India is giving me writer's block in the style of a Mumbai traffic jam. The worthy topics are far too ample, crammed together in little spaces in my head, barely evading collision as they zip about in unreliable patterns. There are not enough words from them to drive on together, so for the time being all I can spit out are cut phrases.
Here are some of the amazing things I have learned and observed thus far:
Construction in India is particularly, uh, interesting. The worker have no helmets, safety goggles, boots. Actually, they don't even wear shoes and often not a shirt. They squat around the site looking casual enough for Bartley to wonder out loud if they weren't possibly just here of their own accord, hacking at the road. Scaffolding is made of bamboo rods lashed together with rope.
Chai! Chai, chai, chai. I drink like 4 of them a day without trying. Yesterday, Bartley and I stopped at a chai-wallah (i.e., two guys crouching in what could be called a storefront only it was on a dirt road and was made of what appeared to be found object construction materials). There was a group of Indian fellows standing around it and chatting as if at the water cooler who seemed to be from all walks of life... this is where the neighbors meet. We got two chai (always served hot in spite of the heat, but I am getting used to that) and drank them. The men were not-so-surreptitiously observing us; I couldn't determine if it was friendly curiosity or something else. But as we tried to pay (Rs 6, each, and remember that Rs 50 = $1) they all smiled at us and the kid dishing out the tea indicated they'd picked up our bill. We hadn't even talked to them! All we could do was smile back and say "danya van!"
All the food is soooooooooooooo. good. So good! And I haven't once had a meal involving basmati rice or curry, the variety is endless. I am getting to just ordering something at random to find out what it is, as it is all veg anyway.
Hopefully I will soon be able to make cohesive thought patterns out of some of the other stimulation I've recieved.
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