I just wear black

I've been wearing black and grey all of our journey. Maybe it's a phase? Maybe it is a sign of me trying to be serious and professional? I do know this dear friends, black is a good color to travel in. First, you come off less like a stoner hippie and second you can wear stuff for days straight without having to worry about silly things like "Same day washing services."

This morning, I worked myself into tizzy tryin to determine if was more worthwhile to pay per piece of laundry or just pay by the kg. I succumbed and went for the 40 rupies per kg route. 120 rupies later, I think that I'd rather go itemized. If I pay 3 rupies ( 3/47 dollars ) per each pair of socks and underwear and 8 rupies per trousers I think that we'd save a bundle. Besides, I'm not washing the trousers, they're black, remember.

I wore all black to a meeting yesterday with a tragically brilliant urban planner. I met with her for four hours on a sunday afternoon after calling her out of the blue. I read a book that she wrote when we were here in 2003 and really enjoyed it. I am obsessed with matters regarding architecture and indian domestic policy, so I found a random email address associated with her name and sent her a brief note. Imagine my amazement when not only did she reply, but she actually agreed to meet.

Our conversation was long and loopy. She was funny, smart and dangerous, which is just about everything I look for, ask Michele.

She revealed a theory about middle age civil service professional's that she called " Midnight children of the emergency" which references Indira Ghandi's power grab and the resulting political shock waves it sent across the subcontinent. Mrs. Ghandi, bless her heart, gave herself dictatorial power to save her nation. I think that her's is an example that has been burned into the minds of India's aging professional class.

From the admittedly minuscule exposure I've gained to Indian managerial styles, there seems to be a common thread of a charismatic leader who uses an organization for individual gain. Said leader then slowly poisons the younger generation to prevent mutinies and uprisings against them. No leader or organization is perfect, but this weird "fear of the younger generation" in india is like nothing I've seen before. It makes it impossible for young professionals to work their way up the system. It is possible that this just happens everywhere and I'm just blind to it, but you can tell that I'm building my business-speak vocabulatory. I did finally read "Who Moved My Cheese," and Tony Robbins, step off dude, you don't know me like that...

The unnamed, paradigm-obsessed, urban planner shared my love of things black. Her words will hopefully shape the discourse of Indian public life, once the generation clinging to power dies off and the young and the clueless try to pick up the pieces. My notebook is full and my head is spinning. She made me tea (black) and offered me a cigarette, but I couldn't hang -- I just wear black, I don't live it.