Couldn’t Get the Hang of India

I was confused by India. 

The people speak English and are extremely polite which is very disarming.  But then you see an elephant wandering down the highway in the middle of traffic and you suddenly feel every inch of the 8,000 miles between you and home sweet home.

Adding to the confusion is the surreal hodge podge of modern buildings and well-dressed professionals mixed in with slums and heaps of garbage and beggars.  But everyone moves along, side by side, totally accepting that this is just how it is.  These next two pictures give a glimpse of both worlds that literally sit within meters of each other.

So I have to admit, even though the English was a blessing, I was less comfortable in India than I was in other countries where language was a real barrier. 

Have you ever seen the head wobble that Indians do?  It was throwing me off whenever I had a conversation with them.  I couldn’t figure out what it meant.  So I asked our waiter at the restaurant one night about it.  I said, “when you nod your head up and down, it means ‘yes’, and when you shake your head side to side it means ‘no’.”  He agreed.  “So what does it mean when you do this?”  And I did my best Indian head wobble.  He smiled and tried to explain, but he didn’t really have a good translation for it.  The most I could get out of him was that it means everything is ok, but I still don’t think that quite gets the gist of it across.  I was using the buddy system on that trip and was being shown around by one of our guys out of the UK.  He called me an a**hole after the waiter left for asking such an embarasssing question.  This from the same guy that jokes about India, “Ten billion flies can’t be wrong.”

These next pictures were taken near Chennai in the southern tip of India.  They show temples and sacred places — things considered national treasures that are hundreds of years old. 

You would think it to be a quiet, respectful place.  Visitors left to their own thoughts and prayers, right?  Not exactly.  We were swarmed the second we stepped out of the taxi.  A crowd of beggars and peddlers hawking their wares instantly surrounded us.  A man insisted we hire him as a tour guide and if we did he promised to keep us clear of the mob.  So we hired him.  And he was good to his word.  The mob tried hard to keep after us, but he got downright belligerent with them.  I mean he was yelling and pushing and swatting hands and being extremely forceful in a way that would never occur to us to do.  But I guess that’s how you get the message across that you don’t want to be messed with when you visit the shrine.

The trip ended in Delhi.  The smog was unbelievable.  I had never seen it so thick anywhere in my life.  Those final three days probably took three years off my life.  They had to turn the street lights on around dinner time so that pedestrians could find their way, even though the sun wouldn’t set for another hour or two.

Crazy.  Did you know they have Pizza Hut there?  Like I said, very confusing.  There were things that were familiar and comforting, and then POW! you get hit with something you’ve never seen before or couldn’t imagine.  I just couldn’t get the hang of the place.  Guess I’ll have to go back sometime and figure it out.

Shaun

M&W Traveler