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Dear Family and Friends,
Hello from the Bay of Bengal!
Today is April 16th and we're now one day out of India and sailing
for Malaysia. It's gotten to the point where words in
the English language can't even begin to describe how amazing
this trip has been and how much this trip has changed me as
a human being. Without exaggeration, India blew the other
countries away. Don't get me wrong; the Bahamas, Cuba,
Brazil, South Africa, and Kenya were amazing, however, my India
experience was much more overwhelming than the rest. Let
me tell you why. . .
Again, my friend Jimmy and I were travelling
buddies. He knows how to travel cheap and is the type
of person who is up for anything. To put things in perspective
of how cheaply we traveled in India, my taxi cab from the airport
in the Bahamas to the hostel where I stayed was $20. Jimmy
and I traveled for five days in India and including all of our
meals, lodging, souvenirs, etc. came to $19.50!!! One
of the reasons why India was so amazing to me was the fact that
I was able to stay with an Indian family for the majority of
my time there.
The Yogeeswaran family was incredibly
kind to both Jimmy and I. Last semester, I took a plant
biotechnology course where I met my TA, Krithika Yogeeswaran.
I told her about my upcoming Semester at Sea voyage and she
arranged to have me stay with her family who lives in Madras.
It is also ironic that I stayed with the Yogeeswaran's because
they actually lived in my hometown of Natick, MA for 7 years
back in the early and mid 80's. During their time in the
U.S. Dr. Yogeeswaran worked at Boston University Medical School
and later at Tufts University. Five minutes after we were
allowed off the ship, I was talking to Dr. Yogeeswaran on the
phone and he picked us up in the family car. Also along
for the ride was Krithika's younger brother, Kumar. I
used to think American drivers were bad. Then, after travelling
through the Bahamas, I thought Bahamian drivers were worse.
Then Brazilian drivers. Then Kenyan drivers. But
I have to insist that Indian drivers take the cake! The
ride back to the Yogeeswaran abode was definitely an adventure.
There are no sudden movements in the Indian traffic system.
There are also no laws. Everything just "flows".
You don't run across the street, you walk casually and the cars,
buses, autorickshaws, cows, motorcycles, etc. will gracefully
swerve around you. Indians like to use their horn a heck
of a lot too. If the horn on your car doesn't work, it's
like having a flat tire, it's impossible to drive around!
It doesn't matter how fast you drive, if there is a vehicle
ahead of you, it's your duty to get ahead of it. So, after
about an hour of honking the horn, swerving around pedestrians,
and getting in front of vehicles we made it to the house.
Out of the five days that we were in Madras,
the temperature was above 106 degrees Farenheight all five days!
Once we got to the house, Kumar and Dr. Yogeeswaran invited
us to a nice plate of watermelon, the fruit of the Gods.
We talked for awhile about Indian culture and then hit the road
again to Kumar's grandfather's house to meet Mrs. Yogeeswaran.
When we arrived, we were delighted to see an Indian baby shower
in progress. I found it very strange that whenever I walked
into a room with women in it, they would always stand up to
greet me. Overall, Indian people, especially the women,
are very shy to foreigners. They are also very peaceful
people and India was the country where I have felt safest, thus
far, roaming the streets. Jimmy and I were getting
hungry and they offered us five types of rice dishes that they
were eating at the shower. Indian food is delicious as
well as healthy. The Yogeeswarans are vegetarians so whenever
we ate with them we were always given a very healthy and nutritious
meal. After our meal we met with Mrs. Yogeeswaran's parents.
They've been married for 60 years! The grandfather was
82 and has lead a very exciting life. He has traveled
a lot and is a well know scholar and speaker throughout the
land. Jimmy and I asked him questions for awhile and learned
a tremendous amount about India's customs and traditions.
One thing is that is hard for an American to get used to is
the Indian "head bob". To indicate that they are listening
and agreeing with you, Indians shake their heads from side to
side in a fashion that looks very similar to "no" in the US.
