Monday, November 24

Today started with rain and continued the same way. Only the intensity varied. I left the house at about 2pm to get some ointment from Devi Medicals opposite Raahath. Since I had gone that far I walked the extra twenty metres to Zeal supermarket to get cheese, curd and yogurt.

I had left the house when the rain had dropped to a heavy drizzle. I had less luck on the way home. I arrived soaked.

I spent the afternoon trying to finish a version of the old Nokia phone Snake game in Scratch. I enlisted Claude.ai and found the same as I had found on previous occasions. It fares much better trying to debug code I have written than it does trying to create its own.

Now it has got completely dark and the rain has finally stopped. I walk to Udaya and Lekha’s house to collect a parcel. On the way I stop to take a photograph of the newly-cleaned rain channels that have worked overtime this week.

The women of the panchayat have cleaned the weeds and rubbish away from them for the last week, even in the pouring rain, and they have done astounding work. I remember seeing them at work last year and marvelling at their communal speed.

I collect the parcel and walk home again. This time I arrive home dry.