Akshardham

Friday, my last day at work was slightly sentimental. After work, one of my team members took me to a fabulously grandiose temple called Akshardam belonging to the Swarminarayin movement. During the period of Diwali, the temple exhibits a special display of candles in its giant courtyard. Ten thousand candles actually. And they are replaced every day.

Panir

I've just eaten the best chilli panir I've ever had. I congratulated the waiter in the hotel restaurant and extended my compliments to the chef. The waiter brought the restaurant manager over to my table and I congratulated him and extended my compliments to the chef. The restaurant manager brought the chef out of the kitchen to my table and I got to congratulate him in person. I would have shaken his hand, but my hand was covered in chilli panir and butter. The chef is Nepalese and is a Buddhist. I wonder if he'll give me the recipe?

Traffic

Ok, I think I may have figured out the road law in India. Although terrifying, it's remarkably simple and intuitive. There are only two rules, which are as follows:

1. Give way to anything bigger than yourself
   And, conversely, if you are bigger than the other traffic, you have right of way.
   
   
2. Use of signals is not necessary
   When joining a main road, just drive straight out without looking. It is the responsibility of oncoming traffic to avoid any collision. Likewise, when changing lanes, pull out without looking. Any overtaking traffic would have already blown their horn/flashed their headlights to let you know that they intend to pass.

Reputation

Today I went and hung out with Janardan again, which has basically been weekend routine here in Gujarat. After we got back to his house, I found that 2000 rupees was missing from my wallet. While we were out, the only people left in the house were his parents and three maid-servants who were cleaning in preparation for Diwali. Janardan was really shocked when I told him. 2000 rupees is about £25, which isn't that much. What bothered me was the bad karma the girl (presumably) is creating for herself. Just think if the girl had said "I see you have lots of money. can you give me 2000 please? It's to buy some food for my family, and I'll blow the rest on alcohol 'cos I love getting drunk." Then she gets the good karma of truthfulness and avoiding stealing, and I get the good karma of generosity.

Anyhows, the next day Janardan's mum came into my room, in tears, with a maid-servant who was also in tears. They both blarbed lots of stuff in Hindi with the occasional English word 'reputation' and handed me my 2000 rupees back. I offered 500 back to the girl but they staunchly refused.

When Janardan got back from his early-morning meditation, he explained that one of the maid-servants had brought their relative with them and it was the relative who had taken the money. Jana said that his dad had threatened police action which would have serious consequences - no one would trust the maid-servants any more and they'd all loose their jobs and so on. Seems this panicked the relative into coughing up the money.

Baldev

This evening, the delivery manager from the office invited me to his house for dinner. He and his family are Sindhi and had prepared Sindhi cuisine for me.

Had I gone to my boss's house back home, he would have talked at me about cars and I would have made puerile jokes. At Baldev's house, however, we talked about the nature of mind, the commonalities between world religions, the purpose of life, the nature of infinity and mystical experiences found in deep meditation. Baldev also showed me his shrine room which featured images of Krishna, Ram, Ganesha, Gautama the Buddha, and a number of Hindu saints, which I understand were actually his ancestors.

During the course of the evening, and even the next day at work, Baldev repeatedly commended me on my interest in spirituality and was profoundly overjoyed that I had visited his house. On one level, the difference between our two cultures if bigger than I thought.

Rum

After work, I went to the "Wine Shop" in the Haveli Hotel for the third time. This time, I had my passport, a photocopy of my passport, a photocopy of my Indian visa and a signed letter from my hotel stating that I was a resident there. A stamp was put in my passport from the Sub Inspector of the Prohibition and Excise department, stating the reference number of my new "Tourist's Permit to possess, consume use and buy Foreign Liquor for Personal Consumption".

I was then allowed to enter the "Wine Shop", which was basically like squeezing into the cellar at your grandma's house, except it's 35 degrees Celsius. Everything in there was made-in-India. I didn't see any wine. I was allowed to buy two bottles of spirits only, so I got a bottle of Rum and a bottle of Vodka.

Back in the hotel, tried to make Caipirinha by mixing lime juice, sugar and Rum. After drinking it, on an empty stomach no less, nothing happened. And then about an hour later my brain stopped working. I couldn't type or think straight, but I did feel relatively euphoric.

The next morning at work, my brain still wasn't working. I could type again, but I couldn't explain anything or remember words. Maybe that's what the authorities had in mind... to deter people from the evils of alcohol.

Kurta

It's the run-up to Diwali this week, which is like Christmas for Indians. For a bit of fun, the staff in the office will wear traditional Gujarati clothes today.

Last night I went clothes shopping to I could be part of the fun. Imagine being in the changing rooms at your local swimming baths. Except it's the size of bathroom. And it's packed full of men, women and children. And they're all screaming. Yes, this is what the clothes shop was like. But they sorted me out.

I also went across the road to buy decorations because yesterday was decorate-your-cubicle day, which we forgot. The decorations shop also sold "toys" and "ornaments", all, of which, were entirely devoid of quality and taste. I was hoping I could indulge my kitsch fetish in this shop, but sadly I didn't find anything which was actually criminal.

You can see the outcome in this amusing video I made for my boss...