Leapfrog

My first day in Palampur was incredibly eventful. It started with a bollywood-fueled swaying bus ride and ended with running through hail laughing with some new Indian friends who spoke no english.

I was escorted to the bus by the lovely Shankar, and in the process I learned quite a bit about him, which was really nice. The Delhi metro system is its own experience. The sardine can cliche comes to mind, but it’s more intense than that because there is pushing and a real alive intensity. What was incredible is that if there was even a tiny nugget of space in the entire car a no-go semi circle would form around me, as if my foreignness was pushing people away, and people turned towards me to watch as a simply rode the metro. It was an odd experience for sure.

The bus station was also its own world, but in a very expected, seemingly very Indian way. Shankar got the bus number from an attendant and made sure I got on the right bus reminding me that Palampur was actually one stop from the end and to pay attention. The bus itself was very comfortable, cushy chairs and AC promised a comfortable journey.

Watching the night light skyline of Delhi grow and shrink was beautiful and fascinating, night time is very different from daytime in that city. Night is the time for trucks bulging with sacks of grain and trailers carrying the bodies of international airplanes to take over the road. The whole experience was otherworldly, probably a combination of the constant Bollywood soundtrack music videos playing in the front of the bus and the florescent lights stuck in trees all along the edges of the road.

The bus journey was monotonous and full of dozing until the started to rise at about 4:50am, and then it became its own experience and entertainment. The built up dust city had fallen away completely, there were monkeys traveling along the side of the road and buildings built so effermerally out of twigs that they made you doubt the occupants attachment to this world. That drive up crazy winding roads going too fast in a bus that was too big gave me a real sense of what I was driving into, a really good idea of the world I was entering.

I got off at the right stop thanks to the kind girl sitting next to me, (she was a real testament to the power of positive thinking, my only thought once I got settled in on the bus was that I wanted a female seat companion.) After a couple minutes of puzzled awkward standing around a car pulled up in front of me and the driver motioned me in after a quick volunteering confirmation. He drove me to my accommodation where I quickly showered and passed out for awhile as night buses are not all that restful.

I woke up a couple hours later when Caitlin, my roommate and new friend was due to arrive as she chose to fly. We were then given very muddled instructions on how to take the bus to the market, but our coordinator followed on his motorbike, the preferred method of transport in India, so we made it just fine. It can take two buses to get from our very nice little house to the market, which is in the center of Palampur, and although they are often overcrowded, a ride costs 3 rupees, or about a nickel.

We explored the market with our guide for a little while and then picked up a couple of essentials for the week before trying our best to catch the bus back on our own. I am confident we would have eventually found one going in the right direction, but we were helped out by a guy who spoke surprisingly good english who we later found out worked for adobe. He was very nice, and offered to give us his number if we needed further help, but we politely declined.

Finally we were on our way back! I don’t think I’ve ever touched that many people at one time in my entire life. I was amazed the bus still drove forward after packing that many people in. I leaned over to Caitlin and whispered “Well, nobody said it was luxury travel.” and we kept joking about becoming one with the bus the rest of the ride. There was one person on the bus who had understood that we wanted to get off at the school so when we got there we were waved off. I have never been so relieved to leave a form of public transportation.

We were happy to be off of the bus but we were confused. The coordinator had made it seem like the bus would drop us off at the same stop we left from, which was opposite a steep hill from the school, but we had ended up right in front of the school. The sky was darkening, rain was definitely approaching, which would in any other circumstance be totally welcome– it had been HOT that week in Delhi, even the locals thought so, but now we were well on our way to becoming lost. We followed the direction the bus had gone in and decided to take a well-traveled trail up the side of the hill, as we knew we wanted to be opposite the school.

We followed that path for a while, passing a couple cows as is normal in India, and I started to get nervous. Caitlin was still in a good mood, she loves rainstorms and wouldn’t mind getting caught in one, but I was worried about what that much water would do to infrastructure in the area and we were without a working phone. When the well traveled path we were following faded and turned into more of a cow path I sharply demanded that we find someone and borrow their phone as a response to her suggestion that we keep following it.

So we turned around and walked up a path to some nearby houses where a family happened to be relaxing outside (the weather in Palampur is much nicer than Delhi) I said hello and when the girl asked if I spoke Hindi I said no and just said the word telephone, holding my hand up to my ear. She smiled and said “Of course” disappearing inside to grab a phone for us to use. We called our coordinator, and when he didn’t pick up the first time I started to get really nervous. We called again and he picked up, Caitlin told him we were lost while I asked the girl if she would talk to him. She took the phone and had a quick conversation with him in Hindi, the result of which was that she would guide us to a nearby road and he would come pick us up. The whole family was lovely and gave us chairs to sit in while we made the call. There was lots of smiling and laughing, they politely asked us for a quick picture and of course we agreed. Caitlin got one on her phone too, it was the first “Selfie! Selfie!”- like request we were happy to agree to.

