Too Hot to Blog / Off the Beaten Track
"So, let me get this straight - in your country [Canada], it is OK for a woman to have partners before she gets married?"
"Yes, yes, that's it. But it's not like Baywatch........."
Every bus ride, every train ride, brings an interrogation into Western values. Which is alright by me - I learn (without feeling nosy) alot through comparison about Indian values. And what a gulf of difference there is!
Ahmedabad is the most prosperous city in the most prosperous state in India - so there are certain indicators of progress here, like pedestrian lights. It's wonderful to cross a street and feel that I'm only in slight danger. But it's not a tourist destination at all - and I'm soundly off the beaten track now. How can I tell? I can tell because people stop as I walk by and stare at me. Kids tug at my hand and try to practice their English on me. And in 30 hours in this city I've seen six other non-Indians, four of them in the air-conditioned internet cafe I retreat to when it gets too hot. To think I was worried India had gotten too exposed to the West.
In some ways, it's nice - I don't feel treated like a commercial object at all, people aren't trying to hustle me into their shops, and I don't suffer so much from inflated prices. I had a big glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (and if you know me you know I love my juices,) from a roadside wallah for 25 cents! Someone entirely random bought me a saffron lassi today while I was sitting down at a cold drinks shop. The fellow was a lawyer, and he was with a policeman. I asked him if he was a defence lawyer or prosecutor - he said he was a defense lawyer, and that was why he kept the police officer on good terms... that may or may not have been a joke. It's also nice to introduce myself as a mathematics student, here. India has enormous respect for the Engineering/Hard Science academic complex, and I field alot of questions comparing Indian with Canadian schools.
The flip side is that Ahmedabad is prosperous mostly as an industrial centre, and the pollution and heat are really hard to tolerate. I had my first sleep disrupted by the night's heat - needless to say, I'll never complain about 30C at home again. I just looked on the BBC and it was 42C today here. The mind harbours too many delusions lying awake from the heat, and to be perfectly honest I only get enough willpower to venture out for an hour or two in the daytime. My body longs for the cool of the mountains of Nepal, but my passport is still 1000 kilometers and 7 days away, so I'm making an even sillier move and leaving for the real desert, in the west of India called Kutch. Then to Pushkar, and then back onto Delhi.
"Why would you want to go to Ahmedabad? There's nothing there for tourists." - Bus Booking Agent
"I want to see Gandhi's old ashram."
"Oh, you're one of those."
"Yes, yes, that's it. But it's not like Baywatch........."
Every bus ride, every train ride, brings an interrogation into Western values. Which is alright by me - I learn (without feeling nosy) alot through comparison about Indian values. And what a gulf of difference there is!
Ahmedabad is the most prosperous city in the most prosperous state in India - so there are certain indicators of progress here, like pedestrian lights. It's wonderful to cross a street and feel that I'm only in slight danger. But it's not a tourist destination at all - and I'm soundly off the beaten track now. How can I tell? I can tell because people stop as I walk by and stare at me. Kids tug at my hand and try to practice their English on me. And in 30 hours in this city I've seen six other non-Indians, four of them in the air-conditioned internet cafe I retreat to when it gets too hot. To think I was worried India had gotten too exposed to the West.
In some ways, it's nice - I don't feel treated like a commercial object at all, people aren't trying to hustle me into their shops, and I don't suffer so much from inflated prices. I had a big glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (and if you know me you know I love my juices,) from a roadside wallah for 25 cents! Someone entirely random bought me a saffron lassi today while I was sitting down at a cold drinks shop. The fellow was a lawyer, and he was with a policeman. I asked him if he was a defence lawyer or prosecutor - he said he was a defense lawyer, and that was why he kept the police officer on good terms... that may or may not have been a joke. It's also nice to introduce myself as a mathematics student, here. India has enormous respect for the Engineering/Hard Science academic complex, and I field alot of questions comparing Indian with Canadian schools.
The flip side is that Ahmedabad is prosperous mostly as an industrial centre, and the pollution and heat are really hard to tolerate. I had my first sleep disrupted by the night's heat - needless to say, I'll never complain about 30C at home again. I just looked on the BBC and it was 42C today here. The mind harbours too many delusions lying awake from the heat, and to be perfectly honest I only get enough willpower to venture out for an hour or two in the daytime. My body longs for the cool of the mountains of Nepal, but my passport is still 1000 kilometers and 7 days away, so I'm making an even sillier move and leaving for the real desert, in the west of India called Kutch. Then to Pushkar, and then back onto Delhi.
"Why would you want to go to Ahmedabad? There's nothing there for tourists." - Bus Booking Agent
"I want to see Gandhi's old ashram."
"Oh, you're one of those."
posted by Steve C at 6:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home