We’ve been here now for 10 days and there are so many moments that I don’t want to lose as things become more familiar. Like the leathery man (he had to be 80) with his head wrapped in linen on the campus road. When he saw me running one morning, he stopped and gave me a huge grin, “You look great!” Turns out we are the first group of foreign fellows to occupy this building.
Or the sari’d women who live with their husbands and children on the building site that we pass when we walk toward the center of campus. They carry three red bricks on their head at a time. I’ve seen women carry up to 13! The image of them is stunning. Brilliant orange bricks on top of the gorgeous colored cloth, wrapped down and around their dark skin—and all against the deep orange earth.
This picture is of one of many of the women we have seen carrying things on their head. Very impressive.
We learned that the campus market has banned plastic bags. Reminding us of how we should be more eco-friendly.
In general we have had trouble finding a market in the middle range. The campus market has a very limited number of products, most of which are covered in a bit of dirt/dust. It still takes 25 minutes to walk there. LeMarche, a 10 minute rickshaw ride, once you’ve found a free one, is scoured and sanitized and has a huge range of Western food. Where’s the middle market? We found another in the other direction—just off campus—Vasant Arcade and B-10 Market that has a very good vegetable market and several small shops with a decent variety and not quite as dirty. Really, we can probably find everything we need there. It’s a ½ hour walk to Block B where the good veggies are. There’s even a Coffee Day (the new coffee chain that’s all the rage) there and a decent bakery. And we tried Nirula’s (a sort of up scale fast food joint—an Indian version of Baja Fresh maybe), which turns out to be quite tasty. We walk along a busy street for about 10 minutes, which is not great. But at least there’s a sidewalk. We’ve thought about getting bikes, which might make things a bit more convenient.
We’ve still not met anyone to ask all the questions I have. How do you say thank you properly in Hindi? Our phrasebook says, Danyavaad. But how’s that really pronounced? And what do people say for “goodbye”? Is namaster right? I heard the newscaster say it tonight. How is it different from namaste? How do people who live comfortable lives here think about the poverty and dirt around them? How do I even ask about what seems to me to be a lack of civic pride. The spitting and peeing on the streets is quite pronounced. I don’t want to be too prissy about the whole thing….I mean it is their country, and who am I to say how they should live? I do worry that I am more judgmental than I was when I was in my early twenties living in Spain. There I fell in love with such a different way of living--a bit of grit seemed cool to me. The fact that the clientele dropped their used napkins on the floor of cafes never bothered me, and I was more amenable to the banging down of saucers and cups as they prepared café con leches in rows on the counter. Now I get pretty annoyed when the chemists throw down my antibiotics in the same manner. Am I just more irritable? Intolerant? Very sad.
I’ve been asked if people are more spiritual here. The spiritual thing is hard to answer. There are lots of Hindu gods on the dashboards of rickshaws and taxis--some even light up. And there are other items that have been blessed—this line of big, black stringy balls that hang on bumpers and rearview mirrors that are supposed to protect the drivers...something they really need since the traffic is entirely helter skelter (human rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, bikes, motorcycles, SUVs, Mercedes, Maurati (the middle class family car), 50s style bulbous cars called Ambassadors that still seem to be preferred by the government, buses, and the occasional cow). At busy intersections everyone is less than an inch apart--yet somehow everyone eventually gets to their destination. But I really have not gotten to know people enough to get a sense of their spirituality. People are much calmer...but I am not sure what to contribute that to yet. And I have not yet been able to get pork (prohibited by Muslims) or beef (as cows are sacred for Hindus) and the options are either veg or non-veg. So vegetarianism is the norm. Ask me again in March, say.
