Hi
I decided to still add two things that happened in the last days in India. Otherwise I would just forget these wonderful events. I believe these two events describe my time in India quite...interestingly. The culmination of everyday life.
The first event happened when I was having my last yoga lesson in Jaipur. I had bought some chocolate for the instructor, for thanking him for all the free lessons. At the end of the lesson I went to him, thanked and gave the chocolate. About the following conversation followed:
me: thank you for the lessons.
him: chocolate? what is this?
me: it's my thanks to you.
him: oh, what is this occasion?
me: thank you for the yoga. This is my last time here. Tomorrow I will go to Delhi and fly home.
after a little thinking break, him: oooh. Happy anniversary!
me: emm..uh..right. Thank you!
The second event happened in Delhi. I had quite some hours for myself to wander around the city. As mentioned in earlier bloggings, the place wasn't the nicest. But still I was just madly smiling all the time, nothing could've ruined my joy, I was about to go home!
Still smiling madly I stopped somewhere to just look at everything. A local guy comes and ask why I am so happy. I reply that it's because I can finally get away from this shithole. His expression changes and the conversation doesn't continue any further...
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Getting out of India. Last post.
Hi. For the last time. This is the last post.
I have safely arrived home. And a bit less safely spent 1 day in Tallinn and 3 days at a summer cottage with 4 friends. And in 3 days I'll leave to Latvia for a week, but maybe after THAT I can finally settle down here.
So. After leaving Jaipur I went to Delhi. In a few months in October they will have Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Commonwealth Games is like the Olympics for the British ex-colonies. So an interesting concept. All Indians hope it will be a huge event but some fear nobody cares about it. But for that, the whole Delhi is under construction. I have been told earlier that it's a crappy town but now that all the streets are torn open it seems to be even a bit crappier. So not the best place maybe, especially during monsoon.
There was a construction yard nearby. Traditionally the workers live next to the construction yard in this kind of fancy lodgings.
A guy at the campus was taking his monkey for a walk. Wait... what?
In Delhi I stayed at one Couchsurfing guy's place in a student dormitory by a college. It was an interesting place - a dormitory room in India. Not maybe the cleanest or the nicest but it works. The whole Monday was spent on traveling and on Tuesday we tried to go sightseeing a bit. But as it was raining it was a little pointless. So just wandered about and saw some places. But I honestly didn't really care much about anything, I was just smiling like lunatic the whole day as I knew I would get out of India the following day :)
Had to take a picture of these ridiculous police cars in Delhi. I couldn't help laughing about the idea of Indian police acting swiftly for at least the "complaints of citizens".
Somebody had decided to make a street broader. That's really easy in India - just cut one-meter piece off from each building.
So, I did get out of India. The plane was an hour late but no big deal. I came home. Sweet!
India is really an..interesting place. The whole thing has been an interesting experience. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but now I know what India is like and at least it looks quite good in CV. I wouldn't really recommend India for others as a choice for a great place to live in, but it's ok to visit it and maybe travel around there. And, sure, I met people who had fallen in love with the country, but no, not me... So, I liked the experience but not the place.
Well, it's time to end this. Thanks to all the readers for..umm.. reading. And for leaving some comments. Hope this blog has brought some fun for you and maybe you know a bit of India now. And if you're planning to go there some day, feel free to consult me :) I can be contacted via email lauri.peltonen {a.t} alumni.helsinki.fi (replace {a.t} with @).
I have safely arrived home. And a bit less safely spent 1 day in Tallinn and 3 days at a summer cottage with 4 friends. And in 3 days I'll leave to Latvia for a week, but maybe after THAT I can finally settle down here.
So. After leaving Jaipur I went to Delhi. In a few months in October they will have Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Commonwealth Games is like the Olympics for the British ex-colonies. So an interesting concept. All Indians hope it will be a huge event but some fear nobody cares about it. But for that, the whole Delhi is under construction. I have been told earlier that it's a crappy town but now that all the streets are torn open it seems to be even a bit crappier. So not the best place maybe, especially during monsoon.
There was a construction yard nearby. Traditionally the workers live next to the construction yard in this kind of fancy lodgings.
A guy at the campus was taking his monkey for a walk. Wait... what?In Delhi I stayed at one Couchsurfing guy's place in a student dormitory by a college. It was an interesting place - a dormitory room in India. Not maybe the cleanest or the nicest but it works. The whole Monday was spent on traveling and on Tuesday we tried to go sightseeing a bit. But as it was raining it was a little pointless. So just wandered about and saw some places. But I honestly didn't really care much about anything, I was just smiling like lunatic the whole day as I knew I would get out of India the following day :)
Had to take a picture of these ridiculous police cars in Delhi. I couldn't help laughing about the idea of Indian police acting swiftly for at least the "complaints of citizens".
Somebody had decided to make a street broader. That's really easy in India - just cut one-meter piece off from each building.So, I did get out of India. The plane was an hour late but no big deal. I came home. Sweet!
India is really an..interesting place. The whole thing has been an interesting experience. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but now I know what India is like and at least it looks quite good in CV. I wouldn't really recommend India for others as a choice for a great place to live in, but it's ok to visit it and maybe travel around there. And, sure, I met people who had fallen in love with the country, but no, not me... So, I liked the experience but not the place.
Well, it's time to end this. Thanks to all the readers for..umm.. reading. And for leaving some comments. Hope this blog has brought some fun for you and maybe you know a bit of India now. And if you're planning to go there some day, feel free to consult me :) I can be contacted via email lauri.peltonen {a.t} alumni.helsinki.fi (replace {a.t} with @).
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Scientific analysis on India
Disclaimer: The following post may be irritating for eyes and/or brain. The author takes no responsibility for injuries caused by the blog. Some parts of the post may contain exaggerations or faulty facts. The author also acknowledges that the blog is typically anyway full of bullshit but also that this time the bull may have overdone it.
The journey has come to an end, finally. Yesterday had some goodbye beers with colleagues from work. This day has been spent on curing a sudden and totally unexpected headache but also by doing some packing. Feels good to get out of here.
Farewell
Tomorrow I will go to yoga at 6 as I still need to bribe the teacher with some chocolate. Tried that this Friday but nobody showed up, probably because it was raining heavily. Gosh. After yoga I'll have breakfast at 9, then around 10 I'll go to the bus stop and have a goodbye beer with Pyry in a nearby bar if it's open and then I'll catch a bus to Delhi.
As I am soon a master of science, I know how proper research should be done. I have therefore taken it as my duty to perform a long-lasting objective research on the Indian culture and country. This has actually been my main reason for being here - objective and comparative research in the name of science.
For the research I have - over time - gathered a list of elements from this country and culture and categorized them. The following list has gone through several iterations and various peer reviews before published here. The elements are categorized in two categories: what is good in this country/culture and what is not good in this country/culture.
Let's start with the not-good-in-this-country/culture list. In an philanthropologic order:
- Infrastructure. Roads are extremily crappy, during monsoon they are full of water as there are very few sewers, trains are horrible and most of the buildings are horrible.
- Dirt. Everything is filthy and flies are everywhere. They banned the selling of plastic bags in this state a month ago which is a nice idea but I don't see how it helps for cleaning the nature and all places of all the garbage.
- Cleaning. Washing dishes is usually done with no washing liquids. Getting your laundry done is always a win-lose situation: in general clothes get cleaner but there appear multiple dirt spots everywhere in clothes. Also 99% of the cleaning of floors is done with tiny brooms; nobody seems to have realized that if you attach an extension stick to the broom you wouldn't need to be on your knees when you are cleaning.
- Locks. Yes, even locks. I haven't seen a single door in whole India which would have a built-in lock. All doors are locked with a padlock and the padlocks are absolutely horrible. I'll attach a picture with explanation.
A typical lock. The golden thing rotates freely so you need to align it with the straight hole in order to get your key in. This feat requires both hands. And of course to lock it you need to turn the key and hold the lock closed at the same time. Why can't they use locks which you just need to press to lock it? God damn. And I have to do this opening&closing many times a day as the family requires me to lock my door even for breakfast.
- Meat and beer culture. Nonexistent.
- Unpredictability. I am the only one who doesn't know when yoga is cancelled due to an imaginary reason. Also it's a habit here that you don't make appointments - you just walk in to an office and everyone expects everyone to always have time for them.
- Cold shower. I haven't had warm shower for a month now. The water comes from the rooftop from a black can which gets warm by the sunlight. And now that it's monsoon the water is quite cold. There's a boiler in my bathroom and I asked local dad if he could turn it on: "no, it does not work during summer." -"well could you make it work? I have no warm water." "no, it's not working during summer. Want me to bring you some hot water in a pan?". No thanks.
