Daily Life

There are some things we’ve noticed and some things we’ve learned as we try to fit in with the locals in India. 

First, never assume you are safe from vehicles.  Whether you are on the sidewalk, or walking past what seems to be a parked car, anything can and will mow you down at any turn if you’re not alert.  Just today I thought I was walking in a parking lot when I discovered it was really a street with stalled traffic, traffic that suddenly started to squeeze me in.  I moved toward the sidewalk but there were cars coming down it as well.  Not kidding.  I stayed in the street, because I liked my chances better there.

We’ve learned to expect that the security metal detectors in places like shopping malls and some hotels will always beep, loudly, in your ear as you pass, but no one will chase you down.  Some security guards at malls swipe you down with the metal wands, but they always beep and I’m always waved on. I’m hoping perhaps there is some other method of security. 

I’ve learned to gird my loins when going shopping because once I show some interest in actually purchasing something, the game is on.  Recently I bought new glasses and a new hairdryer and the game was the same. 3 or 4 clerks immediately swoop in and begin tossing merchandise from all corners of the store toward you.  A steady patter of  “How about this one?  Take this one, m’am.  This color is for you.” etc always accompanies the manic movement of the merchandise.  This is a result partially of the fact that there is such limited space in shops for displaying inventory that at least half of it is out of view, so they don’t want you to think they’re not ready to fill your need.  There is also the fact that there is a serious overflow of clerks, so much that many clerks may try to catch your attention at once, which sometimes makes me want to close my eyes and OMMMMM it all away. 

When you eat around Indians, they are going to either put food on your plate or try to force feed you unless they see you actively gorging yourself.  It’s just being polite, but I found the student who handed me 2 french fries when I introduced myself to her in the hotel restaurant just funny.  She nodded for me to eat them, so what’s a gal to do? Yum: cold, limp salt-free French fries….

Finally, the paper that is generated on a daily basis in this country is just out of control.  I leave you with this image from outside my office as a case in point.  My office is in a state educational administration office, and there are piles and cupboards full of disheveled paper filled with God knows what EVERYWHERE.  Some are tied together with string, some are very loosely bound into a kind of book, but they are ancient and there is no chance no one is ever going to look at them again.  There is a serious disconnect between our image of India as a technology leader and the low-tech proliferation of paper.  And ledger books. Before Divali S. was shopping for shirts and got a promotion that offered a coupon for January.  He had to buy his merchandise (on a very modern cash register equipped with a data base capability, no doubt) then take his receipt to another line where clerks were laboring to enter the coupons BY HAND into a ledger book.  Sometimes it blows my mind.

I'm in Delhi for two weeks with work, and today I was walking around their Central Market and smelled some roasting corn.  People all over the world have figured out how good corn tastes roasted on some coals.  There are also some very tasty looking home fries being cooked around town. As you can see in the picture, the vendors have figured out a very simple set-up for the street.