bangle 2.19.07

today i moved on to whatever treatment it is where they they take really hot balls of vegetation/oil mush inside muslin and smash you with them and then rub. it was amazing... so im feeling very soft. i am also feeling very sad about my current music situation, in that i have none. who else brings an ipod to india with no charger?
well... today for distraction i thought i would wander on down past the construction and over to what i heard was monday market, filled with fun things to buy and flowers.
no. this was not the case. i followed the construction which turned out to be open sewer lines that they have been working on for three months (most sewage is open here, so i think its a big deal that theyre closing this), and walked and walked and breathed shit and breathed shit, and then finally i came to the end. there were bright colors and laughing children and fruit and clothes but this was not the market.... oh no. i tried to think that it was as i kept walking into it, but really i had entered a slum. i still am not sure how it happened, because later someone showed me on the map and i though i had walked the right way... but no. so i did the only thing i could do to save embarrasment of walking in and then immediatly leaving this filthy poor place where thousands of people live, squashed together in plastic and metal huts and tents: i played cricket with small boys. yes. it was fun. and then the mothers came out and every one started asking for one rupee and i left.
i am amazed at the sense of contentment that pervades india. people have nothing, or everything, or some things, or the possibility for more, or on the brink of awfulness, and still... they dont seem to mind. they just seem to be precisely in whatever moment is now. seriously... from being able to sleep on a chair on the island between lanes with the loudest traffic ive ever heard, to embracing death and problems, and they way they celebrate events, or work 15 hour days... they all seem to be, well at least pretty, happy. its good for me to see... its good for my perspective. its also hard to not give money to everyone that asks, and to go haggle in the markets or with rickshaw drivers over what ends up being a dollar, but you do it. because its india. anyway, im gonna try and find the real monday market so i can buy some really rad wall hangings for my room here.
holla.