A note from the hospital. My hard disk has still not recovered. I need t take it to one more lab, and if that does not work, I will be stuck. As of now, it seems that all the shots I took in the last one year have gone forever. This means photos in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Zhang Jia Jie, an old section of the Wall, the by lanes of Beijing are alll gone. Plus, some more. And, these were amongst my best shots

Luckily, I had copied a whole bunch of photos on to CDs and, these are 'alive'. I shall now buy one more hard disk and, back up all my data.

To carry on from where I left off, we left Jodhpur, and drove to Jaisalmer. Even though this was October, the sun was bright. Very, very bright indeed. We stopped by at this little 'rustic inn' on the highway for lunch. It was a good break. October is still hot in Rajasthan, and the sun is strong. This point was 250 km out of Jodhpur, and we had another 250 km to go. We'd been drinking since the morning, and by lunch time, we were dead on our bums. Not dead on our feet. We were'nt walking. We were sitting. So, we were dead on our bums!!

The magic of the highway had dimmed. The star waned but, when we reached this inn, it waxed and shone brightly again. Inside the huts, was the cool shade, cool water, some nice food, and some more beer.

All the while, the people waited. They waited for travellers like us to come by, so that they could earn some money. They have time on their hands. I think that, when you have time on your hands, you develop a kind of inner calm. It may, at times, be a dead calm.