Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India when she was young and remembered "only heat, pollution, and poverty, so when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India for love, she screamed, 'Never!' " However, eleven years later, she finds herself back in India when the love of her life is posted there as a journalist.
Sarah is no Tim Cahill, but she can turn a phrase.
For example.
"If I can't have convenience I may as well have luxury.
And power. India's boundaries of behavior are still dictated by caste, upbringing, and wealth. . . . I'm considered filthy rich and that means I can treat people dreadfully and get away with it. In fact, it's expected. Mrs. Dutt tells me to stop being so sucky crawly all the time.
'Why are you saying please and thank you all the time to your servants? It's not necessary, you sound too desperate to be nice. Have some backbone, you're very annoying.'
We all hear Mrs. Dutt screaming at her cook every night and it's rumored she belts her cleaner, but mostly she shows her power by pretending people don't exist and complaining about how stupid they are when they're standing right behind her. It's appalling, but it rubs off. I'm beginning to get a little impatient and short sometimes when people are slow or stare too much."
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