Paan on Provogue.

Something weird and senselessly funny and absolutely 100% disgusting happened yesterday.
I was going to drop my sister for her dance class. In an auto-rickshaw.
Yes, I still use them despite the hue and cry about increased auto fares coz -
1.You don't need to stand at one place for more than 5 minutes before one stops right in front of you.
2.They are able to wiggle their way through crazy Bombay traffic with ease.
3.The occasional auto might even have a radio and you can hear the latest Bollywood songs at their screeching horrendous best.

But, I digress.
What happened, in a (betel) nutshell, was this. Sana and I were in the moving auto. Less than 30 seconds into our drive, someone just spat paan.
No, not on the street. I'm not saying that would have been the best thing in the civic sense, but it was infinitely preferable to what really happened.

(For those who don't know what paan is, here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paan
Although, no Wikipedia can tell you what paan really is and tastes like unless you've seen it made in the deepest trenches of this country.)

That chewed up, red paan with its teaspoonful of saliva and semi-chewed betel nuts, found its way onto my new Provogue t-shirt. And my favourite pair of Levis.

"Ugh. Yuck. Yucccccccccccccck. :(
Why??
Who would do something like this?
What the hell?????
Do we live in the land of the uncivilized uncouth insane?"

Of course, I dropped off Sana at her dance class, vented at my best friend and trudged back home for an hour long shower.

I don't get it. This whole paan-spitting thing.
Is this the mighty God of the Betel Nuts avenging my lifelong dislike towards paan? 

I've had it once or twice. It doesn't really taste that bad. But something that requires the consumer to spit a brick-coloured slime and leaves a blackish-red tinge in your mouth, just grosses me out.
Of course, you don't always have to spit it out. Please please please just swallow that paan. Discolor your teeth and not the walls.
Everything in India is covered with paan spit. We're almost acclimatized to its sight on walls and roads and public schools and almost anywhere else.In fact, I've lived in Kolkata too. Paan-spitting is now an intricate art form there. "How far? How much?" etcetera etcetera.

To think Indians generally consider their personal hygiene and neatness a prerequisite for all sacrosanct endeavors and rituals.

Thoo. :P