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Published: February 4th 2007
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Yesterday was a short day in the office due to the jet lag thing. I met all the key players at work (Sanjeev, Sandeep, Atul, and Abhijit), and we had a meeting with Ray since he would only be in the office that one day.
The hotel is right across from the office, which is convenient since I don’t have to hassle with getting transportation to/from the office. On the other hand, I have to cross the street. To cross the street here is put your life in jeopardy. It is CRAZY! The traffic is swarming. And by traffic, I mean cars, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, people walking, and the occasional cow.
You have to wait for a slight break in the flow; then you dash to the middle of the road and wait for a slight break in the flow again. The traffic starts and stops, and swerves, and honks, and basically scares the holy shit out of me. Did I mention the road is uneven? It’s no place to be in a pair of heels. Let me tell you, I won’t make that mistake again!!! It reminds me of that old arcade game, Frogger, where the little frog
tries to get across the road without getting smashed. I feel like the little frog.
I’ve only crossed the road twice, but I’ve decided to call it Suicide Blvd.
Oh and did I mention that to reach the road, you slip through a break in the bushes and step over some barbed wire, then immediately step down from the curb into the street. It is CRAZY, and at this point I’m convinced I’ll never get used to it.
This morning Michele took me with her to feed 'her puppies.' She has adopted a small pack of street dogs that live in the neighborhood behind the hotel: 1 male, 2 females, and 2 older puppies. A man that recognized Michele from before pointed her in the direction of a new litter of puppies. They were about a block down from where her small pack was.
The male dog followed us down there. Michele coaxed the litter of puppies out into the open and when one of the puppies approached the older male dog, it growled and snipped at the pup. Michele scolded the dog, but the next thing you know the male dog viciously bites the puppy
in the head/ back of the neck. The pup squealed, arched it’s back in the most awful way, it’s eyes rolled back in its head and it’s mouth started slowly opening and closing. I thought it had broken its neck.
It was horrifying to watch the puppy start to slowly die before our eyes. He finally went unconscious and his breathing slowed to a few deep breaths a minute. Michele picked the puppy up and moved it away from the other. That was when we noticed huge swelling on top of its skull. It must’ve been a head injury, not a broken neck. Michele asked the neighborhood man to bury the pup once it died.
I know the circle of life is much more apparent here in India, but this was the most awful way to be introduced to it. It made me sick and stuck me virtually speechless. Welcome to India.
After feeding the puppies, we walked several blocks to a shopping area know as The Galleria. It’s a two-story series of shops with external entry. There is everything from pharmacies, to phone shops, to office supply shops, to the local dentist. Notice in the picture
Barber Shop?
Man getting a shave that the dentist’s office is called, ‘My Dentist’, and the pharmacy is called ‘98.4 degrees.’ I guess average body temperature is 2 tenths of a degree cooler here in India than in the US. Perhaps the error is due to the fact that they use the metric system and the English degrees is a marketing ploy to make the pharmacy seem more Western.
We then took a bicycle rickshaw to the big malls. On the way, I saw cows, wild boar, packs of starving street dogs, donkeys, people living in shacks, homes under construction via manual labor, and unbelievable poverty. Oh and did I mention the litter and trash everywhere!! I did see more men taking a leak in public. Since they don’t have plumbing or outdoor toilets, I guess it’s just Mother Nature for a toilet.
It was all so shocking. I was so overwhelmed I barely even remember to take pictures.
One of the pictures I did take was of the local barber shop. This was just on the side of a back street. A man was sitting in a chair getting a shave. I snapped the photo, but you can see the barber shaking
his fist at me. I guess it’s considered rude to photograph someone getting a shave here.
There are two malls across the street from one another: The DT mall and The Metropolitan Mall. When we arrived at the malls, the rickshaw driver wouldn’t take our 20 rupees, which was the price Michele negotiated with him before we got in. Now he wanted more. Michele argued with him, but he wouldn’t take the money from her hand. He wanted 50 rupees. She wouldn’t give in. Finally a well dressed man intervened on our behalf and told the man in Hindi, ‘Enough. Take the money.’ The entire exchange drew a small crowd and I hated the experience.
It was then that I had my first encounter with the beggar children. There were probably 6 of them. They were absolutely filthy and half dressed. Their hair was just a rat’s nest. I think their parents leave them that way so they will get more money. They crowded around us and could say, ‘Please Ma’am,’ in English while they put their fingers to their mouths and then their bellies to indicate they were hungry.
Of course I’ve been forewarned not to
give them money. First of all you’ll be swarmed if you do, and second of all it perpetuates the problem of parents basically forcing their children to beg. It’s just heartbreaking but the only way to really help them is to give through official charity organizations like UNICEF et.al.
We walked through both malls and saw some Indian dress shops and some Western clothing shops like Levi’s and Nike. The strange thing is… to enter the malls, you must walk through a metal detector. The damn detector goes off for almost everyone that goes through but the guard stops no one. I personally don’t see the point.
This photo is of a toothpaste display in the mall. The children enter what looks like a boxing ring that contains an oversized tooth. Then they circle the big tooth removing what looked like bugs that were velcroed on to represent plaque. It amused me and made me think of my DOD.
When we left the mall, Michele asked an English speaking young man to help us negotiate a bicycle rickshaw ride back to the hotel. Most rickshaw drivers do not speak English. The man helped us but he didn’t know exactly where our hotel was located so he told the driver to take us back to The Galleria. Once we got to The Galleria, the driver wanted to stop, but Michele bullied him to keep going. She knows a few key Hindi words, like Chello, which means let’s go. She pointed the way for him all the way back to the hotel. Thank God she knew where she was going because I damn sure didn’t. When we got back to the hotel, we gave the driver 30 rupees, which was 10 more than the negotiated price - since he went further for us.
In fact, I found it extremely unsettling. I think I’ll be taking a hired driver to the mall and asking him to wait for me while I shop and then drive me home. Michele doesn’t like to do this because it’s cheaper to take a rickshaw. 20 Rupees vs. 300 - 500 Rupees. I say rupees be damned I a sure way home.
Now for a shocking currency reality check… approximately 43 rupees = 1 dollar. So our ride back cost about 75 cents.
I went to bed exhausted, and utterly overwhelmed. Between the puppy dying before my eyes, the poverty, the filth, and the pollution, I was ready to retreat to the safety of my hotel room and sleep. Frankly it was all too much for a first day… especially for this spoiled Westerner.
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Liz
non-member comment
Yikes!
Ok, the puppy story was absolutely terrible. You will be a changed person when you come back. I don't think you should cross the street any more! Ask some rickshaw person (the same one) to take you everyday. Have the hotel negoiate the rate. It does not seem safe and worth the risk.