Chapter One
Howdy-
OK, have to run to a meeting in a minute, but I wanted to drop a quick note to say that I had made it alive. Best I can figure, it's Thursday night over there (Friday morning here). I'll have time to send something longer later, but to sum up my experiences so far in just one sentence: I just had lambs kidney for breakfast.
Welcome to India.
PJ
Chapter Two
....I would be writing this sooner, but my bus was just delayed by cows in the street...
Howdy-
(FYI--It's 11:00pm on Friday, 11 January here... I'm not sending this to you because I expect you to read it all--they'll be a test later!--but just because I thought you might find it interesting... feel free to read, skim, or skip, at your free will.)
Well, our first full day is somewhat done (some people are heading out clubbing, but I'm staying in), so I figured I'd sit down and tell ya about all the fun experiences I've had so far--including being 6'3" and sitting in economy class for 10 hours over Europe and parts of Asia. I think I would
have been more comfortable in the overhead compartment with my jacket.
We got to Logan with about three hours to spare, and you really needed it. Security was tight (I got nailed going through the terminal. My bag was searched, I was frisked, I had to take my shoes and jacket off and have them all xrayed, they used the magnetic wand on me twice....)
We took Air France from Logan to Paris-DeGaule. It's kinda amusing being on a French flight and having all the announcements made in French, and then translated into English. At one point, I turned to the Tom, the fellow sitting next to me, and said, "Good motivation to learn French.... If the plane's gonna crash, I think they all know it a good minute or two before us!"
On the other side of me sat a gentleman heading to Dublin from Boston. He had gotten his BS from American in DC in the early 1980s and was now in a masters program for International Relations in Dublin. His primary focus was developing nations in Africa, so we compared notes for about 2 hours about the common effects in both parts of the world.
Someone had asked me about what kind of electronic toys there were to play with on the flight... We had a TV mounted into the chair infront of us that we could use for TV, movies, video games, stuff like that. I spent a good few hours on that flight showing the computer who's boss at Tetris--made me think that Nintendo was a good investment all those years ago.
We got into Paris late night/early morning on Thursday (I think it was Thursday... I lost track so badly at one point that when someone asked me when we had taken off from Boston, I smiled and said, "Tomorrow.") We had enough time to do a little shopping, and then I had a croisant and tea in a little cafe while watching the sun rise on the Eifle Tower. (Jealous yet? What'd you do for breakfast this morning? Burnt toast at the kitchen counter?) Or, that's what I would have done, except the brilliant people who designed DeGaule didn't design it with a view of the Tower, the entire place was fogged in, they hadn't baked anything yet that day, and and tea was Lipton. Feel better? :-)
Our lay over in Paris was for about 3 hours, and then we boarded another Air France plane to head out to Delhi (flying over scenic Baghdad, Kabul, and Kashmir). Unfortunately, we didn't keep the same flight crew. The people from Boston to Paris were great, but the people on the second leg were terrible (as were the counter people in Paris). If you were sleeping when they came around with, say, the dinner menu, they would hit you with it to wake you up. I was crammed into a small window seat next to a man who spoke no English and was completely mesmerized by the headset that allowed him to listen to music he kept saying he didn't like.
Which reminds me..... I had discovered what hell is. All those priests in church growing up? Nope, they were wrong. Hell is being on a 10 hour flight and having the only English-language radio station be Country Western. I nearly wanted to shoot myself.
Anyhow, back to the flight... We were delayed on the ground for an hour because they were having trouble boarding people (see above comment on poor worker quality in Paris). When we finally took off, the pilot did a terrible job--as he would again when we landed in Delhi the next morning. He really went far down the runway (to the point where I was getting nervous, which should say something).
By the way, nothing says "Welcome To Delhi" like walking off the plane and seeing bullet holes in the side of the airport. Seriously.
We got into Delhi at 12:26am on Friday, 11 January (or, 3:00pm on Thursday in Boston and CT). Two things strike you about India from the minute you land:
First, the smoke. It's not fog. It's not cloud cover. It's because so much of the population smokes, burnes fires and lanterns, and uses deisel gas in their cars. You can literally see the air infront of you (I have some fear about how this will affect my pictures--we'll see). We were told that, in
relation to our breathing, that it would feel that we had started a four-pack-a-day habit. Thankfully, and it might be because of the somewhat nice weather, no one in our group had any problems with it.
