A break from traveling for today because I'm having one of those 'difficult to live here' days, which sometimes it just is. First it was something small. My day started by heading to the American Embassy School to register for the next series of Hindi classes. I'm going to take the morning session this time because it is easier for me and also because I don't want the people I work with to know that I'm taking the class. Why? Well they speak Hindi all the time in the office and they aren't supposed to when I'm around, it is a company wide rule in all of our offices that you must speak in English if someone around you can't understand your language. I complained non-stop about the Hindi speaking for 3 months then gave up because they all thought I was joking and it has actually gotten worse. So I don't want them to know because it is a really hard language for me and I'm learning it to talk with people that don't have much of any English (my driver, my maid), not to talk with people who speak English perfectly well. So there I am in the car thinking annoyed thoughts about my co-workers and I notice the guy next to me on his motorbike staring at me. Staring is not considered rude here and usually it doesn't bother me but he was staring for at least 20 seconds and it just creeped me out...plus he was riding a motorbike and clearly not looking where he was going.
Then, a few miles later reality came in the form of a little girl begging at my window. She was 3, maybe a very small 4 years old. It absolutely broke my heart. She lives under an overpass with her family and spends her days begging for money. I wanted to give her every penny that I had but they say never to give beggars here money (unless they are disabled in some way) because they frequently don't actually get to keep the money and if they earn enough money to survive that way they will never aim to actually get off the streets. There is actually an organization in Delhi that helps to give street kids a chance at a real life and the former street kids themselves say not to give money because it is a way of enabling them. So there I am ignoring this little girl as we are at a stop light and I then see her big brother, maybe 6 years old come up with a baby on his hip.
I've gotten pretty good at ignoring the poverty as a way to cope with it but some days when I see those super young kids it just gets to me and I find it difficult to think about anything else the rest of the day.
So that is where my state of mind is today. Not the best day. Most days are really good but every once in a while I just feel like a complete and total outsider and then I get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people here with absolutely nothing and I want to fix it all and I just can't.
But tomorrow will be a new day and I'll get over it (probably too quickly) and will be happy to be here again.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
sort of celebrity
One of the interesting (and occasionally annoying, in my humble opinion) things about living here is that complete strangers will come up to me (and other westerners) all the time, and strike up conversation. Usually it is just where are you from, is this your first time to India, etc., etc. On occasion they ask to take a picture with you (which I actually really dislike but I know that it would be crazy rude for me to say no so I just do it). It is sort of like being a mini-celebrity, and I am not cut out for it.
Anyway, most of the time people would just want my picture, a few times they wanted my mom's picture too. My dad's brush with bizarre Indian pseudo-celebrity status came because of his art. How, you ask? I shall explain...
After visiting the Taj Mahal we went to a place called Fatehpur Sikri. It is about an hour or so outside of Agra and is a city that was pretty much abandoned (in 1585) about 20 or so years after being built because there wasn't enough water to support the population, unfortunate for the people that had to up and move again, but it is remarkably well preserved and really cool to explore.
So, after exploring for a while we sat down in the shade and dad sketched while mom and I relaxed. Usually, in other countries, when dad sits down to sketch there might be someone else nearby also sketching or painting and no one really thinks twice about it. But here it is very uncommon and as such dad had people stopping by and asking what he was doing and wanting to look at his sketches. I hadn't thought about it before but now that I do I realize that the only time I have seen anyone doing any type of sketching/painting here was at the museum, and I think it was a class since there were about 10 college-aged kids in two rooms all sketching different sculptures. I wonder why that is? I mean Indians seem to love art and I've seen some really beautiful stuff here.
Anyway, with his artwork, dad became the celebrity of our little group. One boy even asked if he could have one of the sketches (which he was given). I bet dad could have sold some pictures actually, although with the way people haggle here he probably would have gotten about $1 ...if he was lucky.
Oh, total aside, there were "don't walk on the grass" signs all over the place and these poor guards spent a large portion of their time chasing people (all Indians) off of the grass. And at the Taj Mahal you aren't allowed to bring magazines or newspapers into the area because, according to our (Indian) guide "Indians will just sit on the grass and read a magazine and then leave it there". It cracks me up how Indians know that they break rules and talk down about their fellow countrymen so openly and they give us foreigners a bit off leeway because we actually follow all the rules.
