I went to the nearby train station this morning to go up to AIMS and have the doctor check the healing progress on my left pinkie. Before the train pulls out I'm walking up and down the cars looking thru the windows trying to see if there's one with an empty seat. None! Every single car is totally packed. Wow. That's unusual. Well I'm definitely not gonna stand on my feet for 3 hours so I hop over to the air conditioned 'Chair Car' and it has lots of empty seats. Yay! I settle into an aisle seat and put on my socks and warm hat. Its chilly! I am totally not used to air conditioning. Brrr. A few minutes later the ticket taker comes in and I wave him over so I can pay him the extra 100 rupees to stay in this car. I then settle in for some nice chanting and sadhana while the train rolls north.
Up at AIMS hospital the doctor plays around with my left pinkie, wiggling it this way and that and muttering to himself. He then smiles and tells me it looks to be healing fine and says I can now start doing some gentle movements and exercises with it. I smile back. Cool! Good news. I go to the receptionist desk, yank out my wallet and ask them whats the charge for the consultation. They give me a blank look like I asked them about X86 op codes or something. Then one of them says "No charge." I shrug and say "Cool." That gets me another blank look. Here in India I have got VERY used to getting blank looks. Why is there no charge this time? Who knows? I exit the hospital and get auto-rickshawed back to the train station, swerving thru deadly crushing traffic and getting bumped around like a barrel rolling down a mogul slope. The usual.
On the way down south the train stops for some reason or other. After about 10 minutes of being stopped I pop outside to join all the other Indians who are outside chatting and pissing in the grass. I stand by myself, the only westerner around, feeling bored and looking at the beautiful blue post monsoon sky and clouds. Some young Indian men come up to me and start chatting. They tell me they're studying English so they can try to go to a British university, and they want to practice their English on me. We chat away about the usual stuff and soon the train horn sounds. We pile back onto the train and two of the young men sit near me to practice some more. They all want to get MBA's and become entrepreneurs. I tell them solar power and virtualized data services (VDS) like Amazon ECC are gonna be big growth areas. I have a fun time explaining VDS and they immediately get it. Many young Indian are totally savvy about IT.
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