As they showed us the way down to the road, of course traveling as a group with the foreignors, it began to rain. And then the rain got a bit harder. And then the wind started, blowing the dust that stayed firmly on the ground all day right into our faces. There was much laughing and squeaking during this walk as we established that we were American and that we did, indeed, have a Facebook. I look forward to friending her as soon as I get back online. The rain was getting pretty hard at this point so we were happy to climb in the car waiting for us with our coordinator inside. We waved and then watched them scramble back up the hill.

As we were driving back to our place we heard a thump on the roof. Then suddenly there were more thumps and it was full on hailing on us in India! We couldn’t believe it, the quiet day had turned so violent so quickly, some of the hail was approaching ping pong size. We actually had to wait in the car for a little while even though we had driven basically up to the front door it was so crazy.

We ran out of the car with the intention of climbing the outdoor stairs that led to our room but the family that lives downstairs waved us in and we had a lovely cup of tea, watching the sky fall down outside in the dark nibbling on biscuits. When it was over the ground was white with hail, but only for a little while, as it was still warm out and it melted quickly.

What a day! So far Palampur has been more than beautiful and the window I was looking for into Indian culture, but also incredibly exciting.

Day 3:

Day 3 in Delhi was my first day of cultural orientation. I went in expecting to dive into Hindi, but we actually talked about joint families, arranged marriages, and the caste system. It was really interesting, even if much of the information was previous knowledge, but the real highlight of the morning for me was when Rajeev brought out his wedding album and showed us all of his wedding pictures. He and his wife got married in 1978 and the combination of traditional dress and bell bottoms was absolutely amazing.

We spent the afternoon at the Central Market, which had been recommended to us by the incomparable Shankar as we both really wanted to expand our small wardrobes with some traditional Indian dress. I ended up getting two tops which I really like and Caitlin was also very successful.

We then headed back to our little apartment for a family style dinner with the other volunteers. Indian home cooking really makes you feel like you belong in a place.

Day 4:

Our second day of orientation was truly more focused on Hindi, which was great. I filled 6 pages of my notebook with helpful words and phrases as well as pure vocabulary. We practiced a little bit and mispronounced virtually everything and promised Rajeev that we would practice when we got home.

Rajeev then invited us into his home, which was right upstairs where Shankar had magically appeared and let us watch him cook for while, showing how much and what to add to the deliciousness. The only thing we got to touch was the roti (my favorite part) which is a flat bread which magically puff up as you cook it. Oddly enough, we didn’t get to eat that meal, but we got some food at a place nearby.

We spent the afternoon at the Red Fort, which was beautiful and amazing. We hadn’t been to old Delhi yet and wanted to see the old part of the city before we left. The Red Fort isn’t just a fort, it was the home/ compound of the Mughal emperors, and you can tell. There are many beautiful white and red buildings on the inside, separated by shockingly green grass, a true luxury in Delhi. We decided to relax in the shade on the grass for awhile and watch the kids play while cooling down. It was a lovely afternoon.

One odd thing about this place is being asked for selfies by strangers while simply living your life, merely because you look different. It is just really weird.

Day 5:

Friday was another sightseeing day with the Lotus Temple, Qutab Minar, and Humayun’s Tomb. It was hot, as it was that entire week, but the sights were beautiful. I think the pictures speak well for these places.

We wanted to see a movie on our last night in Delhi so we looked up the trailer to the movie showing at the right time, and we really liked it, so we headed to the theater which actually meant going back to the mall. Who knew that the first time I went to the mall twice in one week would be in India…

When we got to the theater we discovered that there was no way we could see the movie with English subtitles, which wasn’t totally unexpected, but we were still so disappointed we decided to see the movie showing in English, which was the new X-Men movie. It was really good and we both felt like we were no longer in India by the end of it. One odd experience was the fact that there’s an intermission in the middle of the movie in which everyone left and then came back with more snacks, as my Papa pointed out, a winning combination of concession sales and AC-time lengthening.

Spending time in that movie and at that mall really gave me a sense for the entitled feeling among the wealthy elite I had been warned about but hadn’t truly expected. It seemed like all of the rich Indians were being rude to staff and acting as if their interests were the only one’s on the earth that mattered. My instinct was that if you are surrounded so completely by such desperate poverty an easy defense mechanism would be to feel as if you had a right to a better life, a feeling supported by a society divided into castes.

