February 10, 1999, Wednesday, sunny, 6-20C

[20:32 @ B-57 Inn in Delhi, India]

     This morning’s presentation at the Springdales School was less than ideal.  First off, poor organization again.  Sucheta was the one to know the time of the presentation, which was 10:00, but she did not call Pradeep to let him know till 10:00 when Pradeep was still in his night clothes.  Pradeep was supposed to call me at 08:30, but he did not, and I finally went over to his place at 09:30 to see what was going on, also to send some e-mail to WCWC.  So, when Sucheta called, we then hurriedly went to pick her up at Pradeep’s office, and when we finally got to the school, it was already 10:40. 

     The auditorium was huge, easily capable of seating 1,000 people, and well equipped, with a built-in video projector, but the school put only about 80 kids there, who were members of their environmental club.  The teacher said she didn’t want to play favourite, so, instead of letting some of the other kids come in to fill the auditorium and not letting others, since the school was 2,000 strong, she decided to not to let anyone in at all other than the club members.  So, I was left to speak to an almost empty hall.  The slide projector again acted up, and I decided to can the slideshow and have an interactive session with the children instead.  They were shy and reluctant to raise their hand, and I had to incite them into action.  But when finally they began to loosen up and speak out, Sucheta seized the mike from my hand and launched into her own diatribe.  I finally reclaimed the mike from her after about 10 minutes of that.  What I think is, if she wants to speak to school kids, fine, she’s got the whole year to do that.  I have only several days in town, and the show is mine.

     This evening, I went to the Prince Garden Chinese restaurant for some Sechuan food by myself.  Many people seem to feel very uncomfortable dining alone in a restaurant.  I have no such hang up.  In fact, I enjoy it, as long as I have something to keep my mind busy, such as reading.  This time, it just happened to be writing.

     After that, I dropped by Pradeep’s place to send some e-mail, but the lines were plugged up.  He showed me four Rajasthan newspapers all in Hindi, all featuring our campaign.  At least two have our Big Tiger Cub Bara Bacha on page A1, one with it right above Clinton and Lewinsky.  And there will be more, at least one – the Hindu – in English.  A coup, at last.

     Happy, Raminothna?  By and large, I am.