30 million had a wash in the Ganges yesterday. There were so many people there you could see it from space and about 20 people were killed in the crush.

Got a Christmas card from some random law firm. Can’t decide if it’s a month late for Xmas, three months late for last Diwali, nine months early for this Diwali, or if they were thinking of either Chinese or Telugu new years which happen round about now.

Guy from Chennai appears to diagnose our ailing firewall / proxy. Hasn’t seen the logs we’d already sent though—bad feeling begins. He says proxy fine and blames ISP. ISP proves that they are fine. Chennai guy leaves in huff saying all will be fine anyway. Can you feel the scepticism?

Out with Velu, Hari, Divia and Navin. Try new bar called Mars 2230 supposedly set in the future. More like 2230 BC I think. Still, drank too much and rounded off the evening with dosa and chicken gravy, neither of which is useful for feeling better in the morning.

Woke to high drone of three mosquitos that had found way in last night and dispatched of them in short order. Must have had quite a bit to eat of me - really had to scrub my hands to get rid of all the blood that sprayed onto them during their death.

Big day at Kumbh Mela. Papers report about 7 million people going for a dip there today. And the holy men didn’t fight over who took first dip. Which was nice—it’s polluted already anyway.

Apparently Indian cinema is having its arbitrary censorship laws (over sex and violence) reviewed, possibly to the US ratings of G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17. Surely they missed the EM rating for excessive number of bad musical segments?

Kumbh Mela progressing. Nearly all 7200 hectares of tent city are full and its only day 3. First main bathing day is Jan 14, to coincide with Telugu new year, “Makar Sankranti”.

The Kumbh Mela begins today at the junction of the Ganges, Yamuna and (the invisible) Saraswati rivers near the city of Allahabad. This is a religious festival held once every 12 years where this time around an estimated 70 million people will have bathe in the waters there. Around 600 celebs are also expected to show up including Madonna, Pierce Brosnan and Sharon Stone.

Meanwhile in the office, ISP guy shows up and asks for a cheque for this months line rental. John is out of cheques. oops.