The person who I saw most of in Hyderabad was Ramesh my auto driver. After a succession of grisly encounters with drivers who understood neither my directions or the city, Ramesh was a life saver. He knew the city backwards, he was unendingly cheerful and he had large English vocabulary. How he acquired this vocabulary was a mystery. When I asked him he said from his passengers but I found this difficult to believe. He was always drawing my attention to things that he thought would interest me. The most memorable was when he made me get out of the cab to watch the eclipse of Venus to which he attached great significance. On our last night I gave him an envelope with money in it and a speech about what his friendship had meant to me. He was not greatly interested in money or speech but desperate to get my phone number. Today he rings from Hyderabad to wish me a Happy Christmas. Flavia, Johanna and Finn are staying with us, Fergus , Idania, Idania’s mother and Niamh come over. When I hold Niamh I whisper in her ear that I hope that I will live long enough to take her to India to meet her godsister Thara.