Day 45 (21 July): Travel in India
Today was mostly a travel day, as I ventured from Kerala, the Southwestern-most state (that goes down to the tip of India) to one of the Eastern-most states, West Bengal which borders Bangledesh to the East. This meant getting on an early morning flight from Cochin to Mumbai and waiting in the airport in Mumbai for four-and-a-half hours to get on a flight to Calcutta. The total flying time was nearly four hours, since India is a very large country.
When I arrived in Calcutta, I was greeted by my friend Arnab's father. We then got in a car and headed South to their apartment in Tollygunge which is the neighborhood in the southern part of the city. He described their apartment as being in a typical middle class neighborhood which seemed quite nice to me compared to what I've seen elsewhere in India. I then had dinner with Arnab's parents that they had made--my first home-cooked meal in India. (It turns out they tonned down the spices though since they were unsure I could handle them; tomorrow they are going to cook it as they would normally though.
Observations:
1) In the airport there was a vending machine for magazines. I think that's a cool concept and there should be more of them. I'm unsure how economically this makes sense though given how cheap it is to employ people in Inida.
2) Math games in newspapers. I read a lot of different newspapers today since there must be at least 20 English-language papers in India. In a couple of them I noticed a math games section. I also noticed a math game that came with my food on one of my flights. Here's another sign that education matters and might even be cool in India.
3) Lack of connecting flights. In India, apparently the idea of connecting flights in fairly unheard of. None of the airlines operate direct connecting flgihts and the concept seems to confuse people. When I arrived in Mumbai I had to pick up my bag from baggage claim and re-check it in, as well as going through all the other airport procedures.
4) Foreigners versus Indians. At the airport, walking to the car, a little boy followed me to the car asking for money over-and-over again. This disturbed Arnab's father. It seemed pretty normal for me considering, the whole time I've been in India this has happened. He said, I think correctly that it would not have happened if I looked Inidan.
5) A similar story but about foreign-Indians relayed by Arnab's mother concerned their son-in-law who moved to the US before he was a teenager. Before the wedding with their daughter they went to a Hindu temple for some blessings. After the ritual was done, the Hindu priest apparently could sense that their son-in-law wasn't a true Indian and asked him for dollars which they found embarassing.
6) Renaming things. Calcutta is now officially Kolkatta to rename the city in a more traditional Inida name rather than the British one. A number of the streets in the city have also been renamed to have more Indian names as have other cities (e.g. Bombay and Mumbai.) I had a discussion with Arnab's father about this; he basically thought doing so was silly because 1) you cannot change history, and 2) it confuses people especially since over a decade since many of the renamings both names have to be used in tandem to communciate a location.
When I arrived in Calcutta, I was greeted by my friend Arnab's father. We then got in a car and headed South to their apartment in Tollygunge which is the neighborhood in the southern part of the city. He described their apartment as being in a typical middle class neighborhood which seemed quite nice to me compared to what I've seen elsewhere in India. I then had dinner with Arnab's parents that they had made--my first home-cooked meal in India. (It turns out they tonned down the spices though since they were unsure I could handle them; tomorrow they are going to cook it as they would normally though.
Observations:
1) In the airport there was a vending machine for magazines. I think that's a cool concept and there should be more of them. I'm unsure how economically this makes sense though given how cheap it is to employ people in Inida.
2) Math games in newspapers. I read a lot of different newspapers today since there must be at least 20 English-language papers in India. In a couple of them I noticed a math games section. I also noticed a math game that came with my food on one of my flights. Here's another sign that education matters and might even be cool in India.
3) Lack of connecting flights. In India, apparently the idea of connecting flights in fairly unheard of. None of the airlines operate direct connecting flgihts and the concept seems to confuse people. When I arrived in Mumbai I had to pick up my bag from baggage claim and re-check it in, as well as going through all the other airport procedures.
4) Foreigners versus Indians. At the airport, walking to the car, a little boy followed me to the car asking for money over-and-over again. This disturbed Arnab's father. It seemed pretty normal for me considering, the whole time I've been in India this has happened. He said, I think correctly that it would not have happened if I looked Inidan.
5) A similar story but about foreign-Indians relayed by Arnab's mother concerned their son-in-law who moved to the US before he was a teenager. Before the wedding with their daughter they went to a Hindu temple for some blessings. After the ritual was done, the Hindu priest apparently could sense that their son-in-law wasn't a true Indian and asked him for dollars which they found embarassing.
6) Renaming things. Calcutta is now officially Kolkatta to rename the city in a more traditional Inida name rather than the British one. A number of the streets in the city have also been renamed to have more Indian names as have other cities (e.g. Bombay and Mumbai.) I had a discussion with Arnab's father about this; he basically thought doing so was silly because 1) you cannot change history, and 2) it confuses people especially since over a decade since many of the renamings both names have to be used in tandem to communciate a location.
posted by Traveling Brian at 9:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home