thought of hunkering down on the Super
Deluxe and sleeping all the way to Delhi
sounded good to me. But what I got
instead was a seat next to Mr. Friendly, a
middle-aged man who spoke three
words of English, and who insisted on
chatting me up even though I was doing
what I thought was a very convincing job
of fake sleeping, and a very real job of
having no freakin’ idea what he was
saying.
The bus left an hour late due to
massive confusion and overbooking and
took almost two hours to get out of town
thanks to the fact that it was November,
peak wedding season. Weddings in India
traditionally involve a ceremony that