Scott Visits India

Now THIS Is India

May 21st, 2006 at 12:45 pm

I don’t even know where to begin. I have finaly started to experience India outside of my hotel and office and I have so many things I could tell you about. Here is a run down of the last couple days:

Friday, we took the short trip to Delhi to pay in advance for the ride to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) the next day. Once we got that taken care of at the swanky Sheraton in Delhi, our host took us to a shopping emporium run by the Indian government. He assured us that this way we would get the most fair prices and wouldn’t be haggled for purchases like we would in an open market. He was right, but I will also like to experience the open market, so we will check that out before we go. Once we got some shopping done, we went over to McDonalds, where I thought I would get a little taste of home (although I haven’t eaten at McDonalds in years), but man was I wrong. First off, the place was crazy crowded and had 4-5 security guards throughout the small seating area. Then I looked at the menu, and my hopes of a “normal” lunch sank. The menu featured several “chicken” sandwhiches and a “veggie surprise”, but from the pictures nothing looked very good. I decided to go with the “grilled chicken”, which ended up being some weird kind fo chicken curry patty and was really pretty horrible. It at least felt safe to eat though, so I went for it and tried to eat a lot fo fries to fill me up. The first day we got here we met another American and that is the one piece of advice he gaves us - the fries at McDonalds are good, just like home. He was right. Things were going well at the office Friday, so we were able to leave a little early (ie 11pm) and try and get back to the hotel for some sleep.

Ever since I got here, I have been having to take Lunesta to sleep at night. When I don’t take it, I toss and turn all night and wake up every time the power goes off because that also means the AC shuts off and it gets warm in the room. Well, since I knew I had to be up for a bus at 4am I didn’t want to take any sleep aid and as a result I ended up sleeping a total of about an hour. Four AM Saturday rolls around and it is time to get ready for the trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal. We have our driver take us to Delhi where we catch our charter bus and begin the trek. Even the drive to Agra was incredible because we got to see what small towns in norther India are like. Some of the the towns were incredibly busy despite being in the middle of nowhere, and it really was a glimpse at a completely different way of life. It felt odd sitting on this big bus and looking out at the local towns and people who were waving and reacting to the tourist rolling through. I felt like I was experiencing this whole thing from a safe little bubble and made me want to be out on the street walking through so I could really EXPERIENCE it and not just SEE it. That drive made me understand why people want to backpack through foreign countries and just kind of wing it as they travel across the world. I am not saying I would ever be brave enough to take off and do something like that, but this trip showed me why it is much more real to experience things that way then in the comfort zone of the tourist way of seeing things.

Once we got to Agra, we made several stops including a famous tomb of one of the great Indian Mongols, the Red Fort, and lastly the Taj Mahal. Each of these buildings had their own things that made them amazing, and just the fact that some of the structures we looked at were built 1,000 years ago was mind-blowing. Since America is such a young country, we don’t have anything that was built this long ago still standing and to us, a building is old if it is was built a couple hundred years ago. To see a 1,000 year old building (and then the graffiti scratched into it - the modern world seeping in) was worth the trip in itself. Once we finally made it to the Taj Mahal, we were ready to see what everyone had been talking about it. The easy was to describe it is “amazing” - it is just one of those things you have to see to understand. At it’s most basic level, the Taj Mahal is just a building - a very beautiful, perfectly built, amazing building - but still, a building. Much like the pyramids, the thing that makes it even more amazing is the story behind it and how perfect it is despite being built at a time when there were no modern tools to help with construction. Some 20,000 people worked to build the Taj Mahal, and the mogul who commissioned it had the hands chopped off of the skilled workers so that they could never build another one like it. The symmetry of the structure itself along with the multiple buildings around it is absolutely perfect, and you can do a line of site from one point on the back of the inner tomb that goes straight to the middle of the entry gate of the Taj, probably 100 yards away. Simply amazing.

After the long day in the intense heat walking around Agra, we got back on our bus and headed home. Due to traffic we encountered and some rain, the trip back to Delhi took a long six hours and we were all pretty beat when we got back to the hotel after 1am. Today I think we are going back to Delhi to check out some more things and show some of our colleagues from home around since they arrived this weekend. I kinda feel like an old pro on this whole working in India thing at this point.

Here are some observations and general comments from the last couple days:

I have found that there is an odd assortment of things placed in urinals here in India. In several places I have encountered moth balls, but in some of the swanky hotels, I have seen ice cubes. While I can make a reasonable guess about the reasoning of the moth balls, the use of ice confuses me.

While driving Friday, we saw our first wreck. A rickshaw had run into a car and we then saw the car driver walk up to the rickshaw guy and punch him in the face. It was very surprising to see and was the first of any kind of violence we have seen.

There is a lot of construction here, which is no surprise, but what is surprising is that a lot of times the buildings just being built already look worn. I am not sure if it is the construction materials they are using or just me being used to seeing really clean, steel support and concrete slab buildings, but it seems like a lot of the buildings here are old, despite being very new. Also, there are several areas in town where a whole building will be collapsed upon itself. It could be the result of an earthquake, but it looks more like the structure and foundation of the building just gave out.

One observation from looking at all the shops on the side of the road and even the old buildings in Agra like Red Fort, was that the swastika is heavily used here. I knew Hitler took the symbol from the Hindu people and began using it, but I had forgotten or not thought about the fact that it is still an important symbol to Hindu people. Several of the buildings had them carved into the marble structure and you sometimes see them on the back of cars or store fronts.

While driving to Agra, we saw lots of great things. I saw a kid with a homemade bow and arrow, both of which were bent sticks and would certainly not have flown straight. We saw perfectly built straw and sod huts that whole groups of people were living in, we saw wild monkeys, a snake charmer, and cows, horses, donkeys, oxen, camels, and even an elephant - all being used to pull carts full of things. We saw a major Indian oil refinery and the 15 foot high eternal flame of burned oil. We saw probably 100 different brick kilns where they were making new bricks and breaking down old ones to remold and bake. And sadly we saw the real poverty of this region with many many people living in the dirt in fields, relieving themselves squatted in fields and on the side of the road, people sleeping naked on the side of the road, beggars, etc. All things that pulled on the heart strings and made me think how lucky I am to have been born into the family I was and the country I am able to live in. These people didn’t choose to live in poverty.

To end on a positive note, I still have some work to do next week, but I am starting to feel like I really made the most of my time here. I have seen so much and been able to view a place completely unlike my own. This is definitely the kind of experience that stays with you forever.

Oh, and more pictus hopefully will go online tonight including the Taj Mahal, etc.