During the whole month of December 2007, I was in Bangalore, India. I celebrated my 70th birthday (on Dec. 6) in Bangalore with my family. I'm No. 7 in a family of 10; 5 brothers and 5 sisters. My eldest brother (83) lives in England. I picked him up on the way and we flew together non-stop from London to Bangalore.

My birthday-bash was wonderful. My extended family (brothers and sisters and their broods) plus relatives, old friends and schoolmates, were all there to celebrate with me. The fond memories will remain with me forever. I hadn't seen some of my good friends for 50 years - my school buddy is now a family doctor, while another is retired from the Indian Air Force and since flying Learjets and the like. My cute girl-friends now look like old ladies - but then, I too am an old man.... (smile)

Beyond the warmth and love of wonderful family and old friends, I traveled by train, twice overnight. Indian Rail has become so much better than anything I remember. I shall, in weeks and months to come, publish some of my many thoughts and ideas that seem to generate when one is in a completely different environment.

My two sisters and I traveled to Warora, near Nagpur, where we met and touched 94-year-old Baba Amte (weblink below). This humanitarian was born from a wealthy family and trained in law, but was moved by the suffering caused by leprosy and built a colony to shelter victims of that dreaded disease, which is now curable. The Warora colony now houses about 5,000 people including lame, blind and handicapped, who build their own housing, make handicrafts, and cultivate the land to support themselves. We attended a great 2-hour entertainment program - singing, dancing, music - which had the heart-warming motto, "Give us a Chance, not Charity".

At a "Knit India" program in Warora, I talked with 300 high-school students on "You are the New India". I do this often in high-schools here in the US too, with the theme, "Who are you tomorrow?" This is my favorite topic and audience. You'll find links on my website.

Although I had intended to publish the Dec. 07 issue of JimPinto.com eNews from Bangalore, I didn't quite get to doing it. I had good Internet connections everywhere, but the burden of keeping up with my regular influx of email, plus the logistics of sending several thousands of emails from an Indian IP address were intimidating, and I didn't quite get to it.

So, I lived up to my website byline "irregular and irreverent" and didn't send out an issue of eNews since No. 241, on 15 November 2007. Thank you to the many who wrote, "Hey, what's happened to eNews?" Well, I've returned home to San Diego, California, and this is the first 2008 New Year's issue.

Learn more about Baba Amte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Amte Pinto "Who are you tomorrow?" speech to High-School Students: http://jimpinto.com/speaking/grayslake.html