Sweeping Indian Style
Prajwal’s family lives in a state called Sikkim and foreigners need a special permit to enter Sikkim so we went to the Sikkim House, a kind of Sikkim consulate turned Hotel for Sikkimese people. I needed a passport photo for the permit and we stopped at a local photo shop on the way to get one made. They took my photo in the back room and then a guy Photoshopped my image to make my hair shorter and darker, to clean up my complexion and to make me whiter than I already am. He was very good at it but the final product looks like it could be my cousin instead of me. On the way to the consulate in our auto we were stuck at a long line in traffic waiting for the lights to change and kids came up with their arms full of magazines trying to sell them. Prajwal asked the kid who came to our auto if he had any “India Today” magazines and the kid raced off to find one. Suddenly the light changed and we moved forward in our auto towards the intersection. I looked over at the kid to see a terrified look on his face as we moved closer and closer towards the intersection and away from him without paying for the magazine, he had ran so quickly to obtain. Surprisingly the auto in front of us stopped at the red light, instead of running it as seems custom here. The kid brought over our magazine and Praj bought it from him. Then all of his other magazine selling friends came over and tried to sell us their magazines also. Prajwal told them in Hindi that we only wanted the one and they could go away. One of the kids, not the one we had bought the magazine from, was repeating everything Prajwal said, mocking the way in which he apparently butchers the Hindi language. We also stopped at the Delhi Tourism office, still on the way to Sikkim House, to book a trip for Wednesday to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. The Tourism office hours are 1pm – 8pm and we arrived around 2:15 unfortunately the office was not yet open. Prajwal explained that this is very common for people to not start work on time and that they often run an hour or two late. We decided to head to the Sikkim House first and then to come back. At the Sikkim House getting the permit was very easy. I had to fill out some paperwork with information from my passport, provide them a passport style photo and a copy of my passport. After I got my permit Prajwal beamed with pride as to the promptness and efficiency of the Sikkim House and the Sikkimese people over the other Indians. We talked with a man at the Sikkim House that told us of a company that would take us to Agra for half the price of the Delhi Tourism office and so we called the company and booked a trip to Agra for Wednesday.
In the apartment that we are staying at in Delhi there are only so many restaurants within walking distance and we had already hit them all up several times, so we decided to check out McDonalds. I know I know, but I LOVE McDonalds, and doing it once it’s so terrible! The only choices that we have in America are the Fish Fillet, McChicken and Chicken Nuggets. I ordered a McChicken meal with the sandwich plain and with cheese added. What I got was a McChicken meal (that wasn’t plain) and an extra McChicken with cheese. When I said plain, he thought I meant a sandwich without a meal in addition to my meal. Not only is the menu drastically different so are the items with the American names. The McChicken was more like a Crispy Chicken and the fries weren’t like McDonalds fries at all. I guess that’s what I get for eating at McDonalds in India.
I’m not sure if it was the McDonalds or something else but Praj was making liquids out of the place the solids are supposed to come. Luckily, knock on wood, I have yet to feel this way despite my enormous consumption of foods. Most people here do not use toilet paper after they go to the bathroom and instead use water, either from a bucket or a sprinkler head. In one of the dozen bathroom breaks we took during the day Praj was using the sprinkler when suddenly the water turned scolding hot. He screamed and lost his balance hitting his head on the hot air dryer, activating it covering his front with hot air while he was being burned with hot water on his backside. I have been fortunate enough to always have toilet paper when I needed it and have been able to avoid such problems.
When we got back to the apartment Prajwal was in no mood to go anywhere and so we looked online and in my travel guide to figure out our plans for the next couple of days. I read names of places from the book and Prajwal ridiculed my terrible pronunciation. He forbid me from trying to pronounce cities and made me spell them to him so he could pronounce them instead. All of a sudden for no real reason at all we decided that we were tired of Delhi and wanted to get out. I searched online and Praj called various airlines. We wanted the cheapest tickets out of Delhi to somewhere, nay anywhere in Delhi as long as it was cheap and was tomorrow. After hours of searching we found a decent fair to Goa, a state along the Southwest coast of India, and booked it for Wednesday. We called the tour company and canceled the trip to Agra, we will go there later.
We went to dinner at a Nepalese girl’s house at 10:30 but we prepared this time and ate a snack before coming in case of another late dinner. By late I of course mean later than the specified 10:30pm dinner time. The girl who we went to visit and eat with lives with her sister in the nicest apartment I have seen in Delhi, she had large marble looking tile floors and crown molding. In India everything has its own switch on the wall, so it is common to have 5 or 6 switches in a room to control outlets, lights and fans. This girls living room had recessed lighting instead of the normal fluorescent tubes and every light had it’s own switch. One of the two switch plates required to turn on the recessed lighting had 17 switches. We didn’t end up eating until 1:30am and we only got to eat because we both kept yawning and persisting that we eat. Since it was so late when we finished the autos were no longer running and we stayed on the floor, I on a 3” mattress and Prajwal on a 1” piece of soft foam. We slept in air conditioning for the first time since I have been in India and Prajwal slept like a king despite only having 1” of foam, oh how he loves AC.
Lighting
1 of 2 Switch panels in the room
At Dinner
Free food!
Indian Ramp
Magazine Kid
Traffic
Building a house with real wood supports
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