India-ology
In that ime I have learned a few things and thought I would share.
1) I am white and rich
- It sounds almost racist, but in a country of over 1 billion Indian residents being white makes you stand out like Elton John at a mennonite convention. In most of the countries I visit I stand out because of my “American” accent. Here I stand out because of my skin colour. Sadly I cannot change either of these traits.
To many of the touts and cab drivers a white person is a walking wallet that never runs out. For example I was at a 16th century mosque built by King Akbar. After being followed around for 15 minutes by a man selling stone necklaces “perfect for my mother, girlfriend or sister” and after 15 minutes of saying not interested I was told by the tout: “Americans waste money on travel and everything, please give some to me”. Shortly thereafter my “free” tourguide told me, when I said I didn’t want to buy his soap stone (or was it marble as he claimed?) elephant, that “To say you have no money is an insult to England, all England has money”. I am sure the recent recession hit workers would love that sentiment.
It is also shown in that all sites have 2 prices: Nationals (~Rs10) and Foreigners (~Rs250-Rs750). 40 Rupees (Rs) is approx 1 Canadian dollar. Of course there is no passport check to determine this, as I am white.
This is, of course, not true of all people here at all. Many of the people I have met including our hired driver Sitesh, a hotel manager Mohan and one of our cab drivers Anil were extremly friendly, not for money at all, but for curiousity about who we are and why we wanted to see their wonderful country. Of course we were also paying them for a service, it could have been like a prostitute “enjoying” sex with a john… I doubt it, just saying.
Where this really hits you is that we do treat money poorly. We flaunt our huge houses and expensive cars. Take one of our waiters, who essentially waited on us hand-and-foot for 2 meals, offered to make us breakfast whenever we wanted, constantly checked we had enough water, beer, food as well as gave us travel and site tips. I gave him a Rs100 tip ($2.50ish) and told him we really appreciated his service and he pressed it to his forhead as a sign of respect and smiled like I haven’t seen in a long time. If you dropped a Toonie in the trash would you even look for it? What about in a lake, down a crack in a deck, or a toilet? A European soccer player just got signed for £90million a year that is Rs138million a week. The most expesnive hotel we had which is 4-5 star with a pool and restaurant/bar, free pickup upon arrival, internet included, 24 hour security cost Rs2000. He could stay every night in this (essentially luxury) hotel for 19 years on one weeks salary. Makes me think…
2) An obvious statement or the word “Hello” followed by a noun can start a conversation
- The Taj Ganj is made up of 5 buildings. The Taj Mahal is dead center and massive and white, the other 4 are flanked on the left and right and dark red. Andrew and I were walking up the path towards the Taj Mahal and decided to turn right to see the other buildings first, a kind “guide” stopped us and said “Sirs, the Taj Mahal is that way”… Well thank you! It really wasn’t clear in any of the millions of articles and pamphlets and documentaries what exactly the Taj Mahal looked like! We really got turned around on the 200m straight ahead walk!
Also we constanly hear “Hello, rickshaw?” or “Hello, fruit juice?”. imagine if every one did this, life would be easy. It cuts the BS for sure! “Hello, date?” Would be a normal pick up line, “Hello, dying” would be indication you are choking on a chicken bone. Life would be so easy!
This has happened to us countless times so far. Apparently stating the obvious or repeating the name of whatever product is in front of you, is necessary for some tourists, and Andrew and I are way ahead of the game by buying a guidebook and having eyes.
3) We are always lost
- Standing means we’re lost, reading signs means we’re lost, looking at a map means we’re lost, scratching our asses means we’re lost,being a tourist means we’re lost…
In reality this is actually a little refreshing. In England if an obvious tourist is stopped looking at their map in 4 different angles a Londoner (and now I) would just plow over them. Here they actually care: Most people genuinely want to help. In fact we had 3 people stop the other day to ask where we were going while waiting for a bus. One man even stayed and verified in native tongue that we had the right one. People here love to help. Sometimes (as in point 1) the intentions are poor, but in general they know we are in a strange country and want to make us feel comfortable.
4) Everything will work out
- All scientists in Chaos Theory research need to live here! This country seems to thrive on being chaotic. There are people, cars, cows, honking and construction everywhere. There is something truly beautiful in that it works. No matter how much noise or how much confusion there is, it always works out. There is no need for a watch in India. Buses come when they do, train times appear to be estimates. The western world relies so much on time and the pressures of being “on time”. If a train is 2 minutes late in England an apology announcement is made. Here if the train shows up you’ll be happy. I absolutely love this. Check out times at hotels are approximate, there are no real restrictions on breakfast/lunch/dinner menus in restaurants, if you want to nap and are driving a transport, you pull over as far as you can and lay a mattress under your trailer and sleep (seriosuly, I saw this).
In the end everything is “No problem”. Here I am in a strange country with little English in some parts and I doubt my blood pressure has every been lower.
5) People can help people
- A study was once done on some religion students. They were told they were having a 2 part interview, but due to a booking mistake the rooms were in 2 seperate buildings seperated on the same street. I forget the specifics, but essentially they were “programmed” with the Bible story about helping a hurt man in a road. Half were then told they were really early for part 2 of the interview and half were told they were late. Between the buildings a man was put on the sidewalk pretending to be injured. A small percentage of the “early” students stopped to help and almost none of the “late” students did. This is India vs the western world.
We all know that traffic rules are basically guidelines here, but if you choose to run a red at an intersection, go ahead, just stop if a car is coming towards you and let them go first. Honking here, while it can be used for anger, for the most part is actually courtesy: It lets a biker or truck driver know your behind them and passing. We got in a traffic jam in Agra heading towards the Taj Mahal. Some folks from the shops came out and started directing cars to make 3-point turns without hitting one another. We saw a cyclist fall off his bike and then dozens of locals run to him to help.
We all have this capability.
I have loved every second of this experience. The train fiasco which I didn’t detail here, but will later, the sketchy light show we attended, our hotel down a back alley of some market that you couldn’t see down, the bus ride on a bus without any English words/speakers on it. Everything. This country has taught me a lot already. It has shown me some things that we really do have wrong and some things I wish India would adopt from us. After just 2 weeks here I am convinced that everyone should come here and witness this for themselves.