New Vision

Today's my birthday, so the Russian mission headed by my host Prithu Das did something very special for me. They noticed that I'm half-blind and that I was using a pair of broken glasses to sit and write these blogs. So with only a few hours to go for my next flight they dragged me kicking and screaming to the opthalmalogist, a sadistic Russian scientist with a festish for cross-eyed bifocals.  As soon as we showed him my old glasses, they broke into two pieces, completely useless. It was time for something new.

So  they strapped me into a torture machine they used to use to train cosmonauts during the cold war. The scientist in the white coat is test my pain levels by inserting glass needles into my optical nerve. All of this is necessary or I will never read the Bhagavad-gita again.

After some minor adjustments my space-lenses are ready and I can see again. The lenses are adjusted for one meter of distance so I can use them at the computer for blog-writing.

We returned to the temple for a sumptuous breakfast of flapjacks and fruit, which the happy buddha made sure I ate. I was grateful to be able to see what I was eating for the first time in days. The hearty meal was served by none other than Ananya Bhakti.

By this time I realized a great tragedy had befallen me in my Odyssey across the globe: I had left my toothbrush in Kiev.  So I bundled up in my heavy down coat and ventured out to have a last fleeting glimpse of beautiful downtown Moscow.