Hello!!!!!!!!
Many thanks for all my comments, it’s so nice to hear from familiar people from home! I miss you all!
So, I’m sorry for not blogging so much on here. The week has been ABSOLUTELY packed. We’re up at 7am and back to the hotel at about 830pm, or later, at which point we have to go out in Delhi and find some food…
…Which is an interesting challenge! The way to get about is in little yellow and green autos/tuk tuks, and they are far from reliable! I paid 250 rupees for my first ride, later realising that a local would have got it for 30! (There are 80 rupees to the pound). tuk tuks keep dropping us off in random places too, cos they have no idea where we want to go, and spot other potential customers on the side street! And then, once you do arrive at your destination, you have to walk to find the restaurant, which gfenerally takes another 30mins or so. One night we walked for 45 mins, including crossing an 8-lane (2×4) road (erm, mum, don’t think about that too hard…), then eventually gave up and went back to the hotel. We ordered pizza on room service.
I’m getting used to the heat, and I’ve loved the food from day one. Although, after being ill yesterday, my taste has shifted to blander, more western food. Plain pasta is the most appetising thing right now! Curry is litterally everywhere. Everywhere smells of curry, there’s curry for breakfast, when the cleaner leaves our room in the morning it smells of curry, the innocent-looking bread and digestive biscuits taste of curry… You’ve gotta like curry!
On other notes, the poverty and hardship hear is getting to me more and more. Most of the beggars on the street are actually working for organiseed gangs, so any momney you give them doesn’t stay in their pockets. About 4-5% are genuine beggards. Most of the children you see on the streets begging (there are LOADS) have been kidnapped from or sold by their parents to these gangs. Many have beenmutilated as babies (e.g. hands or arms cut off), as mutilated beggars statistically earn more money. The thought of that going on around makes me really upset for these people. If they don’t bring home money, they get beaten up, which is why it’s so hard to resist their begging. they really do look desperate. I tend to give them any spare food I have, but you just can’t give them money. Interestingly, in the more rural areas they all ask for pens and paper. Perhaps they want to sell them (the people here are very enterprising, through necessity), but I think they want them for school.
Education is SO important for these people. If they’re educated, they can get good jobs. Good by indian standards that is. We visited a call centre, which i always thoguht would be a sweat-shop equivalent. I imagined buildings like 1800s factories and people cooped up like chickens, working long hours for little pay. I imagined it would be people near the bottom of the social pile. Not so. Call centres are HIGHLY desirable places to work. You have to have a degree. The people looked very happy, and their clothes and mannerisms were notably more western. There are prizes and promotions for those who do well, and the working hours are unsociable, but not too long. Wages are enough to live comfortably, and promotions lead to pretty high standards of living. My image of 17thcentury factories was way out too! They just look like british office buildings, and fellows who’ve worked in british call centres say they are just the same in england! But I bet we don’t enjoy the work as much in the uk!
A lot of the people who live on the street actually have jobs. For example, may work in construction, so just set up camp near their work and move around as necessary. They can’t really afford houses from their wages, ad living on the street is just a norm for many low0income people. I presumed they were jobless at first. The children wear no shoes, but their feet are hardened, so it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that what we see as abject poverty is a normal, often pretty happy way of life below the surface. I mean, they want to have houses and clothes and shoes etc I’m sure, and their security is very low, but I don’t think we can liken it to people living on the streets in the uk. It’s the gangs and children and beggars that I worry most about.
On a happier note… W e went to the traj Mahal yesterday! (Sorry for the bizarly quick change of tone!). It was really nice: the house that love built! It is incredible that this huge, beautiful monument was built by a husband for his dead wife. Although, I think he did have 300 other wives.. anyway, I can dream that there are men out there like that, ha! The gardens were beautiful too, and I felt very sorry for the 2 mosques either side of it which are absolutely beautifully intrivcate, but almost completely ignored! I’ll be upoading phoots soon. By the way thogh, I would have enjoyed thta day more if it wree for the $am rise and 12pm return to bed. I’ve never been so ill and tired in all my life- it felt like torture on the train back!
This is long, sorry…
…I’m starting to get used to the fact that everywhere we go there will be street venders bugging you. We came out of the peace and majesty of the Taj and there they were again. “Hello madam, you lok very beautiful. I have beautifulscarves and cklothes in my shop, you come see. i ntake you”
“Nahi jee” (no thank you)
“Yes yes, you come, jst look. What you want, I have everything, very beautiful, very cheap”
They follow you until the bus is too fast for them too keep up running. I chalenged one who said “We have everything” to sell me a live elephant, and he said he would if I went to his shop! They’re SO persistent. Last night we had a 30 minute wait on the bus, and were absolutely mobbed by venders banging bangles on the window and shouting prices at us. We’ve taken to bargaining with them just for the challenge of getting something for rediculously little money, but for me I find it quite wearing. Especially when I’m so tired! They are so persistent that you can’t escape, wherever you go, and your attention is just compleately drained by them! Their persistency also makes me sad; if it were me, I would just give up after 2 minutes. They keep going and going until you’ve physically moved yourself where thye can’t reach you, even if it means trying to sell to you for half an hour. They must be so desperate to sell if it’s worth the headache of all that.
On another topic, yes, there are bombs going off in India at the moment. I’m off to Chennai on onday, which hasn’t been hit yet, but in myopinion that makes it more of a target. I’m very concerned that I’ll be in Delhi on Independence Day, as independence Day is the focuds of these attacks and Delhi would surelyt be a good climax target. So I am I bit scared by it all, but I also knwo that the british Coucil are closely following foreirg office advice, and that anyway, I’m staying away from danger spots like crowded markets or bus stations, and would be very unfortunate to be one of the people hamred out fo such as huge population here. They definately aren’t particularly trgeting foreigners. there vcould be no more bombs too. I don’t know. If we had to come home early, we could be bombed on the tube couldn’t we?
Just to answer the final question, we’re all a big group of 40 now, but will split into groups of 10 on monday. I lke everyone and have a great group too so I’m very happy. AAbout 75% of us were ill nyesterday, but only about 25% are still bad today, as we got a sleep in this morning to recover.
OK, there’s a huge queue builindg up so I’ll sign off! Thanks again for your comments it’s lovely to hear from you!
Love Sally
