The President

This was the day we finally got to meet President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan - just before Bush’s visit. A last minute thing that your can’t really say no to. It was my fourth attempt and finally made it.

Alex conducting the warm up before the big interview.

Talking about cricket afterwards - what else do you talk about?

And lastly the one for the family album.

This is great as everyones body language is really weird - it seems as if no one quite knows how to close to stand to each other.

No Shreddies this time!

Bird Flu

Bird Flu was reported in Gujarat so we headed down there to what was supposed to be a quarantine area. It was a horrendous journey - a last minute descision - a late flight that landed at 9pm and then followed by a 5 hour drive so a small town still some 2 hours from where we needed to be. The hotel we holed up in for all of 3.5 hrs wasn’t much better that the car but it was a bed - and a complete rip off at less that £2 a head.

So up again at 5.30am we continued.

Strangely enough we just drove right on in and found some chicks that hadn’t been slaughtered yet - very soon though.

Eventually we get to put on our hastily aquired ‘blue suits’ - borrowed from a hospital in Delhi. I’m not quite sure why Alex put hers on as all she did was sit and talk on the phone. Moral support I guess.

Who is that dashing fellow - well at least its not a picture of my bum for a change.

And why - well to film these poor guys - students I guess from the way they were dressed and didn’t know how to use the spade - getting rid of the chicken sh*t. nasty job, cramped conditions - though the smell wasn’t that bad as it was dry.

After this we headed out of town to edit in a small restaurant where we settled into the family room - a bit like being in the zoo.

After this we drove to Surat - the nearest big town with a good hotel - hot shower and fed the package back.

It all seems very much a blur but I am sure we only spent a day in the town. It just seemed a lot longer. There and back we covered a lot of miles in fact we seemed to be driving for the whole time. It didn’t help with the fact that our flight back the next day was from Vadodra where the English cricket team was staying - all the hotels were full so we drove another three hours to get a plane from somewhere else.

The last stretch was great. I have been in India now for just short of 2 years. This is the first time I have driven on a proper dual carriageway - well made clean, fast - if your car can go fast - without the fear pedestrians or animals wondering in your path. Apparantly there are just two of them in the country.

The reason it takes so long to get anywhere is - apart from the dual carriageway - that no one used - the roads are appalling and you can expect an average speed of about 45km/hr or in real terms 30 mph on all major highways.

Let Me Hold Your Heart

Preparing for heart surgery means things have to be clean - perhaps not sterile but clean.

My tripod has never has so much attention.

Into theatre we go and try not to hold things up as Dr Patil has open heart surgery.

Very discreetly, I get all the action - my hat was very hastily replaced by one of the nurses thankfully - but this is no normal operation.

Dr Patil is awake.

Its better to be awake to speed recovery - and a couple of hours after surgery Dr Patil had a cup of coffee and the next day he took a few steps. I won’t go into detail but during the operation the surgeon did lift his heart a little to show us.

Here it is back in place!!

Very impressed by Dr Vivek - the surgeon - if needed I would be very comfortable in his hands - as long as their isn’t a film crew around.