I had trouble sleeping last night: too hot,dehydrated, whatever, so it didn’t wake me up when at 3 am the neighborhood pack of dogs began to howl in time with a man shouting. After it had gone on for about half an hour, I stepped out onto my balcony and saw that there were other heads peering out of windows all along the street. I saw a man dressed all in white trying to drive away three dogs who obviously did not wish to be run off while two others, stuck together back to back, stood still in the street. The man kept a steady stream of invective or philosophizing or something going at the top of his lungs while lunging at the dogs up and down the street. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. In the first place, I’ve never seen dogs stuck together back to back before, so in my haze I wondered if they were cojoined twins or something. Maybe I had been asleep after all. I thought the other dogs were trying to attack the two-bodied dog and the man was protecting it. It eventually occurred to me that the man was stinking drunk and just felt like bothering dogs. In any case, what amazed me was that no one on the street yelled at him to shut up. Were they admiring his constant monologue, or were they just extremely polite? I, the ugly westerner, eventually took it upon myself to yell at him and then was immediately joined by others. He stumbled off and immediately the dogs lay down and went back to sleep. Continue reading “Ooty”
Fort Cochin today. A short ferry ride from Ernakulam, but a world away. Fort Cochin is a clean, expensive resort enclave. Lunch today cost me almost ten times what I’m used to paying, although my hotel room is not so bad. I’m enjoying the relatively cleanliness and quiet of Fort Cochin, but its surreal aspect is irking me slightly. I was hungry this morning and just wanted a snack from the street, but there weren’t any; there aren’t any girls selling flowers for your hair. Continue reading “Not India?”
THE HOBOTECT 