Ammonia tingles my nose, then my eyes. I look up, and the ceiling panels above me are browned from water damage. The windows are painted over or boarded up. Air conditioners buzz and whir, almost chirping. It’s cooler than outside, but it’s not comfortable. It feels like I’m in a building stuck in the 70s, but reality dawns on me: I’m in Kolkata.
Welcome to India.
There’s a rush to the door and it’s not orderly or polite. People push and jostle, indiscriminate of age or gender. At the end of the line we’re being scanned for H1N1. It’s a quick temperature check, but such lines always make me feel that much closer to quarantine. After the scan, the line continues to customs and immigration. It’s no longer a clustered crowd but an orderly queue. I have personal space, but with it come the stares.
I’m wearing a blue windbreaker, plaid blue shorts, rubber slippers and a small camo backpack. I look around and remember something: men do not wear shorts in India. Whether it is that or my blatant foreign appearance, I don’t know, but I feel eyes upon me.
In an instant, the foreigner line is empty and somehow I bypass a line of Indians returning home. Some are not amused. One man points at me while speaking in Hindi and staring me down. After a short rant, the crowd gasps in shock, and a woman in line reprimands him. A police officer puts his hand over his mouth to conceal a laugh but fails. He approaches me and says, “No, no, do not worry. You are our guest.”
Welcome to India.
After customs, I grab my bag from baggage claim and waited in line for money exchange. The line did not move, and I didn’t feel like waiting (It was well past 1 a.m. local time, and more than 24 hours since I had left home). I saw Rick and Sushil waiting at the gates anyways, and with them were Brandon and Paige. Everyone looked happy to be leaving the airport.
Outside, the humidity slapped me like a warm, wet towel. “It’s just like Orlando,” Paige says. But very much unlike Hawaii, I thought. Nor is the air. Nor are the sights.
“Well guys,” Rick says, “Welcome to India.”
Walking to the car, we notice a few boys loitering in the parking lot, the youngest around four, the oldest about 14. They ask if we need help with our bags. We don’t, but they want donations. When we refuse, they stand between us and the car doors. If feels awkward and somewhat threatening, but maybe I just haven’t experienced it before.
No matter. Everyone is in and Sushil tries to back the car out, but Rick tells him to stop. The little boy jumps up and down, banging on the window, asking for money.
Unrelenting begging and we haven’t even left the airport. Welcome to India.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
My trip to India: By the Numbers and Superlatives
Days out of country: 15
Total flight time: More than 32 hours (at least 15 hours from Honolulu to Taipei to Bangkok to Kolkata, and 2.5 hours from Kolkata to Delhi)
Total train time: 5 hours
Total car time: 24 hours (about 7 hour round trip from Kolkata to Dumka, an hour a day from Dumka to the village Dhoker Jhara)
Number of photos taken: 4,770
Hours spent on the Internet: 6
Number of those hours spent on Facebook: 4.5
Calls dialed to Hawaii and the Mainland: 3
Of those 3 calls, number that actually connected: 0
Number of snakes seen: 0
Number of monkeys seen: 5 (2 at Taj Mahal, 2 at a train station, 1 in a park in Kolkata)
Times I said I was going to see a doctor because of my deviated septum: 20
Times I've been to the doctor about my deviated septum since I've been back: 0
Number of times I bathed with a cup and bucket of cold water: 8
Most listened to album: "Octahedron" by The Mars Volta
Most fitting song: "Karma Police" by Radiohead
Book I listened to: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling (audiobooks are awesome on long trips)
Book I read: Lonely Planet - India
Song that went through my head the most:
Food item eaten the most: Eggs
Word uttered most when ordering food: masala
I'm most surprised that: I didn't get so sick I was puking.
Craziest thing I saw indoors: 2 babies in formaldehyde at the Indian Museum in Kolkata
Craziest thing I saw outdoors: A pair of motorcycles coming straight at our car. They were on the wrong side of the road for some reason.
Most surprising thing I saw: A cow eating trash
Most pleasantly surprising thing I saw: Everything is cheap. Really cheap.
Cheapest thing purchased: 1 cup of chai tea for 5 rupees (US$0.11)
Phrase uttered most often: "It's a steal!"
Things I don't miss: The humidity and heat, the pollution, the trash, the beggars, the unrelenting salespeople.
Things I do miss: The low price of everything, the great cuisine, the friendly and conversational people, the unrelenting motion of life.
Total flight time: More than 32 hours (at least 15 hours from Honolulu to Taipei to Bangkok to Kolkata, and 2.5 hours from Kolkata to Delhi)
Total train time: 5 hours
Total car time: 24 hours (about 7 hour round trip from Kolkata to Dumka, an hour a day from Dumka to the village Dhoker Jhara)
Number of photos taken: 4,770
Hours spent on the Internet: 6
Number of those hours spent on Facebook: 4.5
Calls dialed to Hawaii and the Mainland: 3
Of those 3 calls, number that actually connected: 0
Number of snakes seen: 0
Number of monkeys seen: 5 (2 at Taj Mahal, 2 at a train station, 1 in a park in Kolkata)
Times I said I was going to see a doctor because of my deviated septum: 20
Times I've been to the doctor about my deviated septum since I've been back: 0
Number of times I bathed with a cup and bucket of cold water: 8
Most listened to album: "Octahedron" by The Mars Volta
Most fitting song: "Karma Police" by Radiohead
Book I listened to: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling (audiobooks are awesome on long trips)
Book I read: Lonely Planet - India
Song that went through my head the most:
Food item eaten the most: Eggs
Word uttered most when ordering food: masala
I'm most surprised that: I didn't get so sick I was puking.
Craziest thing I saw indoors: 2 babies in formaldehyde at the Indian Museum in Kolkata
Craziest thing I saw outdoors: A pair of motorcycles coming straight at our car. They were on the wrong side of the road for some reason.
Most surprising thing I saw: A cow eating trash
Most pleasantly surprising thing I saw: Everything is cheap. Really cheap.
Cheapest thing purchased: 1 cup of chai tea for 5 rupees (US$0.11)
Phrase uttered most often: "It's a steal!"
Things I don't miss: The humidity and heat, the pollution, the trash, the beggars, the unrelenting salespeople.
Things I do miss: The low price of everything, the great cuisine, the friendly and conversational people, the unrelenting motion of life.
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