A Day of Rest

I'm currently reading "The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell". It is an interesting book, with many words, and an insight into one of the great minds of before my time. His journal entries (originally in Greek! The ancient kind, I think - but he's translated them) are especially interesting - instead of bemoaning life and love, he wonders about metaphysics and God and immortality, in a typically adolescent way.

What did I do yesterday? I drank 2 (two) beers (Corona!) and ate a burger. I know, it's like living in India without the Indians, or Indian culture! The place I was in (Connaught Place, in Delhi) is like a kind of slice of western civilisation (and I originally just put civilisation there, adding the western to be PC. But longterm, or really, any kind of traveller to India will know what I am getting at. People who haven't been, but have notions of "intelligence" or "worldliness" will probably find that comment rude or degrading. But they are muppets). I was very glad for the existence of some semblance of a pub.

I met a Frenchy the day before, well, really Swiss, but his accent was quite French. He's a friend of my cousin Lavenya, and works for the Red Cross here in India. He checks out on the state of prisoners of the Jammu-Kashmir conflict, and was quite entertaining! Went out for dinner at a nosh-posh place, and drank some Indian wine. Which wasn't bad at all, really.
As for his accent - when he said he lived in "the defence colony"I had to ask him how to spell "defence".
"Eeet ees joost 'ow 'ou wood spell eet een eenglish!" he remarked. Sorry, reemarked.
"urm, ok", and then I proceeded to write down d-e-s-a-n-t-s. My auto driver had no idea what colony I was talking about, and took me to Connautht Place. Very enterprising, but not quite the right area!
Several calls later, and I finally made it over to Nikolai's place. I don't actually know if that's the right spelling, I sure 'ope so! Also met a chap from the BBC, who covers Nepal, and another person who does interior decorating in India. Indians are into all things western, and, I am told, Westerners are into all things Indian. Except dust, I hope!

Onto another topic, does anyone at the BBC realise how sad it is that, on their "cricket" page, their most consistent link is one entitled:
Ashes review - relive England's winning summer
Get over it England! It was more than a year ago! My god, there must be something else you've won in the last ye... oh, there isn't? Oh well, fair enough then.

And the unicyclists have made it into Lahore!! And they will be back on monday evening... oh, wait, I just realised I never wrote about the unicyslists. Ok then, I probably should. It's amusing, really, to think that they may well be sitting around the computer, anxiously reading these very words, just waiting, WAITING, I say, to read about themselves on my blog.
Well, I'm sorry, but this posting isn't the one, gang. No, I won't be swayed by offers of any kind, you'll just have to cycle back before I start writing about you. But you came close!

Anyway, warmest congratulations to Siddarth (the Una-cycler - is the spelling right?) and Ben (the Una-Bi-cycler!) and to Samyukta (the Bi-cycler!), their parents Rajan & Devika, and to anyone else involved in what must have been an arduous, fun and story-for-the-grandkids adventure. In comparison, I've done nothing much at all, so you can really get a feel for what they're doing with their lives!

Finally, best wishes to an extremely good friend's mum who is under the weather right now. She's a wonderful, strong-willed, capable lady, and I hope that the future finds her very well very soon.

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Just read the usual rubbish from Miranda Devine, and though today was different as she trumpeted education (even using an Indian comparison! v.Good!) which I do agree with wholeheartedly, she didn't let me down. At the end was the usual rah-rah rubbish of bemoaning the loss of australian cricket players to Basketball.
I can remember the SAME ISSUE years back, when I was a littlee, about cricket players moving to basketball. It's been about a decade or so since, and we still have cricket players, and a good team, and heck, I now even follow cricket!

All this worrying about the need to "stave off the assault from basketball" and "Cricket is part of our cultural heritage" is rubbish. Our cultural heritage has been about winning sporting matches, regardless of the sport. I don't see people complaining about the growth of soccer and a decline (I hope, anyway) of rubbish like AFL or footie or whatever people play with those funny shaped balls.

I should round off with a frank expression of bball (as the cool kids say) as the dullest game imaginable. In the true american tradition, points are scored with ease, enough for anyone with even a crippling case of ADD to remain fixated by flashing lights and fancy colours. If there is anything to be bemoaned by the growth of bball, it should probably be the growth of American-style Advanced ADD in the youth. Maybe that last point is old-person nonsense, but I stand by the description of bball. Or even "ball" as some people call it, I suppose the word "basket" or letter "b" is just too much these days.