Going coconuts!

Once orientation ends I won’t have something to blog about every day, but until then fest your minds on more orientation excursions!!!!
1/2/2011
Before today our courtship with the city’s transportation was shoddy at best and nonexistent with the local languages, Telegu and Hindi. Why not kill two birds with one stone? We were split into groups, given a destination, assigned a Hindi peer tutor, and given 100 rupees each. We were off to discover the gems of Jubilee Hills!! The trek to shop com, main gate and the main campus are all 30 minutes from Tagore House, so we started on our warm, half hour saunter. We heard a city bus rattle up from behind and instantaneously perked up our attention.

Lesson 1 of transportation, if it moves faster than you, it has the right of way. The food chain of transportation: motorcycles yield to no one (king of the road!), busses yield to the motorcycles due to lack of agility, autorickshaws have quite a maneuverable size but do not accelerate as quickly as other modes (so yield to the bus and motorcycle), the bicycle yields to all motorized vehicles, and finally the pedestrian yields to everything faster and bigger than itself. Astute attention is required when navigating any street! I have already avoided several injuries due to my training in speed and agility. Kept on our toes by the approaching bus, we observed its drunken motions. Bindhu, our tutor, began to lightly jog as the bus approached. We all followed like confused ducklings and watched her gracefully jump aboard. We clumsily followed suit.

Lesson 2, survival of the fittest. If traffic doesn’t yield to pedestrians, why should buses. It felt like a cowboy in a western as I grasped the handle in the bus’s doorway and ran alongside (avoiding uneven terrain) till I could hop from the road to the bus’s steps. Once inside, imminent danger had not been avoided. While counter balancing the sway and jerk of the buses motions I made my way towards a seat, clinging from hand hold to solid foot placement. Once the open seat had been reached, one must make sure (if female) the seat about to be occupied contains a ladies marking. Women are only allowed to sit in pre-marked seats at the front of the bus. Even though I originally found this oppressive, I learned this is actually a safety precaution mandated by the city. A monkey man carrying a satchel of tickets and swinging from the hand rungs on the roof of the bus swiftly exchanged our rupees for tickets. The bus spit us onto the street once we reached the township of Gachibowli. We were stranded in the middle of the road, unable to gain passage to either side of the intersection, but did not have to wait long to hop onto the next leg of our journey: shared auto. Shared autos are a larger rickshaw and have fixed rates!yay!

Lesson 3, always carry small bills and change. The different modes of transportation are extremely economical, so upon arriving at the next township we sampled the local fare to break our 100 rupee notes. I was immediately drawn to a coconut stand: big green coconuts in the shade of a wheeled cart, waiting to quench the thirst of the warm pedestrians!! The vendor whacked off the top of the nut, slipped a straw into the liquid and handed it over. Bindhu watched me suck in a giant gulp. The coconut water was thick and warmish and tasted of spoiled vegetables/milk. Yech! I forced the liquid down. Bindhu smiled and continued to sip from her nut. I felt the pressure from her eyes. I had to drink it…or at least pretend. When she turned her back, I “accidentally spilled” some, but one of my friends kindly brought my spillage to my attention. I wanted to abandon this annoying, distasteful nut, but there were no trash cans. I was not about to contribute to India’s trash problem, so I clenched that nut in my right hand. The vendor’s stand was right next to a goddess’s shrine erected to ensure the safety of the streets. How appropriate! An elderly woman who was dressing the goddess and attending to the needs of the goddess offered grain to bystanders in her honor. She thrust a grain filled hand in my face and I offered my free hand to accept her gift. She looked upset and taken aback, and once again offered the grain to my face. Was she supposed to drop it in my mouth? No, others were eating it out of their hands. I offered my hand again, and she shoved it out of the way and tapped my coconut violently. I had barbarically been offering my left hand!! No wonder she was so disgusted!!!!!I quickly transferred my nut to my left and accepted the grain with my right.whew.

Lesson 4, confidence is key. Bindhu led us toward the edge of another street. We all stood paralyzed a few feet from the edge of the street. “It’s no big deal. Just walk confidently and hold your palm out towards the ground. ” Bindhu offered this information so casually, like we were discussing the weather on a Sunday afternoon, not playing tic tac toe with death. Autos can smell your fear, and if you falter for a second, they take full advantage of your hesitation. My insides were Mexican jumping beans, but I put on a calm demeanor. I stuck to Bindhu like white on rice. Nut in hand, I successfully made it across the street. “This confounded nut is cumbersome and huge! Are there really no trash cans in the nation of India?” We must cross yet another street, and when Bindhu turned her head, I casually dropped my coconut into a large metal pipe ‘trashcan’. It is currently being used as a trashcan and is the closest thing to looking like a trashcan, therefore good riddance of my nut. I feigned more confidence during my street crossing and jumped another bus.

Final arrival at Jubilee Hills! We walked down a side street and were sucked into a colorful, aroma filled road. This short spurt of pavement led us to the gate of a temple to the goddess Kali. Through the iron gate, the temple looks like candyland! Bright and pastel colors adorn the carvings in the pointy roof. Hundreds of shoes were piled near a central fountain, and we followed suit. Although I still anxiously consider giardia when sporting naked feet in the city, I do really enjoy the feeling of bare feet. We washed our feet with a horde of other Indians and filled into que for the temple. Before reaching the entrance, an official looking photographer ushered us out of line and insisted he photograph us for the paper. Whities visiting a Hindu temple; that just doesn’t happen every day. We were able to jump back in line and pass through the metal detector quite slyly. A thick brass threshold separated the outside world from the outer courtyard of the temple. We stepped over its ornate carvings and found ourselves amidst a crowd of Indian bodies. These Indians were surrounding a flat circular slab of stone. One Indian would approach the stone and try to balance a coin on its side. Bindhu informed us if the coin remained standing, the wish would come true, if not, no dice. Beyond the “wishing well”, was open polished stone ground. An older man was laying upon the stone, prone, perfectly sill, praying. Being the first Sunday of the new year, the temple was bustling with people. We opted out of waiting in line to see the inner shrine, and walked along the outside of the candyland shrine to view a mosaic depiction of the idol. Hindus had tied coconut leaves, bangles, and sacks of spices to the walls surrounding the mosaic. All around us all ages, all castes, all levels of mental soundness were paying their respects to Kali. We returned to our shoes, and returned home the way we had come.

This day is not over yet, but I will inform you later of the events later that evening!!!!!!!Hold on to your pants!