The second thing is "the watchers." Have you ever seen movies of third-world airports, where there are people standing there yelling out names and yelling out offers for taxis when you get into the terminal? Well, it's like that, except they are all absolutely silent. If you've ever used the phrase, "the silence is deafening," this is what they were talking about. They just stand there and watch you. It's actually kinda unnerving. It took us a while to get through customs and find out baggage (no carousel here--they just toss it all in a pile on the floor and you're on your own).
As we were driving to the hotel, it was interesting to see people just sleeping on the side of the street. We have homeless in the United States, but nothing like this--it was amazing. They would just light trash on fire for warmth, and go to sleep right there.
We got to the hotel around 3:15, 3:30am. Made it to bed by 4, and then got up at 8. Jetlag isn't hitting me, although I am just a little more tired right now than I would be normally. We got up, had breakfast, I tossed you that email, and then we headed up for our first class (yes, Kara, I'm being a good boy in India and going to class-fear not). We spent about two hours discussing the military situation between India and Pakistan and how it was affecting US foreign relations in Southeast Asia and Europe.
From there, we went up to have lunch with the author of our textbook, Gurcharan Das. Before I get to that, I should say that I took some time between those two things to get onto the roof of the hotel (mom's gonna kill me for that line) and take some photos of the land around us. Some cool things I saw:
They were doing construction on one side of our hotel, and had their scaffolding probably 6 floors high. Now, this would be cool in and of itself, but, they scaffolding was all made of bamboo, and they were building it as they go, climbing up with pieces under their arms, tying it in place, and then cutting off any excess that they might have.
For acres and acres, there was a massive forest right near us. No roads, no open spaces, nothing. As I looked into the smog, I noticed that about two miles into the wooded areas, there was a satellite uplink and reciever. Just in the middle of the forest, with nothing around it. It was really cool (and made for a good analagy of why we are here).
There were cows and goats just wandering around the streets.
OK, back to Mr. Das.... He was an amazing speaker, although I don't agree with everything he said (he's too optomistic). We were literally sitting there for two hours over lunch, absolutely spellbound with the man--I can see how he ended up as the CEO of Procter & Gamble India. He took questions for a while, and then offered to stay later and sign copies of the book (doh! Left mine in North America).
From there, we went to Connagaut Circle in Delhi, a large shopping area (not stores, just people with their stuff spread out on the ground and with little carts). Tim, Joy and I stuck together, and we were pestered to no end by the people.
I want to take a minute to talk about that.... I know everyone says that they are pushy and that the whole thing is dangerous, especially for women. I only agree to a certain extent. While a woman will get more attention than a man, everyone gets approached. But it's rarely uncomfortable--it's just people trying to sell you their things. They can be a little persistant, but never made us feel uncomfortable.
We had a lot of people come up to us just to use their English skills (I joked with Joy that I didn't get why they keep coming up to us--it's not like we look like foreigners or anything, walking around with our cameras, expensive clothing, and appearances!). Everything has a price, and it's rarely what they quote to you. I saw people bargain from IR$700 down to IR$50... you just have to know how to deal with the people.
It's interesting to note that you can tell the nice stores from the lesser quality stores (speaking of the places with physical businesses, not just booths or rugs). When the places is nice, they have security at the door. Now, nice doesn't mean expensive. McDonalds here has security. But it's interesting to note.
On a related side note, there are random people walking in the streets with rifles slung over their shoulders. Some are obviously military. Some appear to just be normal people. With no police to be found in this city, it's kinda interesting.
I picked up a few things myself... I got dad his birthday present (he's never gonna guess...) and found myself the Indian equivalent of Brooks Brothers and picked out some ties (long story...). Jill, one of our professors, was making fun of me for getting them, but I know they'll make for a good conversation starter some day.
We ate dinner at a private home, the parents of a Bentley alumni. The father produces menthol, and was very wealthy. There was security at the compound where he lives (and yes, compound is the word I want to use there), and then four wait staff helping cook and serve dinner. We ate for a while, and just hung around.
I hustled Sean, one of my other professors, for IR$1000 at pool with the help of Jill. As he handed me my money he smiled. I asked why, and he reminded me that it was simply my tuition being handed back to me. Kinda took the fun away a bit.
As we were driving back (around 9:30pm), it was interesting to see the lines for gas forming. Reminded me of watching video of the gas shortages in the US back in the 1970s. Apparently, the government implemented car restrictions on what kind of engines and gas could be used. While everyone complied, the government forgot one minor detail: If they were limiting what kind of gas needed to be sold, they would need places to sell it. They didn't have enough, and now they have this problem on their hands while the gas stations try and build to meet demand.
