Only in India.

I forgot to include a funny moment that happened during the tour in India, and as I don’t know which day it happened on, I’ll just write about it now.

We were waiting in the train station for our train, and we had yet to witness the chaos that is the Indians boarding trains. Train doors typically don’t close, so people are boarding and disembarking long before the train comes to a complete stop. Seats are few, so there’s a mad scramble to get to them before everyone else, and it was typically the younger men without loads of stuff that managed to get seats. (Don’t give them to the tired old women carrying gargantuan packs and baskets atop their heads or anything. May the best man win!) Chaos is in full swing with the train still rolling along at a dangerous pace, and within moments the emergency windows are also open and being used as doors. People are fighting and pushing at the doors to get on, with people on the train fighting and pushing to get off the train.

Unlike at home, where we (mostly) understand that to make room for new people on the train, you must first let the old passengers off. In India, there’s no time for logic or manners! And I can’t really blame them; the trains will often leave before their scheduled departure time, and without any warning. But still, it’s a sight to see.

And then, in the midst of all this madness, what happens?

A cow walks by.

In the middle of a train station, among the hysterical passengers scrambling to get on the train. Slowly lumbering by, looking for food, ignoring the madness that surrounded it.

Only in India.