"this is as young, and as free, as you'll ever be" -- gregory david roberts

i'm reading a book right now called SHANTARAM. it's written by a man, gregory david roberts, who escaped from prison in australia and ended up working for the underlords of bombay in the '80s. and it's fantastic. this guy puts a lot of what i feel about india, and can't express, into words. and sometimes we use the same words to express india. the first chapter explains how his first impression of india was formed by the wall of smells that hit him on the walk from the plane to the exit of the airport. sound familiar? this book is excellent, if a bit kitchy/preachy/poem-ish at times, and i recommend it. because i like that kind of stuff.
of course, being that he was/is a dude, a prison hardened dude with nothing to lose at that, a lot of his experiences are quite the more adventurous than mine. more than that, though, i think that his impressions of india, more specifically the men of india, are a lot different given that he was/is a dude. he put a lot of trust in men who i wouldn't have wanted to give the time of day. not that they would have asked me for the time. that's not one of the questions i've gotten. and he got a lot of respect from men, not just indian men admittedly, but dudes in general, who wouldn't have found me useful in their dark little crime-worlds. it makes me sad. i can be useful to crime lords, too! :)
i do love india, but it's like being on mars, really. mars, where people speak english, so you therefore get a clear glimpse into the stunning array of differences that human cultures can cook up. nothing is lost in translation. that's right. that's what they meant. everything is just that unbelieveably strange. and moustached.

a girl plopped down next to me a few days ago as i was eating ice cream and reading my book outside an ice cream store in ahmedabad. we chatted it up a bit, in broken english. she thought my name was "alien". she worked in marketing. her friend from work arrived a few minutes later and the two of them tried to sell me a "sauna belt" *as seen on tv, for shaping the waist, for the bargain price of 550 rupees ($11 US). the thing was huge. i've got enough to carry. do i look like i need a sauna belt? she said that i did. i said it was just the ice cream. and she and her friend left in a huff when i resisted their repeated urging that i buy the contraption.

i have had very nice luck recently with very nice older indian men. one was the security guard at the ice cream store. too many people in india amounts to old men getting paid to be security guards at the local ice cream store. but he took care of me and insisted that i move when the sun started to come in my face and plugged in a fan for me and refilled my water bottle with ice cold water and got me a taxi home when i was done. then, another wonderful old man took me past all the touts at the train station in rajasthan to ride in a small rickshaw with me to the local, but inconspicuous bus stand where i needed to get a bus into pushkar, where i am now. i have felt well taken care of by the retired men of india.

pushkar is amazing. just amazing.

the locals think i'm spanish. cool.

i don't like to talk to strangers on trains and planes and stuff. i just like to read or sleep or stare at the scenery. it's hard in india because lots of folks want to chat you up and i can't feel good about shaking them off. so for fun yesterday i told a woman on the train to rajasthan that i was a doctor. a brain surgeon. heehee! it's not too much different than my normal train-lying. the story that i give to men travelling alone who i meet on trains: my name is stacy. i've been married for three years. my husband, steve, is an engineer or a business man. he used to be in the u.s. army and then he worked as a body guard for imporant political figures for a while. we don't have any kids yet, but yes, we are praying for sons. he is coming to meet me in (insert name of city where i'm arriving). we're arriving separately because he had a special martial arts training seminar to teach this week in washington d.c. oh that steve. always on the go.

anyway, check out the UPDATED PHOTOS!!! finally!! for fun glimpses at elephants, birthday parties, my stellar swami costume, yoga, meal times, and varpus . . . you'll see . . .