Miss Adventures

I have a love/hate affair with awards shows. I love watching them to see what people are wearing and who wins, but I usually can’t bear the acceptance speeches. Indeed, I love watching the Oscars, and I’ll definitely be tuning in on Monday morning (yep….they’ll be live at 6:30 a.m. in India) for a short while before heading to work. I don’t know why I even care about watching this year, as I have yet to see any of the films or actors that are nominated. But Chris Rock should be in fine form.

Bollywood is also in the award-giving spirit, and will be giving out its 2004 awards tonight. The cool thing about the Filmfare Awards is that the nominees were only announced last week, so the hype is kept somewhat to a minimum.

I doubt I’ll be watching, even though, in this case, I’ve seen two of the movies (Swades and Hum Tum) nominated for best film. Of course, I’ll be rooting for Swades to win that award, as that’s the film that Anthony had a bit part in! The other three that are nominated for best film are Dhoom, Main Hoon Na, and Veer Zaara. I can’t speak for the latter two, but I know that nominating Dhoom and Hum Tum for best film would be akin to the Academy nominating “The Fast and the Furious” and “You’ve Got Mail” for Best Picture. Bollywood churns out up to three films per week and these are the best they can come up with?
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I must say there is one upside to being sick in India: the drugs (and the doctor visits) are very cheap. Not sure if I mentioned before, but I had the best dental cleaning ever while here and it cost about $25. That’s not a co-pay amount. That’s the full fee.

At any rate, I’m on all these drugs for the jaundice now. Some have worked, some haven’t. But at least I haven’t spent a ton of money to find out. So far, I’ve spent Rs. 583.75 on seven different kinds of drugs. I think that’s about $12, but you can check for sure on oanda.com.

I did a quick search on the net to see what the going rate was for three of the drugs that I’m taking now: Liv.52 DS (an herbal drug to replenish the liver), Becosules capsules (for B vitamin complex), and Allegra (to stop the itching that comes with the late stages of jaundice). The prices I have paid don’t even begin to compare with what I would pay in the States, or even if I slipped over into Canada.
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Fellow misplaced expat Karilyn hit the nail on the head with her recent comment. Indeed, I have come down with jaundice and I’m finally somewhat well enough to sit up straight and write about it.

Basically, I have succumbed to the second - yes, second - outbreak of jaundice in Bombay over the past three months. Hurrah! I can count myself among many of Bombay’s movers and shakers who also have the disease! My doctor believes it probably came from drinking ice. Apparently, none of the poorer people, or “servants,” as she called them, have contracted the disease - only the people who are able to go to nice clubs and let their guards down when ordering gin and tonics. Let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be ordering any of those again soon.
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Well, it looks like India has gotten the best of me and I’m going to be sick for the next few weeks. I hope to be back to the blog sooner than later. But time will tell.

So, take care and I’ll write soon.