Final Thoughts on Delhi:

Delhi is a complicated city, as so many big cities are. The harsh disparity between rick and poor here is difficult to process and the city itself seems to always be on the attack, a constant offensive in overstimulation. It is just so completely and incredibly hot– this was a record breaking week in India; the air is dust, its presence is even more constant than people trying to sell you something; and then there is the noise, the cars, the people, the peacocks. Delhi’s an overwhelming place. Those things aren’t pleasant, but they seem easier than the constant pressure created by the old and the new, the east and the west, squeezing together in a place only designed for one. You can feel the tension as sandal sellers pushing carts cross in front of the apple store. It is uncomfortable, like the city is uncomfortable, and although it is a place full of the comforts of the West, I am ready to see something new. On to Palampur!

P.S. There are lots of photos in the Gallery!

My journey to Delhi was kind of smooth, but there were a few complications. My plane from Istanbul to Almaty (Kazakhstan) was over an hour late and my connecting time in Almaty was just over an hour so I was really worried that I was going to miss that flight. The aggressive old Kazakh ladies with full sets of gold teeth didn’t make my experience any better. When I arrived in the Almaty airport there was a small beautiful Kazakh lady saying “Delhi! Delhi?” and I ran up to her, followed her wildly motioned instructions and was driven out to the plane. I was the last person on it and I watched the beautiful Kazakh mountains as we flew away.

The rest of the trip was fairly smooth, exploding pens from the air pressure aside, and the passport control in Delhi was very smooth. We landed, I got through passport control, took out money, met the representative from my program, and we were on the road 45 minutes later. And I was in Delhi.

Dheeraj drove me straight to my accommodation, which is basic, but comes with two guardians who make the four of us breakfast and dinner. It is very luxurious for something that is not at all luxurious.

That evening we were taken by auto rickshaw to Dilli Haat, a famous market where you pay an entry fee and then wander around in incense-perfumed air making fun of the “REAL PEARLS” signs with your new friend. The other girls in the program did some shopping, but I held off and just got some dinner.  This was my first real experience of India heat, and I knew pretty immediately that the temperature was going to be one of life-centers for the next three weeks.

Sleep came easily that first night. The heat sucks the energy right out of you, and the AC in our room comes on at 9:00- once the air cools down the beds look very appealing.

Day 1:

My first full day in Delhi started with a delicious homemade breakfast. Afterwards we were driven from our little apartment to the office space where we were given our first half-day orientation. The coordinator is a very kind man who is shrunken in the way older people often are, and he proceeded to give us a safety good humored safety talk as well as talking about the history of some of the most famous Delhi monuments. The room had a fan, a detail that I now notice with 100% laser-beam focus. Driving around is my favorite part of being in Delhi so far, watching the roads feels like a very honest way to experience daily life here.

I spent the afternoon just napping and catching up with my emails, which isn’t very exciting, but helped me feel a bit more grounded and needed to happen. I woke up to a freshly cooked dinner and headed to bed soon after.

I did have a bit of a freak out that evening, but that was more due to the fact that I was reading upsetting news stories than the fact that I was in India. I managed to get ahold of my Dad and he calmed me down. Thankies Papa!

Day 2:

I was expecting to launch straight into my Hindi lessons and cultural orientation but Day 2 turned out to be a sight-seeing day. We were driven by air-conditioned car to the India gate, The Lakshmi Narayan Temple, and Akshardham Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the world. These temples were beautiful, but as they are in use, no pictures inside are allowed. Dheeraj, who picked both of us up from the airport, guided us through all of these places, telling us the stories of the Gods, and giving us a sense of Hinduism.

Interestingly, we were the only western tourists at these sights, almost every other visitor was Indian, presumably spending their summer vacations in Delhi.

Akshardham temple was overwhelming in its scale and its attention to detail- every inch of that building is covered in hand-carved Gods, elephants, peacocks, and other traditional designs, but I actually preferred the Lakshmi Narayan temple, where people came not to look and to gawk, but to pray.

We spent that evening at the mall, which felt about as dishonest as it sounds. We had asked to go to an inside market and this is where Shankar, one of the guys who looks after us, had recommended. The AC was definitely a blessing and I was able to get peanut butter, so overall it was a successful mission.

India so far:

This is the place that truly feels the most different- which it is, but I feel far away in a way I hadn’t before and I feel unsure in a way I hadn’t before, which is good, I think, because that’s what I was going for. It’s not the food, the dress, the language, or even the insane that driving (though those things help) that really makes it feel like you’re in a totally different place, it’s the underlying feeling that there is something deep and important that you don’t understand, that you could never understand. It doesn’t help that everywhere else I’ve traveled so far I could conceivably be from that place, I may have stood out as a tourist, but it wasn’t inconceivable that I was a local. Here there is no chance of that, but I’m an outsider in a much more meaningful way than simply what I look like.