Aside #2: the guy next to me at the office has two cell phones with the two most annoying rings in the whole wide world and they just keep ringing and it is driving me crazy
Aside #3: another light bulb went out in my apartment that I am again unable to successfully change. I got it in but it wouldn't stay on, I feel like such a dingbat. Just heard back, apparently the socket was broken, I am not a dingbat, hooray!
Anyway, pictures! Both from Fatehpur Sikri (we also went to the Agra Fort that day, but this is very different from what we've seen before which is why I'm showing these pictures).
First, a super cool balcony/walkway thing within a building. Mom is in the picture for perspective. Click on it to get a better look at some of the carvings on the pillar.
A view of one of the open spaces within the city. As you can see, remarkably well preserved.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Taj
Someone had told me, not sure who, that it was best to visit the Taj either at sunrise or sunset because it seems to change color with the changing light (see how it is kind of pink-ish above). I chose first thing in the morning because in my experience at any popular monuments/museums, etc., if you get there first thing you avoid the crowds and I had heard that the crowds at the Taj could be a bit overwhelming. So at 8 a.m. just as the sun came up, we headed over. I had also heard that you should hire a guide there so we did...well, he kind of just joined us and I said "who are you" and when I found out he was a guide I hired him and he was worth every rupee (I say that as a joke because he cost us about $12).
Anyway, the Taj does live up to the hype. For those that don't know, it is a tomb (and if you think that is weird to have such a big tomb remember, the pyramids are tombs too). I'm not going to go into all of the details about it since I could talk for ages about how beautiful it is, but I will say that if you ever go there, try to get there first thing; as we were leaving 2 hours later I could see the number of people increasing and imagine that it could get a bit overwhelming; during our visit the number of people was fine and it really does seem to change colors from a pink to a yellow, etc., etc., and definitely hire a guide, it really helps to improve the experience. I took about a million pictures there and thought I would add a photo at the bottom of the marble carving (with a bit of inlay). While the marble inlay work was spectacular, these carvings really blew my mind. Basically they would take a huge slab of marble and carve these flower designs into them. They are all over the Taj and are really beautiful and it is just amazing to think that all of these were carved by hand, especially when you see how symmetrical they are, one mistake and you have to start over. Unfortunately you couldn't take photos inside the Taj because some of the marble inlay work on the inside is truly breathtaking.
After the Taj we did a little bit of shopping right outside and then hopped back into our car (or rather, ran into the car as we were immediately surrounded by what felt like 100 people trying to sell us things, it was probably only 10 of them but it felt like more), and we were off to more adventures.
Given the fact that I feel like I've already written an essay today I'll leave the rest of the day for tomorrow's post.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Golden Triangle and the Golden Arches
Delhi, Agra and Jaipur are commonly known in India as the Golden Triangle as they are in the shape of a triangle and are THE places that most people visit with only a week in India. So I decided that we should follow the triangle as well and on Sunday we embarked on the road to Agra.
Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal and from what I can tell most people go to Agra and see only the Taj but we had two overnights planned and about 4 sights to see. The first day only one sight was planned as the road to Agra isn't that great and I didn't want to feel rushed. The road wasn't terrible (for notes about a terrible road stay tuned 'til next week) but I doubt we ever got above 90 kph (55 mph) and usually it was around 80 kph (50), plus the odd slow down for camels in the road here and there. One thing about driving in India is rest stops. They don't really exist, there are gas stations occasionally but quite often they are closed for some reason or other. So, my rule of thumb is the second you think that you might have to use the restroom tell the driver, that way hopefully within an hour or so you will find a place to stop. Such was the case on our drive (a 4-5 hour drive depending on traffic, took us around 4 1/2) and at the end of that hour we were saved by, of all things, a McDonalds. I never thought I would be so happy to see a McDs, but seriously a genius place to put one; tons of people make the trip to the Taj in a day from Delhi (a very loooong day) and I can just imagine that at about 3 1/2 hours into the drive that almost every foreigner doing the trip must stop there.
