Buddha, could you spare a dime?*

*With my supreme gratitude to Nicky, that's a great title, Dhanyavad.

I've been checking in on Rich every so often. He's slept all day and this is definitely one of those times I wish I'd taken some kind of first aid course to know what would be best. The hotel manager thinks I should order some porridge or plain dal, but I'm waiting another 1/2 hour as it seems like he needs the sleep.

To amuse myself and to feel less anxious I came back to the internet cafe to read people's posted comments on the blog, thank youse all, it's great to read and feel like I'm only a mouse-click away from you all. My new mouse friend Raj from this morning has made himself scarce. There's more people here now, before it was just me, and I think he just sensed I was a kindred soul and really bonded with me. I mean if I was his size around this traffic, I would be on freak out mode 24/7. I'm a billion times bigger than him, and I'm feeling it.

The American I met today, who was thrilled to learn about the travel agent's sideline business, the illegal one, has told me she's in freakout mode all the time. And folks, she's also mentioned she's also stoned most of the time. This strikes me as an insane combination. There's a reason no one's selling the Travel the Subcontinent Ripped out of your Mind while Panicking Excessively Tour for Solo Women Package.

In severe contrast, I was afraid of drinking the fresh juice here, because of the time it might have sat in the juicer beforehand. Hey, there were warning about the juice in the Lonely Planet Guide. This womam is using the guide too - we compared notes on Rickshaw costs and hotel costs in different areas - I'm thinking she skipped the warning about people partaking in the drug scene and disappearing. (It's more of a warning further up in Northern India, but I was worried about her.)

I walked around the Taj Ganj area today, not very far. I'm a hop, skip and a jump from the Taj Mahal, so I walked to the Southgate entrance today, and then walked around. The articles that I was mentioning before, in the previous post, not to have stressed anyone out and just dropped it but they seem to be Front page news in a very National Enquirer Style.

I mean the attention one gets is unnerving. I feel like I'm being gawked at as if I was a unicorn, a rather blase and plain unicorn but still.

But so far, in the capital for harrassment my biggest harrassers have been kids following me around and saying "Hello rupees." Some kids get a little persisitent. One woman on the train ride here from Varanasi told me a kid punched her in the thigh, while she was walking on the ghats because she wouldn't give her money. I told her that made me feel better, since I got hit after just stepping out of the rickshaw, the kid hadn't even hit me up for any rupees yet.

Rupees, Maya. Like the old song goes, money makes the world go round, ín the most peculiar way.