We would go up to food stands while traveling and ask the vendors
if they had water. They would shake their heads from side
to side which looked like "no" but was really "yes"! After
visiting with the relatives some more, we piled back into the
family car and had another adventurous ride home.
Indians eat very late at night.
The typical Indian family starts dinner between 9:30 and 10:00
PM so the Yogeeswaran's are an exception to the rule because
they eat at 8:30 PM. Throughout our stay, we were treated
to Mrs. Yogeeswaran's fabulous cooking. After dinner,
Dr. Yogeeswaran took us to the beach for a nice walk along the
shore. We then went home and went to bed because we had
a busy day planned ahead.
We rose from bed at 5:00 AM the next morning
to catch an early bus to Mahabalipuram, a small port town south
of Madras. Needless to say the bus ride there was an adventure.
I probably would have been better off keeping my eyes closed,
thus avoiding seeing how many times our bus came to hitting
some other moving object! Even though we got to Mahabalipuram
around 7:00 AM, the temperature was already well over 100 degrees
Fareignheit. Travel was slow going through such intense
heat and we went through several liters of water and soda.
Throughout the day we saw many stone carved caves and rock faces.
There were also some beautiful temples which we trekked through
as well. Along with the eye pleasing stuff we saw many
disturbing scenes as well. I had hamsters when I was little
and they knew enough to go to the bathroom in the same place
all the time. Most Indians, on the other hand, have no
concept of "common sense" things like that. They simply
squat down wherever they see fit, whether it be behind a bush,
in the street, on the beach, right in front of you, etc. . .
Most Indians also have major problems with littering.
There is no such thing as a public trashcan in India.
What I though was a trashcan actually ended up being a waste
receptacle of leftover food for the cows to sort through!
There are so many cows which roam the streets because they are
considered sacred in the Hindu religion. Goats and stray
dogs also add to the congestion. In India, bargaining
with the street vendors is expected and Jimmy and I were pretty
good at it. When we got back to the Yogeeswaran's we asked
them how much they would have paid for the stuff we got and
we were right on the money. They weren't able to take
advantage of us at all, although many Semester at Sea students
were "taken for a ride". After a day of sightseeing, we
watched the "sunset". From what I gather, the sun doesn't
really "set" or "rise" in India. It just fades away in
the haze before it reaches the horizon. It's a very interesting
phenomenon indeed. We then made our way to a small place
to stay for the night. Rooms ran for about $2.50 for two
people and included electricity, a fan, toilet and shower.
Bats and rats were also included for no additional price.
We weren't able to fall asleep until around 2:30 AM, which was
pretty bad considering that we needed to be up at 4:00 AM that
same morning to catch the early bus to Kanchipuram.
Kanchipuram is one of the seven sacred
temple cities in India and is also the silk capital of India
as well. The city itself didn't impress me very much but
the temples were beautiful. We toured the city in an autorichshaw
and saw the five major temples. I think the thing that
bothered me the most about India was the beggars. It was
incredibly hard for me not to give them a few rupees because
they truly looked hopeless. However, I had been warned
several times before not to give in because many of them are
actors and the babies they clutch so tightly in their arms don't
even belong to them. While roaming around the temples
we saw many people with leprosy and elephantiasis. This
was a disturbing sight as well but I was expected it so I wasn't
"shocked" by them. After seeing the sights we had lunch
in a vegetarian restauraunt and took a bus back to Chennai.
Upon arrival in the big city, we took a local bus out of the
city to a place where Dr. Yogeeswaran picked us up. He
was very impressed with our travel abilities and said he couldn't
travel through India any better himself! By the time Jimmy
and I got back to the house, we were dog tired and smelled disgusting.
We promptly took a brief shower and a quick power nap.
We then arose in time for dinner and had a nice meal in the
garden in the back of the house. Before we knew it, it
was time for bed and we fell asleep quickly.
The next day was "New Year's Day" in India.
Jimmy and I had a nice relaxing day spending time with the family.
