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Pictures from my trip!

Turn on captions for a quick blurb (button on bottom left of slideshow screen that looks like a thought bubble).

Unfinished business

I visited India after almost 20 years. As I stated on my way here, over 3 weeks ago, this was a monumental trip for me. Not only was I coming over to visit my parents in their new home after moving back from the US for the first time, but I was also coming to visit--in many ways, for the first time--a land, a people, and a culture to which I claim an identity and which defines me in many ways.

It's been a fantastic trip. On this blog, I have not dwelled on the negative aspects of India, save a few instances. I think there are plenty of sources that capture India's negatives: immense poverty, illiteracy, high infant mortality, low health outcomes, discriminatory caste-ridden values, corruption, filth, unhygienic conditions, along with its fractured or nonexistent infrastructure. Indeed, Wikipedia says: "Poverty is widespread in India, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 41.6% of the total Indian population falls below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day."

It's too easy to stop at these very conspicuous problems. Hence, I have attempted to highlight the positives that bring out the color of what can otherwise be a depressing environment, depending on where you are.

On the contrary, I have had a very warm and pleasant experience in the midst of a culture that endures immense struggles. I have had the opportunity to see firsthand the faces of extreme poverty and marvel at the smiles that emerge from within along with the adaptability and tenacity of the people despite their dire situations. At the same time, I have experienced a truly emerging and growing economic force that is dead set to improve its conditions through hard work and laser-like focus on higher education. I have lived a fine five-star quality life, enjoying the highly diverse ethnic delicacies at the dinner table.

The bottom line, really, is that the past 3.5 weeks have been a marvelous time to see, smell, taste, hear, and live the culture that defines me when I answer "India" to the perennial question regarding my ancestry.

However, I leave with unfinished business. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to travel much outside of Ahmedabad, which means that I was not able to see a lot of my extended family and friends, as well as my great grandfather's land. Perhaps that was fortuitous, granted by the mysticism that guides life here, for it implies another visit sooner rather than later :) Stay tuned for Part II.

I am now off to London to visit with more family (ah, the irony of colonialism).

Thanks for reading.

Are you stressed?

CNN reports the finding of a study by Nielsen Company that asks: Where do the world's most stressed women live? Any guesses? I'll tell you and maybe it will surprise you (at least at first) just as it surprises me: India.

The Women of Tomorrow Study, which examined 6,500 women across 21 different nations from February through April 2011, found that an overwhelming 87% of Indian women said they felt stressed most of the time, with 82% claiming they had no time to relax.

(The US is 12th with 53% of women saying they are stressed most of the time).

So, what explains this? The article says: "...companies and workplaces have developed whilst society has remained static, meaning that women must juggle a modern career and busy home life as well as conforming to traditional standards." It doesn't seem that different than in parts of the US; my guess is that we have better stress management education and mechanisms, which is also ironic given that yoga and meditation--fantastic stress relief activities--have evolved from here.

Trade works both ways :)

More of the same

It's been raining quite a bit over the past several days. This is a good thing for many reasons, including the fact that it's cooled down substantially, a welcome relief from the immense heat.

However, due to the rain I haven't been able to explore the city with my camera as much as I had planned to do. Driving is somewhat of a difficult exercise as it's difficult to judge the location, depth and potency of potholes. Walking is also a messy (read muddy) activity with pools of water between the 'pavement' and road. In short, there's nothing too new. I'm synthesizing and internalizing my thoughts about the place and hope to give an overview soon.

Food, quirks

I have less than a week to go before I return home :)

Over the next few days, I'll try to take my camera with me and take as many pictures of the streets as possible. It's easy to take for granted what you see everyday or if you're familiar with an otherwise extraordinary situation.

The other problem is that my pictures are all in very high quality and therefore are very large (in byte size). I usually just upload them from my camera and it takes a long time (15-20 mins) to upload more than 5 at a time to the blog. Once I get home, however, I'll have some time to compress them and post plenty more. So, keep checking in!

Something that Melanie alerted me to is that I haven't really mentioned food much. Doh! That's because I probably take it for granted. You may know that I have a two-tiered system whereby I believe that there's Indian food and then there's everything else.

