LESSON IN LOCAL CULTURE (X+1)

I know I pontificate a lot about buses and trains and transportation in general on this self-indulgent blog all about me, but no ones forcing you to read it, right? And maybe you're not, maybe I'm just talking to myself. In which case, shut up already.

But I feel obligated to record for the record (that could be a good band name...) my cultural "educations" of this past weekend regarding intercity government buses. In India, or Tamil Nadu at least, if you are a male and you are sitting on a bus for longer than say, 15 minutes, then it is OK, I repeat, perfectly OK, to doze off on your neighbors shoulder. In fact if there are several of you in a row you can all lean on each other until the white guy next to the window is bearing the entire weight of your collapsed, drooling, sneezing/snoring bodies, no matter that it makes him even more uncomfortable than he was in the first place in dealing with the distance between the seats being several inches less than the length of his femurs.

Also, if the white guy decides to elbow you in the side, giving you the Indian equivalent of a subtle hint that maybe this isn't his idea of an ideal bus ride up the coast, just simply rock the other way for a few seconds and then return to your prior position. There's really not much he can do. And, if for some reason, you find sleep difficult in the long run, which is unlikely considering you can probably sleep through the next World War, it's OK to just linger somewhere between sleep and waking life as you rhythmically shift your weight around and perform a unique ritual of coughing, sneezing, grumbling and wiping your nose, often in the direction of your white neighbor.

And make sure to push and shove as your stop approaches. Otherwise people might get confused as to what you're doing, and why.