kindness

I just finished a lovely, romantic, candlelit dinner. “Do tell,” I hear you saying. Well, my electricity has been out since this morning. Men from the electric company/department (I’m not sure how electricity is managed here) came tonight at 7:45 PM, pulled some wires, and determined the pole holding up my electrical wire is faulty. It was too late at that point for them to do anything, so they will return tomorrow morning to fix it. I went to the market today to buy a torch (aka flashlight) because I had a feeling this might be the outcome.

Oddly enough, this actually IS romantic (e.g.; idyllic) to me! Akin to my bus experience in coming to Palampur, I enjoy a bit of unexpected adventure. Let me tell you about my bus experience while I’m at it. I was meant to take a luxury overnight bus from Delhi to Palampur. Little did I know that my bus ticket had NOT been purchased in advance and, much to my chagrin, there were no tickets available when we arrived at the bus depot. Intense discussion Hindi mé (i.e.; in Hindi) ensued and I ended up on the government bus. This was definitely not a luxury liner: the minimally padded seats came up to the base of my neck and did not recline. Jonathan kindly bought three seats or one row for me so I could have my baggage next to me. That meant I had 1-1/2 seats left for me. Once we set out, I quickly ascertained that my seat was directly below the horn, positioned on the side of the bus, which the driver used liberally. But I liked the adventure in setting out in that way. I felt badly to be taking up three seats when there were people crammed in other parts of the bus and I was glad to be arriving by the local means of transportation. (All that being said, I’ll opt for the luxury liner next time!) AIF’s trusty employee, Sirjit, ensured that a couple ladies on the bus would look after me and they did – standing guard outside the toilets at rest stops and inviting me to eat dinner with them.

I sat through a meeting in Hindi today and was grateful for the Indian Canadian sitting next to me that translated the general gist of the conversation into English. We discussed a proposal for clean drinking water in Palampur. The water here is unpotable and too dirty to write about. In fact, I’m concerned my boiling and filtering plan may be ill-conceived. I’m not sure I want that water anywhere near my lips after what I heard today! I might get involved in developing a business plan for an ecotourism outfit to provide funds to maintain the water improvement project.

Well, my candle is dwindling so I think it’s time for bed.