Notes on India

Before I continue with the adventure we had in Agra, allow me to put down some contextual sub-notes on India itself.

There is no sense of private space.

You can be standing in a crowd looking at some monument and if there's half an inch of space between you and the person in front, you can be sure someone will try to step in.

Another example was at a metro station where I bought a ticket. Anyone can buy a ticket, they're cheap and plentiful, as are the trains regular and often. Nonetheless, at the counter, I get one guy stand behind me, stretch out both arms, put his left hand on the counter to my left and his right on the counter to my right; his crotch meanwhile is neatly pressed up against my backside. As soon as I was handed my ticket, is hip had slid in to fork me away.

Another example was when I got the train to Varanasi, one was required to have a reservation to get on that carriage. But that didn't stop one guy elbowing passed me, though I was the next in line, and another trying to squeeze in next to me through the one-person doorway whilst his bag found a comfortable spot under one of my left ribs.

There is no respect for public place.

On two of the last sleeper trains, I have had obnoxious and downright annoying ringtones wake me up. And in the latter case, wake up the mobile phone owner's entire family. While not use the silent option while trying to sleep? Casey says that in Brazil, where pay as you go has done quite well, the relative cost of a phone call to their income means that when a phone call comes in, it must be important. If that is the case, then why did the guy on the train to Agra, hit "do not accept call" the first two times it rang, only to give in the third time and start a conversation at stupid o'clock.

Another example is the car, motorbike and bus horns. Since there are no enforced traffic rules in India, cars, bikes, autorickshaws, buses and trucks drive how they please, often on the wrong side of the road if it seems convenient; I tell you, it's never convenient, it's ****ing scary is what it is. Indicators are rarely used, if the vehicle has any at all. So instead the horn is used to provide signal that a vehicle is approaching on either side of another. Given that the roads are busy to say the least...everywhere...it means that horns are going off constantly...everywhere. In other words, noice pollution is an incredibly costly negative externality.

Some motorbikes and buses have horns that reach into your skull and pierce the eardrum, often rattling your teeth in their sockets.
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Everything in India is a hassle.

Crossing the street is a hassle as cars don't stop. Even if crossing a tiny back lane, a car or motorbike will pull out and stop right in front of you to answer a call or do something equally as unnecessary. Finding a decent restaurant that seems safe, but not too expensive is a hassle. Getting a train is a hassle because, even if all the electronic signs say the train is arriving on platform X at time Y, it won't. It will arrive late, potentially on a different platform. You agree a price with a rickshaw driver, and he kicks up a stink regardless when you pay him the agreed amount. Sorry dude, that's not how contract law works.

India is draining. I am starting to believe that it has an amazing history and culture, but the country is made tourist unfriendly by severe overpopulation and all the negative externalities that go with it.