So, we’re living in a village on the outskirts of Bangalore, and like any village in the world, the power cuts are frequent. One day it was so bad i went to town to work at a coffee shop; and seeing a bunch of bikes parked on the sidewalk i thought “do as the Indians do”, and I parked my bike on the sidewalk…only to find it had vanished an hour later. Short story even shorter, these guys tell me the cops impounded the bike and give me a ride to fetch it from them…no big deal really, but I’m left wondering…would i do this for some random Indian guy in South Africa? And then i wonder, how often do strangers help each other out? And then i think…well yeah, its because you get some weirdo's out there, you never know what they might be after…so i think…ok, then why don’t we at least greet strangers?
Shy? Insecure? Proud? Selfish? I really liked the private gym that I went to in Joburg, everybody greets even if you’ve never seen the person before in your life…but that’s it, we greet cause we’re all going to gym, we all have something in common…great. I let let this pride creep in, like, “yeah, i greet strangers”…if i go jogging and see another guy jogging we may nod and smile at each other…."YAY, I’m making a difference in the world! I'm not ignoring strangers!” Bleah…useless man. Why don’t we greet absolute strangers? Can’t even muster a quick ‘hi’? This is why thousands of people can walk around a mall and every single person can be alone.
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