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cheats unmercifully by diluting his product, say hair oil, with a cheap motor oil even though he knows this motor oil additive is harmful to the skin and would cause infection if it got into the eyes. This merchant will be a devout Hindu proclaiming the shastras, upholding the truth of Hinduism.

I do not think societies develop along logical lines, they are so subject to chance and whim as any individual. They seem logical only in retrospect when any thing can be made to seem logical.

There is no belief in the lives led by most Indians. It has a regimented day to day sameness of feudal times. In the west with a higher standard of living at least we have access to good libraries, museums, concerts, television, information etc even if we don't use them. There can be the availability of variety - choice in our own lives because of our mobility both physically and mentally a wider view. Of course one might argue that all poverty is grinding. But in India it is accepted with open hopeless hands. There is a willingness to maintain systems that have long outlived

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their purpose and are only dragging the country down. Corruption is condoned at all levels from priests, police, merchants, ministers, government employees etc. Corruption is impregnated in the fabric of life here. Indians are constantly warning foreigners against robbery and cheating. You are always told to be on your guard. Corruption is a public mania. [The last two pages are badly thought out] [IN MARGIN: Don't superimpose your anglo upbringing on India. It don't work!]

One must make a clear separation between the glory of past India and rottenness of much of India today.

. . . Our vaunted waking life which, in its turn, is semi-sleep, an evil drowsiness into which penetrate in grotesque disgust the sounds and sights of the real world, flowing beyond the periphery of the mind - as when you hear during sleep a dreadful insidious tale because a branch is scraping on the pane, or see yourself sinking into snow because your blanket is sliding off. p 78 Invitat. to a Beh. Nabokov.

March 29. 70

Galpal had come, we were downstairs and someone was timing the [serengay * not proper spelling*] [serengi] David listened for a moment and said it was Galpal on the road under the almost full moon and full sky of stars about twenty