On my birthday, we were in Bangalore, visiting mama's friend, Michelle. I liked Bangalore's untamed streets; it was the opposite of Oakland. The streets were unpaved someplaces, marble tiles and concrete slabs were strewn on the makeshift sidewalks, which were usually planks creating narrow bridges over dug holes and piles of gravel, or packed dirt and rocks that were usually muddy and full of puddles. No one had regard for the rule, "pedestrians stay on the sidewalks", as the smaller streets were full of people crisscrossing over, while motorcycles and tuktuks honked their horns continually, but a cab driver told us it wasn't that they were angry. They beeped the horn to let everyone know, WE'RE HERE! Like a gentle reminder. The bigger streets were absolute chaos. It was absolutely jam-packed of cars, tuktuks, motorcycles, trucks, and we even saw a tractor. It was constant beeping, and there was a sign saying Follow Lane Discipline that I don't think anyone even registered; you tried to get ahead wherever you could. But what was amazing was that there were no crashes; everyone was a professional driver. They came so close to each other (Once, in a tuktuk, I could literally reach across and open a car door if I wanted) that it would have taken an expert to not crash. Our tuktuk driver said that he hadn't crashed in 20 years. What. He actually had driven a truck first, but then he got in a six-person accident, so he then became a tuktuk driver, since tuktuks are a lot smaller.
On my birthday, we went to a dinner restuarant, where something strange happened. With no warning whatsoever, the lights switched off, a bus horn blasted, and disco music started blaring from unseen speakers. All of the staff got in a conga line and started dancing wildly as they moved around the aisles. They went all the way around the dining area, then the music switched off, the lights came on, and the employees went back to work. So. Also, almost everyone got a birthday thing; you know, the cake and the employee song. This one was... memorable. It went,
Heeey!
Clap clap clap
Haaaaa!
clap clap clap
Congratulate!
clap clap clap
Celebrate!
clap clap clap
We wish you a very, very happy birthday.
We wish you a very very happy birthday.
Then they dispersed and left. (The cake was awful). We ate a lot of chicken kebabs. Angus got a first-degree burn on the metal kebab stick, which put a damper on the evening. I still liked the kebabs. (The raw lime drinks were good too.)
