I made friends on a Cosmos coach tour around Italy with Zoe and Karen Starling whose large family I was warmly welcomed into and Melvin is one of this family. His hospitality was wonderful but, after acquiring more beer, a mixture of the sun, walking, lunch and beer

thereafter getting a fair fare to the hotel was impossible and, when I got one at a half decent rate, it became obvious the driver had no idea where he was taking me. I have no sense of direction especially at night and, after a reasonably civil spat, he refused to go any further and demanded that I pay him two thirds of what he agreed. I had to go but he got only a third and I was eventually back at 10.30pm.
SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER
Up at 5am, I had a Kingfisher flight to Bangalore from Calcutta via Hyderabad which was fine if long. I put up in the Raj Mahal hotel annexe which was fine but the next two mornings, I found dead creatures which had got in during the night and obviously not liked something although they left me alone. I made plans to meet my friend Pooja with whom I would go to Mysore the next day to try to see M.S.Dhoni's adopted tiger, Agasthya. I love tigers, Dhoni is my favourite cricketer and Pooja my best friend in India so it all boded well.