The meals at home (always delicious, colorful, rich, filling, mouth-watering, and delicate) consist of the following: 1 or 2 shaks, rotli, dal or kadhi, and rice. I've also had chicken though it's not common in this state. By the way, if you want chicken here, you call some dude who brings it raw to your home in 15 minutes.

So, the traditional Gujarati food consists of a vegetable (e.g. eggplant with potatoes cooked in appropriate herbs/spices, aka shak along with rotli, a naan like bread made of wheat. There are frequently 2 shaks, as well as a soup (though eaten during the meal or at the end with rice, not before). The soup or dal is made from lentils, for example. There are variations too and my favorite is kadhi, made from gram flour. During the summer, mangoes are a big deal, so we've been having a mango puree called rus. Otherwise, dessert is usually... ice cream :)

The best part of Indian cuisine, though, comes throughout the day in small snacks (generally extremely unhealthy for you), though I have tried to moderate my diet to avoid these.

A funny quirk or two that you may enjoy.

You may already know that many Indians take off their shoes before going into their homes; it's more than that though here. People take off their shoes when going into boutique stores (e.g. sari or kurti stores or even when visiting the doctor's office, and most certainly when going to someone else's home. Of course, you don't have to if you aren't comfortable doing so, but it's the cultural norm. It actually has a lot of advantages, primarily being that it keeps the already mopped floors clean throughout the day. By the way, many of the floors here are swept and mopped everyday.

The Indian culture is also intricately intertwined with the Hindu religion. As such, most people believe in some form of a deity and have profound respect for the divine. So, while walking down the street, you'll frequently find a small shrine or temple built to a particular deity. When they reconstruct roads or plan urban projects, I've been told that they generally try to avoid touching these landmarks and will build around them. Indeed, it's very true. I have frequently seen small (2 feet x 1 foot) temples on the median that no one will break. It'll also almost always be 'active' - someone will regularly light a candle, etc, there.

Another funny thing: if you ever think you'll land here and find your way to place x because you have the address, good luck! Unless you know exactly where major landmarks are located, it's virtually impossible. Addresses here are as follows:

123 (apt number) Condo Complex (name of building)
Opposite Big Major Landmark / Next to Big 4 lane road on ABC road
Neighborhood
City, State

So unless you know where "Big Major Landmark" or "Big 4 lane road" is/are located on ABC road, there's no way to know exactly where on the road it's located, and you'll have to ask someone. Rickshaws, by the way, are the cheapest way to travel. They cost about Rs. 10-50 (20 cents to $1) for most moderate distances.

Finally, as I've mentioned before, the roads are completely chaotic though I like to think of it paradoxically as organized chaos. Regardless, one of the reasons this is the case is that there are no traffic signs. There are few traffic/red lights but unless there's a cop or two to enforce these, no one ever cares for them. Now, that's what a completely free society looks like! Just joking. So, when you approach a 4 (or 5 or 6) way intersection, proceed very slowly and cautiously while honking constantly. And fear not if several 'two-wheelers' zip right in front of you as though their riders are immortal. It's really terrible. The remedy to all the distressing traffic problems is to start with putting up some traffic signs and then severely increase the penalties upon infringement. The funny thing is that given the chaos, you'd expect the number of accidents to be sky high. However, I haven't seen any. It's part of the mystery that I have found here. Alas, with traffic rules and regulations, this land wouldn't be India!

Below are pictures from my meal last night:

Dhokla, a snack.



Rotli



Tomato shak



Squash shak



Paan, a mint that's had after the meal. It consists of a variety of herbs, spices, dried fruit, jelly-like sweetners, etc, on a leaf. And yes, it really is very minty and it tastes a lot better than it looks.

Jubilation!

Shouts of jubilation and sighs of relief abound as the skies have opened up and the rain gods are delivering their goods. Seriously, people on the streets were chanting "barish! barish! barish!" which means "rain! rain! rain!" Woohoo - celebrate away!

Word from the street

First off, a thank you to all the readers and a shout-out to those who recently left their first comments: Mills and Jessica - thanks for checking in!

