The transition from Nepal back to India was a shock, as it is instantly dirtier, noisier, busier and more ‘cool’ in the sense that the majority of people no longer reacted to us, other than an occasional knowing smile. Frankly, it was denting my newly swelled ego.
Another observation of Indians - along the same lines of ‘coolness’ - is they are initially quite reserved; and react to match your manner. A good example was a typical showcase of insanity - a 5km detour that took over an hour, at night, on a single raised dirt track through fields, with cars/jeeps/tuktuks/motorbikes jamming into every last little bit of space - left us stuck alongside a car packed with Indian students. All of whom simply stared rather angrily at us.
Throwing caution to the wind, I gave them a little wave… and in rapturous unison the car erupted with gleaming smiles, energetic waving and a excited chorus of ‘HI!’s.
The action of dropping back into India put our already pressured time into a potential crisis. The days that followed involved serious hard driving, staying in various non-descript cities and coaxing engines that were finally starting to wane with the heat and the burden. We did discover - when another team broke down - that stopping a tuktuk causes traffic chaos… not because of their dimensions; but the truly immense crowd (in a very over populated country) that rapidly swarms in to ‘help’ (and then extorts money for whatever they’ve done - in that case nicking a piece of metal and proclaiming it fixed).
As we progressed, we steadily lost our convey to minor mechanical failures until we were alone; finishing a dull stretch in a place called Hardiwar - predominantly notable (to Westerners at least) as the place where the Beatles stayed and penned the White Album. And notable to us as a religious city where you cannot procure beer nor meat; we did not stay long.