Driving on back to the hotel, the traffic was kinda heavy, even at this late at night (activity dies down when the light fades away). We had some problems with cows getting into our way and blocking traffic, but we made it back to the hotel eventually--where cows are allowed on the street, but not on the lawn.
Well, that's about it for today. I'll write later when I can--feel free to forward this to anyone who might enjoy the read, I know I kept the mailing list kinda short.
Talk to ya later,
PJ
Chapter Three
So we're walking through a garden with one of the alumni and see two kittens play fighting with each other. One of the kids in our group turns to the host and says, "Gee, I expected your tigers to be bigger."
Howdy-
(FYI, again--It's currently 10:32am on Monday morning)
Didn't get a chance to get an email out after day 2 because it was either send it and cut into my sleeping time, or get a total of 4 hours of sleep. I took the 4 hours.
We started out Saturday visiting a mosque in Old Delhi (the city has been destroyed and rebuilt a total of 9 times.... different rebuildings get different names, such as Old Delhi, Delhi, New Delhi, and some others. Old Delhi, as you might guess, is kinda old.) One of the things that is amazing about being here is to look at the size and complexity of some of these buildings, think about how hard it would be to build them today, and then realize that they are 500 years old...
This mosque was built in 1550s, and took 6 years to complete. It's over 4000 square meters, and can hold over 20,000 people during prayer. It has two massive towers that go several hundred feet into the air, and you could pay to go up into one of them. Since women aren't allowed to be alone, Joy and I went up together. The stairs were tiny, really high, and very narrow. When people passed each other (some going up, some coming down), they had to squeeze past either other. Lighting was almost non existant, and you were feeling your way more than anything else. When we got up to the top, the view was amazing. You could see for miles and miles in every direction. You basically had to put your toes on a stone slab and hold on to the metal wall to avoid falling (either out or back down the stairs), but I was able to take some amazing pictures.
We finished up in the Mosque and went out into Old Delhi itself. I think this city is my favorite of everywhere we've been so far. It's not touristy at all--the people who come to the mosque are mostly those who come to pray. Those who come to shop are mostly residents. We hopped into a rickshaw and took a tour through the streets. We ended up in a rickshaw vs rickshaw accident, with Joy and I hitting into the rickshaw infront of us. Apparently it's a normal occurance, because the other people didn't seem to care. The tour was amazing--really cramped streets with little shops the whole way. A lot of items for wedings--bride dresses, jewlery, decorations, etc., as well as a lot of jewlery and food. We keep wanting to try the food, but have Jill's warnings stuck in our heads. I was joking with her that I should try it just to get sick--ya know, get the full picture of life in India. She said I could, but I wouldn't get any sympothy from her.
I think I'll pass.
From Old Delhi we went on to the Gandhi memorial. It's a huge park (miles upon miles of land), where Mohatma Gandhi was cremated. The site is amazing (and of course, I have pictures).
From there, we went to Indiagate. It's a huge memorial that was built in
memory of the British and Indian soldiers killed in WW1. We weren't able to get close to it because of security reasons, but we were able to get pictures. One of the other guys in the group, Banyon, and I ran into traffic to get a better picture (again, another line mom is gonna kill me for). We almost got nailed by a motorcycle, but we got the shot.
Intersting note about that.... The middle class in India comprises about 200,000,000 people. It sounds like a lot, but when you realize that the total population is over 1 billion, and that the middle class is only 20%, its actually kinda small. Anyhow, the middle class doesn't drive cars, they drive motorcycles or scooters. The streets are flooded with them.
From Indiagate, we went to Parlament. We couldn't get close because the Chinese Prime Minister was visiting, but we were able to get photos of the buildings (I avoid saying "shots of the building" because this was the location of the terrorist attack a few weeks back!) No signs of damage, but the military were well out in force.
Actually.... the military seems to have taken to the streets around here. No police in sight, but lots of soldiers. Our tour guide was a former cadet in the National Defence Academy (their West Point) and his father is an air force fighter pilot, so he's been able to speak well about what is going on. (Another interesting side note.... He spent a few years as a smuggler in Bogata... Interesting stories from that, too!)
We passed the American Embassy. It's nothing fancy, but it was huge. Entirely enclosed in a high stone wall, it had a baseball diamond inside of it. Gotta love signs of democracy!