- Food and it being unhygienic. At constant intervals I have brown showers from my ass for a few days. And I haven't even dared to try some of the more exotic food options, like buying from the streets. Tani tried and it was not a pleasant experience.
- Shouting. Everyone always shouts everything. Yes, it bothers even me.
- Manly joy. Guys holding each others' arms and hugging each other. It's not ok to touch a girl in public but guys can do whatever they want...
The list could still go on. This is a summary of the findings of the research. And below are listed all the positive results of the research:
- Mangos.
The journey has come to an end, finally. Yesterday had some goodbye beers with colleagues from work. This day has been spent on curing a sudden and totally unexpected headache but also by doing some packing. Feels good to get out of here.
FarewellTomorrow I will go to yoga at 6 as I still need to bribe the teacher with some chocolate. Tried that this Friday but nobody showed up, probably because it was raining heavily. Gosh. After yoga I'll have breakfast at 9, then around 10 I'll go to the bus stop and have a goodbye beer with Pyry in a nearby bar if it's open and then I'll catch a bus to Delhi.
As I am soon a master of science, I know how proper research should be done. I have therefore taken it as my duty to perform a long-lasting objective research on the Indian culture and country. This has actually been my main reason for being here - objective and comparative research in the name of science.
For the research I have - over time - gathered a list of elements from this country and culture and categorized them. The following list has gone through several iterations and various peer reviews before published here. The elements are categorized in two categories: what is good in this country/culture and what is not good in this country/culture.
Let's start with the not-good-in-this-country/culture list. In an philanthropologic order:
- Infrastructure. Roads are extremily crappy, during monsoon they are full of water as there are very few sewers, trains are horrible and most of the buildings are horrible.
- Dirt. Everything is filthy and flies are everywhere. They banned the selling of plastic bags in this state a month ago which is a nice idea but I don't see how it helps for cleaning the nature and all places of all the garbage.
- Cleaning. Washing dishes is usually done with no washing liquids. Getting your laundry done is always a win-lose situation: in general clothes get cleaner but there appear multiple dirt spots everywhere in clothes. Also 99% of the cleaning of floors is done with tiny brooms; nobody seems to have realized that if you attach an extension stick to the broom you wouldn't need to be on your knees when you are cleaning.
- Locks. Yes, even locks. I haven't seen a single door in whole India which would have a built-in lock. All doors are locked with a padlock and the padlocks are absolutely horrible. I'll attach a picture with explanation.
A typical lock. The golden thing rotates freely so you need to align it with the straight hole in order to get your key in. This feat requires both hands. And of course to lock it you need to turn the key and hold the lock closed at the same time. Why can't they use locks which you just need to press to lock it? God damn. And I have to do this opening&closing many times a day as the family requires me to lock my door even for breakfast. - Meat and beer culture. Nonexistent.
- Unpredictability. I am the only one who doesn't know when yoga is cancelled due to an imaginary reason. Also it's a habit here that you don't make appointments - you just walk in to an office and everyone expects everyone to always have time for them.
- Cold shower. I haven't had warm shower for a month now. The water comes from the rooftop from a black can which gets warm by the sunlight. And now that it's monsoon the water is quite cold. There's a boiler in my bathroom and I asked local dad if he could turn it on: "no, it does not work during summer." -"well could you make it work? I have no warm water." "no, it's not working during summer. Want me to bring you some hot water in a pan?". No thanks.
- Food and it being unhygienic. At constant intervals I have brown showers from my ass for a few days. And I haven't even dared to try some of the more exotic food options, like buying from the streets. Tani tried and it was not a pleasant experience.
- Shouting. Everyone always shouts everything. Yes, it bothers even me.
- Manly joy. Guys holding each others' arms and hugging each other. It's not ok to touch a girl in public but guys can do whatever they want...
The list could still go on. This is a summary of the findings of the research. And below are listed all the positive results of the research:
- Mangos.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Oh those emotions
Today is a special day. This week's Monday was also a special day but this one is more special. It's the last Wednesday in India. And this week's Monday was the last Monday in Jaipur. So on next week's Monday morning I'll be leaving to New Delhi. I arranged a couchsurfing hosting there who can also show me around.
As the departure gets nearer and nearer strange feelings surround me. This is the thing I have been waiting for. But lately I have also received another feeling: a little bit of sadness. Yes, it's true!
It hasn't been too much fun here. Haven't had many friends and there isn't much to do (for my cultural background at least). But still. This has become home, in a sense. Whenever I go traveling outside Jaipur it's always good to return 'home'. Here I at least have some idea of how things work. If in Finland I know 95% how things work, in Jaipur the percentage is maybe 50 and outside Jaipur in India it's maybe 35.
So leaving here means leaving one home. I've had a home abroad earlier but somehow that one was earlier to leave behind. Ok, that one had...issues (like the strangest roommate) but it was in a civilized country, Slovenia. So maybe here where the country is totally obscure a familiar 'home' - a place where you know how things work - is more important.
Ohwell. Still a week left. My plans for the rest of this week are simple - getting rid of my money. I need some in Delhi but not much maybe. So I need to do some shopping. Yesterday I already bought a black suit for myself. (It's not actually entirely black, there are small minorly-shiny stripes.) I had it tailored for me, took 2 weeks and costed 7200 rupees. Not a bad price I think. What other things I need? Could buy pants, sandals and some shirts. As everything is cheaper here anyway and the quality is quite good if you buy from a proper shop.
But let's see what my last week brings. Maybe I'll start crying when I leave. (Hah, as if.) I'll keep you posted.
As the departure gets nearer and nearer strange feelings surround me. This is the thing I have been waiting for. But lately I have also received another feeling: a little bit of sadness. Yes, it's true!
It hasn't been too much fun here. Haven't had many friends and there isn't much to do (for my cultural background at least). But still. This has become home, in a sense. Whenever I go traveling outside Jaipur it's always good to return 'home'. Here I at least have some idea of how things work. If in Finland I know 95% how things work, in Jaipur the percentage is maybe 50 and outside Jaipur in India it's maybe 35.
So leaving here means leaving one home. I've had a home abroad earlier but somehow that one was earlier to leave behind. Ok, that one had...issues (like the strangest roommate) but it was in a civilized country, Slovenia. So maybe here where the country is totally obscure a familiar 'home' - a place where you know how things work - is more important.
Ohwell. Still a week left. My plans for the rest of this week are simple - getting rid of my money. I need some in Delhi but not much maybe. So I need to do some shopping. Yesterday I already bought a black suit for myself. (It's not actually entirely black, there are small minorly-shiny stripes.) I had it tailored for me, took 2 weeks and costed 7200 rupees. Not a bad price I think. What other things I need? Could buy pants, sandals and some shirts. As everything is cheaper here anyway and the quality is quite good if you buy from a proper shop.
But let's see what my last week brings. Maybe I'll start crying when I leave. (Hah, as if.) I'll keep you posted.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Sightseeing! In Jaipur! Hurray!
Dear diary. Today I did some of the necessary evil. I went sightseeing.
I've been in this shaggy village for two months and I basically haven't visited any sights. Basically that's because I really don't care. It's like...going to see a new pile of garbage while living in dump pit. It's new and fascinating but it's still only shit.
Ok, don't get me wrong, the sights here can be nice and worth a visit. It's just that the surroundings don't really encourage you to want to see the sights. For example Taj Mahal was great. And this observatory I just visited here was nice. But to get there you need to swim through lakes of shit.
Indians have parked their vehicles. On the way to the Places.
I walked for about 90 minutes to get to the area I wanted. It's only a few kilometers away. I tried getting a tuktuk but they wanted 50 rupees instead of my offered 40 rupees so I didn't take one. 50 rupees is almost one euro, come on! So, I decided to just walk. And as I had no idea where exactly the places were (City Palace and the observatory, they are right next to each other) I got lost quite nicely. Almost took a rickshaw at one point but the conversation wasn't too encouraging:
- namaste. Will you take me to city palace?
- *shaking head in Indian style which can mean anything*
- no? fucking great.
After asking for directions a few times I finally found some place. I had no idea what it was but it was advertising itself as "now world heritage site 2010!". When I was in Mumbai with Tani we had bought tickets to the elephant island which is also a world heritage site. But nobody ever stamped the tickets or anything and the ticket says that it's valid on all of India's world heritage sites besides Taj Mahal. So I used that one. It clearly also says that it's for one-time use only. The guys at the gate had never seen such a ticket and when they saw the text "Not valid for Taj Mahal" they of course assumed that it was a ticket to Taj Mahal and didn't let me in. After I spelled out for them the meaning of the text they finally let me in. And didn't stamp the ticket.
A....thing. Round and big. For doing stuff.
Guess what this is. Yes, you guessed right! It's a sun clock! Measures time with an accuracy of 2 seconds, they claim.
