Monday, September 15, 2008

Observations regarding India with particular reference to differences with England

Originally written while travelling on a bus, 19th November 2007

1. Rubbish in streets
2. Cows in streets
3. Dogs in streets
4. Goats in streets
5. Tinsel on buses and lorries
6. Outlandish horns on buses
7. Flashing lights on buses
8. Handwritten signs
9. Large numbers of switches
10. "Stop" written on cars
11. Large numbers of motorbikes
12. Shrines and other customisations withn rickshaws, taxis and buses
13. Cheap fruit
14. Lots of tickets
15. No receipts
16. Old banknotes
17. Swastikas
18. Religious imagery
19. Pictures of politicians (wearing sunglasses)
20. Crap TV
21. Head waggle
22. Pigs in streets
23. Donkeys in streets
25. Elephants in streets
26. Camels in streets
27. Children doing jobs
28. Shit everywhere (see 2-4, 22-26)
29. Men urinating
30. Excellent fashion sense and clean clothes
31. Hospitable hotels
32. Removing shoes in hospitals
33. Wide trains
34. Sleeper trains
35. Sleeper buses
36. Dust
37. Mobile phones everywhere (cinema, desert)
38. Caller tones
39. Fluorescent lime green dye
40. Beggars
41. Lassi
42. Toll roads
43. Shah Rukh Khan
44. Face whitening cream
45. People carrying bundles of stuff. milk churns etc.
45. People who come to your house to buy your rubbish off you
46. Friendy people/children
47. Auto rickshaws
48. Collonic irrigation pipes
49. Intervals in films
50. Bourganvilla trees
51. Chipmunks
52. Lorries with SOUND HORN on them
53. Sounding of horn
54. Men pulling carts
55. Children pumping water
56. People waiting until bus/train is moving before boarding
57. Loud people in cinemas/on trains
58. Ads for cement
59. Ads for steel
60. Wires
61. Chai stops
62. Roadside food
63. Restaurants called hotels
64. Red and white mobile phone masts
65. Neatly dressed men
66. Food extremely hot/greasy/sweet/salty
67. Soft drinks with radioactive colours
68. STD PCO ISD
69. TATA
70. Men making throat noise and spitting
71. (Smelly toilets)
72. Building materials/rubble in streets
73. Masala chai
74. Easy-peel oranges
75. Bananas
76. Children wanting to shake your hand
77. Enterprising kids
78. Cheap manual labour
79. Cheap stuff
80. Hand washing sinks
81. Trains with no doors
82. Indian/Foreigner admission fees
83. Camera fees
84. Drums/bells/music etc. emanating from towns
85. Women bathing in saris
86. Boys holding hands
87. Cleaning clothes by hitting against rocks
88. School uniforms
89. Policemen with moustaches
90. All women police stations
91. Driving on left
92. Pure veg. restaurants
93. BPO
94. Welding
95. Motorbike repair shops
96. Mending and direct recycling
97. Whistling in cinemas
98. Goat herds on dual carriageway
99. Sheep in desert
100. Names pasted by train carriage door
101. Turbans
102. Maharajas
103. Sheep/cow herds on dual carriageways
104. Baskets on heads
105. "Recommended by Lonely Planet" signs
106. 1L Bottled Water (10Rs-15Rs)
107. Colours
108. Warm/hot weather
109. Ceiling fans
110. Air conditioned ATMs
111. Women sidesaddle on motorbikes
112. Wooden scaffolding
113. Vodafone signs