Came back and had lunch in the hotel. Amazing food, we shared everything we got in the hotel. It's where Bill and Chelsea ate when they stayed there, and there was a "Presidents Meal" and a "Chelsea Meal." I passed on both.
That afternoon, we had class, and then went into some of the old ruins for a while. We didn't have much time, but it was very impressive. From there, we went on to an alumni's "farm" for dinner. While they are called farms, it's really just their way of describing huge estates--and this one really was huge! Apparently, it's the largest house and land in Delhi, besides what is owned by the politicians. Dozens of acres. It was a catered dinner, outside, and the food was amazing.
During the meal, someone mentioned the wild cows and asked who they belonged to. Quite an amusing answer: "Do you have squirrles in Boston that run wild? Yes? Well, we have wild cows."
The owner, Vinny, was a 91 grad of Bentley (MBA in Marketing) who came back and went into construction. We had an amzazing time, sitting around huge fires (it was really cold, probably in the low 40s. We got back at 1am, and I promptly crawled into bed--I had to get up at 5am the next morning so we could head out to Agra.
I'm gonna run some errands, and then come back and write about yesterday. Not that you'll notice, as it's the middle of the night there and you won't get either of these until tomorrow morning (my tonight), but just so you know. :-)
Avoiding the wild cows and trying not to get shot by the guys with guns,
PJ
Chapter Four
Let me jump ahead really quickly to today, just to let you know that Colin Powell is in my hotel. He's here to talk to the Indian government and is
staying a few floors away. The Secret Service is all over the place, and it's kinda cool to see them!
Howdy-
(FYI--3:20pm, Monday)
I got up at 5am yesterday, stumbling into walls and doors with only 4 hours of sleep. I showered and got breakfast, checking my email really quickly but not sending anything.
The group had to meet in the main lobby at 6:30 to get on a bus for Agra, a city about 200km from the hotel (for those of you who don't translate KM to M easially, that's about a four hour drive). Sean (one of the profs) didn't get back to the hotel until about 2am, and I passed him on the way to the restaurant, muttering to himself, "must get coffee, must get coffee..." The group, minus two, ended up in the restaurant on time. Sean told Tim to go to the front desk and call the room to find out where the other two were. A minute later, Tim came back and said, "They just woke up." Sean goes, "That's not the answer I wanted." Tim replies, "It's the only one I can give you." Sean, not missing a beat, goes, "I know, but it still sucks!"
They made it down a few minutes later.
We got on the bus and started driving towards Agra. We had to stop at a road block at one point, and we got the show of a lifetime.... Two men at the side of the road pulled out instruments and opened up some baskets. They turned out to be snake charmers, and these huge snakes came up out of the baskets and were hissing and spitting at the two men.
As we were watching, about five monkeys hopped up onto the window sills of the bus. I have one or two great shots of them just sitting there looking at me. While we were watching them, a bear came up on us. It was leashed, but it was still thrashing around (I guess I would be, too, if I were on a leash!). It was really cool to watch, and we were stuck there for about 10 minutes total.
About 100km from Agra, we stopped at a hotel/restaurant/tourist trap to use the bathrooms, get some food, and do a little shopping (we had about 5 minutes total). As we were walking through the store, I came across a huge collection of swords. I was looking at them, and realized that Rob would probably love to get one as a gift from India. They had never been used, and were relatively new--made from pure silver. I found a huge one that I liked (would probably have had to ship it home via FedEx), and I bargained the guy down to a price that wasn't too bad.
I then realized that I had made a huge mistake. It must have been from getting up so early. Or from not getting enough sleep. But I realized that I had forogtten the first rule of world-wide travel. I had forgotten what I had been told thousands of times growing up...... American Express: Don't leave home without it. Guess what I didn't have on me..... (Sigh).... The card was in my wallet in the hotel, and I didn't have enough cash on me to get it. Oh well, I'll have to find something else for Rob.
We got back into the bus, and finished our ride to Agra. Agra is a small city in Indian standards, only about 1 million people (down from a total of 3 million when it served as a capital a few hundred years back. The streets are crowded with people, cows, and camels carrying things (kinda cool--I think I got a picture, can't remember). Kit, I thought of Connecticut College when I saw them.
We went to Agra Fort to start the stay. It was built in 1574, and took 7 years to complete. It was originally home to the king and his 500 wives, and is absolutely massive in size. To give you an idea: 70% of the place is occupied by the military. We were only allowed in the other 30%, and it still took us two or three hours to look around. The view from some of the towers were amazing--I have a bunch of pictures.
