I am finally in a hotel that has internet connections which work. This means I can catch up on the news and even reflect on it. Actually, the English language press--which means mainly the Hindustan Times and the Times of India--have virtually no reports from or on America or Europe. And even in its articles about India, the front page is usually devoted to cricket or stars of Bollywood. Today's HT (not Herald Tribune) reports in a big story on page three that a particular starlet, Aishwarya Rai, will use 15 kg of henna for her henna ceremony. The dispatch also tells us that at Liz Hurley's wedding to a local businessman a similar amount of the same kind of henna was used. Hot news. The lead article in the same paper was about new rules of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, including one that would forbid players doing commercial endorsements. This is hotter news. In the meantime, I have been perusing the daily press for a week. I see disaster for the Congress Party now in power. In its place, probably, will come the Hindu nationalists, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which emerged with a great victory over the weekend in Delhi. The Congress movement was Gandhi's and Nehru's legacy of non-confessional politics, joining Hindus and Muslims under one political tent. But the realities of Indian politics have changed radically. Many Muslims are becoming increasingly separatist and provocative, some violent. In turn, many Hindus have become more and more communalist and a few even violent in furthering their goal, thus intensifyig Muslim fears. Oh, and yes, there was news from Pakistan: the Shi'a-Sunni bloodletting spilled over into a small city near Islamabad, and ten people were killed, 40 wounded. The day before some 40 people were killed in a similar death-happening.