Bike Ride in Old Delhi & LPU

Sunday morning a select group of us went for a biking tour of Old Delhi led by a Canadian and an Aussie. Before we began the trip we saw bodies lining the streets trying to keep warm under blankets. This was a shocking experience for me. As I began to pick up on the trip, and as I later learned this is a Muslim area. I felt like I was in the middle east as I rode through. That may mainly have been because of the dress of the people. Mostly it was a lot of long loose layers with wraps around the head and shoulders trying to stay warm. In one specific section many men wore the Muslim flat topped hats. Part of what we went through was a meat market with carcasses and blood and brains everywhere. The roads were really hard to navigate as they were really tiny and filled with lots of pedestrians, bikers, 2 wheelers, people pushing large loads and a few cars. Here we rode past people sleeping in the streets, with doorless businesses lining them where some people also slept. I also saw people washing themselves in the streets with water from faucets. The poverty was really severe and heartbreaking. Alongside the businesses were little places the worship set up with music playing and/or incents burning. With all of this ruckus and life around us, the inhabitants were not put off by our large group of tourists riding through to observe them. Many people would even say hi and smile. There were animals, stray dogs and livestock also all over the streets. This would become a not uncommon sight in India. The stray dogs especially. Dr. Gupta said whenever the gov’t tried to do anything the animal rights people make a scene but I don’t see a problem with neutering the animals. The stray dogs made me so sad. Many we saw had barely any hair or were emaciated and I saw a few with limbs broken and bent backwards. I love my dog, as we say, “Man’s best friend!”

We stopped for a Chai tea which was amazing, so much better than what I’ve had in America. This we bought for about 10 rupees on the side of the road from a few men who ran their business from behind a piece of wood. Our guide told us that the government had dismantles this illegal business once, only for them to come back in a week and start back up again. Apparently this type of illegal business is not uncommon throughout India as well as the tendency for them to just come back a few days later.

We also stopped for lunch at Carim’s, supposedly top 10 in Asia. I was not impressed.

Next we headed on our long and uncomfortable ride to Punjab to Lovely Professional University. Things noticed while driving include lots of border security just to cross into another state, awful infrastructure, cows chillen in the streets, and “English” alcohol shops. I’m interested by alcohols place in Indian society. Dr. Gupta described it as similar to the US and a “hate- love relationship.” I didn’t spend enough time in India to get a proper feel for it but I felt that it was never really around and perhaps even a bit taboo.

Once we arrived at Lovely Professional University we met our e-buddies. I was really excited to meet mine since we had had plenty of email correspondence and she seemed like a really sweet girl. Her name is Deepna Dang. For the first night we had a bonfire and everyone danced around it. Here again I noticed people dancing shamelessly. All of our e-buddies really waited on us and treated us like we were something special but also ordered us around in an attempt to make sure we maximized our time there. I’m pretty uncomfortable having people wait on me, and I also don’t really care for being ordered around so this was one element of hospitality that I was happy to leave behind.

I saw Deepna’s room and she shared it with 4 other girls and they all had their beds pushed together. They didn’t have any heat or space heaters, and blow dryers weren’t allowed. Seemed like an awful place to live to me. But Dr. Gupta explained that sharing beds is much more common in India and I know in different cultures the concept of personal space varies so I can understand how an India wouldn’t mind.

I heard that there were different rules for men and women in the university. Men have no curfew and women have to be in by 6pm. Believing there was no way this could possibly be true I asked my ebuddy and not only was it true she didn’t mind! This I still cannot wrap my head around! If, as cultural anthropologist say, young people are basically the same all around the world- how do you reconcile that with this? Shouldn’t any young person want to seek independence and believe that they can make the best choices for themselves? And 6pm isn’t even like 10pm- it’s like you’re not even living, you’re just coming in for dinner and sitting in bed existing the rest of the night.

The next day we had a lecture at Lovely Professional University, visited a Hindu temple in Jalinder, and visited Lovely Autos and Lovely Sweets.

Some of the other students thought that the colors and idols and means of worshipping seemed more like an amusement park  than a temple and devalued the idea of worshipping. I can understand their point from a western background, but it seems arbitrary to me to assign one way of worshipping as meaningful and one was a meaningless especially on the grounds of how bright the colors are.

Along the same lines as that. Meeting Deepna made me think about the idea that Westerners are more civilized than brown people. As I was talking to this girl who was content to come in at 6pm every night and didn’t want to date until her parents chose a husband for her and thinking about the things I do I couldn’t help but think “This girl is way more civilized than me!”

