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i was at the grocery store yesterday and the cashier didn't have change. this was the first thing that started the annoyance feeling. she wanted me to buy something else so she wouldn't have to give me so much change. she wondered if i wanted more biscuits or maybe some chocolate. i finally relented and bought raisins. then, before i realized what happened, she swiped the preferred customer card of the woman behind me in line. no, i didn't reap any discount advantages BUT the woman behind me got a significant boost in her customer loyalty points. i asked the woman, "did she just swipe your card?" the woman responded, "well, if she did, that was her mistake. it doesn't make a difference to you." i replied, "no, you GAVE her your card, BEFORE it was your turn. that's dishonest." really, who cares if she got my points? but i was amazed that she tried to blame it on the cashier AND that she didn't even ask if i minded befor

it was friday: the end of a long week for the yuppies gathered around the table at a local watering hole in delhi. as we enjoyed our (turned out afterwards to be falsely advertised) two-for-one drinks, conversation turned to pornography. "how," i queried, "can you consider pornography to empower women? how would you feel if your sister or mother decided to partake in modeling? and how can you say it's fine when all three of the women gathered around the table are not smiling?" did i miss the joke? has playboy suddenly become acceptable? or did i miss the boat? perhaps playboy's always been accepted by the masses as empowering and respectful of women, led by a purely enterprising man. while i was surprised by my passion regarding this issue, the flippancy of at least one male at the table infuriated me. i know there are gray lines everywhere we look and one can argue for many degrees of decency (or indecency). i'm simply blogging about it b/c it

Owing to the Diwali pataka (fireworks), Delhi's current weather is "smoke."

quick update: that lady I recently wrote about is alive and well. she's at least well enough to walk & hang laundry on the terrace. not sure why she's not sunning herself regularly, though . . .