Christmas day

Since my arrival, I have been busy chaufferring femme around from one shopping mall to the other. I am a little sick and tired of shopping.

We wish the neighbors and a few of femme's friends Merry X'mas. Today my in-laws have plans to take us to a temple that is a replica of the famous temple in Tirupati. I have never been fascinated by temples, but my in-laws are eager and I don't want to disappoint them. After all it is just an hours drive.

What was supposed to be an hours drive turns out to be a three hour drive instead. The roads are bad and uneven and the folks in the back seat of the car have a tough time. We arrive at the temple in blazing heat at noon and find that there is a huge crowd waiting to get in for "darshan". We stand in line for an hour and half before we are let in. Inside there are minders and ushers who keep the line moving. Stragglers are asked to move on. We are allowed a quick darshan before we are ushered out. By the time we get back home, it is 4 p.m. and I have a slight headache. Femme thinks all this travel for darshan was just not worth the trouble.

On the way back I commit a traffic faux pas - turning left when the light is red. We drive straight into a trap and are pulled over. The policeman peers inside the car and for some reason takes pity on us and lets us go. Bless him!