In an effort to become less of an obvious tourist, I have not been taking my camera with me recently. No, it's not a compact point-and-shoot :) So, unfortunately I don't have any Ankur original pictures for you today. However, I managed to find a picture of the place a I visited today (and the subject of this entry) from a random blog.

I visited the old Ahmedabad city today. The entrance to the old city is marked by a large brick archway, an entrance familiar to many who might have visited any old city (e.g. Siena), although the delineation is not quite as clear cut given the immense crowds (see attached picture). Within the 1 to 2-mile area, there were probably well over 10,000 different vendors/shops. I am not kidding. In this entire area (Gandhi road and its surroundings), the shops are about 10 meters wide and probably 15-20 meters in length. And they are sequentially aligned... endlessly. It's absolutely amazing.

Every shop specializes in a particular merchandise and the competition is fierce. We went there to look for a couple of (modestly priced) fans. There must have been 25 to 50 fan stores that I saw while we carefully meandered around rickshaws, bikes, bicycles, and of course pedestrians. To make things worse, all the fan shops are all next to each other. Then you move on to the next block and there are, say, an equal number of shoe stores lined up, waiting for you. Think about that. It's Adam Smith's dream of what competition looks like: a very large number of suppliers competing on nothing but price to earn your business, and you--consumer--have an almost unrestricted ability to price shop just by walking a couple feet from one store to another store. Every economics student should visit a place like it.

Along with the myriad of shops, as the picture below shows, there were just as many people shopping. There could easily have been over 200,000 people there. As you can imagine, small crowded spaces don't tend to smell like fresh roses. The old city is generally a place to look for bargains; it's not a place for the faint-of-heart or the claustrophobic, but you'll be sure to save some dough.

The other thing I got to do was to chat with a couple of locals, shall we say. Topics of conversation:

1. Rain (this has been a big deal as the rain is supposed to have started and it's vital for existence here, so say a prayer to the rain saint, will you?)

2. The city's growth; when this gentleman (now in his 50s) was growing up, he saw one motorcycle every 30 minutes during the day; now it's 1 every second, all the time on this very street.

3. Pakistan and its harboring of terrorists. He pondered aloud: why does America support Pakistan?

4. The juxtaposition of unusually happy and smiling people given the circumstances here in a rather corrupt government.

Something else of note. As you know, the poverty level is very high here (but it's improving). As such, you'd expect a lot of homeless people begging for money (a la Washington DC). Surprisingly, shockingly even, you don't see beggars. Perhaps it's unique to this city, I don't know. I have only come across a handful of people (probably 5). Instead, people here are incredibly tenacious and creative: they will do something (work) to earn a few bucks. I worry that in the US we are regressing and thinking about how much the government owes us instead of creatively and entrepreneurially engineering our way to new highs.

You just walk around here and realize that this place has some mystical magic; that it exists beyond any and all rational human logic; and, that its existence is probably good enough proof that God exists.

Technology, Bollywood

Some of the many images that pop up of India when people think about it are those of the computer/tech industry, call centers, and Bollywood.

There are currently 827 million cell phones in use here. (The entire US population is 300 million!). So, you get this image of everyone being connected electronically to another through a palm sized and colorful gizmo. Moreover, you'd assume that everyone is also connected to the internet and is able to access all sorts of information at the touch of a ubiquitous button. Ah, but here's the surprising thing. While virtually everyone above the age of 5 has a cell phone, just a fraction of the people really mess with the internet. Instead of email, everyone uses "SMS" (or text messages). The cost of using cell phones for voice and text is minuscule and affordable, as compared to using the internet. I had assumed that smartphones would allow everyone to get on the web just as easily as computers (an admittedly large expense). Many (most) non-techies don't have an email address but they are extremely efficient with their phones.

Another interesting tidbit. Voice mail is an optional service (and therefore carries an additional charge). Therefore, no one uses voice mail. The flip side to that is that everyone always answers their cell phones. In some ways it's annoying and in other ways it's actually very admirable because you know your call will always be answered. At home, I hardly answer my cell phone, mostly because it's almost always on silent and because I know I can (and do) always get back to the caller within a reasonable amount of time. Try me :)

India is also known for its movie industry (Bollywood). Below is a chart comparing Hollywood and Bollywood.



