We have been in India now for nigh on two weeks now.  Most of that time has been spent trying to get our feet on the ground and figuring out the lay of the land, so our impressions thus far are necessarily pretty sketchy. Here are some things that have jumped out at us along with some illustration since most people have probably heard the same kinds of observations lots of times.

-The disparities of wealth in the population are incredible. The poor here are certainly as poor as you’re going to find anywhere in the world. We have it from an Indian economist that the rates of malnutrition in India are still on par with sub-Saharan Africa (though I haven’t fact checked that, so don’t hold me to it). In the poorer areas you see mostly small, skinny people. On the other end of the spectrum India’s elite lives a lifestyle second to none anywhere. Though it is a gross generalization to say that there are two Indians, it is a pretty useful schema. The international India of educated Indians pays western prices for its clothing, cars, electronics and fancy supper clubs, and lives in beautiful homes and apartment buildings that are air conditioned and pristine. The traditional and demographically much larger India just keeps on trucking along the way it always has. And between the two is a layer of service staff and entrepreneurs of various descriptions. It’s very confusing to navigate, as we must, between the two worlds without coming across as boorish North Americans. Lilee’s probably better at it than I am.

-Sensory overload: A good friend back home once described India to us as a very colourful sewer. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but it’s also not that far off the mark from what we’ve seen/smelled.  I should also add that it has not been quite the sensory assault I was bracing myself for, so I’ll try to give a balanced account -of Bangalore anyway. For one thing the air here is thick with smog pretty much all the time. The city has doubled in size in the last 10 years or so and public transportation has been very slow to catch up resulting in constant traffic congestion all over the city 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is always a background smell of exhaust here. Bangalore also has quite a few lakes (we actually live on one) that seem to be relatively clean, though I can’t say as I’ve gotten up close and personal with any of them yet. The little rivers and canals running through the city, however, can only be described as open concept sewers. One needs to block one’s nose for a good 20 meters before and after crossing one to keep from gagging.  Of course walking along one is right out of the question unless you’re unlucky enough to live there. We still haven’t quite got the skinny on garbage disposal yet, but in Indian (as opposed to international) neighbourhoods like the one we live in, there are sort of empty lots that seem to serve as community dumps where the piles of garbage wax and wane between deposits and with the efforts of stray dogs, cows, and individuals savaging for recyclables. These of course also add to the olfactory texture of the place. On the plus side, Indians love their incenses and perfumes, and these waft through the air in unexpected gusts. Also, the south is predominantly Hindu which means that on every second street corner is a group of ladies making delicious smelling flower garlands to be brought into the neighbourhood temples and shrines. Indians also tend to enjoy cooked snacks throughout the day, so one is seldom far from the delightful aromas of South Indian food. The visual field of Bangalore is analogous to its smellscape. The piles of brown and black, rotting garbage often contain discarded piles of colourful flowers. Hindu culture is also super into decorating right now. Dirty though the city seems in general, everything from the interiors of tuktuks, to the sidewalks outside of homes, to just about anything you can think of is painted, anointed with pigment, draped in flowers, or in some way adorned. It all sort of blurs together in a smelly, dirty, technicolour dream. Right now is a particularly great moment because we are entering the festival of Ganesha. He really seems to be pretty much the biggest deal in the Hindu pantheon. Weird scaffoldings and lights and things are going up everywhere as the city prepares for an all out humdinger.

-Indian Bureaucracy – Wow! Right off the bat, here, a distinction is in order between our experience of this phenomenon and that of the average Indian citizen. We are foreigners, and right now the Indian nation is pretty freaked out about national security what with the terrorism and what have you. I suppose this is true everywhere, but when you add India’s 19th century bureaucratic apparatus to the mix, you’ve got Kafka basically. I won’t bore you with the particulars of our experience, but sufficed to say, even though we’re here under the auspices of a joint Indian-US federal research and diplomacy program, to get registered with the Foreigner’s Residency Registration Office took 4 visits and about 16 hours. I have since witnessed Indians dealing with other arms of the government, though, and it’s easy to understand why Anna Hazare has drawn so much support for his reform bill. In line at a notary’s office I witnessed three men trying to ratify some deal that required three ½ inch thick, spiral bound stacks of documents. The three men leaning over the desk of this rather heavy-set and self-important, middle aged gentleman, were furiously flipping through pages having him sign as many as three places per document, none of which he took the trouble to read mind you. When they had finished with one volume it was then handed back to a young man at a little high-school type desk with a box of about 20 rubber stamps. He proceeded to stamp, flip, stamp, stamp, stamp, flip, flip, stamp, flip, and so on until he began at the beginning again with a new stamp. Again, nothing was actually read. When he was done with this process the volume went back to the desk of the notary who began again signing wherever he was instructed. What this whole process was costing them I have no idea, but I could see that this was by no means the beginning of it since every single document had at least 15 stamps and 15 signatures. As you can well imagine, in all of this there is an awful lot of room for officials demanding redundant stamps and signatures from all over the city, and an awful lot of room to streamline the process if the paper $ can make its way $ into the right hands $$$ at the right $ time. In all this process, computers seem to be used simply as word-processing tools to print up documents. Filing happens in big stacks with pieces of string. Fortunately, for us, we have become friends this great guy Rajeesh who was our real estate agent. He is a wiz at navigating the system, and has friends in all the right places. For the motorcycle license I need to ride here, for instance, he’s told me what documents to give him copies of, and he’s going to have a friend get my license for me. I don’t even need to go to the government office myself or write a test or anything. Given all of this, it isn’t surprising that Ganesha who is touted as the remover and placer of obstacles is such a freakin’ big deal. I just hope my motorcycle license guy is up to date on his puja devotions.

Well this is going to be it for now… There’s more to tell of course, but I’m going to try to do more shorter blog entries so that there are regular tidbits for those keeping up. And the next entry should have more adventure, Indiana Jones-type content with Eliza playing the whip smart, sometimes sultry female lead who gets really freaked out by rats (she does by the way – product of her NYC upbringing).