High voltage

This morning I sat in the departures hall of the Delhi airport and watched all the foreigners going home swathed in India in an attempt to take a piece of it home with them. I think developing countries do that to you, like malaria they get into your blood and awaken a part of you that often lies dormant. It’s a part of you that overlooks the smells and the chaos and sees something much bigger; the energy.

I was trying to explain to someone what it is about India that reminds me of South Africa and I came up with the following analogy. The differences between South Africa and India can be likened to the differences between the plugs of the two countries. To start, both countries experience frequent power cuts! The Indian plugs are also three pronged but slightly smaller than its SA equivalent so that the SA two prong “fits” in the bottom two holes leaving the apex of the plug ominously empty (if I dust off the cobwebs of my Std 8 Science knowledge is that not earth?). It’s not an exact fit and you have to be careful you don’t knock it or risk a barrage of sparks but at the end of the day it’s the same voltage running through the wires.