The Indian Currency

The Indian currency is probably the most used and abused currency in the world. Some notes look like they emerged from an archaeological dig.

And the reason could be either that the note has traveled a long way or has traveled for a long time.

And the banks probably account for this sorry state of affairs.

Observe this.

You go to the bank to change your money.

You are given the change.

100 hundred rupees notes in wads.

Fine.

The wad is stapled together at the watermark.

Fine.

There is a hole made through the entire wad (also in the watermark area).

A string is put through the entire wad.

After a few staplings and stringing the entire area around the watermark has become a sorry site with holes hither and thither.

Further damage is done as you pull apart the staples ( we are talking heavy duty stapling here)

Further damage is done as you pull out the string.

It is in a sorry state. Some notes reek of ghee and other Indian smells.

But they are still legal currency.

And you would be well advised to leave the notes in India when you return.

Spend them.

Use them.

And when all else fails, give them to a beggar.

It is better to gain merit then pollute your cupboard.

The Rocking Wall

This will go into my X –files.

The Sikh Temple is called Chulnay Mahal. (I hope I got the name correct)

It has been touted as a miracle.

It does not dissappoint.

The priest says a few words while you sit on a wall.

And the wall shakes once.

The tremor is real.

A checking of the wall finds no tomfoolery anywhere about.

Chew on this, Scully

Eating Out.

The tasty morsels are called gol guppas. The man standing at the street corner serves them to you after dipping them into a solution. The Indians I watched eating them enjoyed themselves. Each was personally dipped into the solution by the vendor.

Nobody asked if his hands had been washed. Or what he had done manually before dipping them .Nobody complained about the flies buzzing about the gol guppas before they were dipped and handed over.

Indians remain suckers for gol guppas , swallowing them with a brimful of bacteria.

I declined the gol guppas. Not for me the dreaded Delhi belly.

The Land of the Kama Sutra.

Ten years ago kissing was banned in the cinemas. Indians were totally orthrodox.

But don’t bet on that now.

While browsing at the bookshop near the hotel I was offered the " Saab, you won't regret buying these magazines" line.

The magazines with names like Debonair had nude cetrefolds with Indian women in various stages of undress and another ( I can't remember the title now ) had full frontal nudity. Move over Playboy, India has gone local.

Toilet Complex.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Maybe the spelling was bad or something but just across the Railway Station in Delhi I saw a building with "Toilet Complex " gracing its walls.