As well as being Christmas Eve it is the Eve of my departure from India. I had a few little "jobs" to do before leaving which I sorted out in the morning. I had Marsala Dosa for breakfast which was fine - though I don't really like spicy things in the morning, did my Internet then went to the foreign parcel post office to send off my books. With the Bricklike LP-India it came to 1.75kg with the four books I sent home. Nice to lighten my load.
I took a long walk southwards towards Colaba -which is where I stayed in October when I arrived and had an ice-cream near the beach. It is very hot at the moment. There was a nice little park with a big statue of Ghandi that I thought would make a pleasant spot to read and reflect - but some sort of protest started up there. I didn't understand anything at all because their placards were all in Hindi and they were chanting slogans that had no meaning to me. It was only small - perhaps 30 people and a van load of police - perhaps 15 so it was never going to break out into a riot.
I ate a lot of small snacks throughout the day from street vendors and various shops. Just trying different tastes, well aware that it may be a long time before I get back here (if ever). I also visited many little book shops, just browsing. Books are very cheap (perhaps 30% of the price at home) and I was very tempted to buy a big stack of books and post them off sea mail. (But I didn't - because I can't decide that far in advance what books I want to read haha!!)
Late afternoon it was christmas evening at home. So I made a short phone call from a street phone just to say Hi and wish everyone a merry christmas. With hours to kill after sunset I set myself up in a coffee shop with an expensive cappucino and read my book. Over the few days I have been in Mumbai I have walked around this "fort/churchgate" are extensively and been talking to the various street vendors. There was one guy who was selling second hand books on a corner that I quite liked. I saw him setting up in the early mornings - pulling his array of books out of cardboard boxes with his cats (I assume they were his pets - who knows) rolling about and playing in the books and I had seen him in the evenings going through the laborious task of putting them all away again for the night.
He didn't have anything that I wanted to read - anyway I was carrying about 8 books by that stage and didn't want the wait. But now that I was lightening my load for the next trip and had decided what I wanted to keep and not I made him a gift of the last three books. He was very happy - they weren't worth much here maybe a couple of dollars. He asked my why I was giving him this gift and I said because I think what he is doing is really worthwhile and I want to support him. He isn't begging or scrounging or trying to sell useless trinkets and crap - I wished him luck and told him I hope he can build his business up one day.
In the evening I was a bit bored and lonely so I decided to go to the movies again. The alternative was to sit in a bar somewhere and have a beer, but I couldn't get in the mood for that. I saw "Fred Clause" which never promised to be anything exceptional - but the guy from "Sideways" was playing Santa and I like him and the guy who played "Lester Burnam" in American Beauty (what is his name) was also in it,
As expected it was pretty ordinary - but there was little else to create and christmas cheer. I got back to my room well after midnight and lay awake for a long time, happy enough and thinking about the days ahead. Probably because I had so much coffee I couldn't settle.
