Condolence visits

At my usual Tuesday/ Thursday night haunt, the Ashok household, the big news was that Arjun, cutest little boy in the world, had been bitten on the arm by the mangy white dog who lives by the basketball court. He now has to have about 5 different injections over the couse of the next month. Over the course of the evening, various different teachers dropped in to see how he was. Not big visits, just five minutes or so. Turned up, expressed concern about the arm, watched national geographic for a few minutes, then said goodbye and left. That's the way things are done in India, if something happens to someone, large or small, you pay the person a small visit just as a token of interest and concern.
Another thing I've grown to really like is the abundance of little compliments you get every day. To start, everyone says good morning and good evening, regardless of how often you see them. And as you walk down the corridor, you get, "Sir, looking so nice." or "Sir nice shoes". Sometimes I get "Sir looking sexy," which is a bit different but I appreciate the sentiment. All the comments are genuine, they aren't said jokingly. They are just nice comments said for the sake of saying something nice.
The senior students decided yesterday, completely of their own accord, to invite me to their hostel to have a sort of "audience with Tom" so that the class 10s could learn a bit about Europe and the rest of the world and practice their English, which is a really good thing to do for their junior students.

It's the complete lack of cynicism they have that makes them so polite and genuine, and that's why I think all this sex obsession and other mindset problems they have are viruses of a sort. They don't actually belong in the Indian people, and I hope someday they outgrow them and are left with their own endearing, excellent nature.