S A T U R D A Y

Am loving this week-end! Was inspired enough to finish another painting. Heading to a bridal shower shortly. It's nearly 30C out, I get to bust out a summer dress, finally!

Here are a few shots of some of the kids I met in India. They were incredibly charming and knew how to leave an impression! The first and last photo are of children we met in Rajasthan. They were fascinated by my digital camera. The second was shot in Gujarat and the third in Bangalore.

Driving in India

I've been driving around a lot lately. It feels good to get back behind the wheel since I never dared to do it in India. I still can't believe some of my European friends roamed around on scooters there, no matter if it was in the quieter parts of town. That takes guts!

I'm adding an image of the last car I rode in from Ahmedabad city to Mumbai's international airport. We took the expressway through and through, but not once did the driver think to look back at his blind spot. Some drivers go as far as taping their side mirrors against the window or removing them altogether. Meh, it's just a showpiece right?

And this below shot was taken in Ahmedabad, I thought it was cute. The driver's barefoot and seems to be quite comfortable. I liked the rickshaw drivers in that city. They all had a chip on their shoulders but treated me extra nicely as the NRI. Sometimes I'd think I was blending in with my Gujarati but as soon as they'd read out the cab fare to me, I'd get stuck and ask them to read out the amount in English (I only know my Gujarati numbers up to 15). And the ones that spent the drive wondering get all happy to figure it out with an "I knew it! You're from foreign!"

While I'm at it, here are some other random vehicle shots I took in India:

This one was taken in Bangalore. The bike driver is in a mundu (similar to a dhoti, sarong or lunghi) worn commonly in Southern India. I wasn't quite sure so I decided to zoom in and yep, he too is driving barefoot.

This was in Bangalore as well. I always fretted for the kids (and sometimes infants!), but I guess it helps them grow up fearless in the long run...

Below is a traffic jam our bus was stuck in on a southern India mountain range. I think the whole mess was cleared up within 45 minutes. The guys walking around were drivers voluntarily strategizing with others over what the next move should be. Traffic patrollers, who needs 'em?

And here's a shot from our last stop in Rajasthan. Accidents were waiting to happen everywhere. It was one of the toughest areas to be in as a pedestrian, nobody stops for you. We opted to get into rickshaws just to get us from one side to the other.

I snapped this shot through a car window in Delhi. The motorcycle traffic was insane there. And yet there were numerous cyclists bravely transporting heavy goods without even flinching at the sound of the car honks.

Here's another shot from Rajasthan. It was a common image during our Gujarat to Rajasthan commute. I don't recall seeing any public buses running. So locals hitchhike whenever they can, it beat walking in the dry heat.

We noticed several animal road kills on the same ride. These cows made their presence known, as did camels, and are usually safe. But I saw a lot of injured peacocks, dogs and goats on the sides of the road.

I love this shot. I took in Ahmedabad. If I were to title this it'd be "Me Against the World!"

More to come gradually!

I’m back in my hometown, yay! If only I were feeling well enough to fully enjoy it though. I had tried to embrace the cold weather as much as possible when I was in London, the weather change however, may have made my ears extra sensitive. I managed to get a terrible ear infection once I reached Canada, the abrupt plane landing could’ve had a lot to do with it also. I’ve been here an entire week and am still in pain; the antibiotics aren’t working fast enough.

Once I’m up for it I’ll be adding some more photos of India. There’s lots to reminisce about.

Good-Bye India...

It feels pretty strange to think that I’ll be leaving my Indian home tomorrow morning. It’s been a rough week since I came back from Bangkok. One of my elderly aunts' fractured her arm when she missed a step down the stairs. Then one of my cousin's damaged her back during another fall. And yesterday, my 15 year old niece and her friend collided on their bikes with a public bus. Apart from being shocked, my niece is fine, but her friend died on the spot as he was directly run over. I feel like I'm abandoning everyone here at the wrong time.

This afternoon I saw the aftermath of a stray dog fight in our building parking lot. It was a ghastly sight. The weakest dog was left in a terrible state, he was all bloodied up and I could see some of his insides falling out. Awful.

It’s my last night in Ahmedabad, so I’m trying to just think of the good. The past few days felt a bit like my first few days in this city. I ate out as much as possible at the inexpensive yet delicious restaurants available all over town. The family and neighbours were acting sentimental, as was I. I inhaled as much of the desi air as I possibly could to savour the smell of India and all the memories that came along with it. I’ve grown to become quite comfortable in my environment here, if I do come back, it’ll be so much easier for me to get around.

There’s so much left for me to discover in India, I barely touched the surface, so yes, absolutely, I will be returning. In retrospect, everything that I had hoped to happen here, did. I wanted to find work in print or broadcast and I accomplished that; I also made friends I could connect with; I reconnected with some family and found a great-uncle who has a lot in common with me (no longer making me the odd ball in the family); I gained some weight (okay well that’s not a plus for me but my Amdavadi family’s sure proud of their accomplishment!); and I learned a whole heck of a lot about why people are the way they are here and why my parents are the way they are in Canada.

I’m not sure of what the next step is for this blog as I’m no longer on the “road to Mumbai.” I’ve made some great work contacts here (even just through waiting at line-ups at the airport) and I do see myself coming back for work experience. So let’s wait and see.

I leave for Mumbai tomorrow morning. I'm getting there by taxi as I have a lot of luggage and catching a domestic flight there is hefty - costs have tripled due to India's Republic Day coming up. There’s extensive security everywhere as there’ve been more terrorist threats for the big day. I hope I’ll make it to London safely.