On Saturday, I had my first experience in an Indian movie theater. For the most part, it's just like at home: you can get popcorn and every snack that's horrible for you. Some differences:

1. Tickets are priced by seat location (like at a play) and come with assigned seating. In the theater I visited, there were 3 tiers: silver, gold and platinum. (We sat in gold).

2. The movie begins at exactly the time written on the ticket with no ads at the beginning.

3. There is an intermission at the half-way mark during which time there are ads.

4. The audience is fun: they whistle and cheer when the protagonist initially appears (in this case, a very famous actor, Amitabh Bachchan) as well as during the movie at the appropriate scenes/times.

5. Unfortunately, there is no plea to "silence your cell phones," so it's quite common for people to answer their phones during the movie and briefly state "I'm at the movie, I'll call you back." The audio from the movie generally drowns their voices out.

In case you're curious, the movie I watched was Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap (translated from Hindi: The old man must be your father).

Happy Independence Day!

Before I left home, I packed 2 hand-held flags with me. Today I'm waving them with great joy and great pride. To further commemorate this day, I visited a museum with hundreds of antique cars, many of which are great American brands: Ford, Chevy, Studebaker, Lincoln, Cadillac... and there on the wall was our flag too (albeit with 32 stars!).

Happy 235th Independence Day!

The weird thing is that in order to watch the celebrations/fireworks live on July 4, I'll have to wait until 8 or 9 AM on July 5 local time!





















By the way, in case you're wondering about this collection, here's the scoop. It's a collection of about 105 antique cars - all in original (and many in working) condition, owned by a family. Yep, one family who has collected cars for over 3 generations now. Most of the cars were owned and used in India during the colonial era. They all have labels indicating where they were used. All entrance fees to view this collection go to charity. Pretty impressive stuff.

Car

I think I have skipped out on mentioning a very important part of my life here, i.e. how I travel. Below is the primary family car and the driver who's been so graciously taking me around. Beats the Camry, eh?

Odds and Ends

First, a shout-out to Savta and Kate for writing in. Thanks for reading -- it means a lot to me!

The last few days have been the same as the first few. I have mostly stayed at home and read a lot. For the curious, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts the national and international memory competition and its quirky culture. (Yes, there really are people who can memorize the order of 2 decks of random cards in minutes). Now, I am back to the seemingly endless Cutting for Stone, which has finally picked up in pace and has become a fascinating parallel of my earlier life. For those who are interested, chapter 38 (Welcome Wagon) recounts my experiences with almost uncanny precision.

Life for the average person here begins at mid-morning (between 10 and 11 am) and continues until 8 or 9pm. Dinner is eaten at close to 10pm. Most people work 6 days a week (school is also held 6 days a week!). I venture out frequently but the sights have now become commonplace. Kind of. In a sense, I have been numbed by the densely populated environment with its constantly humming honks and rumbling motorbikes. The oft-sighted cow still surprises me, but it's the sight of the stray and sick dogs that always hurts, along with that of the toddlers on the streets. By the way--since we're discussing the streets--as an Oklahoman, it is interesting to note that almost every rickshaw uses CNG (and there are a plethora of them), and I've seen many cars doing the same. Maybe we can export some of that CNG here given that our politicians don't seem to see its advantages over gasoline. Want to export some here, Mr. McClendon?!

A few interesting tidbits on Ahmedabad: It is the 7th largest city in India and was named the third fastest growing city in the world (yes, world) in 2010 by Forbes (after 2 Chinese cities, of course). The metro's population is close to 6 million, giving it a population density of about 60,000 per sq. mile. Yep, next time you think that Broadway Extension is crowded, think again! As I've alluded to earlier, economic growth is palpable, and its impact for the future of the city and its people is encouraging. Land prices here have appreciated in a manner that cannot be described. There are several anecdotes of people who didn't own a dime to their name and lived off of a small kiosk (selling soft drinks, or pan, a leaf with various spices in it). Then, out of nowhere, they are offered millions for their land by an investor who wants to develop it. Investors with foresight who purchased small tracts of land for, say, $5000, sold them several years years later for over hundred-fold increases. Warren Buffett would be proud of these buy-and-hold investors :) I've been told that today it is impossible to acquire land between here and Gandhinagar (the capital of the state, 20 miles away). It's reassuring to see capitalism work, despite the corruption.

