A Close Shave

I started the day off with learning how to play badminton at the town's local sports club.  Then I was on my own to explore town again.  I found the most primitive shave stand on the street, which was really just a plywood stall with a chair all open to the street.  The shave itself was pretty luxurious.  He rubbed my beard with all sorts of oils and actually shaved me twice, using new blades each time, of course.  The whole thing was less than 50 cents.  I gave him a 50% tip so by the time I walked past again the whole barbershop crowd gave me waves and smiles.  Yeah, I'm a baller (said with irony.)

My dad's friend took me to a couple of the local temples.  The first contained a thousand year old worn down Shiva Lingum.  They then surrounded it with Disney style fiberglass glam.  The second was the Swaminarayan temple, a large international organization.  This was surprising well made considering its young age and the modern Indian penchant for glitz.

A half naked man in a loincloth called me over as I was walking towards the bathroom, luckily Hindu priests aren't known for being molesters.  But he did try to convince me to visit their center in San Jose and wanted to give me some phone numbers of people who I should talk to in the States to get more information.  I could have pretended not to understand and he may have let me go, but I was curious.  I find it funny that he thought I would be enticed into meeting their saints in the US by telling me that the men never touch money and the women can't even speak to men.

Back in the real world, Bimal, Rahul and I ate fried fish for dinner.  I was worried at first, but my reckless persuit of pleasures convinced me that just one could do me no harm.  Ingesting anything that comes out of polluted Indian rivers is a scary proposition.  It was actually very good and tasted super fresh, seasoned, I'm sure, with mercury and arsenic.