Ever notice how when you’re in a strange place long enough, strange things stop looking strange and start looking normal? Then suddenly, you see something normal and for a second, you get this stupid look on your face because now, that thing looks strange?
I’m thinking of one time in particular but if I can’t think of at least two more, I’ll drop this thread and write about something different. (Of course, clever readers know they wouldn’t be reading this if I hadn’t come up with three. But as I write this, the suspense is terrific.)
The time I’m thinking of is when I was coming up the stairs at an elevated train station in Bangkok. There was a Bob Dylan song playing, a little loudly I thought. When I got to the next level, there he was – live! (Hope this link works for you. The 20-second video was too big.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxfskwo2sv6g8ha/%20bangkokbob%20copy.mp4?dl=0
I tried talking to him. Tell him I’m a fan, blah, blah… He seemed to have completely forgotten how to speak English! (Bob, what happened? Drugs? Old age? What?)
Here’s another. I was sitting on the veranda of a guest house in West Bengal admiring a little device I’d found in the tech store: an 8GB flash drive with a little switch on it that lets you plug it into your cellphone (common enough now but at the time, unheard of in the US).
So there I was, delighted that we’re living here in the glittering future instead of back there in the medieval past carrying heavy objects strapped to our heads. Then I looked up and saw this guy walking right by me.
Okay, that’s not really an out-of-context experience. More like an anachronism.
Here’s a better one. At Glenary’s Bakery in Darjeeling, you can sit outside and admire the exotic Himalayan panarama.
Or you can sit cozy inside with your tea and crumpets.
You’ll note that behind the waiter is an interesting beer poster. Hmm…what’s that can in the second row?
Homer Simpson’s beer. Handy six-packs now available in the Himalayas. What next?
On a little side street in Jaffna, there were vegetable carts, fruit vendors, people hand-stitching newly-cut leather soles onto old leather shoes, then this.
In big cities like Delhi and Kolkata, you expect to see a lot of beggars. What you don’t expect is to have them ask you to wait a second while they take a call.
Makes you stop and wonder. You hand him ten rupees and move on still wondering.
In Colombo, we were walking along the waterfront. It was getting dusky and we started looking for a place to eat.
The #%^> cafe across the street looked interesting but we couldn’t quite figure out what kind of restaurant it was and whether or not our stomachs could handle it. Then we panned right. Problem solved.
