First impressions?
India seems to defy impression. Although I have only seen a small bit of it.
Adjectives?
Chaotic, beautiful, dirty, loud, cosmopolitan, backward, modern, traditional - the contrast goes on and on.
I am currently staying in Northern Mumbai and have not yet been far. So, warning to the reader, my impressions have not been severely tested. The family of my friend is lovely and very welcoming. I knew them in Saudi Arabia ten years ago when I studied there, so feeling comfortable in their home has been no problem. I arrived very late on Monday night, about 1:00am and was not out of customs until 3:00am. Baggage claim was a WARZONE. I have never seen such a thing. I had to stand on top of my metal trolley to see over people's head to find my bag, which seemed to zoom at three times the speed of baggage carousals in the States. I just stood there in amazement for a bit, exhausted from traveling for 24 hours an the world seeming a haze of movement and noise around me. A girl I met on the plane tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Welcome to India" with a grimace, as the left me to dive for her bag. Coming out of customs, I saw four or five westerners lying on the tile of the airport floor, using their backpacks as pillows and all looking vaguely sick and drained. I can imagine myself looking like that four months from now.
I live in a highrise, with a tractor factory to the right and a slum to the left. The shift change at 430am wakes me every morning, and I imagine all the workers walking back and forth beneath me.
India, while chaotic, seems to move at a slower pace than the States. Life, in this family, revolves around food. Lentils are soaked for hours in the early morning and meals are planned. I spend my mornings having chai outside on the patio and early evenings are reserved for tea time and biscuits. Dinner is late, although early by traditional Indian standards - 8:00pm the past two nights. It is a change, but one I am getting slowly used to.
I will write a separate entry on my first rickshaw ride. What an experience.
India seems to defy impression. Although I have only seen a small bit of it.
Adjectives?
Chaotic, beautiful, dirty, loud, cosmopolitan, backward, modern, traditional - the contrast goes on and on.
I am currently staying in Northern Mumbai and have not yet been far. So, warning to the reader, my impressions have not been severely tested. The family of my friend is lovely and very welcoming. I knew them in Saudi Arabia ten years ago when I studied there, so feeling comfortable in their home has been no problem. I arrived very late on Monday night, about 1:00am and was not out of customs until 3:00am. Baggage claim was a WARZONE. I have never seen such a thing. I had to stand on top of my metal trolley to see over people's head to find my bag, which seemed to zoom at three times the speed of baggage carousals in the States. I just stood there in amazement for a bit, exhausted from traveling for 24 hours an the world seeming a haze of movement and noise around me. A girl I met on the plane tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Welcome to India" with a grimace, as the left me to dive for her bag. Coming out of customs, I saw four or five westerners lying on the tile of the airport floor, using their backpacks as pillows and all looking vaguely sick and drained. I can imagine myself looking like that four months from now.
I live in a highrise, with a tractor factory to the right and a slum to the left. The shift change at 430am wakes me every morning, and I imagine all the workers walking back and forth beneath me.
India, while chaotic, seems to move at a slower pace than the States. Life, in this family, revolves around food. Lentils are soaked for hours in the early morning and meals are planned. I spend my mornings having chai outside on the patio and early evenings are reserved for tea time and biscuits. Dinner is late, although early by traditional Indian standards - 8:00pm the past two nights. It is a change, but one I am getting slowly used to.
I will write a separate entry on my first rickshaw ride. What an experience.
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