A cool drink and a few catchy headlines

JAISALMER, India — How do you celebrate the end a 20-hour train ride when you arrive in a desert city where the temperature is 104?

A cold drink on the terrace of a fine hotel is always nice.

The Shahi Palace Hotel (www.shahipalacehotel.com) overlooking Jaisalmer's 800-year-old hilltop fortress is a backpackers-grow-up kind of place with a popular rooftop garden and restaurant.

The rooms, all built from honey-colored Jaisalmer sandstone, are quirky and fun. Ours is $26 a night and comes with a private bathroom, air conditioning and T.V.

Most of the guests are 30- and 40-something Europeans, here like we are, for a few days to explore the medieval fort where about 5,000 people still live, and to do overnight camel safari into the Thar desert.

In the heat of the afternoon, most everyone who's around chills under the awning of the roof garden to study their Lonely Planet guidebooks or catch up on the news.

I love reading newspapers when I'm traveling, and one of the nice things about India is that it's an English-speaking country with English papers.

What foreign papers consider news is always interesting.

From this week's Times of India:

Delhi ticket checkers fined for roughing up old man
"A consumer court has directed Delhi authorities to deduct $165 from the salaries of three ticket inspectors as a penalty for ill-treating an elderly person who was abused and kicked over his failure to show proof of being a senior citizen."

Security curbs, intrusive media fail to cramp Brangelina style
"According to sources, Angelina Jolie has been gymming at the eighth floor health club of the Le Meridien (hotel in Prune) every day. While the club is usually open from 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m., Jolie uses it later, and only after her security personnel ensure that everyone has left the gym."

Your SMS style can nail you, says study
"The way you send text messages could be as distinctive as your handwriting — and could be used as evidence in court.

"Psychologists are researching whether texting quirks, such as dropping pronouns or relying on particular abbreviations, can identify the sender of the message."

One of the most interesting sections is the Sunday Matrimonials, similar to our personals, only more to the point.

This past Sunday, there were eight pages of classified ads for "Grooms Wanted" and "Brides Wanted," placed mostly by families seeking an arranged marriage for their sons and daughters.

The ads specify religion, whether or not the person is a vegetarian, and often their profession and caste.

"Slim and fair," "fair and beautiful" and "slim and beautiful" are often used to describe the girls. The boys tend to prefer "smart and fair" and "tall, intelligent and handsome."

In one ad, the boy's family described him as a "Tall teetotaler."

It's no longer legal to discriminate according to caste, the Indian system of class divisions, but caste is still important politically and socially.

To encourage inter-marriages, the government recently proposed financial incentives for those who marry members of lower castes.