June 2-8: Shri Krishna Bhawan

Shri Krishna Bhawan front gate entrance during a special event

Four interns and I stay at the Shri Krishna Bhawan in minimal dorm-like comforts like fans and toilets. During this period, a local vendor would bring us our three daily meals. It is important to note that Indians eat much later in the day than Americans: about 8:30am-10:00am for breakfast, 1:30pm-3:00pm for lunch, and 9:00pm to 11:00pm for dinner. We have on large common water jug to drink from during the day. At each meal, we would eat in Raghu and my room on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom; all this area we walk around in our bare feet most of the time. The eventual sickness of eating like this aside, I learned from the interns how to eat like an Indian with my right hand.

The four interns are friends, all from southern India. Jacob takes it upon himself to learn my accent in order to improve communication between the interns and me. He was the first to really enjoy Infinity Blade on my Ipad. Raghu and Mahesh were a bit harder to communicate with and mostly kept to themselves. Raghu's downloaded movies supplied much of the extra entertainment to keep the interns sane during our little break before the real work begins. There is one more intern, but he had left and quit without really telling anyone.

The Temple for Shri Krishna Bhawan

Like the name of our place of stay suggest, it has a temple connected to it. Throughout the day, you can hear a bell ringing at the temple. That is pilgrims coming to wake up a god who sleeps all day. I joked with the locals that this was my kind of god, but the only thing is that if I were that god, instead of giving blessings to those who woke me up, I would be angry. I am tired after all and it is rude to not to let a sleeping god lie. 

June 2nd: The Flight and Arrival

The flight was nice...fourteen hours, but nice. The in-flight food was vegetarian and approximately Indian food. I made many friends on the flight and asked them questions. On my flight to Newark, a middle-aged family man who works for a bank company in Mexico. He tells me that India is fifty years behind the United States in terms of equal treatment of women, and he thinks women are too free in the United States. He looks at the divorce rates as Americans not looking at the consequences of their actions on the children and society. He believes that India cares more about money than education. He says that poverty is the excuse for the country not to invest in education. For this family man, India still thinks too much in the box. However, he wants his daughter to study what she wants.

While I had more conversations, they were small talk. After arriving at the Delhi Airport, I exchange my pocket money my father gave me for Indian currency. I will need more money later, but what I have is fine. The first thing that startles me is that the security have AK-47s. As you might guess, I am not a violence person, and people having big guns scare me.

I then look for Chandra Vikash or whoever he had sent to pick me up among the people with name cards. After awhile of not seeing anyone, I get desperate and start trying to find a phone I can use. My phone does not have a local sim, there are no payphones, and the locals either cannot understand me or are looking for customers, so I take the only choice left to me--the racist one. I find an equally lost and confused American looking for their person and ask for his phone. The one I find does not have a local phone either but soon we find his person who was to pick him up, and his guide has a phone he is willing to share.

After contacting Vikash and meeting the intern whose job is to pick me, I take the metro to Vaishali. I have to go through a series of bag checks, probably to restrict weapon transport in the city and trains. The black train tokens have a tower that reminds me of Pisa. There first train from the airport is not all that compact.

On the way to the second train, the intern and I meet up with the three other interns who will be accompanying me on this misadventure with Vikash this Summer. In the not so fresh air of Delhi, I see all sorts of poverty and scrambling on the streets. Trash rots on the sides of streets, and icky dark water taints our sandals. The second train is far more crowded. It is not Tokyo crowded but you will have to suck in your gut and get friendly.

My next encounter with the gross was a man's hand. While on the second train, a middle-aged man violently cleans his ear with his index finger. Then he pushes with the same my shoulder aside to talk to his companion. Next he cleans is nose with the same finger. THEN he push my shoulder with the same hand to talk to his companion again.

A picture of the metro station from our balcony as Shir Krishna Bhawan

I tolerated it. At Vaishali, we walk to our near-bye place of stay called Shir Krishna Bhawan. It has temple, hence the name. After walking through the sewage to the building and climbing to the third floor (ground floor is 0), I unpack my stuff. Because the power is out and it is so hot, I sit on the balcony to cool off. Chandra VIkash comes by to say hello and then I go to bed.