India: Day 2 – Core of the City
Penguin August 23rd, 2007
Wake
We ended up going to sleep around 1:30 AM last night. Not because we weren’t tired, but I just had to wait for Wenhai and give him a small tour of our new home.
I woke up briefly around 5:30, looked at my watch and promptly went back to sleep. The next time I woke, it was around 7:45. Himadri said that he was going to come by around 11 AM. Figuring it was good to start getting into a good schedule, I woke up.
The bed that I selected was the closest to the outlets. This gave me ready access to plug in my iPod as I slept. One of the ways to block out the noise of barking dogs and fans. I wasn’t sure where the sun rose, so I put on a sleeping mask, just to be safe. It’s a good thing too, because the sun was right in my face when I woke.
We took a quick shower before we did our devos.
Explorers
We still had plenty of time before Hamdri would show, so we went for a quick stroll around the complex. We discovered that we were in “Peerless Nagar”. We also found a map drawn on a big sign near the entrance.
As we exited the complex, we were greeted by eager merchants at the market. One, especially of note, was the fish monger. He saw my camera and motioned for us to take pictures. I was more than happy to oblige. The rest of the market sold fruits and vegetables. Each little stand had scales and weights to measure out the quantity of the produce.
The sign that we had seen for internet cafe turned out to be closed. Luckily, there was another near by, but now wasn’t time for internet. The laundromat that I had saw was really a dry cleaner. Not much use for that here either.
Seeing the end of the market, we stepped out into the dusty street. We looked down each way as far as we could, looked at each other and decided it was best if we didn’t enter the street.
Back in the complex, we started exploring. What was really interesting was the various lawn ornaments scattered about the complex. There were kangaroos next pandas next to men and women with slings. Some were made of stone, others were made of what seemed to be glazed.
On the map, we had seen “proposed” play field and decided to see if they had finished construction. Where there was supposed to be a field, we saw a wall. I guess they didn’t get the appopriate funding or permits yet. Satisfied, we returned to our home.
The Waiting Game
We sat around and talked for a bit. Caught up on some happenings since high school and just shot the breeze. 11 rolls around, and Hamdri still didn’t show. I figure it was traffic or Emmy’s flight got delayed.
There’s only so much two guys could talk for. It wasn’t long until we busted out the cards and I taught Wenhai at Rummy 500.
The Girls’ Place
We kept snacking on bananas and bread, doing our best to pass the time waiting for Hamadri. Eventually, the van showed up around 12:30 and took us over to the girls’ place.
They had this quaint little guest house. Not unlike the place I stayed when I was at Honduras. They had remote controlled AC, small TVs, and what appeared to be carpeting. They even had a small cafe outside. Convenient.
on the ride over, Hamadri had given me the run down for the day. We’d meet up with the girls, have some lunch, then, it’d be off to the city to change some money and do some shopping. And maybe go to the internet cafe. He also told me that Emmy’s flight had been delayed and lost one of her luggage. The one with her clothes. Suck.
We greeted the girls, asked how Emmy was doing. she looked exhausted. We suggested she take a shower and get some rest. The rest of us went to the cafe to get ready for lunch.
We had grown accustomed to fairly large portions when we ordered. It wasn’t until after we started placing our order that the guy told us how small all the dishes were. I wanted to order a lot of traditional Indian fare, full on spicy, but most of the girls couldn’t handle it. Oh well.
We ended up ordering some chicken, some mixed veg, and some chapatri. Too bad they didn’t have naan. If nothing else, I could always eat naan. It took them awhile to prepare the food. Later, they informed us that we should probably place our order ahead of time. If we wanted dinner, we should order at lunch. If we wanted breakfast, we should order at dinner, etc. Makes sense, since it was a small family affair.
The running trend seems to be that the people are very intent on serving you. They’ll bring the food and want to spoon it on to your plate for you. It’s a nice gesture, but it’s hard to communicate that we’re okay.
Eventually, Emmy joined us and grabbed a bit to eat. When they said the portions were small, they weren’t kidding. The chicken dish we ordered only had two pieces of chicken per order. Just from looking at the menu, this wouldn’t necessarily be obvious.
As we finished up lunch, there was a quick tussle about the check. We wanted to see the receipt. They said that it would be put on our tab, along with the rooms. I guess there was a bit of information lost in translation and it wasn’t clear to them that we just wanted to see the tally for the meal. They ended up giving us the bill and asked for payment.
The driver was going to show up soon to take us to central Kolkata. Being the good traveller, I made a quick bathroom brake. When I came back to rejoin Wenhai, I looked down and saw that my finger was bleeding. I don’t know how I managed to start bleeding between the girl’s room and the lobby. I popped back in, washed it off and it looked really superficial.
To the Core
We all piled into the van and set off for the center of the city. Michelle and I were extremely generous with our picture taking. The lighting was fantastic. I was able to catch stuff at around 2000 ms shutter. Surprising, considering it was overcast.
The journey into the heart of the city took a little more than an hour. Amidst the dust kicked up by other trucks and cars. It was kind of hard to tell when we actually entered the city. It wasn’t like this sudden shift, rather, it was a gradual increase of congestion and density of buildings.
But the core was definitely different. It felt truly urban. We had a person guide us to a parking spot. We disembarked from the van and emmediately, I was accosted by a begging child, holding a baby. I guess it’s the camera.
A man approached Wenhai, showed him this tag slung around his neck and we proceeded to follow. As we were led into the market, this sense of danger and uncertainty fell over the group. We were foreigners in a strange land, not knowing any of the language. had we been led to our slaughter, no one save for our driver, would have known.