The fort (along with everything else) closed at 1:30 because the Chinese Prime Minister and his wife wanted to visit it. We went to the Sheraton in Agra to get lunch, and just spent time hanging out there until 3:00. Then, we went shopping for a little while, and headed to the Taj Mahal. I didn't find it as amazing as some people have described it, but it certainly was impressive. I completely agree with its designation as a wonder of the world. We spent a few hours there, and I was asked to pose for pictures with several other tourist groups (it was kinda amusing.... When we take pictures of people in India, its typical that we give them IR$10... I joked that if people kept asking me to be in pictures, I would charge them the same!)
From the Taj, we went on to a factory where they made inlayed engravings into marble. What is impressive about India is that everything has lasted for all these years. This is inpart from the fact that they don't paint or glue their designes, they shape diamonds and emeralds and other stones and inlay them into the main piece.
The manager of the factory was taking us around and showing his workers to us, and what they were working on. He took out a stick, and told us that when the stones were put into place, they could never be knocked free. To demonstrate, he hit the piece several times where it had been designed. As he was about to end, he hit one more place. The whole thing shattered! The worker who had been working on the piece yelled out in Hindi, and the manager explained that the specific part that he had just hit had only been laid down to fit the pieces, and hadn't been completed yet. The worker had to redue the whole thing!
They had a few pieces for sale, and we stopped in their shop for a little
while. As we were leaving, the workers called me over and sat me down. They gave me some of the little pieces and talked with me for a while (going back to my earlier comments about people wanting to talk just to use their English skills).
We got back on the bus and headed to the hotel, getting in around 10:30pm. We had Monday morning free, so I just crawled into bed and figured that I'd sleep as late as possible to catch up for lost time (as I would find out, "as late as I can" ended up being about 9am).
That's it for now. Hopefully, I'll have time to send you one more email before we head to Bombay tomorrow, but I'm not sure how my schedule will be, or if I'll be able to find a place with internet access in Bombay (I
should--it's more commercial than here).
Talk to ya later,
PJ
Chapter Five
Interesting fact of the day: In this state in India, it is illegal to sell or purchase cigarettes on train stations.
Howdy-
(FYI-Currently in Bombay, India. It's 11:40pm on Wednesday)
Well, as promised in an earlier email, I was so swamped for the last few days that this has been the first email in a while. So let's see what you've been missing...
On Monday, we had the morning and most of the afternoon free. A bunch of us went back into Delhi and walked around, looking at the shops and seeing if there was anything we wanted to pick up before we headed down to Bombay the next day. We started out with a group of 10, and then broke into smaller groups--Tim, Joy, and I went out on our own.
We all shopped for a while, and then ended up at the McDonalds there, where we ended up running into the other seven (with no planning--freaky, eh?). I've always made fun of the people who go to other countries and end up at the McDonalds, but I found myself doing it. Interstingly enough, it really is a completely different environment. The food is amazingly good--most of it is strict vegetarian, and when they do have meat, it's 10 times better than what we get in the States. The food actually tastes good!
I headed back to the hotel after that and took some time to rest up before that night. We headed out to a Call Center, run by a 99 grad from Bentley. When you have a tech support call, or when you get a telemarketer, the call comes from this center. But what is really impressive is the fact that they created an entire community around this one business--apartment buildings, offices, stores, clubs, etc. There is really no reason for an employee to leave the property if they don't want to.
The center operates during the night so that it can service North America, but is about to switch to three eight-hour shifts to cover North America, the UK, and Australia.
The technolgy at use was amazing--it rivaled what we have on campus. New phones, new computers, tripple redundant power backups, etc. Completely state of the art.
From there, the owner took us to a restaurant that he had just opened a few KM away called Super Stars. It's kinda like TGI Fridays meets Planet Hollywood (not surprising since he ownes the TGI Fridays in India, too!). The food was okay, and the place was entertaining--we could play pool in the middle of the restaurtant if we wanted to.
Amusing sign from the front of the entrance: No Arms Or Ammo Allowed In The Restaurant. Hmmm.... wonder if that's a problem around here...
Headed to bed when we got back, and got up the next morning (Tuesday) to head into a garment factory in the morning. As Sean put it, "This place goes from sheep to shirt. It's awesome!" And it was impressive--the work was completely done by hand, and the factory was really worn down, but still considered to be in good shape by the owners. It produces clothing for everything from The Gap to Van Heusen, and is one of the largest producers in India.
