I had to sing in the service this morning – I didn't want to do 'Father God I Wonder' or 'I Believe in Jesus', so I did something completely different. It was a bit short, but I was caught short at the time so it suited me fine! The speaker was this chap who is working with some dodgy evangelist called 'Willhelm Wonky' or something. He has 'played' all over the place and now they're evangelising Madurai at the racecourse, of all places.

C. was asked to say a few words and was introduced as The Thought For The Day. Having resolved the inevitable microphone crisis, he went through the usual paces of Introduction To Dave And C.. It was good enough, if a little lacking on the thought provocation front. They never tell us what they are expecting from us, like we are going to spout these amazing pearls of wisdom from our perfect Western Church. Just say anything at all, they say... perhaps this adds an element of excitement to otherwise banal proceedings.

Communion is good though, with the congregation singing 'real' songs of fellowship accompanied by Marky on the guitar. I've definitely found my favourite form of worship and it isn't the liturgy et al, it's the quasi-Happy Clappers that reach me more.

It was incredibly hot afterwards (I was forced to change my shirt because of the sweat – nice) which shouldn't really be a surprise, but I guess I'm not quite used to it yet. Now someone else wants me to record the parts of some Mission Praise songs – the leader of the family choir. She's got the books and the music, but obviously that's not enough.

Henry Joe was so sentimental when we parted yesterday... I will go and tell the Bishop that my ministry with you is over... not if we can help it matey! I'm still reeling from the oh-so-inspiring meeting with the professor and there's still another page of notes I need to sort out, so let's dive in again:

The next topic on the table was cultures. Western culture is wasteful, using unrenewable sources to advance in the name of progress. Based on dichotomy, with the body and the spirit as separate entities, irreconcilable in this life. Greed is made valid as an essential component of human existence by market economy. So the Professor says.

Indian/Asian culture however, is cyclic (with nowhere to progress to, presumably) and doesn't destroy rainforests or wasteland because of greed. The idea of Globalisation is wrong because it is a monologue of evangelisation. The influx of Western culture is destroying the Indian way of life. Our consumerism, always plugging the bigger/better/more efficient/more digital product is filtering into India before they can afford it.

It costs Rs15,000 for three seconds of advertising and chewing gum is being advertised every five minutes. This shows that there is a big market for a useless sweet, before the majority of the population have enough money for the basics of life. In short, he says, tell your Western friends to stop thinking about what they want. If you can afford a cappucino machine, forget it. Save someone's life. Feed others' needs. All this is fair enough, but now the Prof. wants us to take responsibility for:

• Two world wars,
• The massive industrialisation and therefore dehumanisation of our society,
• And the impending ecological disaster...

It was getting pretty heavy for two little ex A-level students who have no influence in the world. Okay, so Westernisation is bad but without it, India would remain poor. Admittedly it was us who milked her for everything she had and dropped her as soon as she realised, but to blame our culture? Does India not fight? Is there corruption and money obsessions everywhere or is it just me...

I think that greed is a basic human emotion and to blame the West for it is a bit out of order. We are an individualistic crowd, while the Indians are group-orientated. In the end though, the overriding point was that we should all share and the West has little interest in what India has to offer. In other words, we've seen it all before.