Crowds

I have been in many a crowd.  If you take the idioms to heart that would make me a perpetual occupant of one - crowd that is.  Since two is company and three is a crowd.

But I am referring to the serious mass accumulations on the planet.  I have been amidst a variety of those.  They are different in their mood and temperament as I have come to notice.

They are also temporary or constant.  The crowd phenom is one where I am one amidst many of my species but not necessarily of my cultural background (I'm not sure what that may be but whatever) in the literal sense.

• Say for example traipsing through a national park in some country.  Many nationalities and varieties of humans are crowding to see the major natural landscape and gape in awe in their own special way.  These are ephemeral events as these individuals disperse at the onset of dusk or where they have a flight to catch etc.  They have arrived from many parts of the globe to witness something magical and uplifting.  I remember a visit to the backwater in Malaysia on the island of Langkawi where we were in a boat watching fireflies mate in the dark.. There were millions of them and the tourists in the boat crowded together all eager to touch one.
• Sometimes I am in a crowd of cars.  All driving to somewhere likely meaningless.  Just sitting and staring and not doing much driving at times.
• Then there was the sea of humanity of the Bombay local trains.  Trying to get from A to B was an act of faith.  You sort of aligned on the platform to be pushed into the slot that was the open doorway to the compartment and once inside held on for dear life and wallet till you arrived at your destination and hope that you were ejected away from the BO and poking utensils inside the bag of the dude you had butted up against for the last 45 minutes.
• Then there is the crowds gathered to witness a game played on the field.  Baseball that I have attended with some work colleagues tends to be one of those boring events where I cannot honestly see the primary character - the ball - at all.  Just a bunch of guys in colored uniforms hanging out on the field which looks splendid by the way.
• Another is a concert or play or show or a casino.  Again a tidy bunch but a crowd nonetheless.  Not a fan really - sitting in tight seats to witness something amazing that sort of distracts you from the fact that there are others trying to get in on the same oxygen around you and introduce their own gases in return.  Yikes.
• Crowds or the individuals that make one behave different in different regions.  Only in the USA is their an overwhelming sense or space and its importance.  People in line at a grocery store or McD will wait a few inches away from the next guy or gal allowing each to maneuver as needed.  Cars in America also allow that separation by default.  Everyone has one or two or three and there is really no need to smell the roses.  Public transit is an after thought.  Not so everywhere else on the planet.  Your business is my business and more in a local train in India or a commuter bus headed home.  Japan offered a stark contrast.  Regardless of the humanity invasion they all seem to follow a regimented approach to moving about.  It helps they don't have too many people that are not alike in their way of life.  No immigration and all.
• India in that sense is also unique in that there is no regard for another human when that human happens to be within feet of another.  Spitting, loud phone conversations, walking with your baggage like you own the planet or make loud noise outside your house either through electronic means or natural where the mongrel version of canines are employed in unusual ways.  While you are waiting to get a ticket, buy groceries etc. the Indian will always either stomp on you, jump the line or worse leave his spittle particulate on some part of your anatomy.

Right o.  So I am not a fan of gatherings big or small and really enjoy a good book and a quiet corner.  Both getting sparse by the day.