Just general...

No real subject this time, just some things that struck me on my journey home.

I think there is a person employed on every bus and train to make the ride difficult or uncomfortable in some way. There is always something.
Tonight it was the ticket collector, who noticed I was lying on a big berth, at right angles to the window.
"Excuse me, that is your seat over there"
Oh... can I not just sleep here?
"But that is not S9"
But there is no one else sleeping here
"...but it's not S9"
But the carriage is practically empty and there is no one in this seat.
"...but S9 is over there (you see? over there, the stuffy top berth that's boxed in against the window, is about a foot to small for you, has a light where your head is that you can't switch off and is next to the man who's snoring)"
later on I am woken up at 1 am by some idiot in a yellow shirt and a baseball cap who doesn't speak a word of English who for some reason that is beyond me wants to inspect my ticket, labours through all the details on the ticket, gives it back and then leaves.

I arrived in Delhi and had a few hours to kill but with no shops open on Sunday. I decided to get my ears cleaned professionally. This is quite a common profession for guys on the street in Delhi. There is a whole caste (family) of ear cleaners that have had it in their blood for generations.
Guess how much he tried to charge me. Guess.
70 quid!!!!
HAHAHA
you want Rs 5000 to clean my ears with a cotton bud??
I gave him 1/100th of the price and told him to be on his way.

In the news today a Delhi college student was "ragged" to death. "Ragging" is bullying that goes on in college hostels, and usually it is ignored by the college authorities because the victims commit suicide, so the blame can be put on stress or mental intability or general "weakness" on the victim's part. But this time he was murdered. So will we see big changes? I don't think so.
It tells me that there is no sector of India, those with money and without, high caste, low caste, educated, rural, urban, that is without chronic and serious problems. If rich, educated kids with good prospects are bullying classmates to death for fun, who do you look to to get India out of the mess of religious and caste violence, corruption, and political crime?

The other day a statue of Charlie Chaplin in Karnkata was strongly objected to by a Hindu extremist because he was a Christian.
Which is funny, because the Nazis objected to Charlie Chaplin because he was a jew.