One Month On...

So, it's been a month in India... my delay in posting has mainly been due to the fact that I was getting tired of describing things that I had done so I will keep the descriptions for another time... instead I have decided to write down some reflections that have struck me so far in this epic corner of the world.

• The way people move their heads in a sort of circular motion, accompanied by an ambiguous twisting hand gesture when you ask them a yes or no question is as endearing as it is frustrating.

• Temple visits on Monday seem to be a great excuse for the men to go out and get stoned off their tits.

• Women frequently ride side saddle on motorbikes with their saris flowing perilously behind.

• A child's smile out here will brighten up even your darkest mood.

• Bryan Adams and the Vengaboys are very popular in India.

• Eventually you will find the bus driver who sits on his ridiculously load horn at 2am outside your window a familiar pleasure.

• An act of kindness by a stranger invariably eclipses the twenty or so underhand and moneygrabbing encounters that went before.

• There are a ridiculous number of men standing idle in the streets out here, unemployment is a massive problem.

• Cows are patient animals, we could learn a lot from them.

That's about it so far... of course there's more, much more, all the things that I've thought and forgotten and absorbed without realising, they're in my head somewhere... swirling around, responsible for the slightly confused and disorientated awe in which I hold this place. I'll keep trying to get them down in writing, I'll keep failing to do them justice... I think that this will be at least one of the constants that keeps me going for the next month...

...and the one after that...

...and, I hope, the one after that.