As we were walking along, we watched them making some golf shirts (for lack of a proper name--collars, two buttons, short sleeves......). We were looking at them too much, I guess, because the owner told us to take some if we wanted. So we all walked away with some shirts from our visit!
While we were there, it started to rain really hard. The owner of the factory told us that it was the first time it had rained in New Delhi in three months, and the entire city started to flood because of it.
It was interesting to compare and contrast the Call Center from last night with the garment factory from this morning. They really represented the two side of the Indian economy--one accellerating in high tech, while the other is stagnent in old technology.
We got back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed down to the lobby to check out of the hotel. While I was settling up my room charges, I noticed two guys trying (and failing) to fit in in the middle of the lobby. US Secret Service, protecting Colin Powell. I turned to Jill and asked how much trouble I would get in if I went over to them and asked them to pose in a picture with me. She started laughing, told me to go ahead, but that she wouldn't bail me out of jail.
She takes all the fun out of these things. :-)
We headed to the airport for our flight to Bombay and got there with about two hours to spare. And just like Logan, I had some security issues again....
First, they had a problem with my checked-in baggage. They called me aside, and completely searched it, pulling the whole thing apart. Satisfied, I was allowed to leave the bag and check myself in. I went to the security checkpoint and was promptly taken aside and frisked down by the Indian military guard. That done, they decided they wanted to see what I was bringing along in my bag, so they took it off the xray machine and completely searched it. I had purchased a wooden chess set while I was here, and they seemed to consider it a threat, spending almost five minutes inspecting the pieces.
From there, they went after my camera. I thought for a minute that they were going to confiscate it from me. The guard, who spoke no English, pulled everyhing out of my camera bag and searched through it a few times. Finally, he pulled out my extra batteries and told me that they were a security threat (in Indian, translated by the guy behind me in line).
Apparently four AA batteries are now up there with firearms as things I can't take on a plane.
They finally gave me back my bag and jacket and let me go. No sooner had I taken five steps than another security guard was on me, asking me to step aside and checking all my papers. It was unbelieveable!
We finally made in onto the plane, and had a pretty uneventful flight to Bombay. The stewardess was very attractive, and Banyon tried to get her to pose with him in a picture, but she refused. We've been kidding him about it every since.
When we got to Bombay, an absolutely terrible smell of the place hit us. It was somewhere between rotting trash and that smell when you open a new can of tennis balls (gotta give me credit for that description!). It would go away as we got closer to the main part of the city, but it was really bad at first.
We drove for almost 45 minutes to get through the city and to our hotel. It's a 5-star near the southern tip, in one of the best areas of Bombay. We are right on the ocean and the hotel is amazingly beautiful. As I said to Tim, "let's just enjoy it until they realize we're here and kick us out!"
And that leads to Wednesday...
I rolled out of bed at 4am in order to catch a 5am bus to the train station. We were heading about 90km out of the city to a small agricultural and production city to visit some companies and see how most people in India live.
The train station was filled with people just sleeping on the floor. There were no benches or anything, and people just sprawled out on the floor to sleep before their rides. I think I got some pictures of this--its interesting to see this whole massive place filled with sleeping people.
What was interesting to note was that for most of the people we would meet today, not only were we the first Americans they would ever meet, but we were the first white people they would ever meet--we were as much an attraction to them as they were to us.
The train ride lasted two hours, and was rather bland--the train wasnt in great condition, but it ran well. As we started through the city, we came across a car accident, moped vs oil tanker. Wanna guess who lost? The accident had been pushed clear to let traffic through, and the body was just tossed aside and had a sheet put over it.
Ahh, efficiency. Gotta love it.
Our first visit was a dye factory, which competed with companies like Dow and DuPont. The plant was 60 years old, and it looked it. There hadn't been a major improvement in 50 years, and most of the machinery was very old. The owner was talking to us about beating Dow and DuPont in the marketplace, and all we could do was sit there and try not to laugh--this man had no chance in hell of ever overtaking any of the major companies, not with what he had.
After that, we moved on to a school in the area. It was privately run, religiously based, and absolutely amazing. They had two computer labs, a huge outdoor pool, and more. 1450 students, all of whom had to pay (equivalent of US$350, which is a massive amount in India, where the average person makes only $365 a year). We had a tour of their facilities, and then had a chance to meet with about 30 of the students for a question and answer session. They all wanted to know about the US and how to get into college here, and we were trying to figure out things about their culture. It was pretty interesting.
