I spent the last 2-3 weeks unexpectedly in the States. My grandmother passed away, and I went back to be with my family (and especially my mom). It was hard to leave India -- I had this sense that it wasn't time to leave for good yet. But after being with family for a couple of weeks, it was very hard to come back. Despite my commitments in the country through December, if Rock hadn't been here I'm not sure I would have come back. Not even to see the Taj, if that would have been my only motivation.

I am back. My luggage got lost and they still haven't found it. It has been a week since it was loaded on the wrong plane. Luckily Rock brought my remaining clothing to Hyderabad on Sunday when he came to meet me. But even then, I'm living off of two work outfits. I gave one to the laundry walla the other day and the shirt came back with a big iron mark on it. Down to one pair of work clothes. Gotta love it. I wore jeans and a tee-shirt to work today because those were my only clean clothes. This despite a couple of interviews.

Anyway.

Every once in a while I see interesting juxtipositions. I think the most interesting one is that I once saw a woman in a full burka driving a motorcycle. Granted, motorcycles here are the main mode of middle class transportation and don't have the rebellious reputation here that we associate with them in the States, but even so it was an interesting picture. Today for the first time I saw a woman in a sari driving one. You will often see women driving two-wheelers in kurtas (pants suits), but it has got to be a challenge to drive a motorcycle (and it was a motorcycle, not just a scooter) in a sari. She was sitting in it sideways, saddle-style.