republic day

halloo!

well, today is "twenty-sixth jan".....republic day! everything in delhi is closed....so what to do?

there is a huge parade, closing off almost all the sity's major roads, impossible to get anywhere other than where you are. on the way to paharganj this morning from the train station we had to speed in order to make it through. we had to go through many police checkpoints, but they did not search us. i am safely here at the "yes sir!" guest house.

the train ride was...ummm...interesting, and NOT interesting, both. at first, i was all alone n my compartment area. except i had a friendly mouse that actually came up on the seat next to me, causing me to jump! i wish it would have crawled in my lap and snuggled, but i scared it off with ym scream. then at night came a group of 4 young women, each carring a type of cloth bag. they had some paint on their foreheads extending down to their noses. different than normal. i asked about the bags and was told they are "bead bags". hmm, still i was unsure. and THEN, they started clapping an dsinging together. it became apparen that they were HAre Krisna's...VERY interesting. they were on their way to a har krisna festival in pune. they had some intersting snacks, and i asked what they were. immediaitely, i had a plate of said snacks for myself to try. it was some roti's (flatbread), some papadam (crispy masala flat bread) and what looked like crisco. so, i dipped the roti in the crisco only to find it was exactly like cake icing, very sweet. the roti had some veggies in it and was absolutely delicious. i told them so, and one girl leaned over and said, "it tastes so good because it is an offering to krisna!" i raised my eyebrows and smiled. then they kept offering me more and more and i had to refuse!!!

i woke up to find new people in the compartment. i was sleeping n the top berth, so i climbed down and sat in the seat next to mine as some guy was sitting in my seat. i thought, no biggie, he's in my seat, i'll sit in his. the woman across from me gave me the MEANEST look, and her husband leaned over and said "someone is sitting there." i looked at the guy next to me and said "well, he is sitting in my seat." mind you, there was PLENTY of room on the bench for all of us. so i asked the guy, "where is your seat?" and he says "i have no seat". meaning, he is riding the train for free. so these jerks across from me were mad at me for sitting on the bench when this guy didn't even have a ticket! the whole rest of the trop (over 24 hours) these 2 people gave me mean looks, didn't talk to me, were rude...ugh!!! and the dude without a ticket...he STARED at me the whole time, i mean...the WHOLE time. i would be reading and inadvertently look up, and he'd be staring at me. i caught him trying to look up my skirt on the sly one time, prentending he was asleep. hope he liked looking at the pants i had on underneath my skirt. then another guy came and joined the group and he stared at me too! it was awful. these indians are like 12 yr olds when it comes to women...they are so immature it is ridiculous! finally after a sleepless night last night, around 3am i got up and moved all my stuff to a diferent place just to get away from the bad vibes.

but now i am here...not sure what to do today because of the holiday. i guess i will go see if i can see the parade, but you know how it is with parades, esp if you are short like i am. but on the tv, the announcer said this parade is unlike a parade the WORLD has ever seen. sounds tempting, doesn't it???

then tomorrow i will go shopping and please...lord help my gluttony tomorrow. i know it is sick, i know it.


ttfn
jo