Little touches

I thought the local people were panning for gold in a dried up river bed, it is a hive of activity.

But no, India is too poor for that. They are picking out the stones by hand to use the silt as a building material.

The other day within a short period in Delhi a local intervened to stop a cycle rickshaw from trying to rip me off, another warmly shook my hand, and a group from an automotive parts manufacturers conference invited me in to see 'Indian dance'. It turns out that, as almost all the business representatives were men, this is basically as cultural as a woman showing a bit of middle jiggling about to not entirely well suited music. Also as always in India, the music is too loud and badly distorted. Somehow either distortion is associated with loudness or distortion is a learned concern. The peak of the performance was "Russian dance", which raises the stakes with quite a lot of  atheltic white Russian middle and leg on display, to a kind of aerobic routine which possibly has traces of Indian dance, Russian dance, or neither.

India is also a country for the more questionable little touches. Delhi's metro system doesn't go to one of the cities main rail stations and bus stations. Take the walk from Euston to Euston Square, double it, and add in a few 4 lane roads to cross. I've seen half length metro trains, which stop at the front of the platform causing the usual chaos in the rear coaches. I wasn't offered a room at one of the lodges here on account of my inability to hold my mouth at their extra special little touch. This time one room's bathroom vents directly into another bedroom. As much as I like listening to someone...