Last full day in India
I will leave India tomorrow having only been here long enough to get the barest impression of the country. I've left the hotel compound three times, which is more than most of the conference attendees, from what I can tell. I went on a commando shopping raid this morning, and bought a couple of objects d'art. I managed to bargain them down somewhat, but I probably still paid too much. Not that it really matters; the price was definitely less than what I would have paid for similar pieces in Little India in Chicago.
On a negative note, the sore throat I had for two days went away yesterday, but has now returned in the form of a hacking cough that has gotten worse over the course of the day. The hotel has a pharmacy delivering some cough syrup to me, for the equivalent of about a buck fifty, and hopefully that will help.
On a more bizarre note, part of the hotel collapsed this morning at breakfast. I was sitting there in the restaurant with a few people and I heard a noise. I looked out the glass doors of the restaurant to see about a twenty foot section of hallway ceiling collapse in a pile of plaster dust and twisted metal and wires. One of my colleague was just on the other side of it when it fell, but no one was actually under it when it fell. It didn't look like anything structural, but that this could happen at a five star hotel was of a piece with everything else I've seen here in India. I don't know what combination of economic, social, and environmental factors is at play, but the whole of what I've seen in India seems to be falling apart, whether it be roads, buildings, cars, etc. Nevertheless, in the midst of all this disrepair and side by side extremes of wealth and crushing poverty, everyone I've interacted with and just about everyone I've seen on the streets have been friendly and seem to be blithely and happily going about their lives. I've seen poor day laborers whip out cellphones and chatter away. I've watched well dressed sari clad women whom I had pegged as middle class end their journeys at tiny shacks of scrap wood and tarp. I've seen children with immaculate school uniforms come and go from the same. It's hard to know exactly what to make of it all. I wonder if the school kids I've seen represent a generational shift of social class. Will these children graduate from a technical school and get a job that will vault them out of their parents' shack and into the growing Indian middle class? Will it depend on family connections? Or will they end up among the seemingly endless ranks of people sweeping dust around, digging ditches, and carrying dirt around on top of their heads? This brief glimpse of India presents far more questions than answers. I will have to leave some of those questions for the next time. My experience here tells me that however strange and stressful it may be, it is possible to make your way around India pretty safely. Someday I will return, but probably not to Goa. Goa really is India for Beginners, and I am glad to have had the experience.
On a negative note, the sore throat I had for two days went away yesterday, but has now returned in the form of a hacking cough that has gotten worse over the course of the day. The hotel has a pharmacy delivering some cough syrup to me, for the equivalent of about a buck fifty, and hopefully that will help.
On a more bizarre note, part of the hotel collapsed this morning at breakfast. I was sitting there in the restaurant with a few people and I heard a noise. I looked out the glass doors of the restaurant to see about a twenty foot section of hallway ceiling collapse in a pile of plaster dust and twisted metal and wires. One of my colleague was just on the other side of it when it fell, but no one was actually under it when it fell. It didn't look like anything structural, but that this could happen at a five star hotel was of a piece with everything else I've seen here in India. I don't know what combination of economic, social, and environmental factors is at play, but the whole of what I've seen in India seems to be falling apart, whether it be roads, buildings, cars, etc. Nevertheless, in the midst of all this disrepair and side by side extremes of wealth and crushing poverty, everyone I've interacted with and just about everyone I've seen on the streets have been friendly and seem to be blithely and happily going about their lives. I've seen poor day laborers whip out cellphones and chatter away. I've watched well dressed sari clad women whom I had pegged as middle class end their journeys at tiny shacks of scrap wood and tarp. I've seen children with immaculate school uniforms come and go from the same. It's hard to know exactly what to make of it all. I wonder if the school kids I've seen represent a generational shift of social class. Will these children graduate from a technical school and get a job that will vault them out of their parents' shack and into the growing Indian middle class? Will it depend on family connections? Or will they end up among the seemingly endless ranks of people sweeping dust around, digging ditches, and carrying dirt around on top of their heads? This brief glimpse of India presents far more questions than answers. I will have to leave some of those questions for the next time. My experience here tells me that however strange and stressful it may be, it is possible to make your way around India pretty safely. Someday I will return, but probably not to Goa. Goa really is India for Beginners, and I am glad to have had the experience.