Thursday, Dec. 23rd 2004, 8:13pm

Yesterday I met up with the woman who'd been my Panjabi teacher out at UBC ~2 years ago, and her husband from the Punjab who will be moving to Canada in the next few months. Also I met two friends of hers from Vancouver who are also traveling around India. We'll all travel to Punjab by deluxe bus on the 28th.

We went for lunch and so-forth, all very nice, except that my health has been on the decline. A couple of days previous 'the runs' had started in, and by yesterday morning my skin was starting to feel sensitive. I had a very small lunch, and by the night was starting to shiver. Last night was one of those ...nightmarish long lucid nights. I hit the sack around 9pm, and tossed and turned, little dreams(?) replaying themselves incessantly while I tried to find a comfortable way to sleep. At about 1am my neighbour decided to do his/her laundry... and once that finished I went back to my fitful and sweaty slumber until about 5am when someone downstairs decided to bring out their anvil and forge a sword or something - that's what it sounded like anyway. After that quit I managed to sleep until about 8:45am. I got up, my skin still sensitive and a new phlemy cough having developed, and walked over to the two Canadians' place 35mins away in Janpath. We spent a few hours wandering around, eventually hopping a rickshaw back to Pahargange where I'm staying. We were headed down the bazaar toward my hotel when we stopped in at this very internet cafe. They waited outside while I checked on CD burning costs - they started at Rs 20 for the CD and Rs 80 for the service, but quickly folded when I offer 20/40. When I emerged my two companions were having a conversation with a Sikh fellow who was offering Rs 1000 each for two of us to participate in a commercial, apparently for Air India. In the end we decided to go for it. I would just accompany, and they would do the bit. The fellow said he'd include lunch, tea/coffee, and the ride to the shoot and back again.

We took off and eventually wound up on a southern campus affiliated with the Delhi University. We spent about 4 hours sitting around waiting while things slowly geared up, sipping chai and wishing time would speed up slightly. It turned out not to be a commercial, but a short commedy bit directed by none other than the legendary Jaspal Bhatti. For those of you who know nothing of the Indian film industry, this would be sort of like the Oliver Stone or Stephen Spielberg of Indian commedy. It was in fact a bit that will be about two or three minutes long, and will air at about 10:30pm, Dec 31st, on Aaj Tak news channel's 'What If' humour segment. It was a spoof about what it would be like if Bihar state's chief minister Lalu Prasad became the president of America. He's evidently got a reputation for being a somewhat unorthadox public figure, often dressing strangely and so on. I took lots of pictures...

In the end I got as close as a camera check up with the rest of the cast, but they really weren't fond of having three white people, it was a bit too crowded... or maybe I didn't look quite right, anyway, I just hung out taking pictures and shivering. The other guys did get their Rs 1000, out of which they insisted on giving me Rs 500 for my company and for the apparent fact that they would have expected similar treatment if I had been chosen in favor of one of them. And, we got our rides back to our respective areas of town. A pretty interesting experience all round, and an unexpected adventure!

So, I'm feeling pretty rough... chills, shivering, a growly stomach with almost zero appetite, and this cough/sore throat. Hopefuly things will improve soon eh? I dunno.

Alright, take care all!

dharma