Outer entrance to the City Palace. No need to go in.
After entering I asked some tourists what the place is. "This some planet stars here." Observatory! I had found it! But it just didn't look anything like the observatories I have earlier seen. It was a big open space with lots of different sun clocks and devices for measuring things. Huge devices. Nice place. Spent maybe fifteen minutes there and then tried to go to the City Palace. Well, it was closed at 5pm and I was 5 minutes late. Tough luck. But I was almost relieved - didn't have to go through another wonderful sight and I had the perfect excuse to just go home.
Now I believe I have done my duty. Seen some local sights. No need to see more. I hope.
I've been in this shaggy village for two months and I basically haven't visited any sights. Basically that's because I really don't care. It's like...going to see a new pile of garbage while living in dump pit. It's new and fascinating but it's still only shit.
Ok, don't get me wrong, the sights here can be nice and worth a visit. It's just that the surroundings don't really encourage you to want to see the sights. For example Taj Mahal was great. And this observatory I just visited here was nice. But to get there you need to swim through lakes of shit.
Indians have parked their vehicles. On the way to the Places.I walked for about 90 minutes to get to the area I wanted. It's only a few kilometers away. I tried getting a tuktuk but they wanted 50 rupees instead of my offered 40 rupees so I didn't take one. 50 rupees is almost one euro, come on! So, I decided to just walk. And as I had no idea where exactly the places were (City Palace and the observatory, they are right next to each other) I got lost quite nicely. Almost took a rickshaw at one point but the conversation wasn't too encouraging:
- namaste. Will you take me to city palace?
- *shaking head in Indian style which can mean anything*
- no? fucking great.
After asking for directions a few times I finally found some place. I had no idea what it was but it was advertising itself as "now world heritage site 2010!". When I was in Mumbai with Tani we had bought tickets to the elephant island which is also a world heritage site. But nobody ever stamped the tickets or anything and the ticket says that it's valid on all of India's world heritage sites besides Taj Mahal. So I used that one. It clearly also says that it's for one-time use only. The guys at the gate had never seen such a ticket and when they saw the text "Not valid for Taj Mahal" they of course assumed that it was a ticket to Taj Mahal and didn't let me in. After I spelled out for them the meaning of the text they finally let me in. And didn't stamp the ticket.
A....thing. Round and big. For doing stuff.
Guess what this is. Yes, you guessed right! It's a sun clock! Measures time with an accuracy of 2 seconds, they claim.
Outer entrance to the City Palace. No need to go in.After entering I asked some tourists what the place is. "This some planet stars here." Observatory! I had found it! But it just didn't look anything like the observatories I have earlier seen. It was a big open space with lots of different sun clocks and devices for measuring things. Huge devices. Nice place. Spent maybe fifteen minutes there and then tried to go to the City Palace. Well, it was closed at 5pm and I was 5 minutes late. Tough luck. But I was almost relieved - didn't have to go through another wonderful sight and I had the perfect excuse to just go home.
Now I believe I have done my duty. Seen some local sights. No need to see more. I hope.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Lalsot and more manly joy
It turned out we visited Lalsot. I wasn't sure where we are going. Or even better - I'm still not sure why we went there.
Lalsot is a place where Idex has delegated some volunteers. But the place is quite different - it's almost in desert and it's five degrees warmer there all the time. (What happens there when it's +48 in Jaipur? Not sure I wanna know.) The volunteers there are mostly high school kids from England. But doing a bit different stuff than the volunteer slum teachers here.
It's like a school trip for them. Except they go to India. They were first two weeks trekking around Rajasthan and now they are spending one week painting (yes, painting) some places in Lalsot. So half of the group was painting some shaggy building that was going to be some safe house for deserted children or something similar. The other is going to be a school. So, they trek for two weeks, paint for one week and after this they do something for one week (don't remember what). Then they go back home.
Our bus broke down. This is phase 1. In phase 2 they started welding something under the bus. While the passengers were waiting in the bus. That took a while..
Volunteers painting a classroom and us overseeing (watching).
We were drawing a lot of attention, as usual. The kids really don't seem to have anything better to do in India than to look at tourists during the day.
Clay huts. Not for the richest ones.
The only problem is that they pay loads of money for this of course. Volunteering means "you pay everything yourself". So I prefer being an intern when it's "we pay everything for you and even a tiny amount of salary". But in some countries doing some voluntary work looks very good in CV. I guess it's not such a big thing in Finland.
Anyway it was nice to see what the Idex volunteers do in other places. But there was very little for us to do - we were guided around and people told us different things. The whole thing was organized by a new British worker at the Jaipur office - she's going to be working there for a year somehow promoting the volunteer work. So she was very interested in seeing all that stuff and learning how things work. I think me, Tani and Pyry were not that interested. But it was something different than Jaipur, so all's well.
If you were a bit dumber you might think this is from any regular country. It looks almost normal! But, it's monsoon season. Before monsoon it has definately been quite different.
Lalsot. Upstairs was some Muslim prayer going on.
As an addition to my older post about manly joy, we saw now more of this manly joy. It's everywhere. But in the countryside it's even stronger. I'll attach a picture. We asked this new worker Caroline what it's all about as she's been in India for a few years already. The explanation she gave was a little scary.
Men in India cannot have anything with girls before they are married. And every person has some need for being close to somebody every now and then. So what are the options? Guess. So if you think about it for a while... Because you cannot touch a girl, you are 'forced' to touch men. I don't want to know how far it goes really. It still freaks me out to see men running across a street holding hands.
Manly joy. They seemed happy!
I'm glad it's ok in Europe to touch women. But it's of course just all about culture. Here it's nothing special to be close to men. And they don't care really if you're a Westerner or not - when we were at the local wedding with Pyry many local guys dragged us dancing with them. Closely. Or, well, tried to drag. Oh, these CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. That's what I always tell people who ask what I think of India. "It's very interesting as everything is so different." In other words, I am not used to the culture and I don't want to be.
P.S. Oh, remember the DND service I ordered to my cellphone? The one that should block the stupid advertisements and quiz questions? Well, surprisingly it still hasn't got activated. So today I noticed that I have way too much credits left in my prepaid. So I decided to try some of those stupid services that come to my cellphone all the time. The first one offered knowledge on "Are you in love?". I ordered the service, it costed 3 rupees and a minute later got the answer "This information is not available now.". Uh. So I tried the next one. "How to get as sexy as Bibasha Basu (a famous actor)?". One minute more and same answer. Third time was the same. So what the hell. They offer this incredibly stupid service which drains my cell phone battery and is next to impossible to stop and the service doesn't even WORK? Sure, they got my 9 rupees. Nice business model. India.
Lalsot is a place where Idex has delegated some volunteers. But the place is quite different - it's almost in desert and it's five degrees warmer there all the time. (What happens there when it's +48 in Jaipur? Not sure I wanna know.) The volunteers there are mostly high school kids from England. But doing a bit different stuff than the volunteer slum teachers here.
It's like a school trip for them. Except they go to India. They were first two weeks trekking around Rajasthan and now they are spending one week painting (yes, painting) some places in Lalsot. So half of the group was painting some shaggy building that was going to be some safe house for deserted children or something similar. The other is going to be a school. So, they trek for two weeks, paint for one week and after this they do something for one week (don't remember what). Then they go back home.
Our bus broke down. This is phase 1. In phase 2 they started welding something under the bus. While the passengers were waiting in the bus. That took a while..
Volunteers painting a classroom and us overseeing (watching).
We were drawing a lot of attention, as usual. The kids really don't seem to have anything better to do in India than to look at tourists during the day.
Clay huts. Not for the richest ones.The only problem is that they pay loads of money for this of course. Volunteering means "you pay everything yourself". So I prefer being an intern when it's "we pay everything for you and even a tiny amount of salary". But in some countries doing some voluntary work looks very good in CV. I guess it's not such a big thing in Finland.
Anyway it was nice to see what the Idex volunteers do in other places. But there was very little for us to do - we were guided around and people told us different things. The whole thing was organized by a new British worker at the Jaipur office - she's going to be working there for a year somehow promoting the volunteer work. So she was very interested in seeing all that stuff and learning how things work. I think me, Tani and Pyry were not that interested. But it was something different than Jaipur, so all's well.
If you were a bit dumber you might think this is from any regular country. It looks almost normal! But, it's monsoon season. Before monsoon it has definately been quite different.
Lalsot. Upstairs was some Muslim prayer going on.As an addition to my older post about manly joy, we saw now more of this manly joy. It's everywhere. But in the countryside it's even stronger. I'll attach a picture. We asked this new worker Caroline what it's all about as she's been in India for a few years already. The explanation she gave was a little scary.