I have yet to visit an American franchise (Subway, Domino's Pizza, McDonald's), but you may find it interesting to know that they deliver even the smallest 6" sub to your home, a testament to the immense competition between businesses to earn your loyalty. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a Starbucks yet. Hmmm...

This city is also known for its universities. Yesterday, I visited CEPT (Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University), a well-regarded institution in the country. Admission to its architecture program, for instance is hypercompetitive: 17 students out of 300,000 potential applicants were accepted last year. Visiting the campus was yet another eyebrow-raising moment: despite the popularity and prestige of the school, the campus was semi-appalling when compared to what we're used to. Which brings me to my next point: the contrast in quality between public and private goods, for the economists out there.

My few days have revealed one thing for sure: public spaces, or those that are shared by everyone, are filthy, yet private places are incredibly well-done and often stupendous. The extreme dichotomy is unimaginable and impossible to understand. Indeed, I don't. It is understandable that no one has an incentive to maintain the same level of excellence for public goods, but the extreme difference evident here is mind-boggling. It does, however, point to the virtues of privatization, and the way forward. Of course, there's also the immense population and poverty that comes with the land, a nearly impossible challenge to tackle.

A mural of the famous and infamous on the CEPT campus, presumably by students(?). Pretty cool actually.



A mural by MF Husain, a prominent Indian artist. Also on the CEPT campus. (It's an artsy place!).



Swamiji and me. He is a monk who is celibate and takes a vow of poverty, eating what he's given and living with a family who welcomes him. More importantly, though, he is a yoga guru and the leader of the yoga department at Gujarat University (picture below). His English is fluent and he's a really nice guy.





This was the cutest thing ever: a baby monkey with its parent (I presume mom): do you see?! It's like being in a zoo, but a free one! (Click on the image for a larger version/to zoom in).



On the campus of CEPT



At the 'cafe' at CEPT (at about 8pm). The white structure in the background is the "cave" in which reside the murals of HF Husain (above).



The two videos below are my lame efforts to capture the streets. But, alas, they don't really do an adequate job. I suppose it means you still have to visit the place to experience it.

A trip to the mall

I visited a mall not too far away from my parents' home. You may be able to guess what I'm about to say: I was impressed. Once again, it felt as though I was back home. From Swarovski to an Apple iStore (a distributor as opposed to an official Apple-owned store) to a myriad of boutiques for Nike, Adidas, etc, and a large department store, it all exists.

I am finally getting used to the "chaos" of the street, with only occasional heart beats skipping as opposed to every other one :)

PS: Here's a shout-out to the good people back home who've been reading and leaving messages: Melanie, Ami, Adam, Scott. Thanks y'all!

The happy dance

This video brings me an incredible amount of joy. Thanks Matt!

India: A perpetual symphony in sync

The India that had been emerging in my mind shortly after I landed was a bifurcated one: rich vs. poor; educated vs. uneducated; clean vs. dirty, etc. However, I do not believe that perspective represents the truth. Instead, India is more like a live orchestra or symphony. The individual pictures taken at a specific place and time do not do justice to the dynamism and complexity of the place.

Having thought about how to best share my experiences here with you, especially if you've never been here, I'm still at a loss. It's simply not possible. You simply need to visit this place in order to understand it. It's a hodgepodge of a little bit of everything, but together it all works very well. Much like an orchestra in which the individual pieces by the violinist or cellist may sound strange, the individual photos hardly scratch the surface in presenting the true India to you. So, while a picture may be worth a thousand words, the words in this case are all synonyms and don't really describe much.

I continue to marvel at the immense population density and the troubles that come along with it. For instance, driving is a seemingly treacherous activity here. The honking never stops; cars, bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws, cows, monkeys, dogs, goats, camels, humans all criss-cross in and out of traffic at will yet everyone is very tolerant and I have never seen anyone get angry. The people's patience makes them all saints. The general tenacity is overwhelmingly conspicuous and admirable. I presume the whining-per-GDP ratio, if it can ever be measured, is lower here than in many developed countries.

