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Published: September 20th 2010
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Unexpected Surprise
The cobra kept lunging at this woman. She just ducked out of the way. For once I was able to leave work while the sun was still shining. We’ve been working so late that the only thing to do once we get home is eat and drink and waste time until we can get back up and do it all over again. I had been counting the minutes until I could leave mainly because 1) I really wanted to see what Bangalore looked like in the daylight again 2) my roommate bought a case of Kingfisher and a hookah rig the night before and was in obvious need of some company, which me and JS provided in excess as usual and 3) no one should ever have to work on a Sunday anyway.
On the drive home from work, as I was clutching my head in my hands, taking deep breaths and squeezing my eyes shut to block out any sunlight and the view of constant near death from the front windshield, a woman knocked violently at my window making me jump in my seat. I looked at her, ready to tell her to go bobble off only to see that she was stick thin, covered in dirt from head to toe and thrusting
an equally dirty baby up to the window. The baby had a head bandage on but massive amounts of blood were still seeping through and dripping down the baby’s face. Our car lurched forward in traffic another 20 feet and this time when I looked out the window I saw what looked like a 90 year old woman stooped over and holding her tiny wrinkled hand up to beg for change from passerbys. Near her was a 3-legged dog that looked like its entire back end had been run over by a truck. I felt like the Ghost of Christmas Past had come and was taking us through what life could be like if we died here in this bizarro world and were reincarnated as Indians unlucky enough to be born into poverty stricken families. I’d been in a pretty pathetic mood all day and in true Indian fashion, Karma came to slap me in the face and show me what real problems looked like.
I’ve heard that Bangalore is baby food compared to Delhi and some of the bigger cities. The combination of nauseating driving conditions, too many drinks the night before, the sight of a bloody baby
(fake or not) and a crippled dog had me really considering which friend/ co-worker would forgive me the fastest for throwing up on them if I couldn’t roll the window down fast enough. Dead dogs are a common sight here. Men shitting and pissing on the side of the road are also common sights so I wouldn’t think a white girl vomiting out of a moving car should really cause that much of a stir, especially since just that morning I had witnessed a young boy puking out the side of a bus window and splashing it all over the hood of our car. Of course, this is the land of contradictions so you really never know until you try it.
The 9/15 deadline that I love so much is almost over so I can start to see a little more of India and compare it to the relatively easy life of Bangalore (it's hard to not feel guilty writing about how easy my life is compared to the lives of the people that I saw earlier today). I’ve had to take cold showers and get ready for work in the dark because the electricity was out, but it
hasn’t been any harder than camping so I can’t say I’m any worse for wear as of yet. So far that’s my opinion on who could handle India; those that could sleep outside in the Florida summer with the heat, bugs, and horrible hair days every day. I’m still excited to be in India but am getting island fever with so much to see and no time to go anywhere or do any of it. The closer it gets to go, the harder it gets to stay.
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Amar Prakash
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Photo re-use permission
I have a blog htpp://amarprakash.blogspot.com I am featuring 'cows in the streets of India' in next 4 posts. I stumbled into your blog and noticed the pisture of cow eating trash. I like to have your permission to use this picture in my blog (next post).