Internet Addiction Disorder

is a serious ailment, my newspaper (HT) tells me.

Instead of checking into rehab ,

come to India to kick the habit.

The moment you realise you are losing control

and start getting hooked

to the mouse and monitor,

you should rush off to the world 's first rehab center

for Internet junkies in the US.

The program offered is suitably called reSTART

(I would call it reBOOT too)

It promises to make suffering surfers
"normal" again by disconnecting from the cyber world for

45 days.

Cold turkey with yoga, nature connect,

development of social skills and discovery quests.

But at $ 15,000 it can rather heavy on your pocket.

Internet junkies in India need not be alarmed.

The good news is that frequently

interrupted electricity supply

bumpy Internet connections

and fluctuating voltage

(and archaic puters like mine)

( Just kidding - we have the very latest computer technology actually)

restrict us from checking our email accounts.

Internet for most of us is more

hot dog than caviar.

Just as India is a health tourism destination,

it should also become the chosen (read cheap) destination

for IAD treatment.

But you 'll have to surf the net to see

what the completion is offering.

Today we only had a 4 hour electricity supply.

Power went off at 10am.

Came back at 1pm and

vanished at 5 pm.

Just got it at about 9pm.

We have a small battery

operated invertor

which operates the fans and light bulbs

(and the telly - Mom 's soaps)

can' t run the puter

other heavy appliances on it.

I can 't imagine being without an invertor.

Many people from a lower income group don 't

own this device

and life is difficult for them.

But I should add many people don 't even have

a power connection, specially in the rural areas.

***************

On a different subject,

I read on someone 's blog that in the West

people don 't have locks on their car gas tank caps.

I was really shocked to hear that.

Here everybody locks their gas tank caps.

We locked ours and yet a guy was stealing petrol from

our car by crawling under the chassis and siphoning it.

My Dad got the tank reinforced.

And leaving garden ornaments outside, that 's another story too.

In a drought stricken village in Gujarat,

only one well has a little water left in it.

So they are now locking the well

to make sure everyone get

their equally rationed H2O