I wondered after I signed off last night if a narrative of what I did and what I saw gives the right impression of my time here. I was actually quite happy with all the difficulties over the last few days in the sense that I had put myself well outside my comfort zone and was going through quite a deep psychological and emotional experience. I was forever saying to myself - what is the best way to cope here. How else could I react. Does it matter how I react. Is the money important, is my pride important, am I wasting my time.
Travelling with some younger people (mid 20's) and with an Israeli was really interesting. I found myself in the position that no doubt Peter had to put up with when travelling with me - asking myself why do these people put themselves through this when it could be so much easier if they just opened their wallets and got on with it. I also noted how much more comfortable they all were with haggling over what I considered to be very small amounts of money. My identity somehow makes me feel that being petty about small amounts dimishes me more than the money is worth. But I see now that isn't the point - in many ways the haggling and complaining and challenging is taking up the challenge of the Indians and in someways it is a much better way of participating in the culture than sitting in air con comfort at a coffee shop eating muffins. This is really well described in "A passage to India" with a few scenes of the English at their club sipping whiskey and lamenting they can't find the "real India".
So to continue the story ...
In brief I got little sleep in the shoe box, got up at 6:30 and went out into the street looking for somewhere to sit and have breakfast - though nothing was open. Just the same sleeping people and piles of rubbish. Many men though sorting and separating piles of today's newspapers setting them out on the ground. I saw a very large dead rat on the footpath near a pile of foodscraps and I wondered what the rat had eaten from the pile that had caused its demise.
I found an open Internet place quite early (around 8) and it turned out Julian was online so I spend some time chatting to him. I a bit felt melancholy after we'd finished. I look forward to seeing the boys when we meet up after Christmas.
I had a very nice tomato omelette (Southern India style the menu said) then went back to my hotel, packed and checked out. I moved to a place about 1km away but in the same district. About 75% of the price - but I big high ceilinged double room. Much better.
