Escalators

This caught my attention, at Consumptive.org:

i realized today that japan may be obsessed with the escalator. i don't know how many there are, but this many for sure: more than you can imagine. and all of them are on, going, moving and rotating in perfect working order, perpetually and effortlessly rising, just waiting to take you to the top. literally millions of lurching steps turning at your service to deposit you at the entrance/lobby/foyer in the most sublimely causal way mechanically possible. one is simply lifted into liminalty and sent forward to the beyond, gently nudged to carry on.

I stopped, and counted, and realised that I have seen three escalators in Chennai: at the airport; at Spencer Plaza, a kind of shopping mall; and at Lifestyle, a Western-style department store. There must be more, but not very many. The one at the airport is usually turned off. The one at Lifestyle starts to run only when a person approaches it. Imagine the power consumption! I felt like the villagers in The Return of Martin Guerre, who visit the nearest market town - not even a city - and are aghast.