Shantaram

"Above all else, Bombay was free - exhiliratingly free. I saw the liberated, unconstrained spirit wherever I looked, and I found myself responding to it with the whole of my heart. Even the flare of shame I'd felt when I first saw the slums and the street beggars dissolved in the understanding that they were free, those men and women. No-one drove the beggars from the streets. No-one banished the slum-dwellers, painful as their lives were, they were free to live them in the same gardens and avenues as the rich and powerful. They were free. The city was free. I loved it."

Anne-Marie my apologies for taking so long to reply to your message of a few weeks ago, but which I so appreciated. I've been so busy these last few weeks that to even think of blogging (the few times I have, has been directly from my Nokia E90, which no direct interaction with the blog site itself) has been a luxury. Even this minute I'm blogging in the bath, my most favourite personal space of all.

Neverthless as soon as I got to Jozi on Friday afternoon I was, upon your reccomendation, straight into Exclusive Books to get myself a copy of Shantaram...and I've not put it down since. So thank you! And thank you for taking the time to read Beautiful Mind, also to comment. Please tell me more about you, and where you live.

For the record it's the third magnificent day in a row in Johannesburg. As usual, but after the coldest winter in my living memory (there was even frost all the way down to Ngodwana in the Lowveld), spring has come early. And I thank God. Last year the Jasmine - always the very first flowers to blossom after bleak, scentless winters - flowered on 7 July. This year I saw the very first blossoms last Wednesday, the 5th of August.