Chennai

December 12: Chennai

11:55am We boarded a plane for Chennai. I didn’t think the city atmosphere and environment were going to be different but I was so wrong! The minute I got in the car that the travel agent provided us with, I could tell it was different than Mumbai….and any other place that I’ve been. This is what I thought India was going to be like. There were palm trees, green grass, houses with roofs made out of palm leaves and high rise buildings. I never thought that Chennai would be more developed than Mumbai, but it certainly seems so!

After getting settled in our room, we were all craving some good authentic India food. So we all went diving into our guide books in search of a restaurant. We were finally able to find Saravana Bhavan. This restaurant was so unique in the fact that it served 23 dishes in one entrée! You were given rice, a plate with a banana leaf on it and about 15 different dals, curries, etc. They were spicy, but sooo good! The curd (yogurt) that came along with the meal too helped to balance out the spicyness. The one thing that was so authentically Indian is that you ate the whole thing with your hands…no utensils! Soo I offer this…

How to eat like a local:

1. Put rice on your banana leaf

2. Put dal, curry, etc. on the rice

3. Mix the dal in with the rice with your fingers

4. Take a bit of the mixture into your hands and squeeze out the extra liquid

5. Then pop it in your mouth

We washed it all down with some yummy pineapple, mango and chikku milkshakes. Since we were full after that delicious meal, we decided to take some Indian sweets to go. Later that night, we indulged in some ladoos and other sweets courtesy of the restaurant’s sweet shop. The ladoos had fruits, nuts, honey—they were delicious! Then others had gram (kind of like chopped up graham cracker crumbs) and almonds in them. I hope we plan on going there again—that $10 meal (total for all 3 of us) was delicious! Unfortunately, the rickshaw ended up being the same amount ($10) though.

I thought living in Mumbai for four months would help me in south India, but that wasn’t the case. The rickshaws in Mumbai are on a metered system which makes it easy to know how much it’s going to be. But here, you can only ask the rickshaw driver how much it’s going to be. On the whole though, I already love Chennai, possibly more than I love Mumbai. We’ll see.

Going back in time....to Mumbai

Now that I finally have some free time, I figured that I would post all my journals, thoughts and random things from my trip to south India. Sooo, I start with the day before I left for the trip when my Dad arrived....

December 11^th: Mumbai

I was so excited for today! I was so excited in fact that I was up at 5:30am—just like Christmas morning excitement. It was such a wonderful feeling knowing that I was going to be seeing my Dad today. After trying to go back to sleep, I managed to sleep until 7am, then just couldn’t sleep anymore. It was too early for me to go meet my Dad & Hollis, so I played some solitaire then started my day. Around 8:30, I just couldn’t take the excitement anymore and went to meet my Dad. After giving him a nice big hug, we went to grab some breakfast.

Breakfast was great! There’s a little café near my apartment, so we decided to eat there. Being in the Indian mood, we all had a south Indian breakfast (for 70 rupees or $1.50 I might add!) and gorgeous looking coffee.

After fueling up on coffee and needed energy, we began our trip downtown. Our taxi driver that we had was very interesting too. I’ve noticed that anyone who knows a little English wants to “test out” their English on foreigners. And the taxi driver was no exception. He pointed out the Hanging Gardens, the Oberoi Hotel and told us of a story of how dumb white people can be. The previous people he had in his taxi had accidentally left an expensive Sony camera on the seat of the taxi. Whoops! I was surprised to hear that the taxi driver had actually wanted to give it back.

After spending $4 US dollars on a 40 minute taxi ride, we had arrived in Colaba, downtown Mumbai. We saw the unfortunate Taj Mahal Hotel blackened from the smoke damage of the recent terror attacks. We saw about 20 men all dressed in white, chanting in an open area near the Gateway of India. Taking pictures didn’t do this area or the men chanting any justice. There’s only so much you can take pictures of, before you want to somehow capture the memories. After taking pictures of the Taj Mahal Hotel and Gateway of India, we started to make our way to Fab India for some clothing.

