Pandemonium!
Good lord, as I climb off the bus near the railway depot, leaving the Frenchman to continue his earthprobe, a dozen people tug at me, blocking me with their peddle-cabs or begging for alms. The street is completely clogged by a mass of pedestrian humanity, animals and vehicles. I have never seen anything like it! Can I cope with this?
Of course!
I nonchalantly fend off everybody and notice a reasonable hotel nearby. In my small room with bath, I first bathe. (Damn! I have NEVER been so foul!) Then (cough! cough! cough!) collapse!
By early afternoon I am rested enough to go out walking. First, back to the railway station where I fill out a lengthy form (in British English, of course) and buy a ticket on tomorrow’s “noon mail” train to Delhi. Next I go looking for the famous “Golden temple”.
I never find it, but what a walk!
Honest-to-God Holy Cows, most so bleak, black and bony I don’t think I have ever seen any creatures more horrible-- and they all seem to leaking bright green shit. People! --thousands of people, all looking miserably poor and all trying to hustle a rupee by all ways known to man. Sidewalk dentists sit on mats displaying the tools of their trade, gouges, knives and pliers, surrounded by heaps of human teeth, which proves their competence. Unbelievable!
Like a frightened animal, I buy some fruit, hurry back to my more or less safe hotel room, look down from my fourth floor window at the pageant of India below and am appalled.
I don’t leave the room again until it is time to catch the train.
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