India: the country of contraddictions.

As I was going to work today I was listening to the Cure: "I don't care if monday's blue, tuesday's grey and wednesday too, thursday I don't care about you, it's friday I'm in love" Perfect, I felt so great. It's friday, I'm in love with life. Then the rickshaw driver tried to rip me off and asked me way too much and I got incredibly mad (and I usually don't get mad in India because ppl are so calm and quite and it becomes even more frustrating) "FUCK U bastard, I live here I'm not stupid!" and on and on and on...he started laughing (typical Indian, cause he would never get mad at me), he asked for less and left. But let me explain why I reacted like that. At the last party at the Black House (my house) Silvia (a girl from Germany, who - by the way - I found out yesterday is my sister age;) left her bike there so she let me use it to go to work. After work we were supposed to go to the movies (a Bollywood film called Fanaa, in hindi of course with NO SUBTITLES!) but it got sold out so we decided to treat ourselves to McDonald's (and let me tell u, they should have veggie burgers in other countries too...they're delicious!) and then Barista, a very nice westernized coffee place. Then Harriet (a friend from New Zealand) called and she wanted to go to a bar...and why shouldn't Alex go? She hadn't come home since 10 in the morning but who cares! Everyone else went home (smart people my friends!) and I followed the Brazilians (Marisa and Tai) behind their rickshaw driver...and while I was riding Silivia's bike behind them, two guys on a scooter tried to pull down my pants!!! I'm not joking, I'm not joking, I swear. I almost fell down the bike cause of course they didn't succeed in their intent and they were trying really hard...so I had to kick them, and I started yelling until they finally let me go...those are the kind of things that happen in my contraddictory India...MEN ARE ANIMALS, that's my conclusion! We just addomesticate them in the western world, but if you don't teach them manners, THEY ARE ANIMALS. I was so disgusted and felt bad for a while, but now I'm ok. (so that's why this morning I was particularly hirritatable...is that a word?)
But in my contraddictory India things take a different direction all the time. After we were hanging out at the bar with some girls, Supreet (my Indian friend who's not allowed at my house anymore!) called and wanted to hang out with us. He's in business, he's a very cool guy. He's one of the most progressive Indians I know (and he's still ok with the idea of his parents arranging a marriage for him...but that's another story and another post). He's organizing a party in a private club WITH SWIMMING POOL tonight for the world cup, and I'm really excited! He invited some of his friends from Mumbay who just took a flight for the weekend to go to a party! So we hang out with those guys last night, at Jal Mahal Palace (where I had already been for work to ask them about fares and pictures for the website of the company where I work!) and this time I was hanging out at the bar!!! It is one of the fanciest palaces of Jaipur, where a royal suite goes for $3500 a night, and those guys just invited us there, bought us AMAZING italian wine (barolo d'alba) spending more than 3000 rupies a bottle (really a lot for indian terms!) and they were really nice guys, very interesting to talk to...another world, really, very different from the guys in the street who absolutely want to touch me or talk to me...my contraddictory India!

I have to leave in half an hour or so to go to palaces again and ask for collaboration with my company...then tonight after the party, we have a ride at 2.30 am to catch a train and go to Jodhpur, another city in Rajasthan (where I'm organizing weddings as well!). We'll spend Saturday and Sunday there, come back on Monday morning right before work...oh well, I'll sleep when I die, I promise!