With those two sites done, we headed to the private house of our guest (who owned the dye factory, had donated to the school, and owned the other two companies we were gonna visit). And yes, she was a Bentley grad--class of 99.
The house was maintained by a full-time staff of about 10, although it was only used rarely--this was the first time she had visitid in ten years. It was absolutely beautiful desigs on a nice-size piece of land. And of course, it had full-time security.
We spent about 2 hours there having lunch and talking with each other, and then it was on to a pulp and paper factory (FYI--Never say "pulp and paper" around Jill. She turns into a 2-year-old and just repeats the phrase over and over in a clipped Brit accent).
The factory took waste paper from all over the world (mainly the US) and turns it into new paper and product packaging. It was an interesting process to watch.
From there, we went to a cardboard manufacturing plant to see how cardboard boxes were made. Simply put, it was about as interesting as it sounded. I tried to break the boredom by asking if they only made cardboard boxes, or if they also made cardboard boxes to hold other cardboard boxes. I got a serious answer. This man had no sense of humor, and, quite frankly, just loved his job too much.
We headed back to the rail station at that point, with about an hour to spare before our train got in. We spent it playing around the station, and I got yelled at for crossing the two sets of rails. Apparently it's a crime in
India, but not one that they enforce.
The ride back was uneventful, and I hopped in the shower as soon as I could to get the chemicals off me. I ended up throwing a shirt away, because it had started to change colors while at the chemical factory (usually a good sign that the shirt is done with, if I do say so myself), so I'm coming home a little lighter than I starte off with (more than made up for in souvineers, I assure you).
Well, it's getting late and I need to hop in bed. I can't believe this is almost over--I don't want to come home!
Talk to ya later,
PJ
Chapter Six
Howdy-
It's Saturday morning, and this'll probably be my last email from India (unless Banyan and I find a way to sell our plane tickets, in which case,
we're staying here for the rest of our lives).
We started out Thursday morning with a trip to Elephanta Island, about an hours boat ride of the coast of Bombay. On the way to the boat, we passed a cab with the bumper sticker, "Don't Forget God And Death." I thought it was a pretty accurate way to describe how people drive around here.
The Island is solid stone, and has been carved out by hand to create massive sculptures and altars for Hindu religious ceremonies (although the natives to the island are the only ones who still use it for that purpose). I have some great photos of these huge statues, which are about 30 feet tall, and just all over the place. The only damage comes from the Portugese, who used the statues for target practice when they found India.
That trip took most of the morning, and when we got back to land (misnomer--Bombay is a collection of islands) Banyan, Joy, and I headed to McDonalds while everyone else ended up at some fancy restaurant in town. We took a lot of abuse for heading to McD's, but it payed off in the end: Something in the food at that place made everyone sick within the next two days. To date, Banyan and I are the only ones who haven't gotten sick, and we're also the ones who are the least careful about what we eat. Go figure.
From lunch, we headed over to a large bookstore in town, Crosswords. The books here are amazingly cheap (about 1/2 to 1/10th the price you would pay in the United States), so I loaded up on travel guides and others.
We got back to the hotel around 4pm, and we had two hours to kill before class that night, so we decided to walk the beach for a few miles. We passed a Baskin Robbins, and got ice cream cones. It's interesting to visit the American-based restuarants in India and see how they have adapted, seeing as how most places are 100% vegetarian here. The food is better here, even the ice cream.
Making it back to the hotel with about 10 minutes to spare, we headed into class on religion. It was a bit rushed, and no one really seemed to enjoy it, but it was a decent basic primer on the topic.
After class at 8pm, we headed out to the Taj Mahal Hotel, right on the water in Bombay, to a restaurant called the Tanjore. The food was amazing, as was the entertainment: Live music with dancers. Apparently, the routines are so complex that it takes the dancers more than 5 years to memorize what they have to do--hand movements, foot movements, etc. It was amazing to watch.
On ordering his third beer over dinner, one of the alumni with us turned to Banyan and asked him if he liked the Indian beer he was getting. "No, we're just drinking out of principle," he replied. "What principle is that?" His reply: "We're not paying." The alumni laughed and said that it proved we were Bentley students.
Friday started out with a two hour class on Hinduism, with a world-known scholar by the name of Pandya. He's lectured all over Asia, Europe, and North America on religion in general, and Hinduism specifically. His talk was really interesting; he spoke for about 60 minutes and then took questions for about 45 minutes after that.