At Lovely Autos they introduced to their “upgrade” business model. This means that in a growing middle class Lovely is encouraging their customers to upgrade from a bike to a 2 wheeler and from a two wheeler to a car.

At Lovely Sweets the manager was actually interest in our input in how to break into the American market.

India Gat & Indian Auto Expo

Saturday morning we went to India Gate, a monument dedicate to any Indian to die in any war. This was another really valuable culture shock (in a positive way) moment for me. The monument was impressive but what really moved me was the school children there. First we would wave to them and they would wave back. Then Dr. Gupta asked a few to show us how to dance. I was really taken aback by how willing they were to stop what they were doing and dance with us. This was also the first exposure I had to dancing in India which I found interesting. I think all people around the world love to dance but in American most people are having a few cocktails before they’re dancing so shamelessly. They taught us their style of movement and then wanted to shake our hands and ask us our names. They were so eager to talk with us and even take pictures of us. I think in America people wouldn’t want to talk to to strangers or do anything that might be deemed uncool- like dancing in the middle of the street.

Most of Saturday was spent at the Auto expo. I personally have absolutely ZERO interest in automobiles and would love to see their abolition in favor of improved public transit =), however India can be better understood through examining their auto industry. It’s a huge growth industry. The one thing people are the world know to say about India is “GROWING MIDDLE CLASS.” In fact it’s currently the largest in the world (second largest overall population, however). Where in the US 700/1000 people currently own cars, in India 7/1000 people own cars.

In the morning we sat down with an Indian parts manufacturer who does business in India, Europe and America. He said his business was hurt by the American automobile industry collapse, but not that badly because of diversification if other markets. He told us one example of his competitive edge that would be reiterated at other business visits. India and China are competitive in terms of price, but the quality in India far exceeds the quality in China.

In the afternoon we tried to see the European luxury cars but it was more like a mosh pit. We could barely stand let alone actually get a view of the cars. It was a good example that Indian people are interested in luxury items just as much as anyone else. This and other things have me wondering how increased opportunity, wealth and exposure to Western lifestyles will compromise Indian tradition as it has existed in the past. Not that a fancy car necessitates the abolition of say, arranged marriages. But what impact does it have? As cultural anthropologists say there is a negative correlation between wealth and spirituality except in the case of America. How will increased wealth and exposure change India in the decades to come?

We also got to see the nano- the worlds cheapest car at around $2000. I like everything this car brings to the table. On one end what it does for the environment in terms of low emissions. On another end for what it does in terms of opening up automobile ownership to a new market that before couldn’t have afforded one. This car makes a lot of sense in India where there is little space on the roads and most cars are smaller. In America people may be less interested in SUVs but are still weary of how safe something this small is in the event of an accident.

After the Auto expo we went to the Lotus temple.

At night we went out of Rajastani dinner. Walking there was quite the experience. Here we are getting more used to the fact that if we ever want to get anywhere we have to be comfortable walking in the streets with oncoming traffic. This was a pretty weary walk for me as I was so tired and not quite up for the adventure, it just felt really third world. Throughout the trip my classmates and I would express dismay at the infrastructure and also the HONKING! Honking was one huge cultural difference. In the US it’s considered mostly rude and in some places even illegal for sound pollution, but in India it was not considered rude but quite necessary or even polite if you wanted to not get run over, or to not run over the next guy.

First Impressions of India…

This is my first blog post about our 11 day tour of India. Our tour included business visits, tourist destinations, a stay at an Indian university, and parties with Indians. I plan to give a summary of the trip with more in depth discussion of the events that were more meaningful to me. Some of the themes that were important to me that I expect to be pervasive throughout my blog include security in India, Indians attitude toward visitors, and religion. My trip in India was a really valuable experience and I learned so much, yet I’ve accumulated more questions than answers.

When we arrived in India on Thursday night I was really surprised by how little culture shock I experienced. I remember when I first touched down in Europe it was like “WHOA THIS IS NOT AMERICA” but I did not feel much that first night. For this trip it came to me more slowly, specific events that really popped out at me.