Men in India cannot have anything with girls before they are married. And every person has some need for being close to somebody every now and then. So what are the options? Guess. So if you think about it for a while... Because you cannot touch a girl, you are 'forced' to touch men. I don't want to know how far it goes really. It still freaks me out to see men running across a street holding hands.
Manly joy. They seemed happy!I'm glad it's ok in Europe to touch women. But it's of course just all about culture. Here it's nothing special to be close to men. And they don't care really if you're a Westerner or not - when we were at the local wedding with Pyry many local guys dragged us dancing with them. Closely. Or, well, tried to drag. Oh, these CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. That's what I always tell people who ask what I think of India. "It's very interesting as everything is so different." In other words, I am not used to the culture and I don't want to be.
P.S. Oh, remember the DND service I ordered to my cellphone? The one that should block the stupid advertisements and quiz questions? Well, surprisingly it still hasn't got activated. So today I noticed that I have way too much credits left in my prepaid. So I decided to try some of those stupid services that come to my cellphone all the time. The first one offered knowledge on "Are you in love?". I ordered the service, it costed 3 rupees and a minute later got the answer "This information is not available now.". Uh. So I tried the next one. "How to get as sexy as Bibasha Basu (a famous actor)?". One minute more and same answer. Third time was the same. So what the hell. They offer this incredibly stupid service which drains my cell phone battery and is next to impossible to stop and the service doesn't even WORK? Sure, they got my 9 rupees. Nice business model. India.
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Hut
Now I have seen everything I really needed to see here. The Taj Mahal. I haven't really had too many plans of seeing stuff, but Taj Mahal was a place everyone simply has to see if in India. Especially if you're up north as it was only 5-6 hours bus drive from Jaipur.
Well, it was nice. And better than in pictures, of course. Quite impressive! But when you go inside it there's very little to see - just a tomb. So you better stay outside and take pictures. Getting to the area costs 750 rupees which is a lot of money around here. Of course if you're local you pay just 20 rupees which seems to be the logic here. I guess it's ok though - tourists can afford lots more anyway. And if the price was 750 rupees for a local person aswell I doubt there would be more than 10 of those per day. Now there were plenty.
Approaching the palace.
Me and the Hut. The obligatory picture.
Nice one...
The city Agra around Taj Mahal is nothing special really. Basically it's a tourist trap built around the palace. We were warned of the many touts and people trying to cheat you but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Or maybe I'm getting used to just ignoring the touts.
We left to Agra on Saturday around 2pm. Took 5 hours, then we had some beers and went to bed. And got up early. Taj Mahal opens at 6am and everyone says it's best when the sun rises. So we tried to get up for that but eventually we managed to get there maybe around 8am. One of the reasons was that the ticket counter is 1km off from the actual palace. Which is really logical. After the visit we wandered around and left for Jaipur at half past four. With some crappy bus with no AC and it took 6 hours this time. Ohwell.
We had a habit of shooting stray cows. Or, well, the gun didn't really work but we might have! For some beef. Mom, please prepare some beef steak for me when I get home. Ok..?
A lot of similar people were walking somewhere. Something was happening somewhere. This happens a lot around India - there's always something somewhere but impossible to know what and where and why.
They sell everything in India.
Overall, I am now ready. I have seen Taj Mahal. I have seen Mumbai. I have seen some places nearby and will see one more on Wednesday (place called Lalsot). Oh, and Jaipur. Although I think I haven't seen any of the sights here yet. Maybe I should dedicate some day to go through those.. Not too interested though. Two weeks time.
The Taj Mahal night guards didn't appreciate our nightly shortcuts. Ohwell.
P.S. Today I got a package from my parents. A book about the Finnish nature, in English. They wanted to send a present to my host family for taking care of me. The book is actually really nice but reading it made me miss Finland again more... Gosh.
Well, it was nice. And better than in pictures, of course. Quite impressive! But when you go inside it there's very little to see - just a tomb. So you better stay outside and take pictures. Getting to the area costs 750 rupees which is a lot of money around here. Of course if you're local you pay just 20 rupees which seems to be the logic here. I guess it's ok though - tourists can afford lots more anyway. And if the price was 750 rupees for a local person aswell I doubt there would be more than 10 of those per day. Now there were plenty.
Approaching the palace.
Me and the Hut. The obligatory picture.
Nice one...The city Agra around Taj Mahal is nothing special really. Basically it's a tourist trap built around the palace. We were warned of the many touts and people trying to cheat you but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Or maybe I'm getting used to just ignoring the touts.
We left to Agra on Saturday around 2pm. Took 5 hours, then we had some beers and went to bed. And got up early. Taj Mahal opens at 6am and everyone says it's best when the sun rises. So we tried to get up for that but eventually we managed to get there maybe around 8am. One of the reasons was that the ticket counter is 1km off from the actual palace. Which is really logical. After the visit we wandered around and left for Jaipur at half past four. With some crappy bus with no AC and it took 6 hours this time. Ohwell.
We had a habit of shooting stray cows. Or, well, the gun didn't really work but we might have! For some beef. Mom, please prepare some beef steak for me when I get home. Ok..?
A lot of similar people were walking somewhere. Something was happening somewhere. This happens a lot around India - there's always something somewhere but impossible to know what and where and why.
They sell everything in India.Overall, I am now ready. I have seen Taj Mahal. I have seen Mumbai. I have seen some places nearby and will see one more on Wednesday (place called Lalsot). Oh, and Jaipur. Although I think I haven't seen any of the sights here yet. Maybe I should dedicate some day to go through those.. Not too interested though. Two weeks time.
The Taj Mahal night guards didn't appreciate our nightly shortcuts. Ohwell.P.S. Today I got a package from my parents. A book about the Finnish nature, in English. They wanted to send a present to my host family for taking care of me. The book is actually really nice but reading it made me miss Finland again more... Gosh.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Pictures that should've been here
Hi
I have been taking some pictures here and there but they haven't fit my posts, I have been too lazy or something equally silly. So the pictures never made it here. So here are some of the pictures that I didn't put here.
A park in Mumbai had bought two pieces of the latest Cut-O-Matic-2000 series.
It was a little wet in Mumbai. But if you have decided to play football..what can you do.
Building a building in Mumbai. The whole country is full of buildings like this - many of them never complete and even if they do they remain mostly unused. Especially shopping centers...
Taxis in Mumbai. They were simply the best.
From a bar in Mumbai. The guy at the left is the best - some holy guy eating in the most Western bar there is.
Raj Mandir in Jaipur. Once the biggest and best movie theater in the country, now just the state's best. Just one theater inside this.
Inside Raj Mandir. This is the 'lobby'.
View over rooftops in Jaipur. This is what it all looks like.
Me an Pyry buying a wedding gift. It was some silly picture of some god-thing.
Outside my yoga place. As there is a street, the poorest people can live on it. They are sleeping under the canvases currently. Picture before the yoga.
Picture after my yoga of the same place. Pretty...miserable.
P.S. Tomorrow (Saturday) we are planning to go to Agra. Taj Mahal! And on next week's Wednesday to..umm...forgot the name already. Some place where Idex has volunteers, a few hours' drive from Jaipur.
I have been taking some pictures here and there but they haven't fit my posts, I have been too lazy or something equally silly. So the pictures never made it here. So here are some of the pictures that I didn't put here.
A park in Mumbai had bought two pieces of the latest Cut-O-Matic-2000 series.
It was a little wet in Mumbai. But if you have decided to play football..what can you do.
Building a building in Mumbai. The whole country is full of buildings like this - many of them never complete and even if they do they remain mostly unused. Especially shopping centers...
Taxis in Mumbai. They were simply the best.
From a bar in Mumbai. The guy at the left is the best - some holy guy eating in the most Western bar there is.
Raj Mandir in Jaipur. Once the biggest and best movie theater in the country, now just the state's best. Just one theater inside this.
Inside Raj Mandir. This is the 'lobby'.
View over rooftops in Jaipur. This is what it all looks like.
Me an Pyry buying a wedding gift. It was some silly picture of some god-thing.
Outside my yoga place. As there is a street, the poorest people can live on it. They are sleeping under the canvases currently. Picture before the yoga.
Picture after my yoga of the same place. Pretty...miserable.P.S. Tomorrow (Saturday) we are planning to go to Agra. Taj Mahal! And on next week's Wednesday to..umm...forgot the name already. Some place where Idex has volunteers, a few hours' drive from Jaipur.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Incredible India
I was having a breakfast 10 minutes ago. Yesterday evening the family slave had brought me some clothes that I had given for him to wash earlier. I noticed that two of them had big rust stains on them so I brought the shirts to breakfast and asked about them from my local dad.
