Saturday, 2 October, was the birth anniversary (that's how the Indians say it and, quite frankly, it's more logical and appropriate) of the great Mahatma, Mohandas K. Gandhi. Needless to say, Gandhi is an extremely important figure in Indian life. However, I was not really aware of exactly how important he still is in the actual lived lives of the populace at large.

After we found out that we were coming to Chennai, Christopher and I both jumped headlong into a pile of books by Indians, about Indians, and/or for Indians. One of the first things that we both read was the acclaimed biography of Gandhi by Stanley Wolpert.

(Hours pass)

...Beth told me that I have to finish this because she just doesn't care enough and because she has taken a bunch of codeine as a result of her recent root canals.

So, Gandhi's birthday is a big holiday. Things are closed. This kinda put a damper on the Foreign Service Wives' (truth is stranger than fiction) plan to go out and get tanked at one of the local restaurants, in honor of nothing in particular. The damper was a result of Gandhi being pretty against booze, so none of the places that normally serve booze are allowed to serve booze. So the Foreign Service Wives had to cancel their plan.

That's the story. There's no picture to go along with it. I hope you're not disappointed.