Nagpur

Boy - "Do you know Michael Jackson?"

Me - "Yeh, he was a good singer"

Boy- "He was not a singer, he was a dancer. But he died of skin cancer and he was gay"

The city I have spent all day in...and hopefully that will be it. Not that it is a terrible city really, but at 4.5million people, its rather a shock from the village life of the past week.

I also got ripped off by an auto-rickshaw driver, and that made me angry. Not that the values involved were huge, but its the principle. He quoted me 10rs, the 4 other Indians in it paid 10rs, yet he wanted 100rs from me at the end. (its about $2)...I made a stand..and I know the Hindi for 10, and 100 (i have been trying to study!), so I understood the whole time, which made it even worse... in the end I paid him 50rs and walked off. Hopefully I caused enough hassle that he wont try it to a tourist again.

The conversation at the top happened today, and was while being led to the Post Office to post some stuff home. This young boy, maybe 12 just came up and asked if he could help. He was very friendly, and spent 20mins walking around with me, getting an envelope etc to make sure everything was ok. He even gave me 2rs to 'remember him by', and gave him 1penny (the only UK coin I had!)... So mum, this is a message to say that my swimming trunks, a pair of boxer shorts, a pair of socks, and some books by Gandhi and Bhave are on their way... nothing exciting I am afraid. Just stuff I dont want to carry around India for the next 5 months. (I have other socks and boxer shorts, dont worry)

And I forgot to mention the good news... the lens is fixed! 1000rs and 4 hours later, a guy in a little camera shop had sorted it. As long as that holds up, I will be very happy indeed. It saved me alot of effort and expense! I still haven't found a card reader at an internet cafe though, so no photos.