After being saved by the golden arches for a restroom break it was onward to Agra. Agra is a strange city, it seemed to be a much poorer city than other places I've been and it is extremely overpopulated; traffic was crazy, the streets were small and just packed with people and cows and goats, etc., etc., but then you have these absolutely amazing monuments. Just one of the many contradictions that is India. Yet another tricky thing about Agra was finding a hotel; I found super duper swanky hotels which were expensive (even in India) or hotels that are described as "rustic" or "quaint" which in India can mean bugs, etc., in the room. So I went for swanky but actually got a good deal and we lived like royalty for 2 nights...the restaurant has a view of the Taj Mahal (although it gets so foggy at night we couldn't see it at dinner, but we could see it at lunch).
As I mentioned, most people when they go to Agra just see the Taj, but I am not most people. So after a lovely lunch with our view of the Taj we went to the tomb of Itmad-Ud-Daulah. Our driver for this journey (we had my regular driver accompanying us along with another driver, long story and not actually important to know) knew the sights very well except for this one. Luckily the hotel staff knew and were able to give directions because it was beautiful and well worth the visit. It is one of those sights which if the Taj Mahal wasn't in Agra would probably be swarmed with visitors, but since the Taj is there is gets skipped over. Well, to anyone going to Agra I say go there. It is affectionately known as the "baby Taj" because it is quite a bit smaller but the decoration on the tomb and the gardens all around and just the general serenity of the location - it is located on the river - made it an absolutely wonderful start to our Agra visit.
I took over 40 pictures while there and have struggled about which one I should attach, but this one is, I think, my favorite of the whole thing with the sun setting over the river in back of the tomb (sigh, so pretty). I recommend clicking on the picture to open it full screen to really see it well.
Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal and from what I can tell most people go to Agra and see only the Taj but we had two overnights planned and about 4 sights to see. The first day only one sight was planned as the road to Agra isn't that great and I didn't want to feel rushed. The road wasn't terrible (for notes about a terrible road stay tuned 'til next week) but I doubt we ever got above 90 kph (55 mph) and usually it was around 80 kph (50), plus the odd slow down for camels in the road here and there. One thing about driving in India is rest stops. They don't really exist, there are gas stations occasionally but quite often they are closed for some reason or other. So, my rule of thumb is the second you think that you might have to use the restroom tell the driver, that way hopefully within an hour or so you will find a place to stop. Such was the case on our drive (a 4-5 hour drive depending on traffic, took us around 4 1/2) and at the end of that hour we were saved by, of all things, a McDonalds. I never thought I would be so happy to see a McDs, but seriously a genius place to put one; tons of people make the trip to the Taj in a day from Delhi (a very loooong day) and I can just imagine that at about 3 1/2 hours into the drive that almost every foreigner doing the trip must stop there.
After being saved by the golden arches for a restroom break it was onward to Agra. Agra is a strange city, it seemed to be a much poorer city than other places I've been and it is extremely overpopulated; traffic was crazy, the streets were small and just packed with people and cows and goats, etc., etc., but then you have these absolutely amazing monuments. Just one of the many contradictions that is India. Yet another tricky thing about Agra was finding a hotel; I found super duper swanky hotels which were expensive (even in India) or hotels that are described as "rustic" or "quaint" which in India can mean bugs, etc., in the room. So I went for swanky but actually got a good deal and we lived like royalty for 2 nights...the restaurant has a view of the Taj Mahal (although it gets so foggy at night we couldn't see it at dinner, but we could see it at lunch).
As I mentioned, most people when they go to Agra just see the Taj, but I am not most people. So after a lovely lunch with our view of the Taj we went to the tomb of Itmad-Ud-Daulah. Our driver for this journey (we had my regular driver accompanying us along with another driver, long story and not actually important to know) knew the sights very well except for this one. Luckily the hotel staff knew and were able to give directions because it was beautiful and well worth the visit. It is one of those sights which if the Taj Mahal wasn't in Agra would probably be swarmed with visitors, but since the Taj is there is gets skipped over. Well, to anyone going to Agra I say go there. It is affectionately known as the "baby Taj" because it is quite a bit smaller but the decoration on the tomb and the gardens all around and just the general serenity of the location - it is located on the river - made it an absolutely wonderful start to our Agra visit.
