8 months after India

It's been 8 months since I've returned from India and I have yet to complete my "journal" on my experience in India. I sent out three rounds of my writings to friends and family and that has been it. I'm putting it here so that I'll remember to finish off by year end.

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Hi guys,

As you all know, I'm finally back from India after one month of eating tosai, idli, capatis and riding around in Autos. So...what can I say about my experience there?? Was it fulfilling?? Was it like the Tamil movies we watch?? It was all that and more.

So I arrived in Chennai on Feb 13 at 9.15pm and my first impression of the airport was: Disappointment. It didn't look like what I expected it to be but then again, I may have expected too much. After all, it's India!!!

Pass the immigration and having collected my luggages, the next thing I saw was a sea of men. I didn't expect to see so many men and so few women. It later hit me that this was due to the female infanticide that is so rampant in India.

Back to my "first" impression(s)...the next thing I was introduced to in India was the Indian Horn and the Indian-Way-Of-Driving. I was literally hanging on to my seat as the driver of the Jeep swerved left and right through the traffic. It didn't help that there were roadworks going on and a fly-over being built out of nowhere. And to top it all, my vehicle had no air-con and so we travelled for 2.5hrs with the windows down, breathing in dust.

I came to India thinking that I was going to stay in the city but when I arrived, I was told (to my chagrin) that we're heading straight for the village.

So after a dusty and "rocky" 2.5hr drive from the airport, we finally arrived at Arakkonam (the small village where I stayed). The driveway was so dark, the only thing I saw was BLACK. Though there was a single light bulb that was lit, it was not enough. But since we were so tired and were ready to drop our bags and just sleep, we did not bother about our surroundings. We did not even bathe!!

I got up at about 8am the next morning and my first thought was COLD!!! My feet were frozen and the MAS blanket that I "took" did not provide sufficient protection.

Anyway, I got a pleasant surprise when I went to take my bath. The bathroom actually had a heater. They call it a BOILER and if you want hot water, you'll have to switch it on a few minutes before you have your bath. Nevertheless, I was glad to have hot water coz I came to India thinking I was going back to the basic of basics.

Once cleaned and dressed, I stepped out of the room and oh my God...the blackness that greeted me the night before was replaced by a beautiful view. There were trees all around, a playground, a well and even a hut that is used as a day-care center. As I was taking in the view, a lady came and informed me that "Tiffen" was ready. Not knowing what she meant, I said ok and smiled and she walked off. An hour later, the lady came back and told me that breakfast was ready; and as my supervisor and I started on our breakfast of idli and dhal, the lady informed us that "Tiffen" meant food or meal!!!! Breakfast had been ready an hour earlier and because of the language barrier, there were already misunderstandings!! HAHA!!

Anyway, after breakfast, my supervisor (Marjo) and I decided to get down to work. Much to our dismay, the laptop that we brought with us malfunctioned. It could be switched on but there was no image on the monitor!!! After desperate and expensive calls back to Malaysia, we found out that it was a recurring problem and that, in order for it to be functional, we just had to let it "rest"!! Marjo had her laptop but every local Internet connection was incompatible with her laptop, as it was an APPLE MAC. And so…there we were, in a remote village in India, with just one laptop and no internet connection. To make matters worse, the electricity went off during the day (much to our chagrin, the electricity went off daily!!) so that left us with nothing to do on our first day in India!!

So I spent my first day in India not working. Instead, I spent the whole day getting used to the time difference by watching the entire new season of Grey's Anatomy (thank God Marjo had it in her laptop)! There were about 12 episodes and I watched it all in one day!!! I only stopped to eat and take a break by walking around the compound area.

Besides not having the Internet, I also did not have the local Indian handphone SIM card. I'd thought we were going to stay in the city and that I'd get it by afternoon the next day. So you can imagine my dismay and disappointment when I couldn't call my family. Actually, I could have called my family using my Malaysian line but it would have cost a bomb!! I couldn't SMS as well, as it was expensive. I did, however SMS my mother to let her know that I arrived safely and was in one piece.

And so...day 1 was spent doing nothing but getting used to the time difference and getting over the culture shock.

.........the next time I update this, it will be a long post on my experience in India for the entire month; rather than writing on a daily basis!