So I survived the night. It was fun. I went hunting for a bookstore called "Blue stockings". After much wandering in the wrong directions, I found it. The store was small and cosy, but looked somewhat intimidating. I was hungry and it was still early so I decided to hang out in the neighborhood for a bit before venturing into the store.

I sat for over an hour in a bar with a glass of draft and a tiny notebook. I remembered RH's idea about making an Indian version of Borat, and I began to write. Scene after scene after scene in that tiny notebook. Gradually I felt more comfortable - the music was good - bar-tender was sweet. I finally took off when a large group stood waiting for a table that I had happily occupied alone.

Next stop was an Asian resturaunt - I had Malaysian chicken with bunches of noisy "sex and the city" look-alikes all around me. I don't know if its the show that did this to them, or the other way round. Their conversation was quite entertaining and clearly topped the Agha Shahid Ali poetry I had in my hand. They talked about the idea of the ideal man - the kind they should marry. They thought he should have money of course (they don't want to be poor...duh!), should be aggressive, strong enough to take all the decisions for both of them, etc, etc. They gossiped about another friend who was about to marry someone exactly opposite to this, and how she was making a huge mistake. One surprise was one of the women talking knowledgably about the Muslim idea of not accepting interest on loans. She appartently worked with Arabs or something. I was wuite impressed about the unbiased information she was sharing with her friends. Sadly it turned out that she was a Muslim herself, and didn't think the idea of marrying a Muslim man was as bad as she once thought it was. That was the end of evesdropping for me.

Then I went on to the bookstore. The first shelf I walk towards is a collection of the most interesting film books. Very soon I realize this is a New York version of the Delhi's People Tree. They have radical accessories - bags, badges, postcards, music, films etc. I stay till the store closes, and get lost some more before I finally get home at midnight.

Today is going to be loads of films and some more writing I guess. I'm going to the Tribeca Theatre for Sunday screenings of independant short films.

More later.