As a curry lover, I unreasonably thought that my digestion would adapt to curry and spices 24/7, instead of the more usual twice a week for dinner. Not so. I think it was the parantha (heavy unleavened pancake bread stuffed with veg and spices) and curd (lumpy yoghurt) which did it, as since that breakfast my relationship with my food turned from a long and lingering courtship to a sly quickie, in the front door and out the back without so much a kiss goodbye. I'm not sure that's a very nice metaphor, but in my head it sounds much better. Things seem to have calmed down now, but I'm finding my appetite has halved; whereas I'm used to my stomach sending my messages like "Hmm, spicy, want more" now I'm finding myself full after what, by Indian standards, constitutes a light snack. It's true last night I was given half a curried shark and the produce of a small paddi field to eat, but gone are the day when I'd make a snack, eat it, then feel I could eat another. No fear of that now; last night I ate four spiced cashew nuts and I was full.

Maybe what I suspected is true; someone (a conspiracy between McDonalds, Monstanto and Nestle, those bastards) has invented an addative which, when -er- added to food, will increase the appetite. In the West, this addative is everywhere, and when we are no longer exposed to it, we find out appetities diminished. For years scientists have been looking for a drug to curb people's eating habits, but what we don't know is that, in the 50s, someone already found one that does the opposite: which makes you want to eat more and more. I hate McDonalds food; my tastebuds, I know, are telling me I'm eating what's basically recycled cowcrap. Yet my brain, Homerlike (Simpson, not the Greek), is just going "Hmm, burger...". That's what's happened. The bastards have synthethised the Homer Simpson compound. We're eating Homersodiumglutamate in every meal (it even comes in eggs, bread, milk, flour), and never getting full because Homer can always managed another BBQ hot-wing. It's the only explanation.