo like to enrich my life still further by advertising future attractions and this will be done at the beginning and again at the end of the break (sometimes several times) just in case I missed it the last twenty times that it was bought to my attention during the last half hour…So mindless is the programming that it is not uncommon to see a trailer for the program that is currently running inserted several times into that program. Then they run a brief resume of where we had got up to in the last brief section of the program followed by perhaps three or four minutes of content before – its another commercial break! On top of this they do so like to run advertising over the top of the actual program as if the breaks were not sufficiently compelling. I am sure that people have been driven to acts of horrendous violence through less provocation than this……It amounts to nothing more than a cruel and unusual punishment, I may yet write to the UN.
Reading, writing or rain watching are the other alternatives and It’s the latter that actually won out. I’m not currently really in a reading or writing mood and so joined Driver and HB on the balcony from time to time, staring moodily at the never ending sheets of rain. It’s been quite amazing watching the water flow in the nullahs outside my apartment complex. There’s a small stream outside the back of the apartment that runs along the base of the hillside, a couple of weeks ago I walked across it and didn’t get my feet wet, by Saturday evening it was a roaring torrent that to wade across without ropes would almost certainly prove suicidal. This stream empties into our local nullah which is outside the front of the complex and which for most of the year is simply a wide and deep litter and weed filled dry ditch. Now it is a river of foaming and surging brown water about ten meters across carrying tree trunks and the odd dead dog past with remarkable rapidity. This dear reader is the real monsoon, albeit rather late. Of course with so much water in the air and the temperature an even 30C it means that the air is saturated with water vapour and so everything is sticky and wet even indoors., In particular we have a cream leatherette settee, tacky eh? - Particularly to any exposed flesh – not nice!
So what did I do with my wet weekend apart from being listless and lethargic? Well, I went to the newest biggest flashiest Mall in the area to find some Eeengish food items. There’s a teeny Waitrose there which is surreally expensive even by UK standards, I have never seen anybody in there ( apart from me ) But even I draw the line at small packets of Alpen at almost a tenner or small jars of French preserves at around six quid a throw. But I did buy a small piece of mature cheddar and a packet of biscuits which I later savoured with a couple of glasses of red.
Then I went and got myself a Kurta – one of those long shirt thingies – a nice plain cotton one in a natty shade of orange, cost less than a jar of Waitrose jam as well.. Have been meaning to avail myself of one of these as , ahem, leisurewear. Now I can drift languidly around the apartment in a Kurta, (much to the amusement of the staff), I should really have a cigarette holder and an old typewriter to complete the image…. I then took Driver and HB out for a slap up lunch at my favorite restaurant, Aloo Muttar, Mixed veg Jalfresi and unlimited Rotis and Chai, all for less than two quid ( put the Waitrose prices even more into perspective ).
Made Tagliatelli a la Pomadoro as previously outlined, drank a bottle of red and slept. I had hoped that Sunday would be fine enough for at least a drive and a walk in the local mountains but not a bit of it, constant fucking torrential rain kept me indoors yet again going slowly and yet somehow stylishly, indolently, mad. Read, wrote, dozed. And today the rain continues, at least I have work today, which I really should be getting on with…….

This is the view from my bedroom balcony across the still - under - construction Khargar Golf Course

And this is what it looks like today.....

Tagliatelle a la Pomadoro

No hope of getting out and about so took driver and HB to the local megamall to buy ingredients for a pasta dish.
Itallian Tagliatelle -a fiver for 200g. Parmisan a fiver for 100g. Nevertheless went ahead and cooked a reasonably accurate simulacrum of the EyeTie orginal for Ashok and Thakur and then made them eat it he heh. They claim to have enjoyed it, by the time it was finished I wuz pissed from a bottle of Sula Shiraz. So have proven a postulate: Can accurate Italian food be produced in New Bombay? Answer - Yes so long as cost is not an issue. Weather biblical ( thanks for the phrase Pam) mud slides, floods, the heaviest rain I have ever seen in my life. Ho-hum.

THIS IS MUMBAI CALLING……………MUMBAI CALLING……….

Sitting here in Mumbai, or Navi Mumbai to be more accurate, with the Indian general elections and the credit crunch behind us, pathetic monsoon and H1N1 notwithstanding there is a feeling of being at the very forefront of the recovering world economy. The vexed question whether India is ‘decoupled’ or not seems almost academic in the face of 6 percent plus growth, forecast to increase to 9 percent within the next few months. Of course people here who see the world via The Times of India or The Hindustan Times with their expansive and insightful coverage of world affairs - one page mostly dedicated to Hollywood gossip – have liitle or no idea of how the current economic conditions are really affecting the rest of the world. And just because the growth is not in double figures they will keep on calling it a ‘recession’!

