I am having the loose motions, stomach pain *and* a cold today (such a delightful way to cap off Ladies Holiday) and India is poised to play cricket against Pakistan, in Pakistan, for the first time in 13 years (when it rains it pours) -- so a short-but-sweet *meditation* will have to do:


CH-CH-.....

Change is the only predictable thing here but the other kind of change is hard to come by, hoarded once it's found, and given away only grudgingly. "No change!" is a common cry as small coins and notes are hot commodities indeed. There is a neverending game of chicken to see who will back down first -- shopkeeper or customer, ricksha wallah or rider, Internet clerk or browser -- and the winner is the one who can hold out the longest, without giving in to the disgusted, doom-laden downwards look of the wallah, or the exasperated, let's-get-on-with-it irratation of the foreigner.