A Friendly Face

It’s official. I have made a friend that does not bite me when I am asleep...that’s akward...I am referring to mosquitos. But on the real, I made a friend, his name is Naeem. I told him my name and he muttered something in Hindi to himself and smirked, I’m interested to see if he came up with a joke I haven’t heard about my name. He is my rickshaw driver, he drops me off to work and picks me up when I am done, a 20 minute ride for a mere 80 Rupees each way (2 bones). Not bad, but it adds up. He has 3 children and is committed to doing everything in his power to support them in their schooling and any other extracurricular activity they want to pursue. Parent support doesn’t change in India, at least in Naeems family. He’s a real nice dude, he drove me past the political buildings and talked about how there are anti-Muslim parties but he still loves everyone because “if I have animosity to God’s people he created then I have animosity towards God”, what a cool dude. There must be some kind of happy pill in his Chai or Curry.

Last night, I was feeling a little bummed out because it was starting to hit me how far away I was from everything. But a few phone calls here and there and I am doing much better. Yesterday I had a chance to go to the “mall” after work and I ate the McDonalds, this was my second time doing this in India and hopefully my last. It was worse than the first time; I’m not a fan of the McMaharajaAlooKebabChutneySaladChickenLambVegetarianNugget Burgers. (They deliver in Delhi 66-88-666)

Earlier this morning at work, the power went out while we were working and I looked around and not a single person flinched. People carried on their conversation and funny sounding sounds to add expression to their words without a care for what just happened. One girl’s computer simply turned off and she got up and started to talk to her friends without a complaint. All while I was looking around wondering what the hell was going on? (I shouldn’t have been surprised, given our office is in an interesting location) Until I finally asked what was going on, this elicited laughs throughout the office because it is a common occurrence I guess (“Aysa Hota Hai, Kya Karanggain bhai?” this stuff happens, what are we gonna do bro?), but it shows the level of tolerance and patience with stuff they can’t control. It reminded me of the black-out day in Canada, not to say that if that happened in India there wouldn’t be discomfort, but perhaps to a lesser extent.

The girl next to me brought me a SIM card today, her name is Gun-gun (pronounced ‘goon goon’), I hate cell phones, but I am forced to carry one. She always laughs at me; I just can’t seem to figure out what she is always laughing at.

After lunch, the company I am with (ARAVALI) was putting on a work shop for some other NGO’s so I went to the location; it was a really cool drive on the way there. I saw the industrial area of Jaipur, it was relatively developed minus the fact that there is no A/C and we’re talking 40 degrees celcius here, so I decided to not stay the night (there’s something about pants, 40 degree weather and sweat that just doesn’t do it for me) and take a drive home to my hotel where there is A/C and internet, hence the blogging. But on the way home, it was very interesting. Only in India can an almost one lane road be turned into a narrow two lane road. This congestion, annoyance, horn honking, people screaming, car banging, cow mooing atmosphere was made further uncomfortable by the fact that we were stuck behind a tractor hauling another tractor, not even John Grisham could save me this time for it was dark so I had to simply take it all in. It was a very poor neighbourhood and the road was bumpy to say the least. Nonetheless, I am home, safe and comfortable after a 20 minute drive was turned into an hour.

An semi cultural difference story; at the workshop we did introductions, we had to write down on a paper our name, organization, career aspiration and answer “what do you do when your stomach hurts?” The first three were easy breezy, but the last one made everyone laugh hysterically.......at me, because I answered; “I go to the washroom, lock the door and turn on the fan”. Implying, I go to take a dump if need be. I forgot that the fans are always on here so I don’t think they understood what I was trying to say; do my business, eliminate the smell. Instead they now think that this is a home remedy for stomach pains brought over from Canada.
Sorry for the length, hope I didn’t bore you guys, I know what boring feels like...

Khalfan