getting cultural, as in interresting culture for once

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Tonight we got ourselves a little experience in the holy city af Varanasi. holy chanting by holy men. it did feel sort of genuine and i was taken aback by the relative peace and quiet. during the whole thing i wasnt approached by a single parasite looking for money. this happened before and after the ceremony of course but i was on the verge of the feeling that there was something more interesting than money even in this land of failed Bert Karlssons (sorry if you are unfamiliar with him, he is the swedish symbol of tackiness and greed).

Greed is an ever present topic when moving about this country. The subject of money is everywhere. On a guided tour all of interest was presumed to be how much things cost to build or how incredibly rich the person owning it must have been. I would not say that the business sense has been to impressive though. If you do haggle about the price with someone they will most likely get mad before too long. Previously ive gotten the impression that in cultures with lots of bargaining its part of the deal that you take what you get and leave it at that with no hard feelings. There is also no sense of possibly finding a returning customer, once the sell or non-sell is fixed the typical seller will act like you dont exist. Usually after having gone to extremes and told you that as his personal friend he would feel bad in his heart if he charged you too much. Ive also had shop keepers mention karma or religious motives for being honest. The sense of humor that can often be found when haggling in other places seems to have been lost here.

Another peculiar thing about shop keepers is their tendency to, like most locals, drop things where they stand. As far as keeping the title of the world dirtiest place its not likely to change in my lifetime. I cant remember if i have EVER seen anyone use a garbage can. This brings about side affects such as rats but one would also think that any shopkeeper wouldnt want to welcome his customers by throwing his garbage out the front door. Not in India. After all, if one considers the front side of ones home as a good trash dump then why not ones place of business. Well, who am I kidding every place is seemingly considered a good toilet as well so then why care about trash cans.

We only have a few days left on the Indian leg of our expedition and I cant say Im sorry about it. There has been some good adjustments lately though. More than anything ive gotten better at getting places on foot. Basically the idea is to be semi-aggressive. Cycle rickshaws are the easiest. When they park in front of you to give you a ride you can just give them a push out of the way. Ive also done un- Carl things like slam my fist into the hood of a car to notify him that he should let me pass. Slam the side of auto rickshaws to do the same. Walked "through" locals when they practiced the never wait your turn and never say excuse me/sorry which are words never heard here. The walking through actually works well even fir my skinny self thanks to their often small statures.

In other words it seems cricket became a much more indian thing than all of the english typically over- polite ways. Cricket is played everywhere and seems to be the only sport that really counts by the way which is hard to deal with, but who knows, maybe that could be a way to develop some sort of one for all idea here. The basic idea of teamwork instead of to each his own. People working together instead of fighting their way through every transaction, intersection and so on...but that would alos require putting aside the hierarchies which are very prevalent with the rich bossing around servants, parents publicly hitting their kids and men being waited on by their women. hmm, I almost sounded a bit critical there...might be time to get up outta this place and head for some gentle buddhist southeast asian places instead.

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