So, Claire and I have finally come to the end of the India\/Nepal section of our trip.\u00a0 As these things go, there were times that I thought that the trip would never end, then all of the sudden I look at my journal and realize that our flight out of Delhi is tomorrow!\u00a0 So as a final post from India I thought that I would give you some preliminary thoughts on the place and the people.\u00a0 I have to warn you that I am still processing much of what I have learned here so don’t expect too much ground breaking insight.<\/p>\n
To start with, how about a description of a typical day in India?\u00a0\u00a0Generally I wake up at about eight o’clock.\u00a0 Lying in bed I try to think if we had any plans for the day.\u00a0 It’s likely that Claire had something in mind, but I can’t remember what, and her plans are probably going to change about three times before breakfast anyway.<\/p>\n
Getting up I wander to the bathroom and hope that the power has been on long enough that there’s hot water.\u00a0 Regardless of what I find, Claire and I are both ready for the day at nine and we head out the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hotels are usually planning on making the majority of their money off of the food you buy, so as we pass through the lobby it takes considerable effort to rebuff the offers of tea, coffee and toast with jam\u00a0–\u00a0Claire and I tend to\u00a0prefer the company of the locals\u00a0and also find that the street food (omelets, tea and coffee) are frequently better\u00a0than hotel food anyway.\u00a0 We step out of the safety of our hotel into the streets.\u00a0 Before we are 5 steps from the door trail of ‘Hello!’s, and ‘Good morning!’s follow us like a shock wave.\u00a0 During the first few weeks in India, you feel obligated to reply to all of these advances, however, it doesn’t take long to realize that you will never get anywhere in town when you have to stop and talk to every second person on the road.<\/p>\n
Part of the day is spent searching for an acceptable coffee and embarking on whatever we have planned for the afternoon.\u00a0 There is also a part of the day that is spent looking for a local food vendor that makes thali (a bottomless Indian dish that consists of dal, curry, rice and chipati) and can understand ‘Little salt, little oil, but spicy.’\u00a0 We tried learning the Hindi for this, but that confused them more than our English…<\/p>\n
The evenings are bonding time.\u00a0 We almost never have TV, even more rarely TV and power together, and when the stars do align, Hindi CNN is never enough to keep our attention anyway.\u00a0 There is very little in the way of a tourist night life in India.\u00a0 Claire and I have speculated long and hard about this, and believe that there are a few factors.<\/p>\n
1) If you go to a local place, you are the entertainment.\u00a0 Indians have no qualms about outright staring, and will readily stop what they are doing to watch our funny Western ways and to laugh if Claire is showing more than her neck.<\/p>\n
2) Drinking is sacrilege, making bars and hard to find.\u00a0 And coffee and tea all night just doesn’t do it.<\/p>\n
3) The travelers in India are generally older and seeking enlightenment.\u00a0 Very few people under 30 come here and as a result many are content with just reading, meditating and going to bed.<\/p>\n
So what this means is that Claire and I have had about 90 nights of one on one bonding time.\u00a0 Some might say that that’s too much, and I times I agree with them.\u00a0 But we have found ways to entertain ourselves and have actually bonded through it all.\u00a0\u00a0And it makes the social life of Vancouver all that much more special.<\/p>\n
So that just about wraps up a normal day here.\u00a0 I also want to comment on the culture and people, as this has been asked about on this blog before.\u00a0 It is hard to know where to begin.\u00a0 The couture here is really beyond description.\u00a0 I have seen it called a ‘functional anarchy’ and think that that’s reasonably accurate.\u00a0 In public ways I couldn’t imagine a more live and let live environment.\u00a0 You can spit, throw trash and\u00a0pee\u00a0wherever you like and can drive on the wrong side of the road if you like.\u00a0 Nobody will look twice.\u00a0 However, in private ways this culture will judge you and damn you before you even know what you did.\u00a0 They also have very little modesty when talking to travelers, asking questions like ‘Do you have sex together?’ and once, when Claire had her hat in her front hoodie pocket and her money belt below that, she was asked ‘Are you pregnant?’ – always without the slightest look embarrassment or guilt!<\/p>\n
Work conditions and poverty are another issue altogether.\u00a0 It seems that most of the country is self sufficient.\u00a0 Neither paying taxes or taking advantage of the taxes others pay.\u00a0 In small towns, those who cannot, or do not farm are generally destitute, and most of those who farm are heavily in debt.\u00a0 However, they make a living, own their own home, and smile at you as you pass.\u00a0 The workers who see the hardest work conditions seem to be the ones without property.\u00a0 You see them hauling cement rail ties from the train, or moving dirt for new roads from the bus.\u00a0 These people are normally doing long days in dangerous conditions wearing sandals and torn cloths.\u00a0 They do not smile.<\/p>\n
I really can’t get into the poverty issue right now as my feelings are not solidified.\u00a0 I will say that it is more extreme that I ever planned to see and – to make it ever worse – includes many, many children.\u00a0 To some extent you really have to keep it at an arms length while here, for when I let my guard down, I am struck with such remorse that India loses all appeal and adventure and takes on the visage of an open air prison.\u00a0 This is one aspect that will impact me over the course of my life in ways that I cannot even speculate on.<\/p>\n
As a final note, I must not leave out the beauty of the culture and customs.\u00a0 The desire of the people to know everything about you.\u00a0 The hustle and bustle in streets, the open markets in the shadow of the Himalayas.\u00a0 The men and women selling coconuts from baskets on their heads and the joy and majesty of beholding wonders like the Taj Mahal make India an all round positive and unforgettable experience.<\/p>\n
Now to find out about Southeast Asia!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, Claire and I have finally come to the end of the India\/Nepal section of our trip.\u00a0 As these things go, there were times that I thought that the trip would never end, then all of the sudden I look at my journal and realize that our flight out of Delhi is tomorrow!\u00a0 So as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sethandclaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}