"You Just Quit Your Job"...

---

...Jack stated as we were driving to the airport. Those were the only words I heard in what I'm sure was a much longer narrative. Up until then I had viewed this whole episode down to being about travelling to India for awhile. It was now given a more biting focus. Oh well.

Greetings from Delhi, India where the "green" movement has not yet gathered forward momemtum- in fact it is full speed in reverse.

I guess I made a friend on the plane. About halfway through dinner the 70 year old Indian woman reached over without warning and snatched my cloth napkin from my lap. She then proceeded to make it into a bonnet on her head because she was apparently cold. Her napkin was soaking wet from the champagne she had spilled all over it minutes before. I then had the privelege of filling out her immigration card because she couldn't read or write. At least that is what I gathered from the 10 words of broken English she spoke. I'm sure she had trouble at immigration because I only filled in half of the form based on her passport information.

This place appears to be loosely organized chaos- all cliches are alive and kicking.

On the way from the airport, my driver was kind enough to point out several 5 star hotels. We then pulled up to mine. I thought we were just cutting through the alleys as shortcuts. Not so. The hotel is actually pretty nice. Friendly staff, clean rooms and a/c - all for $12 a night.

After the "bellboy" showed me to my room, he asked in a hushed voice if I would like a beer. I figured why not and so he brought one to my room. Apparently beer is considered contraband in the hotel because when I tried to take it out to the hotel rooftop cafe to drink he handed me a plastic shopping bag to wrap around the bottle. Drinking out of a brown paper bag now seems classy. At that point I just decided to take it back to my room.

Forgive the lack of cohesiveness. I am tired.

---