120. TRAVELS IN INDIA. Goa. The flora in Goa puts one in mind of British Empire authors in the day who spoke of the “riotous vegetation” of colonial jungles. Life explodes in every direction in such places, with insects and reptiles prominently featured, not to mention malarial mosquitos which come out at night and attack your ankles (which explains travelers with trouser cuffs tucked into socks). There were days in Goa that I thought I could feel my skin literally crawling with unseen bacteria, but that was probably just my mind playing tricks from being damp and wet twenty four hours a day. Having spent time in Asian rainforests makes one better understand the madness of Apocalypse Now, and it doesn’t take much to imagine the hell American soldiers went through in Vietnam. A landscape painter I once knew told me that she could distinguish thirty different shades of green with one glance at a scene like this.

119. TRAVELS IN INDIA. Nizamuddin, New Delhi. As I write this in New York, it is 132 degrees in the Indian state of Rajesthan. That is the all time record in a country that is no stranger to heat. It was 112 degrees when this photo was taken (in Humayun’s Tomb), but the next day it dropped to 100 and I never thought I would say that one hundred degrees was a relief. On the other hand, 95 degrees with humidity on Manhattan pavement is worse, so sue me. You find Indian dogs sleeping in the oddest of places, and one wants to avoid stepping on them because one nip and its off for painful rabies shots. This is complicated further at night because many parts of India don’t care to waste electricity on street lights.

118. TRAVELS IN INDIA. Mumbai. Taken from the Westin Hotel lounge, which is worth the trek for the elevated view of the city. I once endured an hour of Mumbai traffic to get there only to have my driver announce with great pride the West End hotel, which is an entirely different proposition in an entirely different part of town. My sunglasses then mysteriously disappeared from the taxi, so I let the driver have it. The ashamed look on his face made me feel like a complete ass. Three weeks later I went back for another view, and as I got out of the cab a street vendor ran up and held out my sunglasses, saying “sir, last time you dropped them as you left the taxi so I kept them for you.” He would not accept a penny for this gesture. Fully and completely an ass.

117. TRAVELS IN INDIA. Kamathipura, Mumbai. The monsoon season sees short, intense downpours every hour or so. People on the streets know it will end in minutes so they take shelter where they can, huddling together under an awning or a tree. It makes for interesting social collisions. The astonishing humidity of Mumbai brings some odd sensations, climbing into damp bed sheets being one of the least enjoyable. It is not unusual to have ankle-deep torrents running down the street, which makes riding a scooter with 8 inch wheels very interesting–and by interesting I mean dangerous.