Only in India . . .

Ya, I bet you can guess where this is going . . . but really most of these things you WOULD only see in India!

Where else would a monkey jump your sugar bowl while you are enjoying your 5 o’clock chai? That little prick ate our whole bowl of sugar and spent a great deal of his days terrorizing the ladies on our balcony. He's still cute though, isn't he?

Newfoundland dog shoved into a rickshaw?

And how many other places in the world would a trip to the “Ladies Salon” (often spelled saloon) would involve throwing two gals on the back of your moped and drive them across town to your living room cum ladies parlor? That floozy dress was a beauty day loaner by the way.

Only in India can you get chai delivered to your train bunk in a clay cup that you then smash on the train tracks upon draining. And where else do electrical employees boycott fixing a blown transformer until their co-workers hospital bills are paid? No electricity and no water, two days = "no problem".

India is queen of obscure holidays. At one point in Varanasi we realized that four separate holidays were occurring on the same day. One holiday was such that couples who were having conception problems visited the Water Temple, which was a set of stairs descending down to water, from which rose a 20 foot arch meant to represent the phallus. After dipping in the water the couple undresses, leaving their clothes at the temple. THEN, on the same day, all the couples who HAVE conceived since their last visit bring their new babies, shave their head, stuff the hair in chapatti (bread) and throw it in the Ganga (holy river). I can not make this stuff up!!!!

Bright and early (morning prayer) where you get the red tikka mark with rice pressed into your forehead?

Need I say more?

- S. Mangosteen