I took over 40 pictures while there and have struggled about which one I should attach, but this one is, I think, my favorite of the whole thing with the sun setting over the river in back of the tomb (sigh, so pretty). I recommend clicking on the picture to open it full screen to really see it well.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Happy Republic Day
Today is Republic Day here in India, a big holiday with a big parade down Rajpath, which is kind of the New Delhi equivalent of the National Mall. I'm not going because, well for one I'm not Indian and it isn't my holiday, and also because apparently if you don't have tickets you can't see anything anyway. So instead I'm at the office catching up from 2 weeks off. Not very exciting, but necessary.
Before I get to travels: to all my LOST friends out there, I don't get it here, so please don't tell me anything about anything that happens this season. I tried to download it off of abc.com but it only allows people within the US to watch it (sigh).
Anyway, back to travels! So the first few days my parents were here we spent in Delhi and even though I've done lots of sightseeing in Delhi there were still a few sights that were new to me. On their second full day here (flights to India tend to arrive somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m., just one of those things, which makes the first day in India a bit of a haze), we went up to Old Delhi. Old Delhi is in some ways like a time capsule back to life 200 years ago, very little has changed. There are so many people there and with the exception of the two main roads it is a maze of small backstreets. It is an experience, but a bit overwhelming due to the sheer volume of people, so we got there bright and early before too many people were out and about. I had taken a tour there before and I'm very happy to say that I remembered about 1/2 of of the way we had gone; it is really like a maze back there so that is quite an accomplishment.
Anyway, I saw a completely different strange sight while we were in Old Delhi. There are lots of small 'restaurants' there, basically a small room with very small tables, you could squeeze maybe 10 customers in those tables, and you can see the cooking going on right in front of you. I never eat at these types of restaurants because you never know how hygienic it is, even my guide when I took the tour joked about what types of food my western stomach could handle versus the Indian stomach. Anyway, I digress. So, the first small restaurant we pass we see a family of westerners sitting down to eat! I think they were American or Canadian and it looked like a similar situation as me; someone living here with their family visiting and her taking them on the Old Delhi tour. I couldn't help but wonder about them for the rest of the day, I hope they were okay. I can promise to anyone coming to visit me that I won't take any food risks.
Moving on...after our walk through the backstreets we hopped on bicycle rickshaws and went to the Jama Masjid mosque. I hadn't been there because I was told that women weren't allowed to go alone; turns out that isn't exactly right, women can visit but aren't allowed to climb the minarets without a man, which I didn't want to do anyway. The mosque was beautiful, such a quiet calm place in the midst of the craziness that is Old Delhi.
More sightseeing happened throughout the day and we ended with mass at the local cathedral, a wedding was ending right before our mass started, the bride was wearing a white dress but the female guests were wearing some of the most beautiful saris I've seen here, if you ever want to see some seriously beautiful materials just hang out near an Indian wedding, really amazing stuff.
Now onto pictures...I was going to do two, but the second one didn't really come out well. So just one for my family to enjoy: my parents, from behind, in their rickshaw (taken from mine); the one from the front you can't actually tell that they are in a rickshaw and what is the fun of that? So here they are:
Before I get to travels: to all my LOST friends out there, I don't get it here, so please don't tell me anything about anything that happens this season. I tried to download it off of abc.com but it only allows people within the US to watch it (sigh).
Anyway, back to travels! So the first few days my parents were here we spent in Delhi and even though I've done lots of sightseeing in Delhi there were still a few sights that were new to me. On their second full day here (flights to India tend to arrive somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m., just one of those things, which makes the first day in India a bit of a haze), we went up to Old Delhi. Old Delhi is in some ways like a time capsule back to life 200 years ago, very little has changed. There are so many people there and with the exception of the two main roads it is a maze of small backstreets. It is an experience, but a bit overwhelming due to the sheer volume of people, so we got there bright and early before too many people were out and about. I had taken a tour there before and I'm very happy to say that I remembered about 1/2 of of the way we had gone; it is really like a maze back there so that is quite an accomplishment.
