August 21, 2006 (place)

Embarrassment factor ten point five. I had just taken a remarkably good photo of Sanket and Deepti and I had to remark at how well it reflected how much they loved each other so close to an imminent departure for an indeterminate amount of time.
The tears hit the fan, and as we all know that is so much worse than anything else hitting it.
There was absolutely no way I could cheer her up so I went into full distraction mode. I ended up explaining how if life is so improbable as to be statistically impossible then there must be an entropy remover which could be attributed to (or actually be) 'God' and that the next major step in science must be to uncover the way energy 'likes' to be converted and whether this can explain why evolution happens. God is the source of all energy
Thank you philosophy degree, you’ve done it again!
She ended up laughing at the absurd approach and so I suppose it worked perfectly. It says in my journal 'why couldn't I have come up with something better?' but she later said that it struck a chord with her and that she would 'never forget it'. Deepti asked me many times what I was thinking at that exact moment and I always answered truthfully, I was normally trapped in a non-conversation with some Hindi speakers. She was quite used to my crazy theories by then. You know silly little things like trying to prove that it is morally wrong for someone who has never smoked to accept treatment for cancer from the NHS.

Sleeper busses make sleeper trains seem like first class on Cathay's Airlines. I have just had the worst journey of my life. I was shoved in a half width bunk with no safety support to stop you falling out. Sanket had to share with me. So did the luggage. If you lie on the floor squeeze your shoulders together so that both of your ears are warm screw your legs into a ball and then get your friend to nonchalantly elbow you in the kidneys every five seconds for nine hours you will have some idea what it was like. Oh also no toilet, so we had to stop all the time, and no air conditioning, so the window let in a Dyson’s worth of dust every half hour.

An open letter to railtrack:
Thank you so so much for your excellent service. Tickets are easy to buy, your lines are safe, and your trains are on time. I am so happy to be a loyal customer of yours. Sincerely, Apollyon.
P.s. The same goes for The Underground, Buses (even the bendy ones) and National Express coaches.

After that it was straight on to the Aganta caves. I slept sitting up for five hours on Vietnam era public buses. (why is it that every country has uncomfortable busses? In London the seats are too small and give me lower back pain but here they are built for Vietnam veterans, are too big, and give everyone but me neck ache from leaning forward)

My profound experiences at the Aganta cave system will be covered in a separate node.

I returned after doing about 20 hours of travelling in under 28 hours. I slept late and soon it was time to say goodbye to Jalgaon and to Sanket's parents for a second time.

forward to August 24, 2006