Letters from Edinburgh II

One of the first things I noticed about the people at Edinburgh, was the pace at which they walk. Edinburgh is a very small city, and we can go to almost any place here walking (if we have all the time in the world that is, which I seemed to have during the first couple of weeks here). The people here (I would not call them Scots, because we have a large influx of people from the other European countries) walk as though they are always in a hurry to get to some place. I had a difficult time walking on the pavements on the first few days. There were these constant stares we used to get (for walking the Indian way!) from people who almost always used to overtake us. One night, one lady even passed a remark (which would have been deemed racist if she wasn't as drunk as she was!) 'You Indians walk slow!'.

Now things are different. I don't know whether it is because I did not want to hear anything like what the lady said again, or it was because I started cycling more than walking. But today, the people seem to be slow (relatively!).