53. Will I never learn???

My golden rule for travel: keep washing your hands, don't drink the water and don't eat salads.  And I always stick to it and my insides mostly behave themselves.

In a restaurant  yesterday, the westerners were all happily tucking into salads,  my companions assuring me its OK here - there's a sort of grapevine that says which places are OK to eat the salad.  The menu assured me that all their veg is washed with sterilised, boiled, filtered, sanitised and goodness only knows what else-ised water.  I asked the indian waiter for reassurance and he put his hand on his heart and with that little sideways waggle of his head said "oh yes madame, your health is our happiness, you will not get sick".  So I ate the salad that came with my lunch.  I only ate it because I thought it would do me good.

Ha ha.  Well you can guess the rest.


One of the things that makes me slightly sad about India is their fixation with image - and the image has to be as white as possible.  On TV all the soaps and ads and chat shows are full of gorgeous, white people dressed in fabulous clean clothes, all set in gorgeous opulent houses and studios.  To look at them you'd hardly know they were Indian and not european.  If you go into the shops to buy, eg, soap you are hard pushed to get one that doesn't promise to lighten your skin.  Its like going back to the Raj - the darker Indians are the ones who serve your meals and sweep your floor and beg on the streets.  Never forget the beggars.