Anyway, I saw a completely different strange sight while we were in Old Delhi. There are lots of small 'restaurants' there, basically a small room with very small tables, you could squeeze maybe 10 customers in those tables, and you can see the cooking going on right in front of you. I never eat at these types of restaurants because you never know how hygienic it is, even my guide when I took the tour joked about what types of food my western stomach could handle versus the Indian stomach. Anyway, I digress. So, the first small restaurant we pass we see a family of westerners sitting down to eat! I think they were American or Canadian and it looked like a similar situation as me; someone living here with their family visiting and her taking them on the Old Delhi tour. I couldn't help but wonder about them for the rest of the day, I hope they were okay. I can promise to anyone coming to visit me that I won't take any food risks.
Moving on...after our walk through the backstreets we hopped on bicycle rickshaws and went to the Jama Masjid mosque. I hadn't been there because I was told that women weren't allowed to go alone; turns out that isn't exactly right, women can visit but aren't allowed to climb the minarets without a man, which I didn't want to do anyway. The mosque was beautiful, such a quiet calm place in the midst of the craziness that is Old Delhi.
More sightseeing happened throughout the day and we ended with mass at the local cathedral, a wedding was ending right before our mass started, the bride was wearing a white dress but the female guests were wearing some of the most beautiful saris I've seen here, if you ever want to see some seriously beautiful materials just hang out near an Indian wedding, really amazing stuff.
Now onto pictures...I was going to do two, but the second one didn't really come out well. So just one for my family to enjoy: my parents, from behind, in their rickshaw (taken from mine); the one from the front you can't actually tell that they are in a rickshaw and what is the fun of that? So here they are:
Thursday, January 22, 2009
and I'm back
Hello again! Am back from two weeks of traveling around India with my parents. I had a great time and will blog about it for the next few weeks but for now, since I have lots to catch up on at work, I'll just post a picture of us at the Taj Mahal:
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
on hiatus
I will be on temporary blogging hiatus for at least a few days, possibly 2 weeks. My parents and I will be traveling around India and since I don't have my own computer (shocking, I know), I'm not sure how many chances I will have to blog.
But after their trip I'll have lots to write about.
Deep thought du jour: yesterday I wondered how often I had used the word random in my blogs, luckily I can do a quick search...22 out of 100 posts. I think I need to find a new word. I don't like the options that thesaurus.com gave me so if you have any suggestions for a better word please send them my way.
But after their trip I'll have lots to write about.
Deep thought du jour: yesterday I wondered how often I had used the word random in my blogs, luckily I can do a quick search...22 out of 100 posts. I think I need to find a new word. I don't like the options that thesaurus.com gave me so if you have any suggestions for a better word please send them my way.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
made in China
This is just random and funny (I wonder how many times I've used the word random in this blog...it describes so much here) anyway... there is this prejudice in India that things that are made in China are poor quality. Like my kettle has been acting weird so I asked our office guy who does everything if he thought it was the kettle or the socket it was being plugged into (about 1/2 the sockets in my house don't work, fairly common, I don't worry much as long as the ones I need work) and he said that is was probably the kettle because it was made in China.
Now, here is my question for you. If you were to buy something electronic, like say an electric kettle and there were two at the exact same price, one made in China one made in India, which would you buy? I would go for the one made in China myself.
I wonder where this belief comes from?
Who knows, all I know is that it strikes me as very funny.
Now, here is my question for you. If you were to buy something electronic, like say an electric kettle and there were two at the exact same price, one made in China one made in India, which would you buy? I would go for the one made in China myself.
I wonder where this belief comes from?
Who knows, all I know is that it strikes me as very funny.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Power outages
The power outages are back again. Last night I got home and it was out.
The power has been going out off and on since Saturday. Apparently now that it is cold and everyone is using space heaters (it is extremely rare to have central heating here) that is overwhelming the power supply again which is causing the outages. Even though we have rarely had any outages since October I kept my candles and matches stationed around the apartment and was ready to deal. I remember in September buying a big box of matches and thinking I would never get through them, now I'm thinking I just might end up having to buy more matches.
I'm actually kind of surprised that the space heaters are taking so much power; I wonder which uses more, an air conditioner or a space heater? I mean you rarely need them during the day except on foggy days and at night when you sleep they are usually off. It is probably just that most of them are so old that they aren't very energy efficient.
