I'm From India

When I dropped my rental car off at Santa Barbara Airport I had to get a taxi as they don't have a rental shuttle there. So I took a taxi to my truck. On the way I asked the driver where he was from and he said, "India". I said, "Oh. I was there in 1985 and 1986. He was interested in my experiences then. He seemed to be about 40 so likely he was about 14 then like my oldest stepson who was traveling with my wife and I and two other kids at the time for about 4 or 5 months throughout India and Nepal. I said to him that the worst culture shock at that time was not going over there but coming back to the U.S. At that time people in India might have fist fights and stuff but at least they talked to each other on the streets and seemed much more present and realistic than Americans. I said when I returned I was horrified at just how out of touch with reality most americans actually were hiding away from each other in their houses and apartments or hiding in their cars driving down the freeways. Almost no one at that time (1985-6) had cars then in India so everyone was riding buses or oxes or horsecarts or kubota farm tractors with whole families being pulled by slow moving tractors at about the pace of people walking. So, people were always talking to each other as they traveled slowly down roads on animals, horsecarts and tractors. Only motorcycles, cars and trucks were different. So about 50% of the traffic was people and animals walking down roads and 10% was tractors pulling trailer loads of people and 50% was cars, motorcycles and buses and trucks at that time. So, almost no roads did any vehicles move faster than about 25 mph because to do that likely someone was going to die or get injured. That was just the way it was during the 1980s in India.

So, as I thought about all this I realized he must have been about 14 when I was over there as about a 37 year old family man and businessman with my wife and kids.