April 1, 2004

The Eighteenth Curry

RICK: Well, why don't we play a game?
VYVYAN: Oh, boring!
RICK: Oh, come along now. What about Bottcelli, where you have to guess the identity of the famous person?
VYVYAN: What about Jelly Botty, where you have to eat 18 curries?
[quote from The Young Ones: Summer Holiday]

I guess I finally ate the 18th curry!
It all seemed pretty funny at first: actually getting Delhi Belly in Delhi!! But there wasn’t much to laugh about for long. I can't ever remember feeling so totally and utterly crap... and jelly botty was just the beginning: fever, headache, projectile vomit, cramps, dehydration. I think vomiting into some rank gutter in a putrid little back alley next to an open sewer was probably the low point.
But a few jabs and a few pills from the friendly doctor had me up the next day, and well enough to decide to get out of hell Delhi and push on up north to Amritsar... an overnight train away. Amritsar is the most sacred place in the world for Sikhs, and home to their Golden Temple. Perched in the middle of a lake, it is one of the most sublimely beautiful temples in India. Or so I hear...



Amritsar was also home to one of the most brutal massacres by the English during India's long struggle for independence, and I, coincidentally, was also home to my own brutal massacre of sorts. My virus was back with avengence, along with the jelly belly, and the whole gamut of attendant symptoms. In total, we spent just over 4 days in Amritsar, and I never saw anything but the inside of a few lousy hotel rooms, and their skanky porcelain.
Fortunately memory is kind: the whole ordeal is just like a bad dream now. The Amritsar massarce is once again history, my immune system stronger; and I’ve once again made peace with my bowels...

Posted by Andrew Wallace @ 9:48 AM