I have often mentioned that India is very sensitive about how the rest of the world sees it, bridling at the merest hint of criticism and glorying at the slightest sign of superiority – ‘The new world champion tiddlywinks players grandfather came from Delhi!’ the media will trumpet. Well the newspapers, with the possible exception of the ultra conservative ‘Hindu’ also love to stir things up and so any report that may suggest that things are not absolutely 100% rosy here is usually emblazoned across the front pages. And so today we have a report that Mumbai is one of the lowest paid cities in the world and I don’t doubt it, this is a low pay economy in the first place and in Mumbai with the ceaseless immigration from the surrounding countryside and already vast population, competition for jobs force rates down even further. In Mumbai a decent degree ( and I mean a decent degree from one of the Indian Institute Universities and not one from one of the many hundreds of ‘private universities’ that churn out semi literate morons) will get you maybe a grand a year, a doctorate maybe a grand and a half – and these are ‘well paid’ jobs don’t forget. Then there’s the news that Mumbai has some of the highest levels of carcinogens and other pollutants in its air and it is certainly the case that there is a constant brownish haze, makes for nice sunsets mind you….. Also in today’s news along side the usual run of rapes, murders and lynchings (increasingly fashionable this year it seems) is the fact that the police force in Mumbai is so poorly paid and so overworked that it is running at half strength and many police stations are closed as they don’t have the staff to occupy them. On a more positive note the anti terrorist squad have been issued with some shiny new automatic weapons that are described in the Times of India as , get this, ‘sexy’.

Nevertheless, the feeling is positive, India’s banks have not overstretched themselves, the economic stimulus packages produced by the central government were miniscule compared to the rest of the world and infrastructure development is underway big time. In fact India’s relative isolationism both culturally as well as financially has been of great benefit. And talking of cultural isolationism I have been amazed and pleasantly surprised to discover a prog metal band from Chennai called Motherjane who are actually very good- check out  their album ‘Maktub’. This is really amazing considering that India doesn’t really do ‘rock’ music, no, that’s not correct, it does but ‘not as we know it’. A typical Indian ‘Rock’ band is a sort of bastard offspring of Elvis Presley and Gary Glitter – with  moustaches, they’re big on glitter and basic twelve bar grooves but that’s about it, pretty much all of the male bollywood stars have a ‘rock band’ but don’t go there, no, really, please, just don’t! So anyway out of the blue I discover that there is actually a band making really good melodic proggy metal with a subtle Indian influence, but look at their website 40,000 downloads! So few! Architects have half a million for each song they put up…. Just goes to show that India is not ready for such radical stuff. And why should they be? They prefer their own music like they prefer their own food, however I cant help but think that this is in part due to accessibility, remember that the vast majority of the population doesn’t have access to a computer or even a CD player come to that. 

I’ve been fancying a change to Indian food recently, and I don’t mean Indian Chinese or Indian Italian I mean food that has no Indian influence whatsoever and it’s almost impossible to find. Next time I’m bringing some pasta, some Arborio rice and some herbs, at least I should be able to make risottos and pastas that actually taste Italian ( get me, the ‘international’ chef eh?) Oh yes and I’ll need some parmesan as well. I may even plan a dinner party have a few folks round to try it, but perhaps not, I’m fairly confident they wouldn’t like it, reckoning it tasteless and bland. Green salad is another thing I crave, difficult to get particularly lettuce so maybe I should bring some cut and come again green salad seed. Then I would have to get other difficult or impossible to get items like potting compost and pots. Still worth a try I reckon. Finally there’s bread and even though I love roti in all its huge number of forms, I really miss a decent crusty loaf so next visit I’m also bringing my bread maker and some dried yeast.

Finally dear reader, medical news and a trip to Vashi.....

I've got some kind of conjunctivitis type eye infection at present and last night went to my nearest proper city, Vashi, jewel of New Bombay, to visit an eye specialist, well, as you may imagine that was a story in itself but I was blown away by the street decorations for the soon-to-end Ganpatti festival, all the streets in the city centre are absolutely plastered with strings of coloured lights, like an Indian vesion of Blackpool illuminations, Ashok, my driver told me that this was nothing and that I should see what they do in Pune. I had no idea that this was going on half an hour down the road from where I live and it made me feel somehow Christmassy to see the streets thronging with people, the lights and the music blaring on every street corner. Clearly I havent been getting out enough.......