Toronto

• No matter whether it’s Toronto or Delhi - slow moving traffic at peak hours is frustrating, specially when you can’t even read something alongside.
• It’s easier to get things done in Banks than I thought.

Books

• Now that I don’t have to worry about huge shipping costs (comparable to the cost of books) to India, or someone’s schedule of India trips, my Amazon.com wish-lists (long) are in danger of extinction soon.
• I carried more weight of books (non-Indian editions) than clothing with me.

QC

• QC carried these gems of comics recently - I cleared my backlog of reading today, so here they are:
  • 857
  • 858
  • 860

I typically post these on the travel blog - I haven’t updated it in a while and well…

London

• London Walks are good. Specifically if you talk to people along the way amidst the guide’s loud voice. I don’t know how other people managed.
• Walking near Thames at night without a jacket / extra over shirt is a good experiment - not to be tried again.
• Spending more time in Galleries and Museums than you originally planned is good. At least you take away to your satisfaction than running around and visiting 100 places in a city in a jiffy.
• You meet lots of interesting people in Art Galleries. This is true for all walks of life, but Art Galleries rank higher in probability.
• No luggage trolleys at Heathrow Express station can be an interesting situation, specifically when you have 3 bags to take care of. Always helps to ask people, even the Express staff. Didn’t have enough time to talk to the person who helped.
• If you get a strange kind of (unidentified) feeling, calling up friends to say ‘Thanks’ is a good thing to do.
• Getting an autograph from the recommender of a book you bought brings nice pleasant surprises in Art Gallery shopping areas.

This is just the beginning.

There are some topics that trigger off the Argumentative Indian, who still remains argumentative and doesn’t do anything else about it.

Imagine you’re shopping in a store, and suddenly you see an AutoRickshaw stopping over and some guys in it trying to pull in a girl walking on the street. She’s resisting it. What do you do?

Apparently, some people did one thing - nothing. This is in the latest post in Blank Noise Action Heroes blog - here.

Although there’s a lot that the girl underwent (read about her thought process about not going out in a saree for a long time), what’s interesting is the way the ‘lesson learnt’ part comes about. The post says “It was a big lesson learnt that people don’t have the time to help other people and it is up to you to take care of yourself!”

Of course, we all know, it’s not about the bloody time, but the attitude. You have to help yourself - yes. And you can easily predict that the proud urban Indian who becomes a sher when cheering vigorously for India in a cricket stadium will not raise even the meekest voice when such a thing happens in front of you on the street. OK - that was over generalization. But hey, what the heck? The people in that Auto wouldn’t have tried the vagaries on a street had they expected the passers by to raise alarm, if not rush to help the lady. But the general public always rises to the occasion to ensure the confidence in their inabilities is upheld.

And no, it’s not a law-and-order problem, although that may be a contributing factor. You are a part of this society, and you must help the situation by virtue of being this part, if not anything else. Projects like Blank Noise are helping to wake people to this realization, but it will require a transition to the next generation at this pace to achieve a mass-attitude change (I am optimistic that it will happen). Until then, yeah, keep your expectations from society to zero and learn to take care of yourself. Any incoming help is a bonus.

What does this post achieve - again, one thing - nothing.