04 July 2011

Number One License Plate

It was about a year ago that I saw a license plate with just the number one in Rhode Island. It was the governor's car. In Rhode Island, spotting low numbers is a sport and it's the mission of many Rhode Islanders to not only spot as low a number as possible, but to get a plate with a low number. Before seeing number one, the lowest I'd seen was seven.

And now, one year later, I learned the same thing about Andhra Pradesh, the state we live in here. We saw plate number one in our neighborhood and Mike asked our driver about it. It most likely belongs to one of the richest families in the state. There's a lottery and people pay thousands of dollars to get the license plates with the lowest numbers. It's good luck to have certain numbers, and there's good money in selling good luck.

However, our driver said, he thinks the most money ever paid for a license plate was for the tag "AK 47". That's not an auspicious number. It's just cool.

There's No "Rain Date" in the Rainy Season

We've been having an unusually dry rainy season so we thought we'd be fine for rooftop cocktails and fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July on Sunday night. Of course it rained. Not just a passing shower; slow and steady rain on and off all night long starting just before sundown, which was when the party also started (so we could watch the sunset that turned out to be obscured by clouds). There was just enough rain to make people not want to sit outside. Mike spent all week setting up beautiful outdoor lighting, so the most disappointing part of the night was that we didn't get to enjoy it.

We did our fireworks during a lull in the rain. They were pretty awesome. Our driver had gone out to the Old City, to his fireworks guy, and brought home an impressive haul. We didn't worry about disturbing the neighbors. India is a country that loves fireworks and ours were pretty tame in comparison to what our neighbors regularly set off for weddings and holidays. We did ours at the reasonable hour of eight o'clock, before some of the kids had to go home and go to bed. A few weekends ago we were awaken at three in the morning for fireworks that lasted until five.

We moved downstairs to our apartment and the party continued. The rain cooled the air so we could open the doors to let in a refreshing breeze; it was cool and breezy enough to keep mosquitoes away. We had plenty of food and drinks. Muffin slept through all the noise which allowed Mike and me to enjoy the party. It wasn't what we were planning, but having good friends around will make any party work. (That and having a housekeeper to wash all the dishes.)