The conversation went something like this (omitting most of the English problems of the dad):
me: why do my shirts have stains like this? They also smell totally awful.
dad: they come from the humidity. From the water. They dry slow and that's why the smell. Everyone here is used to that.
me: Well they look like rust stains. But why on earth would I have rust stains on my clothes?
dad: It's the monsoon. Water in the air. It reacts.
me: Eh. Reacts with what? You're not drying my clothes on iron strings, right?
dad: Yes, iron strings! Reacts with water.
me: Are you serious? You dry clothes on iron strings when it's raining?
dad: Everyone in India uses iron strings for drying clothes. They last forever.
So. The dad even brought a shirt of his own with a rust stain. 'Everyone is used to these'. So everyone dries clothes on iron strings. And gets rust stains. Like... WHAT THE HELL. I tried telling him about using some plastic strings but he wouldn't listen. "In Finland you use plastic strings". And that was a more of a statement, not a question.
This country is just totally totally wrong. I didn't believe this sort of thing was possible. I'm just totally pissed off due to things like this. The problem is that there are a lot of similar things. And the good side is that I only have 3 weeks left in this country. Jesus.
P.S. Oh, forgot to mention. Went to yoga this morning. Waiter for 15 minutes and the instructor didn't come. Went back home. So I woke up before 6am for nothing. Happy morning.
The conversation went something like this (omitting most of the English problems of the dad):
me: why do my shirts have stains like this? They also smell totally awful.
dad: they come from the humidity. From the water. They dry slow and that's why the smell. Everyone here is used to that.
me: Well they look like rust stains. But why on earth would I have rust stains on my clothes?
dad: It's the monsoon. Water in the air. It reacts.
me: Eh. Reacts with what? You're not drying my clothes on iron strings, right?
dad: Yes, iron strings! Reacts with water.
me: Are you serious? You dry clothes on iron strings when it's raining?
dad: Everyone in India uses iron strings for drying clothes. They last forever.
So. The dad even brought a shirt of his own with a rust stain. 'Everyone is used to these'. So everyone dries clothes on iron strings. And gets rust stains. Like... WHAT THE HELL. I tried telling him about using some plastic strings but he wouldn't listen. "In Finland you use plastic strings". And that was a more of a statement, not a question.
This country is just totally totally wrong. I didn't believe this sort of thing was possible. I'm just totally pissed off due to things like this. The problem is that there are a lot of similar things. And the good side is that I only have 3 weeks left in this country. Jesus.
P.S. Oh, forgot to mention. Went to yoga this morning. Waiter for 15 minutes and the instructor didn't come. Went back home. So I woke up before 6am for nothing. Happy morning.
Rajasthani man!
Pushkar was great. Anything is great compared to Jaipur.
As I mentioned, it's a holy city. In the middle of the city there's a big pond which they believe was formed by something like Lord Shiva dropping a lotus flower on Earth and that created the pond. Currently the holy pond looks like Lord Shiva dropped something from his behind there. It's not very clean. Will attach some pictures.
The holy lake.
Gaurav from office had reserved places for us from a train on Saturday morning 8:55. The train was labeled "special train" in the schedules. We soon figured out why. It was 3 hours late and it always just postponed it by half an hour so we couldn't really go anywhere. The weekend started nicely by everyone being pissed off. Seriously, never take a train here. The tickets are hard to get and the trains suck. Buses are much much better and easier.
Rooftop view of the city.
Well, we eventually arrived to Pushkar in the evening. We spent a few hours in a town called Ajmer which is a necessary middle station, had to switch to a bus there. Went sightseeing for some beers there and found a really cool bar! In India! I'll show you a picture :)
The bar in Ajmer. These are all empty beer boxes! What a decoration.
Anyway. In Pushkar it was already dark. Although alcohol is forbidden there, we found some places that sell beer. From under the table, and we had to keep the beers under the table. And on Sunday in one place we went to, they even brought the beers in tea pots! So we were having a charming tea party in a holy Indian city! It was so cute! But we didn't find meat anywhere. It was ok, I guess we are already used to eating the holy food.
Tea party. Turban should be lower but the seller made it too small for me.
On Sunday we also did some shopping. We all bought turbans. And Tani and Pyry also bought some local style shirts, very light and quite cheap. The turbans were probably the best thing to buy in India - every second people on the streets yelled something positive to us. Quite often we were "Rajasthani man" or "You look half Indian!". It was all quite confusing. As the city itself is quite touristic (saw more Westerners there in a day than I will ever see here) it felt quite strange to be the middle of attention - tourists are supposed to be taking pictures of everyone and everything else, not the other way around. Every second local guy seemed to want a picture of us. I will bring the turban to Finland and maybe wear it in some job interviews. Let's see what happens. I even learned to tie it myself!
This is actually the closest we got to temples...
Now the life goes on regularily again. Came home yesterday quite late so I didn't go to yoga this morning. I actually haven't been there for a week due to being sick, mostly. On last week's Monday the teacher borrowed me a yoga book so would have some idea what it's about. After that he hasn't seen me anymore. I wonder what he thinks :) But, tomorrow...
As I mentioned, it's a holy city. In the middle of the city there's a big pond which they believe was formed by something like Lord Shiva dropping a lotus flower on Earth and that created the pond. Currently the holy pond looks like Lord Shiva dropped something from his behind there. It's not very clean. Will attach some pictures.
The holy lake.Gaurav from office had reserved places for us from a train on Saturday morning 8:55. The train was labeled "special train" in the schedules. We soon figured out why. It was 3 hours late and it always just postponed it by half an hour so we couldn't really go anywhere. The weekend started nicely by everyone being pissed off. Seriously, never take a train here. The tickets are hard to get and the trains suck. Buses are much much better and easier.
Rooftop view of the city.Well, we eventually arrived to Pushkar in the evening. We spent a few hours in a town called Ajmer which is a necessary middle station, had to switch to a bus there. Went sightseeing for some beers there and found a really cool bar! In India! I'll show you a picture :)
The bar in Ajmer. These are all empty beer boxes! What a decoration.Anyway. In Pushkar it was already dark. Although alcohol is forbidden there, we found some places that sell beer. From under the table, and we had to keep the beers under the table. And on Sunday in one place we went to, they even brought the beers in tea pots! So we were having a charming tea party in a holy Indian city! It was so cute! But we didn't find meat anywhere. It was ok, I guess we are already used to eating the holy food.
Tea party. Turban should be lower but the seller made it too small for me.On Sunday we also did some shopping. We all bought turbans. And Tani and Pyry also bought some local style shirts, very light and quite cheap. The turbans were probably the best thing to buy in India - every second people on the streets yelled something positive to us. Quite often we were "Rajasthani man" or "You look half Indian!". It was all quite confusing. As the city itself is quite touristic (saw more Westerners there in a day than I will ever see here) it felt quite strange to be the middle of attention - tourists are supposed to be taking pictures of everyone and everything else, not the other way around. Every second local guy seemed to want a picture of us. I will bring the turban to Finland and maybe wear it in some job interviews. Let's see what happens. I even learned to tie it myself!
This is actually the closest we got to temples...Now the life goes on regularily again. Came home yesterday quite late so I didn't go to yoga this morning. I actually haven't been there for a week due to being sick, mostly. On last week's Monday the teacher borrowed me a yoga book so would have some idea what it's about. After that he hasn't seen me anymore. I wonder what he thinks :) But, tomorrow...
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Little sickness and eating "non-veg"
For the past two-three weeks I have had some brown showers from my ass. So I don't even count that anymore as being sick, especially as the intervals are almost normal - it's just the quality. And I'm not the only one - all three of us Finnish guys at the office have pretty much the same thing.
But now I'm a bit more sick. This morning I was running in the bathroom a lot. And some mild fever. But getting better now, left office on Tuesday at lunch time and I am planning to return there on Friday. So, I guess this isn't malaria or the Black Death. So far. My local mom said today at dinner that having stomach problems is quite normal during monsoon. Well, gosh. Maybe eating with your hands all the time isn't the best option?
I have already complained about it. But still. Everything is so filthy. And it's all part of their everyday life and everything is as it should be. Sure, we have different standards, but look at your health.
This weekend we're going to Pushkar. I had no idea what the place is before Tani called an offered a place in the bus. Sure, seeing other places is nice. And the place seems nice (http://wikitravel.org/en/Pushkar). Just one problem: it's some sort of a holy city and they don't allow alcohol and meat. At all!
I've actually learned to survive pretty much without meat (maybe eat it once a week in some restaurant). But that brings one big problem: when I return to Finland, I might get sick by eating meat. I have about two days time to settle down in Finland and then we go for the weekend to a friend's summer cottage for a typical guys' weekend (fishing, chopping wood, playing cricket, painting the house surely). I'm so much looking forward to that but I need to start eating meat more at some point. They just don't sell cow meat anywhere here - you get 20 years in prison if you kill a cow.
