Dumbest thing you've done in India

larsomat

skk

Some fantastic stories here. Mine arise from the fact that I think I know the place but I don't - not off the top of my head anyway.

So in 1982 I took my recently married wife to India and I was anxious to show her all the childhood spots - one of them being Hyderabad/Secunderabad - where I'd spent a happy summer in '63 - as a 8 year old kid commuting by bus between an aunt+cousin in Hyderabad and an uncle in Secunderabad by bus every 2 days.

So to replicate the memory I had to do the journey again, by bus of course. As a bus arrived, my wife got on - I followed and suddenly there was this commotion and I was forcibly pushed off the bus - I was kinda shouting in Marathi, in English trying to figure out why ( all the Telegu words just dried up )- meantime my wife was well ahead in the crush so there was no way she could get off with me and the bus went off and we were totally separated and she knew nothing of Hyderabad - I was so worried !

Then it dawned on me.. In Hyderabad men and women are more strictly separated than in Maharashtra - the front door of the bus is for WOMEN - no wonder they forced me off..

And of course no motor rickshaw in sight - only cycle rickshaws.. luckily a second bus came along and I got on ( using the RIGHT door this time ) and by some real luck the buses stayed right behind each other and eventually I could jump off the second one, join the first and husband and wife were reunited.

As we sat in the bar later that night and I wondered how I could have committed such an error - climbing into a bus via the women's entrance, sheesh, dumbass etc.. it dawned on me - my previous experience was as an 8 year old - and there are no gender separation rules for children !

Like I said - my faux pas have arisen because I think I know the place and I DON'T !

-skk