50/50

I’ll first update you on the stuff I did this past week briefly but I later want to tell you about the differences I’ve noticed here compared to Western culture.

This past week

We found a food court near our hotel and I had the best Subway sandwich I’ve had in a long time. Not because it was of good quality, but because it was a sandwich and tasted like home. We also met up with our German friends from Pondicherry at a nice restaurant and had some dinner and a few drinks and later went to a club. I couldn’t believe there was a club in Chennai and we found it to be kind of awkward but still nice to go to. There were plenty of brown-girl-wasted girls there after experiencing ladies night at the club so it was funny to see them not really dance and guys somewhat chase after them. Us white folks didn’t really get a chance to mingle with the locals because it didn’t really seem like they wanted to, which was okay with me.

Thursday we grabbed snacks at a grocery store after work and then Friday four of us went to the Hilton to the roof where they had a bar and a ladies night. This one was extra weird/cool because the girls could go behind this little bar and make your own drinks. The view was pretty cool but the crowd wasn’t exactly my style. Maybe it was this Indian guy, Ram, with a British accent who kind of ruined the vibe for me because I guess he comes out all the time and hits on all of the girls because he thinks he’s the shit. He ended up talking to me and by the end of the conversation I was probably the first honest person he’s heard from in a while when I told him that he has a big ego and is very close-minded

Oh, and our research is going well for the most part. Morgan and I created a procedures list for everything we need to test and how to go about it. Now we’re waiting to get trained on a certain machine which we thought we could have started today but we’ll have to wait for tomorrow. We’re also waiting to impact our samples which requires much coordination between people and labs but realistically I hope to get this done at the end of tomorrow or Wednesday.

In the meantime Morgan and I have come up with four ideas that can possibly help the severely disabled people (ages 18-21) at the local school for disabled children. The goal of the project is to create a very simple device where the student can either stamp paper using a pully device or cut paper using a push die cut device. The things they create will then be passed on to other students in the school to make folders, envelopes or cups and then will be sold to the public. By these severely disable people working on the first step of the process, they will earn a small salary and will for the first time, feel like a valuable and contributing member of society.

 

Differences I’ve noticed comparing Indian culture with Western culture

As I think I’ve mentioned before, the processes here seem to work in general but seemingly always have some sort of tweak that we’re unaware of. For this reason, we joke that there’s a 50/50 chance that anything we want to happen will happen. This 50/50 joke mostly applies when we’re ordering food.

Food

Even though a full menu is always offered it is very rare that every menu item is actually available. For this reason, we have learned to choose our top three choices from the menu before we order in hopes we can at least get our third choice when our first two are shot down. Sometimes it seems like the workers tell us they don’t have something just to make us frustrated because they sometimes smile as they deny our order.

The food itself though is very spicy. So much so that it’s almost painful to eat and my appetite drops. I’ve done my best to try new Indian food and to be open minded but at the same time it’s difficult to do so for this reason. This makes noodles and pizza sound appetizing for us, even it’s still a little spicy, because it’s at least familiar.

Nodding of the head – saying yes and no

First off, I don’t think I’ve heard an Indian say “no” straight up. I kind of think it’s because they probably weren’t allowed to say no to their parents growing up because respect of elders is huge here. It could also just be a culture thing in general. But this gets a little frustrating when we ask a simple question about India in general and if they disagree with what we say they’ll either not answer or give a round-about answer that we just get confused by

No one here shakes their head vertically up and down to say yes here. They will however move their head side to side and draw a small figure 8 with the crown of their head while you talk to them. By them doing this they are not only say “yes” but also that they understand/agree. This was quite confusing for us when we ordered omelets in the morning and the shook their head at us, left and didn’t say anything. That’s when the 50/50 comes back into play.

Education

Education is huge here and is a main topic in the newspaper. Just recently there was a big story that two girl students ranked in the top ten for the IIT entrance exam – the first time it’s ever happened. Not only that though, rankings of the engineering school are commonly posted in the newspaper and is a topic of discussion here. I knew that Indian parents really only encouraged their kids to be either engineers or doctors but seeing the hype about it here makes sense.

Even when I was looking at some children’s games in a store here they only showed math or puzzle games where the adult had to be involved to quiz the kid. There weren’t any silly games like the ones I had fun with as a kid.