Cows in general are strange creatures here. If I didn't know that they are holy animals, I would guess they are worthless in this culture. They mostly roam around freely on the 'highways' without care. So what happens when a car accidentally kills a cow? I would wanna know. And some people have the cows as lucrative home animals providing milk on their front road. So, anywhere you go here you may see a cow in front of a house. Or on a highway. I don't quite understand what makes them so 'special' if nobody cares of them. Does someone even own those cows that wander around freely?
Holy cow! Don't look so holy to me...
Oh and pig is mostly forbidden here aswell. But nobody seems to know why. I once tried asking Gaurav at work for the reason but he just didn't know. They had some bacon (delicious!) in Mumbai which was of pig, but here up north they surely don't have such luxuries. And by the way, nobody ever uses the word "meat" in this country. Everything is "veg" or "non-veg".
I will now focus on thinking of what to do tomorrow home. This day was for movies and some gaming. Maybe something equally challenging for tomorrow. But Pushkar on Saturday (or, don't really know which day actually...)!
But now I'm a bit more sick. This morning I was running in the bathroom a lot. And some mild fever. But getting better now, left office on Tuesday at lunch time and I am planning to return there on Friday. So, I guess this isn't malaria or the Black Death. So far. My local mom said today at dinner that having stomach problems is quite normal during monsoon. Well, gosh. Maybe eating with your hands all the time isn't the best option?
I have already complained about it. But still. Everything is so filthy. And it's all part of their everyday life and everything is as it should be. Sure, we have different standards, but look at your health.
This weekend we're going to Pushkar. I had no idea what the place is before Tani called an offered a place in the bus. Sure, seeing other places is nice. And the place seems nice (http://wikitravel.org/en/Pushkar). Just one problem: it's some sort of a holy city and they don't allow alcohol and meat. At all!
I've actually learned to survive pretty much without meat (maybe eat it once a week in some restaurant). But that brings one big problem: when I return to Finland, I might get sick by eating meat. I have about two days time to settle down in Finland and then we go for the weekend to a friend's summer cottage for a typical guys' weekend (fishing, chopping wood, playing cricket, painting the house surely). I'm so much looking forward to that but I need to start eating meat more at some point. They just don't sell cow meat anywhere here - you get 20 years in prison if you kill a cow.
Cows in general are strange creatures here. If I didn't know that they are holy animals, I would guess they are worthless in this culture. They mostly roam around freely on the 'highways' without care. So what happens when a car accidentally kills a cow? I would wanna know. And some people have the cows as lucrative home animals providing milk on their front road. So, anywhere you go here you may see a cow in front of a house. Or on a highway. I don't quite understand what makes them so 'special' if nobody cares of them. Does someone even own those cows that wander around freely?
Holy cow! Don't look so holy to me...Oh and pig is mostly forbidden here aswell. But nobody seems to know why. I once tried asking Gaurav at work for the reason but he just didn't know. They had some bacon (delicious!) in Mumbai which was of pig, but here up north they surely don't have such luxuries. And by the way, nobody ever uses the word "meat" in this country. Everything is "veg" or "non-veg".
I will now focus on thinking of what to do tomorrow home. This day was for movies and some gaming. Maybe something equally challenging for tomorrow. But Pushkar on Saturday (or, don't really know which day actually...)!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Indian accent and language
As you have guessed, the Indian accent is...rich. And their whole concept of English is interesting.
And as I mentioned in an earlier post, at some point in history Indians were practically forced to learn English if they wanted a decent job. Of course their English was never accepted among the Brits - even if they could sometimes speak more grammatically correct English (due to studying from newspapers) than the Brits. Of course that wasn't "the right way" to speak.
Every traveler has problems understanding the Indian accent. Unfortunately at least in this part of India the accent is not the same as Apu's in The Simpsons so it's not that much fun. But still, not all Indians speak English - I think it's their second official language but they don't have to learn it. I guess. Nevertheless, if you are driving anywhere all the warning signs and many other roadsigns are in English. It was only at some point that I realized this and started wondering how small percentage actually can read the signs.
And whenever you are walking on a street, there's bound to be someone who comes asking you "which/what country you belong??". And they have a lot of weird expressions like that. They can't speak English too well but still they all use more complicated versions of many things. Like they couldn't just ask "where do you come from" or "what is your country".
They also have a strange interest in using (unneeded and unclear) abbreviations in their text messages all the time. One of the messages I got from a couchsurfing 'friend' I got in Mumbai: "@ Ra @ phnx mills @ lower parel 800 for 2 veg n 2 non-veg strtrs + unlmtd beer". The only thing I understood is the 'unlimited beer'. The other stuff made no sense.
But having to speak with them on the phone is even worse. I personally don't like much speaking on the phone and less when the conversation is in English. And even less when I need to speak English with an Indian... It's just painful. Usually the calls end without me having no idea what the other one wanted. Text messages are easier then, even if they are truly cryptic.
One of the things Indians love to do is different headshakes. Or, actually not that many different ones. The one they always do is from side to side vertically so your ears go closer to shoulders at time. And its functionality is even better: it means yes, maybe, ok or no idea. That really makes things interesting, like asking "is place X in that direction?" and they answer with headshake. Basically my opinion is that the headshakes just need to be ignored - there's no information in them.
I'll try to cope with the accent. As mentioned, it's more boring than I imagined.
And as I mentioned in an earlier post, at some point in history Indians were practically forced to learn English if they wanted a decent job. Of course their English was never accepted among the Brits - even if they could sometimes speak more grammatically correct English (due to studying from newspapers) than the Brits. Of course that wasn't "the right way" to speak.
Every traveler has problems understanding the Indian accent. Unfortunately at least in this part of India the accent is not the same as Apu's in The Simpsons so it's not that much fun. But still, not all Indians speak English - I think it's their second official language but they don't have to learn it. I guess. Nevertheless, if you are driving anywhere all the warning signs and many other roadsigns are in English. It was only at some point that I realized this and started wondering how small percentage actually can read the signs.
And whenever you are walking on a street, there's bound to be someone who comes asking you "which/what country you belong??". And they have a lot of weird expressions like that. They can't speak English too well but still they all use more complicated versions of many things. Like they couldn't just ask "where do you come from" or "what is your country".
They also have a strange interest in using (unneeded and unclear) abbreviations in their text messages all the time. One of the messages I got from a couchsurfing 'friend' I got in Mumbai: "@ Ra @ phnx mills @ lower parel 800 for 2 veg n 2 non-veg strtrs + unlmtd beer". The only thing I understood is the 'unlimited beer'. The other stuff made no sense.
But having to speak with them on the phone is even worse. I personally don't like much speaking on the phone and less when the conversation is in English. And even less when I need to speak English with an Indian... It's just painful. Usually the calls end without me having no idea what the other one wanted. Text messages are easier then, even if they are truly cryptic.
One of the things Indians love to do is different headshakes. Or, actually not that many different ones. The one they always do is from side to side vertically so your ears go closer to shoulders at time. And its functionality is even better: it means yes, maybe, ok or no idea. That really makes things interesting, like asking "is place X in that direction?" and they answer with headshake. Basically my opinion is that the headshakes just need to be ignored - there's no information in them.
I'll try to cope with the accent. As mentioned, it's more boring than I imagined.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Yoga
This is India. So what to do here? Yoga.
I asked my local parents earlier where I could do some yoga. There happened to be a place nearby (well I guess everyone has a yoga place nearby, this is India) and one evening I went there to ask if they have some classes. Turned out they have class every morning and every evening at 6. The only problem was that the evening class was only for women.
So, this morning I put my alarm at 5:40. Of course the previous evening I promised myself to go to the yoga (Yes, I will do it! I will go! I am strong enough...). I ended up spending the time between 5:40 and 5:50 looking out from my room and trying to come up with excuses why not to go. I had actually thought it was raining heavily and I just went outside to confirm that and go back to sleep. As it wasn't raining I ran out of excuses. So I had to go.
I'm not sure how many different types of yoga there are. But I think they all have a few things in common: focus on breathing and nothing should hurt. I had never done yoga so this was an interesting experience: all sort of movements and streches and static muscles. It all felt good.
Advertisement in front of the yoga place. Clearly it's every morning from 6 to 7 for everyone.
There were about 15 of us, everyone else local of course. And instructor was speaking Hindi of course. So I think I missed most of the breathing stuff and so on as I didn't understand any of the explanations. A few times the instructor sat in front of me and showed me some moves but otherwise I just followed others as well as I could.
