My room in Puducherry was overlooking a busy main road. I’d decided not to extend my stay there. Also, there wasn’t much to see in Puducherry. I’d already seen the French quarter, the one thing on my list.
My preference was to move to a guesthouse on the Auroville campus. There was lots going on there. However, this was the peak season. I couldn’t find anything. I therefore moved to a hostel about a 15-minute auto drive from the campus.
I sometimes wonder if some coincidences are meant to be — the universe deciding something for us. For example, meeting people seems just a random event but I wonder how random it is.
Today, I came out of the hostel and turned left in search of a convenience store to buy some nuts. I asked someone and he told me to change directions. So I turned around. After 5 minutes, I see cows “queueing” to go into a restaurant. At that point, someone comes to the entrance to have a cigarette whilst his pizza is being made. I joke, “It’s great this restaurant allows cows and humans to dine in”. He jokes back, “And the cows know how to queue!” then apologies for his joke (people don’t queue here). His was the better joke.
We exchange a few more words and he says why don’t I join him for pizza. I go get my emergency nuts and join him, sitting outside. The restaurant can make a vegan pizza. We have a long conversation over dinner about philosophy, religion, politics and everything in between! At one point, he says “what a fantastic conversation!”. We have a similar worldview.
My new friend is German working on a project in Auroville about the education system. He studied political science but teaches now. He got fed up and has been to India a couple of times.
I have made enquiries to a guesthouse 0.5km from the Auroville campus. I hope I’ll be moving there after my four days at the hostel, which is nice and sociable. My German friend said he’ll introduce me to people and help me orient myself while I’m there.
My friend’s joke reminded of an incident in a Starbucks in Bangalore. When I went in, this woman tourist was having a go at the manager. The staff had served someone first who came in after her. At one point she said “I know people don’t queue in India but you shouldn’t encourage it”.
I sat down whilst my latte was being made and said something to a couple next to me. It turned out they were the ones who’d “jumped the queue”. Except they didn’t. The guy said the person serving didn’t realise. It was genuine mistake.
Anyway, the woman continued for about 15 more minutes while the manager tried to pacify her.
I had a reminder of the non-queueing behaviour when buying a metro ticket. There were five people circled around the counter. I stood behind thinking they were together. They weren’t. Then another person came and joined the huddle in front of me. Queues don’t get longer here, they get wider.
I learnt quickly that, in some places, I can buy metro tickets from my UPI app. It even generates the QR code to get through the ticket gates.
There are quite a few cows around the hostel. They walk up and down the main road. They’re quite endearing and intelligent — like dogs.
When I was first talking to my German friend outside the restaurant, the staff brought out a bucket of food waste. Anyway, the two queueing cows went to the bucket. At this moment, my friend started saying he wasn’t sure about the friendliness of the cows, especially the horns! Just at this moment, I felt a gentle nudge behind me. It was a cow with horns, asking me to move out of the way! I did and he moved to the bucket!
The cows have learnt to usually walk on the side of the road because of the traffic. So the cow was never going to go around me. They don’t step onto the road unnecessaily.
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