Long layover at Delhi occasioned by nervous parents who were too afraid to come to Kolkata airport until daylight hours - I can no longer properly calibrate what is reasonable versus nervousness borne from their being elderly.
People are how I remember from my working years - specially those in my age bracket. We started at the same place and diverged but it is still possible to have some common ground. The expats have lousy manners - not universally but in large enough numbers for it start showing as a bit of a trend. They want to show American muscle in Delhi and act too familiar based on perceived power which is likely not very smart. It’s met with rudeness and hostility from what I observed
The domestic terminal where I made my connection was pleasantly diverse in food options even at the late hour I was there. Breakfast sadly is not 24/7 which would make it perfect for me.
The most significant part of the experience was the least expected- the place was largely quiet except for the cleaning crew running equipment to clean the floors. Plenty of empty seats and people were far from noisy.
My everyday experience of India is so dated it’s no longer relevant but I seem to remember a lot way more chatter, random conversations with strangers which does go with loss of privacy.
Like the rest of the world, in India too the orb of the person’s universe is defined by their cellphone. It’s where everyone is at so talking to strangers and tracing their ancestry on the spot as my grandmother used to is absolutely not the way to go. I would learn in the next few days about what changed and remained the same in Kolkata.
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