All I know is that the portable DVD player I bought here was my best purchase because now that the days are shorter if the power is out at 6 pm I can't read a book so I just pop in a DVD and watch it 'til the power comes back on (last night was Ocean's 13).
And I also think that the extreme heat this summer has had an effect on my internal temperature because it really does get cold here at night but I don't really mind...and I hate the cold. I think it is just that it was so insanely hot in the summer (imagine laying in your bed at midnight not moving and still you sweat - that hot) that as long as I'm not as uncomfortable as I was this summer, I'm okay. What can I say, this country does weird things to a person.
P.S. I just realized that today I have been here for 6 months. Crazy how time flies, huh.
The power has been going out off and on since Saturday. Apparently now that it is cold and everyone is using space heaters (it is extremely rare to have central heating here) that is overwhelming the power supply again which is causing the outages. Even though we have rarely had any outages since October I kept my candles and matches stationed around the apartment and was ready to deal. I remember in September buying a big box of matches and thinking I would never get through them, now I'm thinking I just might end up having to buy more matches.
I'm actually kind of surprised that the space heaters are taking so much power; I wonder which uses more, an air conditioner or a space heater? I mean you rarely need them during the day except on foggy days and at night when you sleep they are usually off. It is probably just that most of them are so old that they aren't very energy efficient.
All I know is that the portable DVD player I bought here was my best purchase because now that the days are shorter if the power is out at 6 pm I can't read a book so I just pop in a DVD and watch it 'til the power comes back on (last night was Ocean's 13).
And I also think that the extreme heat this summer has had an effect on my internal temperature because it really does get cold here at night but I don't really mind...and I hate the cold. I think it is just that it was so insanely hot in the summer (imagine laying in your bed at midnight not moving and still you sweat - that hot) that as long as I'm not as uncomfortable as I was this summer, I'm okay. What can I say, this country does weird things to a person.
P.S. I just realized that today I have been here for 6 months. Crazy how time flies, huh.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Puja
A puja is a type of Hindu prayer ceremony. They can be super small; apparently most people do a puja every day, sometimes twice a day, say a prayer to a statue of a god in their home and give it an offering, and sometimes they are BIG.
Yesterday I was witness to a medium sized one. When I went out for my morning walk I noticed that there was a tent being set up in the little park-type area in front of my house which would make it impossible for me to walk around it. So I just walked around my neighborhood. On the way back I asked a man if the tent was for a wedding (there have been a few weddings out there) and he told me it was for a puja.
About an hour later it started. I didn't get a great view of it from my balcony (silly trees in the way), but from what I could see, there was a mini-stage with at least two statues of gods, I saw one ganesh (the god with the elephant head) but couldn't tell who the other one was...of course ganesh is the only one I recognize because of the elephant head. There were about 75 people there and for about 2 hours there was singing and chanting and they were making offerings to the gods; flowers and fruits and such.
Then, in true Indian style, they had lunch...big meals are very important in India.
I don't know much about the Hindu religion, I did study it in college but the sheer complexity of it confused me quite a bit. Although I think that the average Hindu doesn't know all the ins and out of it either as I had mentioned to someone that I read the Bhagavad Gita in college (sort of the Hindu version of the bible) and they didn't know what I was talking about. But is seems to me that it is a very flexible religion that can be adjusted to the individual person. You can participate in a big puja, or just do small ones, you can do as many or as few as you want, and you can worship as many or as few gods as you want. Much like most of everything in India it is very different from what I'm used to and it doesn't really make sense to me, but it is interesting to learn about.
Yesterday I was witness to a medium sized one. When I went out for my morning walk I noticed that there was a tent being set up in the little park-type area in front of my house which would make it impossible for me to walk around it. So I just walked around my neighborhood. On the way back I asked a man if the tent was for a wedding (there have been a few weddings out there) and he told me it was for a puja.
About an hour later it started. I didn't get a great view of it from my balcony (silly trees in the way), but from what I could see, there was a mini-stage with at least two statues of gods, I saw one ganesh (the god with the elephant head) but couldn't tell who the other one was...of course ganesh is the only one I recognize because of the elephant head. There were about 75 people there and for about 2 hours there was singing and chanting and they were making offerings to the gods; flowers and fruits and such.
