Day 4 - Gunshots on the Roof

I was awakened to day by the sound of gun fire on the roof of our Haveli about 7am. Repeated shots rang out. I was fairly confident Pakistan hadn’t invaded, for I heard no Jets or bombs going off. It was our Monkey-walla, shooting at the monkeys on the roof. There are a lot of Monkeys climbing over the buildings here and if they grab a purse or IPhone, you will never see it again. I have never seen a dead monkey so one of two possibilities exist: Either the monkey-walla is a bad shot or he is shooting blanks. I am working from the hypotheses he is a bad shot, because every day they reappear. The sound of gun fire scares the monkeys away.

Today is day 4 of the Jaipur Literary Festival. It runs from 9 am to 6 pm each day, and it could be exhausting but it isn’t. We went to some great panels today. It sort of a crap shoot. You can’t quite tell from the description of the panel, exactly how interesting it will be until you attend. After 10 minutes or so, if you are uninterested you leave and go to one of the other 5 panels that are going on.

It is amazing to me the wide variety of subjects covered by the panels and expertise of the participants. Also, this year the audience questions seemed to be better.

The first panel we attended was to me a dud. It was about globalism and capitalism. Blah blah.

The next session was a highlight of the day for me. It was by one of the co-authors of the book “The Siege”. The book is about the take over of the Taj in Mumbai (and the other acts of violence on those 3 days). We had checked out of the Taj about 10 days before the attack and were staying at the Taj in Delhi when it occurred. After the fire and the destruction of the Taj, and the subsequent rebuilding of it, we have stayed there several times. It is our home in Mumbai.

Both Cathy and I had read “The Siege” and it is an exceptional re-creation of what happened there. The authors (a husband and wife) have actually created the best timeline of the attack. It is far better than the police. The talk centered on David Hedley, the person who dreamed up the attack and repeatedly returned to Mumbai to scout the Taj and other places for attacks. Born of a rich American heiress and a Pakistan father, he held dual passports American and Pakistani and could easily cross borders. He was both a terrorist and a spy for the CIA and FBI. He used everyone. With his blond hair and blue eye (the other was brown) he looked like a drugged up Nick Nolte. He was arrested by DEA for smuggling heroin, but always could talk his way out by being the one person who could possibly get to Osama Bin Laden. It is an amazing story. He is now in prison in the US, and we will not extradite him to India to face charges for all the deaths he caused. If you read the book you will be amazed. Because we had read the book, we knew the story. What I didn’t know was the fearlessness of the authors who repeatedly traveled to Pakistan to research the story.

We attended a great talk on the excavation of Hampi, in the South of India. We had been there a few years ago. The author of the book has worked at the site for 30 years and presented a great talk and slide show on the Vijaynagan: The City of Victory aka Hampi. It reminded us of our travels to the site and brought back wonderful memories.

The final session of the day cleverly named: “Sex in the Citadel” was about the new book by the same name. The author, explores sexual relations in Muslim countries, particularly Egypt. In the Muslim culture sex is only permissible between a man and woman after marriage. Like everywhere else in the world a lot of people want to have sex and aren’t married. Such is the dilemma in the conservative states. The book is about how they work that out.

Bottle of wine with John before dinner and the dinner at our Haveli.