There has been no power for days. I found a coffee shop with both power and Internet access so I spent the past hour checking emails while charging my laptop.
On the walk back to my hotel I dodge cars, motorcycles, bicycles and hoards of people. I must be alert to avoid being hit by moving things but it is also necessary to look down in order to navigate around mud puddles, dog droppings, wads of spittle, potholes, and people laying on the road or sidewalk.
Back at the hotel I learn there is still no power in my room. Oh my – my knees are ‘paining me’ as the locals would say. Complaining of sore knees makes me feel like a wimp but I am slightly consoled when I count the 92 stairs between the hotel lobby and my room! I haul myself up the stairs and gather what I need for the day. It is a journey of 184 stairs! Yikes! Once downstairs and outside, I take a taxi to St. Devi’s Academy. Petrol prices have increased in the past 2 days so now instead of a taxi charging 400 nr to Nilipur, they are charging 600-700 nr.
This evening I decide to go to a nearby pharmacy to buy a ‘hot bag’ (hot water bottle) and some D.F.C. gel for inflammation and pain. The pharmacy was already closed for the day and I was given instructions to another one. ‘Go down that alleyway’, I was told. ‘You will see it’. The narrow alley with tall dark walls seemed to come to a dead end. I looked around wondering where to go next in this maze-like place. Some women dressed in red and black saris gestured with pointed fingers. I looked and followed. After a bit I saw a passageway with a ceiling so low I had to duck as I walked through. I came out onto a cobbled road, the bricks askew, with puddles filling all the low spots. A motorcycle shot past, I knew I was back on a traveled road. Down at the end on the left was a pharmacy. The young man working at the pharmacy filled the water bottle put it on the counter for my inspection as he pressed on it to show it did not leak!
A person working in the restaurant of my hotel filled the red rubber bag with hot water. Back in my room and there is electricity! Ah! My computer is charging while I sit on the bed with a hot water bottle on my knees and there is light. What more could I ask for? 🙂