Andrew McCarthy on chaos in travel - "Clear-eyed in Calcutta"

12.19.13 | 3:02 PM ET Photo: Rossleetabak/Flickr/Creative CommonsI blinked. I missed it. Instinctively, I had closed my eyes. The black goat’s head had been pressed down between two small stone pillars, then held in place by a thin metal bar. Swiftly the machete was drawn up into the air—and with no pomp in an otherwise elaborate ceremony—came whooshing down toward the taught, thin neck of the bleating goat.