There's no hope

Mostly, we're pretty comfortably settled in our life here. We have a good system worked out with our household help, we really like William's school, we're all generally healthy, we've developed a great network of friends both in and out of the office, know our way around the city to our usual haunts and still have fun exploring areas we don't know as well.

But, every now and then, something happens which reminds us that (a) we are still living in a foreign country and (b) somethings about India will probably be beyond our comprehension no matter how many books we read, how many questions we ask and how hard we try to observe and make sense of things on our own.

Last week, we were driving home and came to a busy T-intersection. The intersection itself I find interesting because one corner houses an upscale movie theater and TGI Fridays (representing "new" Hyderabad), another corner has the headquarters for the TDP (a major State-level political party, representing the "established" Hyderabad), and the top of the T intersection has the entrance to Hyderabad's version of Central Park (emphasizing natural landscaping inside the party ... a rapidly disappearing "natural" Hyderabad).

As we were waiting at a red light (that in itself of note), a man - who appeared to be perfectly capable of walking - was crawling on all fours across this intersection with a mob of about 15 young men around him and behind him all chanting ("raising slogans," as the phrase is here). We couldn't understand the slogans and they had no written signboards, so we have absolutely no idea why this man was crawling on all fours in the middle of the city.

Was he protesting for or against a separate Telengana state? Was he going toward the TDP headquarters for some reason? Had he taken a vow to complete a walk of a certain length on all fours if he passed his university exams? Who knows? Greg and I just stared at the guy and turned to each other and shrugged. This kind of site is not that common, but yet happens often enough that it's not uncommon, either. And, I don't think I'll ever quite be able to understand why this guy was crawling.