Kumar loves to play "Mortal Kombat" on his computer and taught
us about the game of cricket. I had no idea how popular
cricket was with the local people. Everywhere you looked
there was a group of young boys playing the game. Offers
for free cricket balls and bats adorned the billboards around
the city of Chennai. After breakfast, we headed over to
Kumar's grandfather's house again for another meal with the
Yogeeswaran extended family. We learned a lot more about
Indian culture and sampled more types of Indian food, including
a special dish they serve only on New Year's Day (a good thing).
This dish combines the five tastes into one thus symbolizing
that you take some of everything in the coming year. I
don't want to use the word disgusting to describe it but nothing
else comes to mind. Oh well, you have to try everything
at least once right? From the house, I sent out the two
emails and then Jimmy and I went for a walk around the block.
We saw lots of beggars and cricket matches, but the highlight
of the stroll was the movie theater. Indians are crazy
about the movies and even crazier about them when it is a public
holiday. There is one movie star that we saw on autorickshaws
and billboards all across the city. He was always in a
silly pose with one hand in his pocket and his other hand saluting.
It was a very amusing sight to see. Apparently, he is
no longer in the movies and has now become a politician.
After we returned, we spent a little more time with the family
and then headed home. On the way, we stopped at a supermarket
which was having a promotion for "Milo". If you bought
a big box you would get a free cricket ball. They had
free samples and I tried one. It tasted exactly like hot
chocolate. I couldn't believe it was over 106 degrees
and I was drinking hot chocolate! We got home and I wrote
some postcards and got ready for bed. Jimmy and I couldn't
fall asleep so we went up on the roof of the house to watch
the stars for awhile. We finally got tired around 2:00
AM and hit the hay.
We woke up early the next morning because
we were getting a special tour of Dr. Yogeeswaran's hospital
lab. On the way to the hospital we stopped at a beautiful
modern Hindu temple. Once we arrived at the hospital,
Jimmy and I were given the grand tour and then we went to Dr.
Yogeeswaran's lab. The hospital was very different from
and American hospital. There was not nearly as much high
tech equipment and was overall fairly dirty. One thing
that surprised me about the Yogeeswaran lab was that we had
to take off our shoes to enter it. This is against the
law in the U.S. because of the potential to spill hazardous
chemicals on the floor. Dr. Yogeeswaran is doing some
plant research which I found pretty interesting and his lab
is nice too. Compared to an American lab, there is much
less equipment, however, they can still accomplish stuff with
what they have. After the tour we took a hospital bus
to meet one of Krithika's friends, Sundine. Sundine was
a great guy and took us on a tour around Chennai. We visited
a college and met up with Lavanya, another one of Krithika's
friends who I met at Cornell. We learned even more about
Indian culture from talking to the college students. We
then toured the city for awhile more and went to Film City.
I was not that impressed with Film City but it was neat to see
some of the sets they've used in past Indian movies. They weren't
filming anything when we were there but some of the other Semester
at Sea students actually got to be extras in the movies!
It was getting late so we headed back to the Yogeeswaran's house
to say goodbye. We then were driven back to the ship where
we said goodbye. It was sad to see India go but I'm positive
I will return there very soon. It really takes at least
two months to see everything that India has to offer, however,
we did pretty good for five days.
There's not too much shipboard life to
report because our sailing time between the two ports is only
three days. People are much more "on edge" now compared
to before because there's so much classroom work to be done
in such a short amount of time. It takes me forever to
get on a computer now a days to type out these emails.
I don't want to give you a guilt trip though. You're worth
it. At least some of you. . . (just kidding!) Last
night we had an auction for charity and raised over $8,000.
I didn't even bid a dime but it was fun to see the big spenders
on the ship spend big amounts of money on cheap stuff.
The whole collection of "Seawatch News" tapes (the news show
I work on) sold for $110, a complete Nintendo 64 system with
TV, games, and controllers sold for $600, and some elephant
art (made supposedly by elephants with brushes in their trunks)
sold for $75 for example.
Well, tomorrow morning I'll be in Malaysia
and I already hear adventure knocking at my doorstep.
Hope this letter finds you happy, healthy, and wealthy!
Your friend,
-Pat
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