Friday morning we walked around the city center a bit before we went about our activities for the day. We tried to enter a park but were unsuccessful because we couldn’t bring our cameras, and we couldn’t leave them. This was our first shock of the security in India. The park was fenced in and at the entrance point there were guards and a metal detector. No electronics. Is the security threat really that much greater in India compared to America and Western European countries I’ve visited, or do the Indians just take it more seriously? Only a few days before our departure the US Embassy issued a travel advisory to Americans traveling to India which my father printed and gave to me for airplane reading: http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/warden_information.html. It warns of terrorist attacks aimed at Westerners (places Westerners congregate) and civil unrest in Andhra Pradesh.

One thing that really struck me about this first walk around the city was the absence of tourists or expats. I could tell some Indians were tourists from other regions- but everyone was brown! I saw no white, black, or east Asian people. I certainly wasn’t expecting this in the second largest city in India. Throughout my trip here I continued to see hardly any foreign tourists or expats except for a handful at the tourist sites and religious pilgrimage sites. This lack of tourists was further perpetuated when Indians would ask to take pictures with me as if they’d never seen a white person before. Overall, I felt that Indians were honored to have tourists visit their country and an outside interest in India. Many Indians were really interested in our trip, our feelings about India and when we would be returning.

Next we went to the American Center (a satellite branch of the American embassy). Here we met two American diplomats that spoke to us a bit about India, Indo-American relations and their careers as diplomats. I am interested in working for the foreign service but as I understand it the application process is long so it’s not any first job out of college type thing, but something to keep in mind. Here we went through lots of security but I think that is standard for an American embassy.

Next we had the BEST LUNCH EVER!!!!!!!! My favorite of the trip to India, and one of my favorites of all time. It was south Indian. I really liked the light vegetable soups, similar to what I eat in America. Also we had some green vegetable food that was amazing! And the light airy bread. And the coconut chutney. I will post a picture. However I learned that I do not care for buttermilk and Jalebi is too much sugar, even for me.

Next we went to the Parliament museum. Here, again we saw the security as there had been a terrorist attack and you once could drive your car right up, you no longer could. We couldn’t bring our cameras in, and we went through the metal detector, bag search, pat down that would become standard for our trip. Here there were walk through displays assembled to learn more about India’s struggle for freedom. There were many different displays including pictures, life size reenactments and animated dolls. I did not learn much here unfortunately because the tour guides spoke low, unenthusiastically and not even to the entire group- it didn’t seem like they cared much about their jobs.

Next we stumbled upon a Sikh temple across the street. This was a really amazing experience, and one of those moments I spoke about that was really meaningful to me and gave me a culture shock- in a good way. As a huge group of non-Indian students all snapping pictures it was pretty clear to all worshipping there that we were not Sikhs. Yet, no one seemed put off at all by our being there. First we had to take off our shoes and wash our feet to enter. Then we had to cover our heads, which there were bandanas available for in case you were unprepared. Taking off your shoes and covering your head would be a common sign of respect in religious locals we visited on our trip. I am familiar with covering ones head in respect of God in Christianity and Judaism, this is one particular aspect of worship that I noticed to exist within many faiths (in India visiting eastern religion temples I noticed some aspects appear across faiths). I have never been asked to take my shoes off before. An internet search indicated this is done in order to keep the floor clean and people are constantly kneeling and sitting on the floor and also as a sign of respect and appreciating the effort to keep the property clean. Inside the temple people were sitting on the floor while others played music and one man sang (which was all broadcast on a speaker to the outside parts of the compound). Before we left we knelt on the floor to receive the Sikh holy food. Consumption of holy food is another reoccurring element I’ve found in Catholicism (eucharist), now Sikh, and also at the Hindu temple we visited a few days later. What was really unique about this was that we were invited to consume it even though we were not Sikh, not the case in Catholicism. In fact, in even a practicing Catholic, if in a state of mortal sin ought not consume the eucharist until they have confessed to a priest and atoned. On the way out of the temple compound Marissa took a picture with the Sikh guards knife and he did not mind. I was really moved by how welcomed we were at the temple. However, asking more questions about Sikhism I’m put off my the fact that they always carry knives. Dr. Gupta said that theirs is a religion founded as a manner of protection. I suppose you can compare this to the American democratic ideal that if you government doesn’t serve you well you ought to overthrow them. But do we really believe that anymore? Aren’t we mostly centralized (or apathetic) and believe in change through our established system (elections)? And for all of their carrying knives (or replicas) has their ever been incident of widespread Sikh violence?

Later that night we had a reception at the hotel. Here, everyone fell in love with paneer. We were given flower necklaces and blessings on our forehead.