India - the filth and my fury & Mr Magoo

I'd begun to write this before but I never finished

In Rishikesh I met a couple who had visited India 20 years earlier and I asked them if it had changed. Changed it had, so drastically, 20 years ago there was no plastic, no bags, bottles, films, etc... The Ganges, even in Rishikesh up in the mountains so close to its source, the banks are littered with junk, a lot of cows feed off of it and while we were there a cow lost her footing and plummeted to her watery grave, where we could see her everyday as we crossed the bridge to go to our yoga class. We saw dogs swimming out and trying to drag her back in, fish nibbling on her, all because she had a taste for garbage.


The Mr Magoo bit I'm just adding on now because I feel it would be impossible to leave him out, he made quite an impact on me. He was my camel... one hump... And I think he was called Mr Magoo because he'd walk straight into bushes and trees and he was so slow moving it seemed like a collision with a shrub in the midst of a dry arid desert would be easily aviodable unless you of course were blind. I realised later that he was so much blind as distracted and befuddled. And perhaps a little depressed, whenever we'd stop for a break he'd always lay his head down and go to sleep or look really dejected. I started to think it was because of the heavy burden of my weight, but on second thought there were much heftier loads than mine. I even tried tying a neckerchief around him to cheer him up a little, he certainly looked dashing. It didn't become clear what the matter was until we came upon a group of wild camels in the horizon and a groaning came from Magoo's belly. I thought he had indigestion but apparently it was his groin, he began to froth at the mouth and stringy saliva swayed from his gurning mouth, turns out he was just desperate for the ladies.... Mr Casanova may have been a better name...

Oh and finally, in India cows come up and head but you, just because they don't like the look of you, they catch sight of you, go off their path to come and slam into you. Happened to me and to Eibhlin, but when she was doing it she was taking a picture of one and maybe he didn't appreciate the fact that she didn't ask.