Traffic

I would say traffic is more diverse and more crowded than it is at home. There are no large vehicles such as semis or even SUVs. The largest sized vehicle on the road is a bus, then maybe a truck that carries dirt, then next largest is a car that’s slightly bigger than an SUV. The ambulances are also small here because large cars are more difficult to maneuver on the road. Then you have a few mini vans, compact cars, then you get to the three-wheelers, auto-rickshaws. As I’ve mentioned before, auto-rickshaws are my favorite to ride because they can swerve in and out of places and are rather cheap. Last to squeeze in on the road are the two-wheelers, motorcycles (call bikes) and bicycles (called cycles here). Then there are people walking on the side of the road with the occasional stray dog and cow or goat.

In general, they drive on the left here because that’s what the British did which has made it difficult to cross a road sometimes. I feel accomplished when I cross half of the extremely busy road and then I have a habit of looking to the right to see if cars are coming when really I should be looking to the left. This has only put me in a close call once though so it’s okay. But it’s difficult to keep track of the traffic because everyone swerves in and out as much as possible. Thankfully though I did get a taste of this when I went to Turkey and learned at some points you just have to go without worrying about the others following you.

Trash

Finding a trash can here sometimes feels like hitting the lottery here. And don’t even think about asking me about recycling. But throughout the streets on campus there are a few animal shaped trash cans saying “use me” which I didn’t understand at first but maybe they’re shaped this way to encourage more people to use them. Otherwise trash gets thrown on the street often. This is still a bit uncomfortable for us because we don’t want to be a part of the problem by also throwing our trash on the road but at the same time we don’t want to carry our banana peel all the way home.

They do however have sweeper ladies who have small brooms that brush off the trash on the side of the road and garbage trucks at night to help clean up. On campus there are also women cleaning up the streets but there isn’t much, if any trash, they’re brushing off the leaves and sticks off the road which is a big jobs since the campus is pretty much in a jungle.

Clothes

Most all of the older women wear saris and the girls on campus will sometimes wear saris but most wear tunics with either loose-ish pants or leggings. I think leggings may be the more “edgey” look or something. Of course both of these options are incredibly colorful and have beautiful patterns. I really want a sari of my own but I’ve been told it would be really weird for me to wear a sari unless I was going to a wedding or a very fancy occasion. Hopefully I actually buy one before I leave.

I have bought one outfit (that I found out I paid too much for later) and actually brought some tunics over that my friend from home’s family gave me for this trip (thank you Mr. Srivastava!). My goal sometime soon though is to get fabric from a shopping center nearby and then bring it to a tailor to get some nice, comfy pants made that I can wear here and at home. I’m told that the tailors here are outstanding and can make most anything as long as you bring them a picture.

I’m kind of bummed though because I wish I would have brought more of my “normal clothes” because I only brought plain stuff that would be more conservative. But when I see other white people here, or even some fashionable Indian girls, they’re wearing clothes from back home which makes me feel like a bum in the clothes I have. At the same time I already get stared at by people on the streets as it is so I really don’t want to push the envelope too much.

Oh, and of course guys wear whatever they want. Mostly jeans and a t-shirt or button-up shirt. They’ll only wear shorts if they’re relaxing/hanging with friends or are boys but other than this they wear pants.

Censorship

Considering they played Django Unchained in the Open Air Theater and other intense movies on TV, they seemingly don’t sensor too many things. However, on TV they will block words such as ass, bastard, etc. We’ve also found it weird that every time smoking is mentioned in a TV show or movie, even in the movie theaters, they’ll show something like “smoking kills, don’t do it” on the screen.

Toilets

I’d say all but one toilet I’ve come across has been a Western style with the seat and everything but toilet paper will only be in the upper-scale places. We have to bring our own and normally these toilets smell terrible. Most also have like a showerhead next to the toilet to wipe their butt I guess but sometimes I’m curious what happens when I walk into a stall that is soaking wet.

 

I’m sure there’s way more I could write but I can’t really think of it now. I think for the most part I got the main differences I’ve noticed here. Look out for my next blog post hopefully sometime soon where I’ll talk about our trip to a local site with ancient ruins and temples which was pretty cool.

And now I’ll end the blog post how our chatty security guard friend, Lakshman (sp?), ends a conversation with us quickly and walks off:

Okay bye.