Where the streets have no names …
Namaste mere doste (Greetings my friends)!
Seeing our beHindi
Yes, we are trying to learn Hindi - and it is a humbling experience. Suddenly we understand why English spoken in India is not quite the same as what we are used to. Sounds are formed in places in the mouth that seem very unnatural. We should have known something was up when we found out that there are about 14 vowels and 50 consonants … And as our tutor keeps reminding me, “Don’t say ‘haaaich’” (h). Marga seems to be the more gifted linguist and her pronunciation does not seem to have the “burst out with laughter” effect that mine has. We are however not brave (aka foolish) enough to attempt to learn to write in Hindi, or the Hindi alphabet.
GOAne for the weekend
We went on our first trip in India since our brave move over here - a nice, relaxing weekend in Goa. Goa used to be a Portuguese colony and the distinct Portuguese style is very visible. It also appeared less crowded than our general perception of India. Admittedly we spent more time admiring the beach and pool, than exploring Goa, though. When we returned from Goa we felt like rock stars when we arrived at the airport. Just some background: Hyderabad has a brand new airport, which opened a week ago. The airport is built outside the city and land was acquired from the local village to build it. Because of this the local people feel that they have contributed to this impressive new airport and, as a nice family excursion, they come to the airport, watch the planes land, have picnic in or around the parking area etc. So, on our return it felt like we were greeted by thousands and thousands of “fans”. Marga’s warm welcome feeling was short-lived though, when she discovered that one of the “fans” planted a big sticky puddle of spit on her suitcase (people spitting is a common sight in India).
Flying luggage class
On the way to Goa, I had yet another new experience. The new airport was filled with new staff (i.e. not very experienced staff). When we presented our e-ticket to receive our boarding passes, we were issued with two tickets that looked like boarding passes. However, later, when I looked at my boarding pass, I realised it was a baggage ticket. The young lady at the check-in counter added our luggage together as if it was one person flying, and given that it was 2kg over the permitted 18kg per person, she issued an “excess baggage” ticket. We suspect she realised her mistake, because she did not charge us anything, but when I was ready to go through security I realised I did not really have a boarding ticket, only a “permit” for extra luggage. This however did not deter me and I managed to get through security twice and to board the airplane with my “luggage class” ticket. The fact that the seat next to Marga’s seat was allocated to anothe person also did not create much of a problem as the other person was relegated to a seat at the back. Another first for me - flying without a “real” ticket.
Where the streets have no name
Adapting to driving in India seems an easy task compared to learning Hindi. It is impossible to describe how people drive in India - you have to come and see for yourself, as words cannot do it justice. I have adapted fairly quickly to driving here (when the roads aren’t too busy and I stay out of the really congested traffic). I’m not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed of this. All I know is that if my career does not work out, I will be able to adapt to being a minibus taxi driver in SA in no time. However, driving around and finding your way are completely different things. And as the title suggest, the streets here literally have no names in most cases. If you read our address, you will notice that “Road number 12″ appears there. No, our house is not in this road. You have to make about 4 turns from this big road to find our house. But Road number 12 is merely the closest road with a name (and not a very original one at that!). This is the major challenge at the moment - when getting around it’s not very easy to track down your destination or even to confirm you are on the correct route by checking street names. (Even the roads with names do not have any signs indicating the name - you just sort of find out that “oh, this is road number 12 …” when asking your driver.
Celebrating life
We have been overwhelmed by the richness of the culture here in India and people’s ability to celebrate things that we take for granted. In particular:
- the pooja ritual performed when we received our new car;
- the lovely tradition that when you get something big, such as a new car, people around you should receive something too. (I had to buy sweets for the whole office to share my good fortune, and they congratulated me on my new car);
- the thousands and thousands of people coming to see the wonder of a new airport;
- seeing people enjoying the festival of Holi - and the city and its people being “decorated” with different colours; and
- seeing people with coloured finger tips for days after Holi - the paint is not easy to get rid off!
Peace and dogs
I think we forgot to mention in earlier blogs that Raju and Alex are now best friends with the dogs. The dogs generally seem very happy here in India. However, they do not miss an opportunity to dart into any room with air conditioning on, and then suddenly become deaf to any command that hints at them leaving the room. We will have to see how they cope in the next month when temperatures will flirt with 50 degrees Celcius. It might become extremely dangerous to try and remove them from an air-conditioned room … That’s all from India for now. If I have energy left after two consecutive 6 day work weeks, I might be tempted to write some more. Until next time … Theo
Theo Scheffler
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