Motorcycles for Mangoes: GW has finally secured his legacy

Happy (Tamil) New Year! Today there has been some truly wonderful news, fitting for this festive holiday season. In a truly spectacular development in bilateral trade relations, India and the United States have finally hammered out a deal: we give India Harleys and they give us mangoes. Splendid! So prepare yourselves, folks, for the Indian mango. It will be on your store shelves within a few weeks. Tis the season right now for mangoes! Fully-irradiated, delicious, juicy, decadent Indian mango flesh. There's nothing like it.

You see, for the past 18 years Indian mangoes have been banned from American shelves. This is because the Department of Agriculture felt that Indian farmers dumped way too many pesticides on the mangoes and that they were unhealthy. Well not to worry, Indian farmers are now radiating the mangoes with a super duper X-ray gun, thereby killing all pests and making them safe for American consumption. GW has finally secured his legacy. He visited India last year and tasted the mangoes. He was hooked immediately and said he wanted to liberate the Indian mangoes and allow them to come to the United States! As the Indian Commerce Minister put it, "The U.S. has far too long deprived itself of the taste of the Indian mango." So folks, I hope that you will write to President Bush and thank him for freeing the Indian mangoes. I know that he will appreciate hearing from you. After all, his dream has always been to serve as a liberator.

Tomorrow I am heading for Pondicherry for a few days. For my faithful blog readers, I should be back online by Thursday, if not before. Perhaps I will find something interesting in Pondicherry to write about.

Taking a snap with my Tanjore painting guru and his wife and grandson
at the "who's who" of Madurai event of the year: SITA farewell tea.

Making a speedy getaway: This morning I was chatting with my identical twin over Skype when I heard someone come in the front door. I thought it was Chellapandi, but I couldn't figure out why she would be coming in at that time. Then my internet connection went out and I was hearing all sorts of switches in the other room being switched off and all kinds of commotion going on. I went into the other room to see the front door wide open and some random kids just going wild through my house. They just came right on in and made themselves at home! Looks like the 3 year old knew exactly how to go and switch off a modem. Very clever.