I’ve been to India. Stray dogs everywhere as you might imagine. Actually, all kinds of animals roaming the streets including cows. I’m shocked to see this if all places, but on the other hand, it’s kind of in keeping with their socialist/caste system and the differences between the haves and have-nots.
Very skippable country, imho. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, it’s worth a stop in Delhi and make a day trip to the Taj, but that’s really it.
A friend who visited frequently in the computer field told me once that if you were able to find an alley in the middle of the night with no people in it - which he said one really couldn’t find - that if two people walked toward one another in that alley that when they reached the same point they would bump shoulders as they passed. Another description he gave of the difference in their sense of personal space was that getting on a bus, they would fill each seat beside one another until the bus was full, as opposed to here where we would scatter through the empty space and only sit beside another person when there were no other separate seats available.
In grad school, there was this immense difference in the Indian students - the best and the worst and rarely anyone in between. No idea why. An example of the best was Chandrasakar, the astrophysicist. I sat in on one of his classes. Utterly amazing man.
You’ve done so much! I love hearing your stories.