After he spoke, we went out to lunch at a seafood place that is big with the expats in the city. The food was great, mostly seafood and chicken. The waitstaff would bring out the crab or lobster that they were going to serve you and let it crawl around on the table to show you that it was good--it was funny to watch, not only the animal, but the squirmish reaction that some of the people would have to it.
From lunch, we headed out to a tour of the city for four hours. The buildings are really impressive, made by the British when the city was a walled-in fort and the water came higher then it does currently. Our tour guide, who has been with us for a few days, knew everything about the city and was able to give us some great information. Some interesting facts:
--Officially, Bombay has a population of 12 million. The actual number is more than 16 million, with a floating population during the day of 22 million.
--There are 57,000 taxis in the city. The taxis are all the same model and paint job. There are no real taxi companies, just people driving on their own.
--They don't have a subway, but they have a large train system between the city and the suburbs. Daily, more than 2 million people travel on the trains. Each train is designed to hold 2000 people, but usually carry 6000 people.
Next on the tour was a Jainist temple. The Jains are a small religion that is getting smaller. They worship nature, plants, and animals, and are having a hard time converting people, so their numbers are dwindling. Their temple was amazing (yes, of course, I have pictures), with brilliant painting on the walls and ceilings, and impressive carvings.
From there, we went on to the hanging gardens of Bombai. Interesting story.... The city collects its water from seven lakes in the region, and pipes it into the city for use. They store it in large resevours, but several years back, they decided to cover the tanks for purity reasons. When they did so, the put about 6 to 24 inches of top soil down, and planted huge gardens on top (mom would have been jealous), with topiaries and walkways and such. We toured the plantings for a while, and then we headed off to a Jainist crematorium.
When a member of their religion dies, they have a bit of a problem... Because they worship nature, they have trouble disposing of the bodies. They can't cremate them, because it would polute the air. They can't put them in the Gangies, because it would polute the water. And they can't bury them, because it would pollute the ground. So they built this huge complex in the middle of the city, where they lay out the dead bodies and let birds and other animals feed off the corpses. When all that is left are bones, they put the bones in a central well and pour acid on top of them. When all that is left of that is dust, then run it through seven more purity systems before releasing it into the environment.
After our visit there, we headed to a massive public laundry. It had large open sinks, and the people would collect clothing from residents in the morning, wash them in these huge sinks, hang them out to dry, and return them at night. They charged very little for each piece of clothing, and rarely lose anything--impressive both because of the number of items they do each day, and the fact that most of them are completely illiterate and keep track of everything in their mind, and not on paper.
Mani Bhavan was next on our agenda. It was the house that Gandhi lived in while he was in Bombay. It has been turned into a library and museum, and we were able to go step by step through his life.
We had a little extra time at the end of our tour, so the guide took us to the Indian Navy base that is just south of our hotel. I had seen it from the water (and have some great photos of a destoyer, aircraft carrier, and sub). It was interesting to see the quality of life improve dramatically so quickly when we drove onto the base--the streets were cleaner, less crowded, and just looked nicer.
We finished the tour and went into class (Society & Culture), and then out to dinner and a party at an alumni's house (there's hope for me yet: He was a management major, did it in three years, and is a millionaire.... He's headed back to UPenn for a masters in Urban Planning and Development).
This morning, we started out with class on Defense Policy in South Asia. It was interesting, but getting a conversation going was like pulling teeth. It ended up being cut short by about 15 minutes.
....I'm writing you this email at this point in time...
We have the day free. Banyan and I are going to try and get a cricket match going, but I don't know how much luck we're gonna have. We don't have any padding, and I've been told we can expect to be in some pain--the ball is made of solid wood. Sean told me he could take my luggage, but I'd have to get on a wheely cart and be pushed into the airport.
We check out at 7pm (my local) and head to the Sheraton next to the airport for dinner. Our flight is at 2am (my local), and should be about 10 hours to Paris, and another 6 on to Boston, arriving around 3pm Boston time, and back to school around 5pm (don't call looking for me--I plan to be asleep!)
That is, of course, if we come back. See, Banyan and I have this plan... We're gonna sell out plane tickets to get some cash. Sleep on the streets (it's perfectly common here), and get jobs so we can stay in Bombay. We're either gonna sell coconuts on the street, or teach English. Maybe both. (We spent dinner last night figuring this plan out). Banyan might become a street philosopher, but we're not sure there's enough money in it. Not that it takes much to survive out here..... Hmm..... Maybe this plan needs to be thought out a little more. I guess we'll wait, at least until we find out how much a street philosopher can make. :-)
Ciao,
PJ