This was pretty disgusting actually to witness for an American because the beetlejuice from chewing beetlenuts (a lot like chewing tobacco) are a very messy habit especially when almost every man is doing this in places like in Bihar State in India where I saw this was a major past time then especially for men.
So, the goop would be next to the curb on the street and if you weren't careful it was slick and you could fall down into it and really be a mess then.
One time my step son was about 14 and rushing for the richer man's bus that we had gotten tickets to to take us to Kathmandu Nepal as we were leaving India for the last time he was running not to miss the bus because he had had to go use the bathroom before the bus took off.
However, he misjudged the goop in the gutters and slipped and fell in the black goo of beetlejuice and got pretty disgusting looking. However, he did make it into the bus with goo all over his trousers and hands. So, this was pretty disgusting but apparently people didn't think much of this at all because no one said anything. I think people just laughed at the site more than anything else.
So, this is what I thought of in regard to the last article about the cleanest city in India. This and all the dead bodies everywhere in India.
If you don't understand this the culture worked like this in 1985 and 1986. It might have changed a lot since then.
Basically in 1985 and 1986 if you helped anyone at all you were socially obligated to hire that person for life.
If you didn't it was a pretty bad social error on your part. So, you could give alms to the poor so they didn't die of starvation but you couldn't really help people beyond a certain point without becoming a social pariah in India then.
I found this very strange but then I didn't grow up there and don't entirely understand what in their history led up to this.
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