Well, I officially like Diwali. Asked at a shop if they had any fire-crackers, and before I could do anything about it a guy hops on a bike and rides off. Other guy tells me he’s off to get me a box. Well, I certainly did not imagine that the box would be so big! Sooo many things that go boom of every kind imaginable. Needless to say, I’m now somewhat deaf in my right ear and have no hair on my right hand. May Allah will it only temporarily I hope.

Had dinner at a restaurant on the top of a 13 story building. Excellent view. The whole town is just a big fireworks show. 4th of July not even close. They sure know how to make big booms here. People keep setting off many-foot-long strings of crackers in the street. If you just close your eyes you’d think The Revolution finally came. Well, comrades, one day it will, one day it will.

Today went out to part of town called the City Market. Absolutely incredible. Makes the part of town I’m in seem positively asleep. It’s just many many blocks of tiny little muddy streets jampacked with people and animals and trucks and mopeds and god knows what else. And it’s all for sale of course. It seemed almost like some medieval town with all the alleys and the smells and animals. Excellent place to get lost, which I sure did. I bought a bicycle. Actually, this is the second bicycle I’ve bought. The first buying was the most catastrophic waste of time of my life. I had to wait forever while they fixed it up, just to find out that though it had gears, it had no shifter and just had a chain fixed in one spot. Seeing as how I bought it having been told it had gears, I came back very unhappy. They said, “of course you can’t shift gears, you need another part. Give us more money, and we’ll put it on for you by tomorrow.” This did not go over well with me. Try someday getting you money back off an Indian bike dealer, no easy task, but I managed. I didn’t even have to threaten to call the police. Well, this bike I bought today has no gears, but was priced accordingly.

The bike ride home was fun. My ‘hood and City Market are on opposite sides of town, and the streets here are not too friendly. I didn’t drink enough water, though, and then going running afterwards I ended up getting really dehydrated. Not fun.