Then, in true Indian style, they had lunch...big meals are very important in India.
I don't know much about the Hindu religion, I did study it in college but the sheer complexity of it confused me quite a bit. Although I think that the average Hindu doesn't know all the ins and out of it either as I had mentioned to someone that I read the Bhagavad Gita in college (sort of the Hindu version of the bible) and they didn't know what I was talking about. But is seems to me that it is a very flexible religion that can be adjusted to the individual person. You can participate in a big puja, or just do small ones, you can do as many or as few as you want, and you can worship as many or as few gods as you want. Much like most of everything in India it is very different from what I'm used to and it doesn't really make sense to me, but it is interesting to learn about.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
delivery men
There are lots of people here, at least in Delhi, that deliver things on bicycles. Either they stack things on the bike or they pull a cart behind them with what they are delivering.
I have always been fascinated by these men since they are all so skinny and I just don't know how they do it. It looks like one little bump on the road (of which there are about 100 on these roads) would break them in half. Recently, however, I've noticed some of the things they are delivering and find myself wondering: what they do when they arrive, i.e., how do they get it in the house?
Example: in the past week I saw one man pulling a cart with a refrigerator and another with a washing machine. Admittedly fridges here aren't as big as they are back home but seriously, what does he do when he gets to his destination? How does he get it in the house?
Of course I also don't know how the little guy that delivers water to my house manages to make it up the stairs with two boxes (12 x 1 litre) of water, but he does.
And now a list of things I've seen being delivered by bike without a cart, just stacked all over the bike:
water - several jugs, very tricky to deliver, I've only seen this twice and it is the only thing I've seen people struggling with.
baskets - stacked sky high, you can barely see the bike, just looks like a moving pile of baskets.
gas containers - like the kind used for bbq's back home. They will have 4 or 5 of them on their bikes, strikes me as super unsafe, but almost all homes have one for cooking (I have one). They are just one of a million reasons why I would never drive here, fear of hitting one of them!
Anyway, this is what I watch and think about when I'm sitting in the car; how do they manage to balance and pull these things; what do they do upon arrival, etc., etc. I never knew that traffic could be so entertaining.
Aside: the TV show Monk is now being shown here. Two channels have the "new season", however, the "new" seasons are different but premiering at the same time. Such is English TV in India, the "new" is old, sometimes a year old, sometimes a few years old. Anyway, kind of a cute show, never watched it before. Another "new" one here is Psych which I like better and also never watched at home.
I have always been fascinated by these men since they are all so skinny and I just don't know how they do it. It looks like one little bump on the road (of which there are about 100 on these roads) would break them in half. Recently, however, I've noticed some of the things they are delivering and find myself wondering: what they do when they arrive, i.e., how do they get it in the house?
Example: in the past week I saw one man pulling a cart with a refrigerator and another with a washing machine. Admittedly fridges here aren't as big as they are back home but seriously, what does he do when he gets to his destination? How does he get it in the house?
Of course I also don't know how the little guy that delivers water to my house manages to make it up the stairs with two boxes (12 x 1 litre) of water, but he does.
And now a list of things I've seen being delivered by bike without a cart, just stacked all over the bike:
water - several jugs, very tricky to deliver, I've only seen this twice and it is the only thing I've seen people struggling with.
baskets - stacked sky high, you can barely see the bike, just looks like a moving pile of baskets.
gas containers - like the kind used for bbq's back home. They will have 4 or 5 of them on their bikes, strikes me as super unsafe, but almost all homes have one for cooking (I have one). They are just one of a million reasons why I would never drive here, fear of hitting one of them!
Anyway, this is what I watch and think about when I'm sitting in the car; how do they manage to balance and pull these things; what do they do upon arrival, etc., etc. I never knew that traffic could be so entertaining.
Aside: the TV show Monk is now being shown here. Two channels have the "new season", however, the "new" seasons are different but premiering at the same time. Such is English TV in India, the "new" is old, sometimes a year old, sometimes a few years old. Anyway, kind of a cute show, never watched it before. Another "new" one here is Psych which I like better and also never watched at home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
