I'm cold, tired and hungry. Not the vacation I thought this trip would be. Still, things could be worse. I COULD be covering stupid indi-rap concerts.

Man, Rajasthan is a f**king trippy place. And the villagers here lead a damn difficult life, especially the women. Trekking miles and miles just to get drinking water is something I could never ever do. And the child marriage ceremony was just bizarre. All in all, a rewarding experience so far. Maybe it had to do with the lack of creature comforts.

PS: Drinking liquid opium flowing from another man's hand isn't all that bad.

With a map and a compass in hand...

I'm embarking on a long trip tomorrow. I admit I am quite lucky to be able to experience the cultural and geographic landscape of North India so intimately. Many things I wish for in this journey, safety and knowledge being the two most important. I hope to learn as much as I can from the masters who I will be accompanying. And in all this frenetic travel, maybe I'll emerge a wiser and much happier person than I was when I first went in.

Eat this, Darwin!

Today, I saw a clip of George Bush which just blew my mind. My brain has been reduced to a gooey mess, and I'm still struggling to come to terms with what I just saw.

A reporter asked him, "What are your views on evolution?"
He replies, in all seriousness, "Well, when it comes to evolution, the jury's still out."

What jury?!? Where?!? When the leader of the free world says things like that, I have a hard time sleeping knowing that he controls over 12,000 nukes and could set them off whenever he thought the time was right.

Obama can't take over soon enough according to me.

Telly tubbies

I've given up on television. After careful consideration, I've come to the conclusion that it's a source of inane drivel spouted by self-declared prophets of the new age. The blasted thing had me trapped in its treacherous tentacles during my youth, and I, like a fool, was completely oblivious to it. No more.

But maybe, just maybe, television was something more interesting than what its mutated into today. Back in those days, music channels played music, and movie channels played movies. They all did what they were created to do and they did it well. Look at the tube now, its ridiculous. Music channels screen "reality shows", movie channels screen "reality shows", leisure channels screen "reality shows" etc etc. I honestly don't understand why anyone would pay good money to watch complete strangers live their lives. How boring does your own life have to be really?

And then there's the mother of all that is banal, soap operas. I'm always overcome with unbelievable rage and irritation when one of these is screened in close proximity.

The only worthwhile things to watch would be nature documentaries and sports. And I'm not a big fan of the former so its just sports for me.

A really funny quote I came across today (courtesy of The Great Bong):

"“Rock On” is an unapologetic chick flick. For guys. Which makes it technically a “dick flick”. Which is why I hoped it would have been called “Cock On” , if for nothing else than for the sake of truth in labeling."