Musings of an Idiot

Delhi Belly

Today has been a hectic day but at the same time really fruitful. I am getting my international driving licence sorted out and hopefully will get it by mid-jan.

Later in the day I also met up with Uday uncle - the person who gave me the opportunity to break into media in the first place. I worked with him for a couple of years before coming over to NZ. When I was here I was assisting him in writing scripts for docos as well as t.v. serials. I was the production manager and assistant director on a major documentary and then I was liasioning with the hindi and english publishers to sort out various things related to Uday uncle's literary works. So my time with him was a major learning curve but at the same time was the reason I am where I am today. We were supposed to meet up at 1.00 but he got delayed because of a poetry recitation he had at Delhi University. So Lance and me went to Auliya's dargah in Nizamuddin - the place where I find myself to be at peace with myself. It was a soothing experience visiting that place after 3 years.

While going to the Dargah, Lance and me tried to catch a bus but it was near impossible because I have lost the habit of climbing into a slowly moving bus and I think Lance as amazed at the short amount of time the bus stopped. We ended up taking an autorickshaw, which Lance loved heaps, so much so that he wants to drive an autorickshaw for a living incase he settles in India.

After the visit to the Dargah, we came back to Connaught Place, where we finally caught up with Uday uncle and Majhar Kamran, who is one of bollywood's top cinematographers. At that point Lance also caught 'Delhi belly' and spent a fair amount of our meeting time in the toilets. He seems to have stabilized for now but is still on shaky ground.

Public transportation in Delhi is definitely cheap compared to either Hong Kong or Auckland. A 25 KM Metro ride from our place to C.P costs NZ$ 0.50 each, which is pretty economical by any standards. It is definitely the 'economies of scale' which comes to play - because there is such a huge population, one can price the product cheaper so that more people use it and recovering costs and making profits is not such a big deal. India is a price sensitive market and whoever offers the best product for the cheapest prices wins the market.

Tomorrow is going to be a relatively more relaxed day with nothing planned for half the day and then we will be catching up with my old friends. Hopefully Lance will be a lot more stable by that point. The people who know me seem to think that I have gone thinner than before which is a nice compliment but will get to know the truth once I catch up with my friends.

Adios for now,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 10:08 PM