Random Thoughts

Here is a new feature I plan to introduce a la Saturday Night Live "Deep Thoughts"

Moving to India is a bit like the first year of marriage. Sometimes you just want to throw your hands up and say: Why the HELL do you do it that way?

Okay I must explain a bit of what I mean. Example: Why do all drivers here send you a "missed call" -- that's to say, let a phone ring once and then hang up -- instead of calling properly to say they have arrived? Why risk losing a Rs. 50 tip over the one rupee that phone call costs you?

Another question: Can some demographer -- preferably Delhi-based -- please explain the system of letters and numbers on houses? Like some houses are in the A1 block, while others are simply A. Some neighborhoods have all the even houses in one area and the odd ones (or the next in a sequence) might be several kilometers away. (Although this is still more progressive than Assam, which seems to lack any system of blocks, numbers and letters. We used to cruise around in auto-rickshaws asking strangers if they knew where {insert pet nicknames for uncles and aunts, from Bubul to Engineer Mama} because my parents never remembered proper names.)