You never know what you’re going to find in India though or where your day will take you. On our way to find FabIndia, we found a government Emporium shop that had a permanent exhibition….wooden elephants, Buddhas, Ganeshes, silk sarees—so much for the eyes to take in! At every section of the store, if you wanted to buy an item you had to bring it to the counter in that section. There, a person would write out a receipt/bill for the item. Your item would then go to the delivery section of the store and you would carry on with your shopping. Before you carried on with your shopping, the receipt was not complete without a few stamps. Every piece of paper that they gave you was stamped by these government officials. After finishing shopping, I managed to only buy a cloth notebook in the tie and dye style of fabric. We then went to the cashier to hand in our receipts and pay for the items. But the process of shopping was not done—now we had to actually get the item back. So then we had to go to the delivery section of the store to pick up our various items. Such an interesting way of doing things! I guess that’s one way to employ 20 people in a regular sized shop! Then we started off on the car congested road to try and find FabIndia which we were able to find quite easily. Dad & Hollis were able to get some kurtas and pants and I got a beautiful teal and gold colored dupatta (shawl) for $12. Soon enough, we were getting hungry so we made our way back to Bandra (where the taxi driver jipped us off and made us pay $10 US dollars for a taxi). In Bandra, we went to the Red Box Café for some lunch. I got this really yummy paneer (cottage cheese tofu thing) burger. Hollis and my Dad also got really good vegetarian dishes.

Then it was time to show them the bargaining side of India. My cheaply made Indian purse had ripped so I needed to get another one. Bargaining here is such an art! The shop owner might start the price off at 700 rupees, but I know that I should be able to get it for 250. In order to get it to a good price, you have to tell a little tale. “I’m an American and I want to love your country” or “I just had this bag and it’s cheaply made just like the one I’m buying from you”…I knew if I had taken a little bit more time, I would be able to get the price down to 250 or so—but I managed to get it for 300 rupees (about $7 US dollars).

After walking off our lunch and plowing through the crowds and people wanting us to buy cheap shoes and bags, we stopped for some Natural Ice Cream. This ice cream store has custard apple, jackfruit, coconut ice cream…the list goes on and on. It’s so nice to have a small group because then we’re able to share the ice cream and food.

After sorting out the luggage, we made our way back to the hotel, ordered ourselves some lassi (a yogurt drink) and called it a night.

There's no pausing through life

About three weeks after coming back from India, I'm finally catching up with myself and taking the time out to think about what I just went through. India certainly had it's ups and downs......changing apartments two weeks into the semester, crazy internship days, new life long connections, time for inner thinking...the list goes on and on. As much as I was happy to leave Mumbai, I was also sad to leave south India. South India especially gave me the chance to catch up with my Dad and also catch up with my own thoughts that were in my head. It was so wonderful and rewarding to just experience spirituality and grow as a person...never mind, what a life changing experience seeing all those temples and backwaters of Kerala were.

When I came back from India, I thought that I would be able to pick my life up right where it left off.....WRONG! I guess this is what everyone was calling reverse culture shock. I was gone from my friends and family for 4 months, yes, but in some way I thought that I would be able to have the same life that I had back in August. After coming back to the States, I've realized that while I was gone, people moved on with their lives. My friends moved on with theirs, my family moved on with theirs....their lives were still going on just as my life was going on in India. But for some reason, I thought my life could be the same when I got back to the States. And part of me still wishes for that. I miss hanging out with my friends. I hate not knowing what's been going on with their lives for the past few months. I hate that it could take a few more months to finally catch up on each other's lives.

At the same time, I'm glad my life wasn't the same as it was back in August. India has changed me in ways that I don't even know yet. There are going to be days when I know my opinion for something has changed because of my experiences in India. In India I was able to turn off my American life (my cell phone, the internet, the media, the latest entertainment news....) and just look inward. I didn't realize it then, but I needed to look inside myself then more than ever. I needed this mental vacation in order to clear thoughts from my head, think about what I wanted to do the rest of my life, and just get away from the hustle and bustle of the American lifestyle. As much as I love my cell phone, I was so happy to not hear it ring when I was in India. I was so happy to turn on the tv and not have to hear about Britney Spears' latest hospital visit. So in a way, I am so happy that my life didn't pause while I was in India.

But is it wrong for me to want my life in India to keep playing while my life in America was paused for four months??

P.S. And as for all my experiences and reflections on India, don't you worry, they're all coming...