June 18, 2008
As we flew over Batman, Turkey (no, seriously, Google-map it… it’s there), we suddenly changed course to avoid the northern tip of Iraq by just miles, and entered western Iran. We then headed east for what seemed like hours (Iran is REALLY long) and suddenly swerved to avoid Afghanistan, entering southern Pakistan instead. Can you tell I had fun watching my little flight-tracker map?
Anyway… unfortunately I have just lost my digital camera in a taxi, but as of now I still do remember some of the funny pictures I took. One of them was of a sign at the airport, which read: “Did you know you are most welcome in Mumbai right now?” Also, the recent tourist campaign put on by the Indian government, with the slogan “Incredible India” was continued on a tour bus parked in my neighborhood… “Incredible India: the slogan with which we use to woo tourists!”
As for my accomodations, for 12,000 Rupees ($280/mo) I have a bed-and-breakfast room with my own entry and bathroom, a maid who serves breakfast/dinner, cleans the room, washes/irons laundry (the owner of the house has a gardener as well, and a driver to drive him to work), and a driver of a car called an Ambassador (looks extremely 1948ish, Britain) to drive me to/from my work sites, chartered by my employer. American employers better step it up, I’ll have increased expectations now!!!
I have been going to sleep at 10 pm every night and waking up at 6 am. The last time I remember doing this consistently was before age 12. You get so exhausted from doing nothing all day that you have no choice but to doze off- the heat is ridiculous. If I actually had hard work to do, I don’t know how I wouldn’t just sleep at 6 pm.
Some totally disjointed notes:
Men wear dhotis all over the neighborhoods, and in the business area wear business casual, and nowhere is a tie seen, thank god. Let’s import their fashion trendsetters to America. Women wear sarees almost exclusively. I have seen less than ten women in Chennai wearing western clothes. Those that are wearing sarees range from dirt-poor beggars to business women; regardless of economic status, they are almost always spotless, magnificent, and match the hair tie, shoes, nail polish, pants, and tops underneath. Most women also have white jasmine flower garlands in their hair, sold by streetside vendors. Tamil equivolent of a lei?
Tamils enjoy honking. A lot. In Chennai, and New Delhi, I learned it to mean all those things, in addition to the more common “hello!”, “I’m passing”, “excuse me sir”, etc. etc. It is used for even turning corners, when there is no one else around, just to alert others of your existence, which is whizzing by at breakneck speeds.
Sometimes my rickshaw driver uses hand signals to turn, just as a BICYCLE would…. then, a few times, I have had them stop at a corner store for a big bag of betel nuts (their version of chewing tobacco), excusing themselves with an unintelligible “ng one” (hang on?). Thankfully, you figure out your fare before hand, so no meter is running- they are so untrustable with meters that you always strike a deal before. If not, they will tell you the meter isnt working, and there is a new rate… so you have to pay ____ more than what it says. Recent improvisations have included stopping at a petrol station immediately after picking me up and then asking for me to pay for the refill, and stopping at the destination street instead of at the destination number AND street, and, claiming confusion and mistranslation, directed to pay extra for delivery to actual destination.
Power outages hit about once per hour at the work sites (factory sites) and a few times a day at home. Power returns very shortly but all work sites have giant generator buildings, out of (qualified) distrust of the power grid. Interestingly, much power is privately owned- not all governmentally. The power outages are times in between one grid- it is rerouted once one fails. Nobody bats an eye when this happens- it’s someone sneezing or something.
Cricket is so popular here that there are 48 Murugappa teams that play each other, yet none other sports (I inquired). I was asked on the first day to join, even though I don’t play or even know the rules of cricket. Basketball and baseball are virtually unknown, and soccer is a distant second to cricket. No one even cares about rugby. I thought that was a Commonwealth thing? Apparently not. Games last twice as long as American sports; we’ll see how long I last on our weekend-ly matches. I am to be “batsman” as they tell me baseball is the closest I can get to cricket; basketall experience is not relevant.
I attended a heated collective bargaining session conducted entirely in Tamil at Carborundum Universal Ltd.’s Maraimalainagar plant today. Every once in a while, math entered into the equation, to which I was thankful to the Arabs for a brief moment, for their invention so long ago. Otherwise, all was lost on me. Afterwards, it was translated for me the Employer wanted their 10 points pushed, mostly increased performance (and pay associated with an increase in the latter), and the union wanted: less work.
On a finishing note, I would like to send you an email an MILR colleague of mine sent to me explaining why my scheduled last day of work was quite an interesting choice of dates:
“You obviously wouldn’t have seen the irony in the white man leaving from India on August 15th: its our independence day – when the English gave up and left 
“
-G
