At last, in Thanjavur, I've found a town I can cope with. Urban India has been getting me down. The constant traffic noise and attendant dust, the horns, squealing brakes, seething road traffic, where somehow adults, children, cows, sheep and goats, motor bike riders, cyclists and pedestrians all contrive to co-exist is exhausting. I manage to block it out most of the time, but I imagine that it's having an effect. Constantly avoiding eye contact is exhausting. The aimiable eye contact with a stranger where you might even exchange a complicit smile, shrug or raised eyebrow over a shared experience, as you could in England, is impossible here. You're just asking to engage in attention which you may not want at all. Avoiding appraoaches by stallholders, shopkeepers, rickshaw drivers is exhausting. My low point came the
... read more
