India! What a country!

October 23
India Day 1

We arrived in Chennai (also known as Madras), India around 8:00 this morning. Our first sight of civilization was a small wooden boat riding along next to our ship with a few fisherman on it. The night before at our logistical pre-port meeting, we had been warned that India will be completely different than anything we’d experienced before. Up to this point I’d been hearing throughout SAS that India is the “riskiest” port and craziest as well (whatever that meant). After breakfast, I went to a Diplomatic Briefing (US consulates come in and talk about India) on the ship and also watched a yoga demonstration. My roommate and I were on the same trip (City orientation) and had till 1:00 to do whatever. We went out with another group of SAS students and left the port area. The first thing I noticed was the amount of dirt. There is litter as well but it’s not as prominent as the dirt that covers the road, the side of the road and the sidewalks (which only tourists use). Immediately after leaving the port we were bombarded by rickshaw (3 wheeled taxi bikes) drivers asking us if we needed a ride anywhere. We were primarily trying to find an ATM to get rupees (about 45 rupees to 1 USD) and had to ignore the taxi drivers. We found the ATM and afterwards decided to see if we could find a nearby market. We left the area of street where the taxis were at but came to a small stretch where there were child beggars (if you’ve seen “Slumdog Millionaire”, it was a lot like that). This country is full of persistent people: taxi drivers, child beggars (actually all beggars too), and store clerks. We were constantly warned to ignore the child beggars. I didn’t feel bad saying no to them but I felt bad they were in that situation. Many rickshaws and motorcycles zoomed past us as we walked down the road. We failed in finding a market but we did see a lot of the nearby area. My roommate and I decided we were too low on time and caught a rickshaw back to the ship (it was more of a motorized, tri-wheel car). Our driver, named Rama, pulled out postcards, photos, and letters from previous SAS students from earlier voyages talking about how nice a guy he was. It was like he was giving us his resume (I’m not sure how qualified you have to be to drive a taxi). We got back to the ship and had time for lunch before our trip.
We got on the bus and left on the city tour. After driving around for only a few minutes, I started to think I was in a different world. The streets were crowded and condensed, the buildings were worn down and the side roads had lots of trash in them. From the bus you could see many beggars on street corners. Our guide told us that many of the woman share babies that have been slightly starved with each other to get more sympathy for money. Our first stop was St. Mary’s Church which is the oldest Anglican church East of the Suez and the oldest British building in India. We walked from the bus to the church and walked around the church’s garden before entering the Church itself. There was a service going on inside but we were able to walk through the back of the church. We went back to the bus and headed to our next stop which was a building with different levels that sold silk saris (traditional Indian wear- Wikipedia it) and other souvenirs. We then left and headed to the next stop St. Thomas Church which was another church established assumedly during the British occupation of India. After this we went to another souvenir store, this one with a rug store and coffee shop attached to it. We browsed some more and then one of the guys who worked there gave us a demonstration on how a rug was made and the various tools involved as well as the setup. A rug that was about 6 ft by 10 ft takes 4 1/2 years to make. After the demonstration we went out to our bus, however on the other side of the street what should we see but a cobra charmer. After taking many photos, we proceeded on to out next stop which was a Hindu temple. While driving down the road, we spotted it from a couple blocks away- it was very tall. It was layered with statues of gods and scenes depicting gods and their stories. It was also extraordinarily colorful. Before entering through the gateway (which was beneath the massive tower which was not the actual temple) we had to remove our shoes. Taking off my shoes and walking on streets of India w/ only socks was a cool experience. Upon entering the temple, you first see a building in front of you where some priests are blessing people with fire. People walk around and spontaneously kneel down and say a prayer. Many people were just sitting around and hanging out while others stood in line to get into a certain shrine. One shrine had the god Ganesha who has the head of an elephant and uses “rats as his vehicles”, rats representing agility. There were statues of cows all over the place, cows being very sacred to Hindus (I wondered if “Holy Cow” derived from this). After walking around for a while, we left and drove back to the ship, getting a small taste of Indian traffic.
I planned on going to a welcome reception field trip with some friends so as soon as we got back we got on another bus that took us to a hotel where the reception was. There we were welcomed by musicians as well as college students putting the Hindi dots on our foreheads. Students from one of the local colleges hosted the reception and we were immediately greeted by them. The students were from a school of technology and engineering and were going to be heading for jobs such as tech support and computer engineers. Talking to them, I realized they were going to be the people I call when my computer malfunctions or I have other technical issues. We recently got a lecture about outsourcing in India and this was a prime example of it. Our tour guide earlier said “Many people in the U.S. are blaming us for taking their jobs, but India is just doing what it has to help its people.” We talked to the students for a while, asking them about their education system (which sounds way more efficient than ours) and India in general. The rest of the reception consisted of having Indian food (Amazing!), henna tattoos (I was going to get an “I Heart Mom” one, but we ran out of time), shopping, and a dance showcase of Hindi dancers. This was extremely fascinating they used their body to dance in ways I’d never seen (it was very outlandish), but also used their faces to make different expressions to show different emotions (the way I’m describing this is making it seem like any other dance, but really it was very cool). They told various stories through the dance with the accompaniment of singing and music. The dances themselves were very hypnotic to me and I kind of dazed off for a while. When we entered the reception area at the beginning they gave us flower necklaces made with jasmine flowers which are apparently edible. Throughout the performance I snacked on flowers which tasted like green beans. I ate my necklace as well as my roommate’s necklace (as strange as that sounds). We left around 10pm and got back to the ship. As usual, I know I left some stuff out so when I remember it I’ll probably add it to the next post. India is incredible so far and I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what the next few days hold for me. I got to get some sleep now so good night.