Random Thoughts from India

This part of the country is flat F-L-A-T--flat! And I am from Saskatchewan, so I know flat. I mean this is watch-your-goat-run-away-for-6-days-standing-on-a-chapati flat! I can't imagine where the water goes when it rains. It must go into the soil. If you were to put the proper slope on an average sized parking lot here, the center would be the tallest hill for miles. I guess it makes it easy to make rice patties and there is no shortage of those.

Hair. These people know how to grow hair: long, thick, shiny, black hair--and not just the women! The men all have perfectly quaffed, Elvis-sized, thick, black hair. It is like there is some naturally occurring Minoxidil in the water. And it is not just that they all have a lot of it. Their hair is always clean and shiny and never seems to move in the wind. Maybe it is so thick that there is nowhere for it to move. I, on the other hand, had an emergency haircut 10 minutes before leaving for the airport, and it is the best thing that I could have done. (Thank you, thank you, thank you to my daughter for that!) Even with all my hair only 3/8 of an inch long, I somehow still manage to look like I have just been drug through a hedge backwards.

Sari's in the surf. It seems that bathing suits have not made it to southern India. We stopped at the beach where three seas meet. The sand part of the beach was very small and packed with people. Most were wading in the water, some swimming, but I was the only guy in a bathing suit. The women were in their saris, and the men were in pants or shorts. I am glad I didn’t bring my Speedo! The crowd seemed to part as I walked through, and there was no problem finding space to swim. They were all very polite, but you might have thought Moby Dick had just washed ashore with the stares I got. I would have been less conspicuous in a sari, I think.

Chipmunks! Yes, there are chipmunks in India! I guess there is no good reason that there shouldn’t be, but I was quite startled to see a couple of chipmunks running along the wall in front of my window this morning. I wonder what Alvin would sound like with an Indian accent?