The YWCA

I am staying at the YWCA, Blue Triangle. The rooms are very basic, but meticulously clean, so I can't complain.  Breakfast is included and it is adequate: boiled eggs, toast, cereal and lots of milk tea or coffee.  There is a TV in each room with HBO. What else can you ask for? I even have CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

The YWCA is on Ashok road, close to Jan Path, a very old shoppers' paradise. And Connaught is right around the corner. So though I hate shopping, it will be a very valuable place for my friends.

Shockingly Obama is coming to visit on November 6, Diwali, which is a religious holiday, as important to the Indians as Christmas is to the Christians. He gets some very odd advice from the people  around him. Like bowing low to the emperor of Japan. As head of state, he should have nodded. Again bad advice from his advisers. And it made him look ridiculous at home.

I have seen my friend, Mohini, a 90 year old woman, who is going strong. She complains non stop but that is her way, and certainly will not change now. Her mind is strong and we can talk about everything. I miss staying with her, because it was a home away from home. And Mohini and her daughter, Rama, are family. We have known each other since the days we lived in India. Mohini was my Hindi teacher and friend as early as 1971, so it has been a great friendship for many years.

I took a scooter again after using only a taxi for many years. It's a good thing I don't fear death, or I would have died a hundred deaths in the half hour it took to arrive at Greater Kailash. He wove in an out of traffic like a snake on the run, barely missing cars and bicycles as he went. People were beeping their horns, but not only at him, just generally. I guess the sound makes them happy.

My good friend KB, whom I rewarded with falsely calling him Kishan instead of Kishor in my book about India, is as usual always there when I need him.