Mary Poppins sing along...all together now

Now Dear Reader,

I am in no way suggesting that India is a Mary Poppins Nanny state. Quite the opposite. Poor old Mary has been given the boot and the children run wild, letting the animals loose on the streets, pissing on pavements, throwing their plastic to the wind with never a thought to rules or responsibility.

It's generally potholes of chaos but they do it with such broad smiles and humanitarian hearts that it's hard to get angry. because they don't and they have to live in it right. so, when you can, you turn a blind eye to the temples of rubbish, lower your nose to the the sickly sour stench (a mixture of rotting and ripening) and close your ears to the sound of 1 billion people waking eating and sharing their lives.

so it is strange that on my 5 hour bus journey from seaside UNESCO heritage site,Mallapurum, to the temple town (a loose term this) of Trivanamalai, I would have the world's most famous nanny and most annoying songs well popping in for a quick cycle around my head. and presumable she is a fit little bugger because she stayed the course for a good few hours and then buggered back to the land of rules and regulations.

So here's my Bollywood version of "These are a few of my favourite things" (set to the image of travellers with overladen backpacks wading through rubbish and rickshaws to reach their spiritual speak. plus your own images).

Manly moustaches and hot bucket washes
standing on buses and rickshaws no fusses
swirling silk saris and scented flowers on strings
these are a few of my favourite things

Squatting and spitting and burping and pissing
waiting in queues til time has gone missing
bargaining down and then wiggling it away
this is all part of the Indian way

Scooping sauce with parota right hand they taught ya
drinking beer from a teapot and wondering whose got pot
talking "bomb bay" one minute before dashing to the loo
these are the things that all travellers do

Meeting tiny tailors over silk and soft cotton
haggling over quality and the cost of a single button
Drinking hot chai and watching cows amble by
these are the days when you don't question why


Dirty day buses and sticky night trains
dripping with sweat and dripping with rains
finding my calm amidst this colourful craze
this is what i love about my India days


A lesson to self: there may be no set rhyme or reason to india, but she sure has a catchy tune...
namaste