I was talking with Pyry about these yoga people. He's also attending here some yoga classes but with an almost private teacher who speaks English. So he knows a bit more of the stuff. Interestingly, there seems to be some people somewhere up in Himalayas, each living in their own caves meditating and doing yoga. Every 6 years they each come down to a village for bathing in some sacred fountain or something (not together, they all live totally separately). And then nobody sees that person again for 6 years. They are said to live in caves and nobody seems to know how/what they eat or drink. Some say they live by the energy they produce by meditating. Who knows, but many people respect them a lot around there.
I decided that I should do this yoga thing at least three times a week. As today is Wednesday, it seems natural to do it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. According to the log book the yoga place has, everyone else does it every morning. Don't know, maybe I'll try to do it also.
But in the end, I'm most proud of getting up at 5:40! Sure, I slept a little after the yoga, but still. You all know how much I love sleeping.
I asked my local parents earlier where I could do some yoga. There happened to be a place nearby (well I guess everyone has a yoga place nearby, this is India) and one evening I went there to ask if they have some classes. Turned out they have class every morning and every evening at 6. The only problem was that the evening class was only for women.
So, this morning I put my alarm at 5:40. Of course the previous evening I promised myself to go to the yoga (Yes, I will do it! I will go! I am strong enough...). I ended up spending the time between 5:40 and 5:50 looking out from my room and trying to come up with excuses why not to go. I had actually thought it was raining heavily and I just went outside to confirm that and go back to sleep. As it wasn't raining I ran out of excuses. So I had to go.
I'm not sure how many different types of yoga there are. But I think they all have a few things in common: focus on breathing and nothing should hurt. I had never done yoga so this was an interesting experience: all sort of movements and streches and static muscles. It all felt good.
Advertisement in front of the yoga place. Clearly it's every morning from 6 to 7 for everyone.There were about 15 of us, everyone else local of course. And instructor was speaking Hindi of course. So I think I missed most of the breathing stuff and so on as I didn't understand any of the explanations. A few times the instructor sat in front of me and showed me some moves but otherwise I just followed others as well as I could.
I was talking with Pyry about these yoga people. He's also attending here some yoga classes but with an almost private teacher who speaks English. So he knows a bit more of the stuff. Interestingly, there seems to be some people somewhere up in Himalayas, each living in their own caves meditating and doing yoga. Every 6 years they each come down to a village for bathing in some sacred fountain or something (not together, they all live totally separately). And then nobody sees that person again for 6 years. They are said to live in caves and nobody seems to know how/what they eat or drink. Some say they live by the energy they produce by meditating. Who knows, but many people respect them a lot around there.
I decided that I should do this yoga thing at least three times a week. As today is Wednesday, it seems natural to do it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. According to the log book the yoga place has, everyone else does it every morning. Don't know, maybe I'll try to do it also.
But in the end, I'm most proud of getting up at 5:40! Sure, I slept a little after the yoga, but still. You all know how much I love sleeping.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Despair
I have decided that I don't like this place.
I'm getting tired of this stuff. This week will be the turning point in my India excursion - less days ahead than behind. And I'm getting glad about it.
I was reading a book by a local author. The book is written quite boringly but it has some interesting facts and stories about India and especially the times when the British were ruling here. As you probably know, India was a colony of the Brits for 200-300 years (depending how you count) until 1947. And it seems like the Brits weren't too fond of India, its culture and of its people.
It would've been interesting to see how things were a hundred years ago. Somewhere around year 1900 English became the official language for teaching and administrative work as Brits had gradually forced Indians to learn English by offering working positions only for those who spoke English. So the language of the 'elite' was forced on everyone.
But anyway, I was talking about the feelings the colonialists had towards India. Most of them seemed to simply hate the country, its culture, its people, its climate and everything in it. Indians were treated like rats because things were so different here and they were considered very inferior.
I'm personally starting to have some similar feelings really. The place is too strange and few things seem to work. I'm getting tired of:
- the filth: this morning my spoon had some old food stuck to it, like the spoon had carvings. And my bed clothes smell awful due to sweating and being old no matter how much they are washed. And small sand is always everywhere.
- brown showers from my ass. I will never get used to this filthiness and strange food. Well, nothing too bad so far (except in Mumbai due to the spicy food) but it's just not normal.
- warmth and humidity - monsoon has started, so now it's always either very humid or if there's no rain, really warm. Sweating a lot is a constant thing and I'm not getting used to it.
- beer culture. Almost nonexistent. A few locals drink beer here and there but Mumbai was the closest thing so far to a beer culture of any sort.
- nothing works. People don't keep their promises, things don't get done, infrastructure sucks... And I was told that this is all very normal here.
What I realized maybe a week ago was that these people actually live here with all this stuff all the time. It kinda struck me as..hmm..amazing. And they are all used to it. I asked a guy in Mumbai who had been traveling a bit around Europe which place he prefers and he said India. "Everything works here perfectly even if the rules are never obeyed". Well, allow me to disagree on that. A lot.
P.S. For a long time after their independence, the top castes of India had no language of their own. Often the only language they spoke (and often not so fluently) was English. If exaggerated a bit, one billion people without an own language. Whoah.
I'm getting tired of this stuff. This week will be the turning point in my India excursion - less days ahead than behind. And I'm getting glad about it.
I was reading a book by a local author. The book is written quite boringly but it has some interesting facts and stories about India and especially the times when the British were ruling here. As you probably know, India was a colony of the Brits for 200-300 years (depending how you count) until 1947. And it seems like the Brits weren't too fond of India, its culture and of its people.
It would've been interesting to see how things were a hundred years ago. Somewhere around year 1900 English became the official language for teaching and administrative work as Brits had gradually forced Indians to learn English by offering working positions only for those who spoke English. So the language of the 'elite' was forced on everyone.
But anyway, I was talking about the feelings the colonialists had towards India. Most of them seemed to simply hate the country, its culture, its people, its climate and everything in it. Indians were treated like rats because things were so different here and they were considered very inferior.
I'm personally starting to have some similar feelings really. The place is too strange and few things seem to work. I'm getting tired of:
- the filth: this morning my spoon had some old food stuck to it, like the spoon had carvings. And my bed clothes smell awful due to sweating and being old no matter how much they are washed. And small sand is always everywhere.
- brown showers from my ass. I will never get used to this filthiness and strange food. Well, nothing too bad so far (except in Mumbai due to the spicy food) but it's just not normal.
- warmth and humidity - monsoon has started, so now it's always either very humid or if there's no rain, really warm. Sweating a lot is a constant thing and I'm not getting used to it.
- beer culture. Almost nonexistent. A few locals drink beer here and there but Mumbai was the closest thing so far to a beer culture of any sort.
- nothing works. People don't keep their promises, things don't get done, infrastructure sucks... And I was told that this is all very normal here.
What I realized maybe a week ago was that these people actually live here with all this stuff all the time. It kinda struck me as..hmm..amazing. And they are all used to it. I asked a guy in Mumbai who had been traveling a bit around Europe which place he prefers and he said India. "Everything works here perfectly even if the rules are never obeyed". Well, allow me to disagree on that. A lot.
P.S. For a long time after their independence, the top castes of India had no language of their own. Often the only language they spoke (and often not so fluently) was English. If exaggerated a bit, one billion people without an own language. Whoah.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Manly joy
We have had some strange encounters with local people. Especially here in Jaipur. Tani has had more of these encounters than I have and he usually shares the experiences with some disgust.
Usually the encounters happen in a bar or cafe. No matter how many people there are of us sitting around a table, quite often an Indian guy comes and asks if he can sit down with us. Quite invariably we refuse. And quite invariably they don't care and try to sit down anyway.
Strange situations have been when one of us is visiting the bathroom and a local guy tries to take his place. Or when we have our bag on a chair and someone removes the bag and tries to sit. Or when we just simply don't care of having local company (which is quite often, if not always.)
Once when I was in the nearby bar with Tani and Pyry and a local tried to sit with us, there suddenly appeared 5 more of his friends behind him. "Is there a problem here? What are you doing?!" after we told the guy that he can't sit there. The situation was quite strange - most of the locals are quite small and bony and especially Tani is often just laughing at their efforts to try to pick up a fight. Are they willing to pick a fight just because we don't want their friend to sit in our table? It really seemed so.
It is not so rare that we have to shout at the guys that no, they may not sit down. They always ask first but never care about the reply.
Another funny thing with many of these local guys is their.... closeness with each other. Surely this is related to the I-want-to-sit-in-your-table thing. Sometimes it seems that 50% of guys here are gays. They hold each others' hands, they often wrap their hand around each the other's shoulders while sitting, they dance with each other (how morally wrong it would be to dance with a woman? dunno) and of course usually groups are just of one sex. Some of the most hilarious moments are when two guys are crossing a street, running hand in hand between the cars leading each other.
Happy guys!
