Photo ID

Today is the first day I have ventured out properly. We went out last night to celebrate a friend's birthday and in traditional manner, they brought a cake, which, being Indian, was sweeter than concentrated saccharine and I could feel my pancreas exhausting itself after the first mouthful. Luckily, after Sudhir's friends had smeared it liberally over the face of the birthday boy, there wasn't a lot left to eat, so another slew of diabetic crises was averted.

This morning, having redeemed my reputation for minimal sleeping by waking at 7 o clock, without the assistance of a certain hound's noisy desperation for breakfast, I slipped on my flip flops and with toes joyously liberated from the confines of English winter footwear, I pounded the streets of Bangalore to find an internet cafe in order to start work on yet another assignment for my MSc.

I returned to one which had been a good setup for me when I was last here and checked in, just to see if I had any credit remaining. I didn't, so I had to re-register, but this time, a new rule said that I needed photo id. A credit card on it's own would not be enough. I had nothing with me, no passport, no driving licence, nothing. The young girl tried to be helpful.

"Do you have any small, small photo?"

"No, I have nothing"

Root, root in capacious, surprisingly empty bag.

"Oh, I do have a photo of my mum and my niece and I look quite like my mum." I said, hopefully, showing the girl. She regarded the photo speculatively.

"OK, madam, I will use"

So, now I have a photo of my two year old niece and my mum laughing as they are nearly being knocked over dogs outside my parents' house, taken two years ago, as the id for my internet access. Brilliant. Quite brilliant.