Here's an interesting image for you: there are a lot of stray dogs, but their tails are almost always up and skyward (a sign that they are happy). I actually tried to approach a stray dog (with the back of my hand) and it freaked out and growled at me. I suppose they are not used to people being nice to them and they prefer to be left alone. But, the point of this happy dog image is that people here accept their circumstances and live with them happily. Happiness is all relative, you realize when you're here. We can't go around feeling sorry for people. Of course, there is a lot of work that needs to be done vis-a-vis improving economic and health outcomes.

Last week I told you that I had a tailor make me a fitted shirt. I got the shirt today and I was thoroughly impressed. I have a picture attached (it's not yet pressed so pardon the underwhelming quality of the photo). So, the total cost? Under fifteen bucks. Yep. Amazing.

This weekend we went to a place called Madhubhan Resorts and Spa in a town called Anand. It's about a 2-hour drive from here. I was thoroughly amazed and impressed. It's comparable to a five-star resort and I felt as though I had instantly been teleported back home. More telling, however, was the trip there on a four-lane toll road. This time, there were only authorized automobiles and, again, it felt as though we were on an interstate cruising at over 70 MPH.

Madhubhan Resorts and Spa






The fine highway on the way to Anand


My tailor-made shirt

Meanwhile....

at home...

Elie misses her daddy.

 We miss you!  Come home soon!

More from Ahmedabad

I visited Mahatma Gandhi's museum today. The site used to be his ashram and house, and has now been converted to a semi-memorial. Unfortunately, it's rather poorly put together compared to a Smithsomian museum, but I suppose it's better than nothing. For instance, there are lots of pictures attempting to depict various events, but there are no descriptions under each one detailing the purpose or time of the picture. At any rate, it was a good place to visit and think about the wisdom he left the world.







This is my dream, too, for the US.



"US Pizza." I wonder if they know that pizza is an Italian food. It seems as though adding "US" may help any business acquire more patrons.



Yep they definitely have cows. The funny thing is that the cows are well behaved and know not to get in the way.


The epitome of the convergence of technology amidst poverty.





A few locals play cricket on a vacant lot on a Saturday evening.

From the streets of Ahmedabad

I had a chance to peruse the streets today. It's so overwhelming that I don't really know how to describe it at the moment, so I'm just going to let it percolate before I write about life on the streets.

Instead, I'll focus on my quick retail experience. Shopping here is an amazing experience -- you get the full focus and attention of their knowledgeable staff and are treated as though you actually matter. It's quite gratifying. The choice of product (in our case, fabric) is incredibly vast with varying degrees of quality based on your budget.

As soon as you approach the store, they open the door for you (these are individual boutique type stores and not large retail chains). Often, someone will offer you water - not by asking you if you want some, but it will just arrive on a tray within minutes of you starting to look around. As a side note, I kindly thank them for the offer and never drink the water because I'm trying to be very vigilant about where I eat and drink to avoid acquiring any superbugs. It's really just a personal precaution and not a statement of the hygiene.

The retail experience is pretty cool too. In our case, the sales guys showed us fabric after fabric after fabric based on what we wanted, etc. As an experiment, I have a shirt being tailor made for me. It will take them 3 days. So, we'll see how they do, but I'm confident it will be well done. So, how much would you pay for a tailor made shirt? Add your guesses to the comments section. I'll report back with the price and a picture once I get it and it's satisfactory.

Attached are some pictures from the lively streets. For a larger/clearer view, click on each one.

Follow-up from the Flagship lounge

I checked on the Blue Label availability -- they did not have it. They, did, however have Black Label. But, not close enough. Still, who I am to complain! I don't think I mentioned that they had a backdoor directly to the gate, which I crossed promptly at 4:00pm, the boarding time as written on the boarding pass. No lines. No senseless waiting and being shoved around. You go from drinking Perrier in the lounge to a cool glass of orange juice upon embarking. Did I mention the first class seat... no? Well, let me tell ya...

Pictures

Partial map of my flight


Welcome to First Class


Pretty!






Over Kabul (the green civilization on the right of the mountains)


Over Northern Afghanistan