We were led to this small jewelery place some where in the back of the market. They said that we could exchange our money here. Before even telling us the rate, they asked us how much we wanted to change. Karen insisted that we be brought to a bank. The guy on the counter was adament that the rate that he was going to give us was better than the bank. As we started to leave, the counter guy shouted that he would give us a rate of 40 RS to 1 USD.
Our guide then led us up some more stairs until into a place that seemed a bit more legit. There was rates clearly displayed on a wall. The difficulty was that they didn’t have calculators. When trying to convert odd amounts from USD to RS at a rate of 39.55 tested a lot of our math skills. I had to pull out some paper and do the math. Twice!
Even though they asked for passports, only Karen had one. It turned out, it didn’t really matter, and they changed our money anyway.
We exited the “bank” and our guide asked us where we wanted to go next. I was actually quite curious to see what the rest of the market had, but again, Karen was insitent that we don’t go shopping without Himadri. Even though it made sense, I still would’ve liked to have explored what lay in the shadows of the market. Instead, we were taken back to the driver and we were on our way.
It seemed like a shame to drive all this way, just to change money. In retrospect, it was probably for the best. Not knowing what was there waiting for us really put us all on edge. I guess I’m just a bit self-destructive. Just a bit.
On our way out of the city, I managed to get accosted by a beggar. The old man had come up to our van while we were stopped at a long traffic light. He put out his hand as we all did our best to pretend that we didn’t notice him. We had just changed our money, and I commented about how I disliked coins. As we were talking, I was shifting the places where I was holding my money. I also pulled out some of the rupee coins that I had to look at them. I hadn’t noticed that the old man was now behind me, as I jingled the coins around in my hand. I must’ve looked like a total dick to him. In which case, he promptly cursed me out, calling me a “bastard” and walked away.
On the way back, we were able to stop by an internet cafe and we connected with the first world, if only for a moment. I sent out emails to people to let them know that I had arrived safely. Too bad I didn’t have yesterday’s post handy. I did manage to post a quicky, just saying I had landed.
Before getting back on the van, I made a trip to the public urinal. It wasn’t really a urinal so much as it was just the side of the road next to a flow of water that smelled like shit. Peeing into the maggot infested fluid, out in the open made me feel extremely open and vulnerable. But there weren’t many other options.
Before we knew it, we were back. I stopped by the apartment to grab my laptop for the meeting we were going to have. Then it was to the girl’s place.
Brief
We had about half an hour before Hamadri was going to meet us. The girls showed us the body worship that they had developed in the Taiwan bathroom during their four hour lay over. As much as I applaud their effort, I couldn’t get behind it. I never liked body worship to begin with. And even though they had spent some time on it… it was still pretty lame. I just couldn’t go on stage and pretend to be into it if I really wasn’t.
The other issue was that we didn’t know what the body worship was for. We didn’t know when we’d be performing it or who we’d be performing it to. Without this information, it’d be really hard to know what to put together.
Satisfied with what we had done and with no clear goals, we decided to pass the time by playing cards. I taught them the simplest multiplayer game I knew, Loser, aka, Asshole, President, etc. Before we could get through one game, Emmy stopped in and we asked her about the whole Body Worship thing.
There seemed to be a disconnect between our understanding and what was actually going on. The girls were under the impression that it was something that we’d be performing right away, thus, they threw it together really quickly. It turns out, it was going to be something we presented as a welcome “gift”. Although the intentions were good, you can’t build a house on good intentions. Not to sound arrogant, but isn’t our being here a gift? I just feel that our time could be better spent working on the task at hand. If all we’re doing is presenting a gift, we can just present a song or something. But, whatever.
Before we could really come to a decision on this, Hamadri arrived. We met up in the cafe to talk about a high level of the next two weeks. As we entered the cafe, they had music playing, blacklights shining, and if I didn’t know better, it was almost like some cheesy club or something. They turned that all off for us and we proceeded with the meeting.
Hamadri gave us the run down on the whole orphanage/children’s ministry ordeal. It turns out, the orphanage is really far away. If we went, by the time we got back, it would be close to midnight. So our plans to do that were pretty much shot. They did have children’s ministry, which they called “Leaders Training”, where they would teach the kids and have Sunday School. There would be two days where they would be presenting some material. One, on Sat, the 25th and another on Monday, the 27th. The kids were still in school, so they wouldn’t be out until 3:30pm.
So, we learned a lot about the ministry and where it was going. We’re still not really sure how we could assist in that ministry, but that’s okay.
Shopping
Hamadri’s wife came along to help the girls buy some clothes. We went to a shopping area where we passed shop after shop of saurees. Some of them looked really nice. Even though it was late, around 9 PM, the streets were alive with activity. People were coming and going, shopping and doing their thing. If you din’t know better, you would think it was closer to 6 or 7.
Quite suddenly, the power went out and the street was thrown into darkness. It wasn’t long before the shops were lit again with backup generators. As the girls finished up, Wenhai went to get some shampoo. When he boarded the plane, he didn’t put his liquids in his checkin bags, so he lost a good amount of it. I hadn’t brought that much shampoo to begin with, so there probably wouldn’t be enough for the two of us.
The girls finished and were on a quest for string. The clothes they had bought were one size fits all. Normally, they would be pinned back, but they didn’t have any pins. The next best thing was string.
As we were heading back, we stopped by a fruit stand to buy several kilos of fruit. Apples, bananas, pomegranates and pears. It’s always nice to have fresh fruit. The stand was really close to Hamadri’s apartment, so we bid our farewells.
We grabbed a quick dinner at the Penguin Inn and we were off to bed.
Tomorrow, we head to the office to begin work.
-Penguin
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