Well, last night I managed to see a cool indian movie! It was actually a Bengali movie, not a hindi one. The difference being that it's not "bollywood", it's made in calcutta. (Bollywood is west coast, Bombay). Anyway, it was actually quite good. It made me laugh in places where it was actually SUPPOSED to be funny! The humour was corny, but actually pretty good. The story was as follows. Raju like Rena, but Rena likes kickboxing champ, Ronnie, who recently beat Raju's brother Rana in the inter-college championships. Raju borrows car and money from Govinda, who is secretly in love with him, and pretends to be super cool hotshot to get Rena to like him. Eventually Raju gets found out and humiliated in front of everyone. Rena goes off with Ronnie, and raja gets in fight during which not one single punch or kick is in synch with the cheap casio keyboard sound effects that accompany them. Rana has to save him. Ronnie is pissed of, so runs over Rana, who can no longer take part in championship fight with Ronnie. Raju decides to avenge brother by taking his place in fight and sets about becoming world class kickboxer in the space of a week through the cunning use of rocky style training scene. Raju beats the shit out of ronnie in the ring, everyone cheers (in the cinema) and then Raju tells govinda he loves her (everyone cheers again). The End.

Pretty cool huh! And check this out, when the film finished, everyone started pushing towards the exits, but i thought I'd just wait until it had dies down a bit. When i finally walked out the door into the corridor I walked straight into an Indian guy who I recognised "Alright?" I said and nodded at him, and he smiled and nodded back. Then i realised where I knew him from... it was Ronnie! The bad guy from the movie! I turned back to sneak a second peek.... he wasn't nearly as scary in real life.... :)

This morning i had another bout of diorreah. I'm getting a bit sick of it now, but the thought of having to provide a stool sample is still putting me off visiting a doctor (see earlier entries). But i've bought some immodium now, so at least I have emergency precautions! I was discussing with a few travellers last night some of the interesting things that people start collecting when they travel. One girl had collected buttons from all the different countries and sowed them to her shirt..another had collected one bead from each country and made a necklace... I told them that i was collecting diseases, as they are easy to carry. The extra exciting thing about this is that i won't know the full extent of my collection until I actually return home and get some tests done! Ooooh the anticipation! I feel like I could burst! Oh no...wait...that's the diorreah....

I gave my clothes to the guy from my guesthouse yesterday to get them washed. Today he gave them back.... about twice as dirty as when I gave them to him! Not just "dirty", but with BIG stains on them of a brown nature! I gave them back to him to wash again, although i don't know if this was really a good idea. Oh well, i needed to buy some new clothes anyway. Perhaps I'll give up my role of undercover hippy and become a new-age part-time pseudo hippy like everyone else. I'll buy a top from nepal, trousers from thailand, and ethiopian necklace with a lions claw in it, a string of wooden beads, an anklet with a "om" sign on it, and most impotantly of all, one of those shoulder bags made out of hemp that are really impractical to carry. :) I have to admit, i was walking through the market just now, and I was very tempted to buy some "real" indian clothes. "Real" indian clothes, i.e the ones that indians wear, are the kind of clothes that you buy at the market in England. No name brands of polo necked shirts, maybe with a little lightning flash logo on the front, or maybe a Rebook t-shirt, or some Nikee trousers.....

oh well, I'll let you know what i decide... :)

By the way, more photos up at http://photos.yahoo.com/billymation in the India 3 folder...