I've just been kindly informed by the internet cafe owner that uploading pictures is not allowed here. Which is good, because even if I'd tried, all the USB ports on this particular computer are bashed in.. what?!
Time for some bits of Indian randomness we've noticed. For instance, 3 roadside shops called, respectively, Kidney Stone Centre, Hoome Appliances, and Handwriting Improvement Centre. It may be a 3rd world country but you can't say India doesn't have selection.
All the vehicles here have SOUND HORN written on the bumper, because this is how everyone communicates while driving (which is always done completely recklessly). Whenever you're approaching or passing a car, you honk at least 10 times so they know where you are. Meaning big city traffic jams can be defeaning. There are also the cliche religious or friendly slogans on the back windows of cars -- two I found particularly amusing were Sweet JESUS and Gracious CHRIST, which I can just hear someone yelling to themselves in the middle of traffic. I even saw a How am I driving? sticker here, which is so completely pointless and hilarious.
In Chennai, we saw a girl, in a sari, on a motorcycle, in afternoon traffic, wearing a welding mask.
One of the oddest things here is that people don't nod or shake their heads -- they bobble them, from side to side. It might mean yes, or maybe no.. you'll only really know if they answer you verbally. You can walk up to someone and start speaking, and before even 3 words are out, you'll see their head start bobbling. It's so bizarre, and gets old quite fast.
In Goa we are enjoying the semi-civilized treatment from men, but are trying to get used to walking down the road without stepping on some stray dog or a huge crow that's been hit by a car and has its eyes eaten out by flies. On the way to brekkie we passed a 2-year old girl sitting in the sand, ripping the head off a small fish so she could eat it.
During brekkie, I witnessed a Mum slapping her baby to make it cry before she went to beg from fat, red sunbathers on the beach. A crying baby gets more money than a happy one, and ones with obvious wounds or missing limbs get even more. Sometimes it's really difficult to see the 'good' side of India; it feels like humanity at its worst. On the flip side, it's also the sad effects of tourism that are so rampant in any poor country.
I guess I will be posting pictures tomorrow, from a different cafe.
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