Been reading a couple of books - this extracts are words of wisdom from Sarah Macdonald (2004) in 'Holy Cow'. She's an Australian who's gone to live in India with her husband. Haz and I think she sums up things perfectly! Enjoy...
ON TRANSPORT -
'Blokes - and a friend or two, perch atop tall, rusty bicycles. Entire families share motorcycles. Toddlers stand between dad's knees or clutch his back, and wives sit sidesaddle while snuggling babies. Auto-rickshaws zip round like tin toys. Ambassador cars - half Rolls-Royce, and half Soviet tanks cruise with class. Huge tinsel-decorated trucks rumble and groan and filthy lime-green buses fly around like kamakaze cans squeezing out a chunky sauce of arms and legs...
Everyone seems to drive with one finger on the horn and another shoved high up a nostril...'
Roads - there is a 'strict species pecking order: pedestrians are on teh bottom and run out of the way of everything, bicycles make way to cycle-rickshaws, which give way to auto-rickshaws, which stop for cars, which are subservient to trucks. Buses stop for one thing and one thing only. Not customers - they jump on while the buses are still moving. The only thing that can stop a bus is the King of rhte Road. The Lord of the jungle, and the top dog.
The holy cow.'
ON RELIGION -
'You Western people are all science, all fact. You don't even believe in God anymore because you think we came from a monkey' - Sarah talking to an Indian man.
ON SOCIAL GRACES -
'The North Indian men on the streets stare so hard and are so sleazy that I often feel like I've somehow starred in a porn film without knowing it'...
Pretty much sums it up! xxx
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