Midsummer and India, two separate issues

Yesterday was midsummer day. And night.

As mentioned, we had been thinking of a rooftop party. But the idea kinda died when we couldn't contact anyone and tell them about it ;) Actually me and Tani were totally lost and went to Orca for a 'knowledge beer' (is there such a term in English? 'Neuvoa-antava' in Finnish). Luckily others came there also so we didn't need to spend the midsummer by ourselves.

From Orca we went to a poolparty. Which was great ;) It wasn't like Finnish midsummer but still, it was something. It was a 'bit' different, but still nice. Could've been a lot worse aswell. The extreme heat combines quite nicely with being in a pool. And a few beers to go along with that, combined with some great people, and we have a party.

Some of our people after the regular Sunday pool. Tani in the foreground. Two other Finnish people visible, which ones?

For Tani the evening was a bit more expensive than for the rest of us - he had bought a new cellphone from here 6 weeks ago and now he was dragged to the pool with the phone in his pocket. Well, he was by the pool to throw someone else in there so he was a bit asking for it, but still. The cellphone hasn't showed much signs of life so far, but we'll open it and see if there's anything to be done anymore. But, nice party still. (Cheapest beer there was 150 rupees. Tuborg. So I came to the other side of the world to drink the cheapest beer which is Tuborg? :)

Pool party. Not bad, hmm? Sorry for crappy picture.

One thing I haven't been talking about much is, well, India. When I left home almost two weeks ago I thought I knew a bit what this country would be like. I knew they have a lot of IT stuff going around here and somehow because of that I thought this would be at least a bit civilized country. Oh how wrong I was.

Someone here said that this country is 30 years behind China. I didn't believe it back then but I'm starting to believe it now. If you have been thinking that China is a crappy developing country, this country is 20-30 years behind that. Think about that.

I got in a little...fight with the police at the poolparty. Not my blood, though.

Basically computers seem to be about the only thing that works here. Everything else is just.. uhh... Well, ok, other things 'work' aswell, but they are simply primitive and ineffective. I guess it all has to do with the amount of cheap labour they have, but China also has a lot of that so what has gone wrong here? And Jaipur is the capital of this state (Rajasthan) so one might think this is a bit more advanced than some agricultural villages.

If you look into normal, everyday things you notice that something doesn't quite seem right. How about ironing? They heat up coals and heat up the iron (a piece of metal) with those. What's wrong with using electricity? Next example: cleaning. I haven't seen a single vacuum cleaner anywhere. Just loads of little Indians kneeling on the floor with their brooms, swiping the dirt away. Then how about washing dishes? They don't use any washing liquid and usually don't even rub the dishes with anything. How about buying stuff? Milk comes in plastic bags which of course can't be closed once you open them. And toilet paper? It's hard to find. So let's not imagine how they do their things.

I mean... geesh. These people are of course used to all this. But it all seems just so.. uh... so stupid. Sometimes it feels like living in a nomad village in the middle of Africa. In today's English newspaper there were some interviews of three exchange students in Jaipur. They all complained about the same thing: they can't trust anybody and nothing works here. All locals are nice. Until they find out they're not getting money from you. Simple fact.

P.S. Come on. No I didn't get in any fight with anyone. The blood in the picture is from one girl's leg after she stepped on glass at the pool and nobody noticed it until we got light and saw that the thing on the floor wasn't dirt but blood.

P.P.S. Oh, almost forgot. I accomplished one of the must-do things yesterday at the poolparty. Naked in a public place in India - check. I couldn't be bothered to go change pants in bathroom or so, so I did it next to the pool. I got some loud cheers from (drunk) locals. Locals went swimming with their jeans on as they were too shy to take even those off. Luckily we weren't that shy.