Some of my last few, extremely random thoughts while I'm still in India:
- The “rick” in rickshaw must derive from the term rickety-rackety, or so I believe so
- India’s got the bravest and most patient drivers in the world (drivers are completely zen as they swarm through oncoming traffic, aimlessly walking cattle, stray dogs, goats, etc., all whilst pedestrians and cyclists try to squeeze in some of their own space on the beyond busy roads
- Never have I seen drivers enjoy honking as much as people do here
- The caste system is nowhere near being abolished – I’m sceptical that it’ll even happen in this lifetime
- Prohibition of alcohol consumption in Gujarat - come on, seriously? Seriously?
- Skin-lightening creams are here to stay

Good night Yaar!

Buffalo Hit and Run

A few weeks ago my cousin witnessed a hit-and-run on her way to work. A speeding Jeep hit a large buffalo that was crossing the road. The driver sped off before anyone could react to the accident. The buffalo didn’t die instantly and slowly bled to death as the hours went on.

There’s an emergency hotline to call for all roadside accidents but no one responded when my cousin called in. On her way back from work she said a large crowd had gathered around the dying buffalo as the word spread through the community.

People think the driver sped off to avoid getting beat up by the owner or his posse (the owner wasn’t even around at the time of the accident). Most cattle owners are known to be extremely violent when they lose one of their animals this way. The driver could’ve also sped off to avoid paying a hefty fee - cattle-owners are known to demand anywhere from Rs 10-20,000 to cover their loss.

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe we're in the year 2010 now. I got to celebrate with some of my new friends living in Anand, Gujarat. Anand's a pretty quiet town. It's known as NRI-town as a lot of Indians from abroad have invested in homes or businesses here. I haven't spoken to any of them but I seem them walking around everywhere. So even the Gujarati NRIs have formed their own little territory here.

I don't have much else new to report. I caught some type of flu since I got back from Kerala so am trying to get as much rest as possible. I could easily buy some antibiotics from one of the "Chemist" shops as that's what everyone else seems to do here. But I'm choosing the Canadian route of getting lots of sleep instead.

I've decided to head off to Thailand for a week before I go back to Canada (that's right, it's official, I'm going back and cannot wait!).

Stray Dogs on the Rise!

The number of stray dogs around our building has gone down as the mornings and nights are getting colder - by colder I mean 10C. Some dogs still choose to hide beneath parked cars for shelter but most have gone elsewhere.

During the last couple of months we were feeding milk and roti to one of the dogs and her new litter. The mother liked us but she was extremely territorial. She constantly had to fight off other adult dogs from getting away with her family's food. Watching the adults go at each other could be pretty scary.
The mother always made sure her eight puppies had their fill of the food first; only when they were done would she indulge in the leftovers. Anyhow, one of the pups got run over by a car in the parking lot a couple of weeks back. The mom was extremely depressed, she was sulking for days and made weeping sounds whenever she'd see us.

I haven't seen the remaining pups in a while. I wonder what state their in, they could've starved to death by now or fallen victim to other speeding cars. Who knows.

There were some interesting facts published in the Ahmedabad Mirror today about dogs:

• There are 300,000 stray dogs in the city
• Only 61,000 dogs were sterilised in the last four years
• Over 200 dog bites are reported every single day in Ahmedabad
• In the last six years, 30 people have died of dog bites

And yet, the Ahmedebad Municipal Corporation has yet to come up with a feasible plan of action to combat the issue.

The stray dog problem is prevalent all over India. There is no law requiring these numbers to be reported to government authorities so it's difficult to get a proper estimate. But it's believed that at least 50% of the world's rabies cases occur in India.

Never an Indian, Always an NRI

I may head back to Canada sooner than expected. Not working is driving me nuts already. My interviews aren't going as well as expected. As soon as employers hear about me coming here on a tourist visa, they suddenly seem disinterested.

So I watched a bit of All the Best with some relatives over the week-end. It was an okay film. In it there's this insult that a villian throw's at Sanjay Dutt's character - he calls him an NRI, which he said not only stood for 'Non-Resident Indian' but also a 'Non-Reacting Indian.' One of my uncles' was very impressed by that line, he found it to be quite true and profound. Being an NRI myself here, I found it rather insulting. What's so non-reacting about us?

Being an NRI in India can be a very strange experience. We're seen as immigrants by most people outside of India, and then we're seen as the "other" yet again in our parents' native country.

I say "yeah, yeah" a lot, I never noticed this back home. But here, everyone seems to notice my "yeah, yeah's" (just as often as my American friends notice my "eh's"). They say it's very NRI-ish of me; so is my extensive use of chapstick and tissue paper. On the days that I'm not feeling too hungry, I'm told it's very NRI-ish of me to be dieting. I wonder what other observations Indians have compiled about my kind.
From what I'm experiencing, NRIs are perceived to have very little Indian culture. Some are surprised to learn that I actually have Hindi songs saved on my iTunes. When Akshay Kumar seranaded Kylie Minogue in the last flick I saw, an Uncle talked me through it step-by-step, explaining that the music being played was called "bhan-gr-a" and that it was a "Pun-ja-bi" form of music. If only he knew that Canadians are exposed to a large Punjabi population as well, and at the very least, have heard bhangra blasting out of passing cars from time to time.

There are times when I wish I knew other NRIs here. It'd help being scrutinised as an NRI become less intolerable and more laughable.

Anyhow, I don't have too many new photos to share, so I'm signing off with a few more from my Diwali holiday spent in some Gujarati villages.