Gotcha!

I know this is a serious matter but once again the newspaper has a habit of giving a worrying story a touch of Monty Python ...

NEW DELHI: Kolkata, Mumbai and the national capital, besides Gujarat, (Besides Gujurat?)have been put on high alert following intelligence inputs that Taliban-trained terrorists have sneaked (on tip-toe?) into these cities to target vital installations.
A top Union Home Ministry official today said that Taliban-trained 'fidayeen' (suicide squad) have entered the country to carry out attacks at "specific" installations ... He said the police forces have been put on high alert following the inputs and efforts are on to nab (Gotcha!) the terrorists at the earliest. - PTI in The Times of India

White Tiger

There are alot of people with something to sell in India. No where more so than in the street, or rather on the road. Most, sadly, are kids or teenagers who wait for traffic lights to turn red before brazenly leaping out, weaving between cars with athletic intent to try and get passengers to buy something to alleviate the boredom of being stuck in another traffic jam. They sell everything from mosquito swatters to magazines. The most impressive are the book-sellers who balance stacks of plastic-wrapped novels so high you cant see their faces. "Books Sir, books madam" they insist and persist at the window. It's the bombard-them-until-they-crack school of salesmanship because they only have a few minutes to convince you that life is not worth living without that Salman Rushdie paperback.

Tonight, stuck in Delhi's obligatory evening traffic, I saw an elegantly-suited arm appear from the back of a slick, shiny Mercedes waving around some one hundred rupee notes. The mysterious passenger was buying a copy of Aravind Adiga's "White Tiger". Now, if you have read "White Tiger" you'll understand the bitter-sweetness of the moment.

Loving Mumbai

Slow blogging

Shamefully I have not updated this blog for weeks. However, feeling less guilty after reading about "slow-blogging" in the Times of India today. Apparently it's all about updating a blog only when you really have something to say. Slow-blog is the future.

Delhi half-marathon update (last one)

I made it. Just.

My big crush

I'm in love with an Ambassador. Not a dusty, old, diplomat but the 'King of the Indian roads' - the Ambassador car. Hindustan Motors have been making the plump vehicles for more than fifty years. The cushioned bench-style seats have just enough bounce to protect the traveler from India's generously pot-holed roads and there's something so Ealing comedy about them. Friends think we're mad to want to buy an Ambassador. It may be an Indian icon but it's the bottom of the motor-owners' foodchain just above a rickshaw. A Toyota is most Delhi drivers idea of a see-and-be-seen number not an old school bureaucrats car. The Indian government travel in white ones, taxi drivers pick you up in black ones but I'm in love with a silver one spotted outside the very swish Aman hotel. The hotel has bought a fleet of silver Ambassadors and converted them to meet international travelers' luxurious demands. Cream leather interiors and polished walnut dashboards. All to ferry about hideously lucky guests who probably wish they were in a Toyota.