Gay sex was illegal until 2009 in India although nobody had been sentenced for it for the past 20 years. Now it's not illegal anymore officially, but the attitudes are still far from liberal. At least in the north. Few years ago a royal prince (Manvendra Singh Gohil) in the north-west state Rajpipla came out of the closet. And the result? His family tried to disinherit him.
Nowadays the south of India is more tolerant (and civilized) and especially Mumbai is a gay haven. But while in Mumbai we noticed that the people are totally different there - they act like civilized people in cafes and bars (well, when they're not drunk anyway). The difference between the north and the south seems to be a huge one. Unfortunately Jaipur is in the north.
P.S. Oh and about the wedding I was in on Wednesday. Basically that day of the wedding included only a parade which we participated in by dancing (not like we had much of a choice) and after that an area for eating and some photographs at the stage with the groom. The bride was nowhere to be seen for the whole evening. I'll attach a few pictures.
The groom
Food at the wedding
Usually the encounters happen in a bar or cafe. No matter how many people there are of us sitting around a table, quite often an Indian guy comes and asks if he can sit down with us. Quite invariably we refuse. And quite invariably they don't care and try to sit down anyway.
Strange situations have been when one of us is visiting the bathroom and a local guy tries to take his place. Or when we have our bag on a chair and someone removes the bag and tries to sit. Or when we just simply don't care of having local company (which is quite often, if not always.)
Once when I was in the nearby bar with Tani and Pyry and a local tried to sit with us, there suddenly appeared 5 more of his friends behind him. "Is there a problem here? What are you doing?!" after we told the guy that he can't sit there. The situation was quite strange - most of the locals are quite small and bony and especially Tani is often just laughing at their efforts to try to pick up a fight. Are they willing to pick a fight just because we don't want their friend to sit in our table? It really seemed so.
It is not so rare that we have to shout at the guys that no, they may not sit down. They always ask first but never care about the reply.
Another funny thing with many of these local guys is their.... closeness with each other. Surely this is related to the I-want-to-sit-in-your-table thing. Sometimes it seems that 50% of guys here are gays. They hold each others' hands, they often wrap their hand around each the other's shoulders while sitting, they dance with each other (how morally wrong it would be to dance with a woman? dunno) and of course usually groups are just of one sex. Some of the most hilarious moments are when two guys are crossing a street, running hand in hand between the cars leading each other.
Happy guys!Gay sex was illegal until 2009 in India although nobody had been sentenced for it for the past 20 years. Now it's not illegal anymore officially, but the attitudes are still far from liberal. At least in the north. Few years ago a royal prince (Manvendra Singh Gohil) in the north-west state Rajpipla came out of the closet. And the result? His family tried to disinherit him.
Nowadays the south of India is more tolerant (and civilized) and especially Mumbai is a gay haven. But while in Mumbai we noticed that the people are totally different there - they act like civilized people in cafes and bars (well, when they're not drunk anyway). The difference between the north and the south seems to be a huge one. Unfortunately Jaipur is in the north.
P.S. Oh and about the wedding I was in on Wednesday. Basically that day of the wedding included only a parade which we participated in by dancing (not like we had much of a choice) and after that an area for eating and some photographs at the stage with the groom. The bride was nowhere to be seen for the whole evening. I'll attach a few pictures.
The groom
Food at the wedding
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Mumbai
Hello
Returned. And the strangest thing is that I feel like I returned home. So traveling to Mumbai was a holiday and now I returned home and it feels much safer and easier here. And this is Jaipur, I never thought it would could feel like home. Returning to Finland must feel like returning to.. don't even know.
In any case, Mumbai felt like heaven on ear... on India. It's from another universe. At times we felt like we weren't in India!
There's two quite Western bars (cafe Leopold and Mondegar) in the 'tourist' area Colaba which serve even bacon (pig!) and some lamb steaks. It was really relieving to just sit there, see some other Westerners, eat some Western food and have a few beers. And the Colaba area was quite interesting in general also, lots of different stuff.
Our couchsurfing hosts and Tani. Really nice guys.
First night we spent at one couchsurfing guy's place (www.couchsurfing.org for those who don't know the concept) but that was almost an hour's drive off from Colaba. So on Saturday we took a taxi to Colaba and found a nice little crappy guesthouse for the rest of the nights (3). 600 rupees per night in total so not too bad.
Guesthouse's bathroom. Not for the touchy ones.
Anyway, I'm not quite sure what to tell about Mumbai. It's a lot more civilized place than Jaipur and of course they have the Bollywood studios there. We even went to see one Bollywood movie there called Red Alert but unfortunately(?) it sucked (partially because we didn't understand anything, but doubt it was any good anyway). The night life in the city was totally different than in Jaipur, meaning that it.. existed. Bars had to close at 1am there also but some bars had bribed the police so they could show the football finals.
Beautiful beaches of Mumbai.
On Saturday I ate some really spicy food in a restaurant. I didn't really like it, but it costed 250 rupees so I didn't want to just throw it away and I forced it down my throat. The following night I paid the price: bathroom became a familiar place. Whole Sunday was partially ruined for me due to this, but on Monday I was again feeling quite ok. So, this trip's first stomach problem! Hurray!
Slum area of Mumbai called Dharavi. You should read about the area, either google or try http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/dharavi-mumbai-slum/jacobson-text . I found a book which told about the life in there but someone just bought it in front of my nose so had to buy something else :/
One interesting thing in Mumbai is the train system. Our couchsurfing host told us quite directly not to use it. Usually tourists just go to the platform, take a few pictures and not dare to try it. And we shouldn't either. In the end we ended up using it three times and it was an interesting experience :) I will attach some pictures with explanations.
In a local train. A lot more people came in before it was 'full'
Now the train is starting to be full. Note that the train is actually moving already. And, no, the trains' doors were never closed.
In Mumbai I bought the first books about India. I became really interested in all the social and economical situation here and hopefully I have some time to read. I think in future blog entries I will be covering some areas of the Indian culture and problems after reading a few books about the subjects. Let's see what happens.
P.S. I just found out that I'm going to an Indian wedding today. Someone from the office downstairs has a wedding in his family.
Returned. And the strangest thing is that I feel like I returned home. So traveling to Mumbai was a holiday and now I returned home and it feels much safer and easier here. And this is Jaipur, I never thought it would could feel like home. Returning to Finland must feel like returning to.. don't even know.
In any case, Mumbai felt like heaven on ear... on India. It's from another universe. At times we felt like we weren't in India!
There's two quite Western bars (cafe Leopold and Mondegar) in the 'tourist' area Colaba which serve even bacon (pig!) and some lamb steaks. It was really relieving to just sit there, see some other Westerners, eat some Western food and have a few beers. And the Colaba area was quite interesting in general also, lots of different stuff.
Our couchsurfing hosts and Tani. Really nice guys.First night we spent at one couchsurfing guy's place (www.couchsurfing.org for those who don't know the concept) but that was almost an hour's drive off from Colaba. So on Saturday we took a taxi to Colaba and found a nice little crappy guesthouse for the rest of the nights (3). 600 rupees per night in total so not too bad.
Guesthouse's bathroom. Not for the touchy ones.Anyway, I'm not quite sure what to tell about Mumbai. It's a lot more civilized place than Jaipur and of course they have the Bollywood studios there. We even went to see one Bollywood movie there called Red Alert but unfortunately(?) it sucked (partially because we didn't understand anything, but doubt it was any good anyway). The night life in the city was totally different than in Jaipur, meaning that it.. existed. Bars had to close at 1am there also but some bars had bribed the police so they could show the football finals.
Beautiful beaches of Mumbai.On Saturday I ate some really spicy food in a restaurant. I didn't really like it, but it costed 250 rupees so I didn't want to just throw it away and I forced it down my throat. The following night I paid the price: bathroom became a familiar place. Whole Sunday was partially ruined for me due to this, but on Monday I was again feeling quite ok. So, this trip's first stomach problem! Hurray!
Slum area of Mumbai called Dharavi. You should read about the area, either google or try http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/dharavi-mumbai-slum/jacobson-text . I found a book which told about the life in there but someone just bought it in front of my nose so had to buy something else :/One interesting thing in Mumbai is the train system. Our couchsurfing host told us quite directly not to use it. Usually tourists just go to the platform, take a few pictures and not dare to try it. And we shouldn't either. In the end we ended up using it three times and it was an interesting experience :) I will attach some pictures with explanations.
In a local train. A lot more people came in before it was 'full'
Now the train is starting to be full. Note that the train is actually moving already. And, no, the trains' doors were never closed.In Mumbai I bought the first books about India. I became really interested in all the social and economical situation here and hopefully I have some time to read. I think in future blog entries I will be covering some areas of the Indian culture and problems after reading a few books about the subjects. Let's see what happens.
P.S. I just found out that I'm going to an Indian wedding today. Someone from the office downstairs has a wedding in his family.
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