India!

Hey everyone!

Here is my long-delayed India post I’m sure you’ve been looking forward to.
Simply put, India is a culture shock, and at first I felt a little nervous about wandering into Chennai, but I soon realized that, despite extreme poverty, everyone is extremely friendly. I think I had a better time staying in Chennai than many people did going to see the Taj Mahal (they said it was a little disappointing).

India isn’t pretty by any means, but it is full of energy and interesting sites. This will sound clichéd, but driving through the slums, where children were eating trash in the streets, really did make me realize how lucky I am, living in luxury compared to most people.

On the first day, I went out with a Semester at Sea group to see a Schizophrenia Research facility. I thought it would be very interesting to see how Indian treatment differed from American treatment. It wasn’t quite what I expected – we were ushered into an auditorium where we watched a movie and then asked questions to one of the doctors. We weren’t given a tour of the facility or allowed to meet any of the patients because of privacy regulations (which I can understand, but I was still disappointed).
One thing I found interesting: in America, many paranoid schizophrenics have delusions about a Christian God cursing them; in India, they have delusions about Hindu gods and goddesses, which seems obvious, but it’s funny how culture can shape your mind.

That night I went out with my friends Josh and Heidi, affectionately known on the ship as “The Couple,” because they’re always seen together. We went shopping at a few places and I bought a beautiful silk sari. I’m not sure when I’ll wear it in the US, but it’s gorgeous fabric, so I think I might have it made into a skirt or something. I paid Rs 1000 ($25 US) for it after talking the guy down from Rs 3800 ($95 US).

We then we out to eat at a very nice genuine Indian restaurant – we could tell it was genuine because the menu was completely written in Tamil and there were a bunch of traditionally dressed families. I asked for a chicken curry with some naan bread, and they brought the food out to us on big banana leaves – no silverware. In India, you are supposed to eat with your right hand (never eat with your left hand; I won’t go into details about why). So, we dug in. The food was delicious and eating with your hands is really fun because you feel like you’re rebelling against every piece of etiquette ever drilled into your head. Our bill for the entire meal only ended up being only Rs 480, or about $12 US.

A word about auto-rickshaws: I’ve traveled to a lot of places, and I’ve seen a lot of crazy driving, but Indian auto-rickshaw drivers are definitely the craziest. It’s so much fun riding around in them though.

The next day I went out to a shopping mall with a group of girls. We just checked out some of the local stores – most of them were along the same strain: lots of fabrics, small devotional statues made of wood or bronze, jewelry, rugs, clothes, pillows, hookahs, tea, and incense. I bought a few small souvenirs. Everything was incredibly cheap, and you could easily bargain the price even lower. I bought a Punjabi dress (google it for an idea of what it looks like), and they tailored it to my exact size. Altogether it was about Rs 600 ($15 US).

The following day I went out with another group of people to check out some of the temples in the Chennai area. Thanks to my Hindu class, I was able to recognize most of the gods and scenes portrayed on the temples, so it ended up being really fascinating. My favorite deity is Saraswati, the goddess of education, knowledge and fine arts. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay out long looking at the temples because it started pouring rain, and we were all eager to get back to the ship and get dry.

That night we went back out to a hookah bar, led by the inter-port student Kanishka. Kan is from Chennai and goes to school there. He was invited to sail on the ship as an ambassador, so he flew to Mauritius and sailed with us to India. He gave a few presentations and was available to answer all of our questions. We got to be pretty good friends, and he picked us up from the ship in his own car and took us out for the night. The hookah bar was a lot of fun, even though I wasn’t really interested in the hookah smoking. The food was incredible though, and they had good coffee. Then we went to a nightclub, which was a lot different from an American nightclub, but still very upper-class (and expensive). In India, you can’t sell alcohol past 11 p.m., so the bar closed at that point and we went back to the ship.

The next day was my last day in Chennai and I got up early to go out with some friends. We asked our rickshaw driver to stop at an ATM so my friend could take out some money. He stopped at an ATM that was enclosed in glass, for security, and the glass had a thin crack across it. My friend went in and got his money, but when he went to reopen the door, the glass cracked even further and when he tried to push the door open, the glass shattered everywhere. This caused a huge commotion in the area, and everyone came out to see what was going on. The police were called, and a representative from the bank had to come, so we were there for about an hour an a half while everything got straightened out. They wanted my friend to pay $500 for the damage, even after he explained that it was an accident and that the glass had already been cracked when he tried to use it. Finally, when he explained he was on the ship, and said he was going to call the dean, they let us leave without having to pay for the damage. Pretty intense situation.

After that we walked around a market for awhile, and went out to a restaurant where I had amazing chicken marsala and a sort of sweet and sour soup that was delicious. My favorite thing about coming in to each port is trying the food, and Indian food was not disappointing. It didn’t upset my stomach either, which was fortunate. Many people from Semester at Sea came back on the ship with upset stomachs after India.

My only regret about India is that I didn’t get out of Chennai. According to a bunch of my friends, Delhi, Agra and Vernaci were incredible. I didn’t care too much about seeing the Taj Mahal (and the Semester at Sea trips were way too expensive), but I would have loved to see some other Indian cities just to get a taste of how they’re different from Chennai. I’ve heard that Chennai is not a good representation of India as a whole. Maybe I’ll have to come back someday!