Impressions of India

Andrea MacLeod told me that I need to do more than post a few pictures on my blog and that I needed to give my impressions, thoughts and feelings and to share what I am going through. Didn't someone say that a picture is worth a thousand words?

The traffic is quite a nightmare: large and small buses, large and small taxis, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, hand carts, carts pulled by bicycles, and private cars all compete for the same road space all at the same time. The white lines seem to be vague suggestions; a toot on the horn warns pedestrians or signals a lane change or that the driver sees you, or someone has entered that magic personal space that surrounds each vehicle which in India seems to be about two inches! Of all of the thousands of close calls and near misses it is somewhat miraculous that I have not seen one accident...not even  a small bump. The driver that we have is driving a new Tata and the plastic film the car came with is still on the seats. Perhaps that is why he doesn't seem to be quite as aggressive as other drivers. Even though he too swerves from lane to lane and sometimes uses the white lane marker a s guide for driving the center of the car down, and even though he talks almost constantly on the cell phone (he has two of them and it is amusing when he is talking on one and the other rings) he has managed to avoid really close calls. He knows the city well and we get around without too much trouble so will probably use his services again. A taxi and driver can be rented for an 8 hour day and are reasonably priced.

I was warned that the odors of India would be very bothersome; however, so far, that has not been the case. The strongest odors have been that of burning incense, followed by cooking odors from a restaurant. I have noticed a smell similar to burning charcoal that seems to pervade the air almost everywhere and occasionally have gotten a whiff of urine smell or a rotten garbage smell. Other than that the odor is quite tolerable. I was also warned how it was so easy to have things stolen. At one site a guide volunteered to take my picture and he told me to put my case (which had Ray's movie camera in it) to the side. After a few pictures we all walked off and left the case behind.  It was the guide who reminded me that I should have picked up my case so I ran back to where I had last left it. It was gone of course! But a few meters away a security guard was sitting on a wall with my case! I didn't have any small change so I borrowed 50 rupees from Ray (about $1 Canadian) and went back to give it to the security guard. The only suitcase that we have locked up is the one that Sharon sent for Naresh and nobody in our group has lost anything.

Almost everyone understands English and it is the language most used except when people talk on their cell phone. And people seem to be patient and kind. Ray mentioned that when he was in the post office a gentleman pushed his way ahead of him and when he came out and saw Shelby, Laura and I standing outside waiting, he went back in to tell the manager to serve Ray right away because he had three people waiting for him outside! 

Okay, Andrea...did I say enough?