@msolga,
msolga wrote:
You're counting the minutes aren't you?
I'm sure I'm revealing my uber geek side, but I have a spreadsheet that shows hours completed and hours to go, a throw back to my Navy days when we would write numbers and the "Astern" and "Ahead" throttles to show how far we'd come and how far we had to go.
Ok, I'm going to jump in and give you my India impression. I flew into Mumbai and made the 3-5 hour (depending on traffic) trip to Pune. Pune has a population of 3-7 million depending on who you ask, what year the census was taken and what region you consider in your count, but regardless it is a big city. The first thing that just knocks you over is the poverty. "Slum Dog Millionaire" just doesn't do it justice. Driving between these two urban centers you can see slum after slum, people living in lean-to's or tents, trash everywhere despite attempts of people to keep their doorsteps clean. To someone from a Western culture, it is completely mind numbing. It is hard to see anything else for the first week. I've talked to several coworkers and we all seem to have had the same initial reaction. It really is hard to describe. Pune itself is not all that much different. Large swaths of the city are only slightly better than the outlying regions. There is no infrastructure for water or sewage. Trucks drive around to the poorer neighborhoods to deliever water (that I've been advised to never, ever drink), seeing someone with their pants down urinating into the street is not uncommon. Someone carrying cow patties in a bucket on their head and forming it into disks with their hands so it can dry in the sun is shocking enough, but seeing the disks on sale in the city food market takes it to a new level. (Dried cow patties make a decent fuel for home fires.) It really takes at least a few days to start to look past some of this to see what else is there.
The country is very beautiful in a stark way. It was the dry season there meaning it hadn't rained since October. This is perfectly normal. They get all their rain in the monsoon season where I understand it will rain nearly constantly from June through September, everything will green up and it will be very lush. It actually rained in April while I was there and it made the front page of the newspaper along with suggestions that global warming was to blame.
The people are extremely friendly yet seem very formal. Men are typically dressed in slacks and a button down shirt regardless of wealth, even the poorest beggar. The women are in saris or loose fitting pants with a very long shirt over it, once again, regardless of class, even young girls begging on the street. You might see a college student or teenager in jeans. If you see someone in shorts, they're a foreigner. Pune is at a latitude of 18 degrees, so even in the spring tempertures are 20C at night and 30-35C in the heat of the day so sometimes the men will roll up their sleeves but that's about it. At least there is no humidity. I did not ever see couples walking hand in hand or any sort of public display of affection in the seven weeks I was there. The hotel I was staying in was in the better part of town and I walked the neighborhoods around there and never had a concern for my safety, at least from people.
I have never seen a place where animals and people coexist like Pune. Driving around town you will see cows in the middle of the roads (people just drive around), goats and pigs in vacant lots or in garbage heaps, horses and oxen attached to carts pulling goods. Stray dogs are everywhere, minding their own business. People ignore the strays, the strays ignore the people. Coming from a place where strays are a danger, it was hard to casually walk by strays and not be concerned that they would get territorial but I never saw a dog get aggressive.
Traffic is insane. Going down the main roads you had trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, scooters, rickshaws (three wheeled scooters with the back enclosed) bicycles and the occasional camel. There are no lane markers. The traffic signals are often just turned off. It is not rare to see a car driving against the flow of traffic on a major thoroughfare. People use their horns or brights to let others know that they are passing so horns are sounding constantly. If a driver needs to stop, they just stop in the middle of the street. Heaven forbid there is a wedding.
The food varies widely. Many of the people are vegetarians and restaurants are clearly marked "veg" and "non-veg" with many boasting a duel menu. The food is clearly more spicy that what I'm used to but well within my tolerance zone. I did try a McDonalds Spicy Chicken Sandwich on a dare and it is definitely not what a US McDonalds would sell (but very tasty.) My corporate hosts were vegetarians and I ate most lunches with them so I got to try lots of vegtables in rich sauces. Don't count on getting beef unless you are at a hotel catering to Westerners.
There are lots of Westerners of various stripes around. I met a good number of Germans with the English and French also well represented. We're all alike to the locals who generally speak English but not as their primary language so they can't pick out the various accents.
I was surprised by the lack of historical sites in Pune. The city goes back at least a thousand years but on my limited sightseeing the best I could find was a fort built in the 1800's. Some of that could be due to my work schedule and the very limited amount of sightseeing I could do but I did ask.
The religious diversity there is pretty amazing. Between the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs it seems like there was a religious holiday every other week. India seems like several countries wrapped up under one central government so one week we are celebrating Holi (but that is more celebrated in Mumbai than Pune) and a couple weeks later it is Ugadi (the lunar new year for those that don't follow the solar calendar.) A sword seller took me through a Sikh temple (swords are a part of the religion) and I saw a village where people lived in shacks without doors but had a beautiful and well kept Hindu temple.
The Indians love their cricket. You can flip from channel to channel to watch T20 matches for the Indian Premeir League and I was there when Sachin scored his 100th century in international play putting the entire country into celebration. The T20 format could catch on - look to see it in all cricket countries in the next decade. The hotel I was at was hosting the Pune Warriors and when there was a home game the party never stopped.
That's the high level review. As I reflect back on it I remember seeing people having a good time, talking with friends, children walking to school, etc. even in the poorest areas. Poverty and happiness are not necessarily inverse correlated. I guess it depends on your perspective.
