Travelling and packing blues

A couple of extracts from a very interesting article on the hassles involved in packing for a holiday!

... even if you use a container made of out reinforced concrete, covered by liquid-proofing used in US space missiles, pickle WILL leak, but only onto your fresh new white linen blouse inside your bag. Pickle loves traveling as much as you do; pickle loves wandering off on its own to forbidden territory. So my advise is, never pack a fresh new white linen blouse in your bag.

... That is why most Indians never leave home without it, "it" being anything from a kerosene stove and kadais to make hot onion bajjiseven while on holiday, to a "holdall" which, as its name implies, holds all important household items like bedding for a family of six, checked lungis for the mensfolk to wear at night, four meters of clothesline and clips, a mini-bucket for bathing at stations, four plastic mugs, Pond's talcum powder, the bathroom mirror, a traveling pujaset with mini God pictures and battery operated diyas, a handy harmonium for singing bhajans during the journey, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders, and not to forget the handy travel-sized six kg Indian masala grinding stone. That's when you realise why India's only hope for another gold medal in the Olympics continues to be in weight-lifting.

The last line of the latter is the best!!