Monday, June 02, 2008

Journey from Delhi to Chandigarh



The first thing that one feels when he comes out of the plane in India is the heat. It is now around 32 degrees and it is a "pleasant weather" as locals say.
My first impressions were amazing. I think that it was because of the fact that I am in Asia for the first time and everything is different and new for me.
So for example the traffic. If you have a road with one line in the middle you would say that it means that there fits one car in each line. This does not work for India.
I think these guys here do not have any rules. There are four cars in the line, several scooters and motorbikes, bicycles or rick saws, people crossing the road or camels and horses. They have traffic lights though and I think it is the only rule they have - to stop when it is red and go when it is green.
If you are a European you cannot hide that and that is bad for you. In the moment I reached a bus station I was surrounded by men who obviously wanted to offer me something. The only barrier is that they speak only Hindi. They even do not understand the single English word "No". When you say it to one guy no, the other one will offer you the same thing hoping you will say yes. So you have to address every single man and after a while the whole procedure repeats.
Anyways I managed to buy a ticket for a second class buss - Delux bus which was also air conditioned. I thought wow, great, I will have a great time there. Well do not consider things according to their names. I was happy that the bus had wheels. Air conditioning means in Indian style having one ventilator for 6 places. And if you will try it you can find out that this kind of air conditioning is not working as well as the one we are used to.
After 6 long hours in this bus I arrived finally to the station in Chandigarh. The story of having a convoy of fans around me repeated as soon as I got out of the bus. This time they knew the whole sentence in English: "Rick saw for lady?". But they still need to practice more on active listening especially to the word "No".
After this long journey I finally found AIESECers from AIESEC Chandigarh. These guys are crazy and random. All of them have either cars or scooters (they do not use rick saws or buses often) and they are disco maniacs.
My greatest learning point from this is not to expect Indian people to be organized, they are random even if they decide where to go, what to eat or how to transport themselves. But what is great all the time they somehow manage it.

4 comments:

DiĆ³genes said...

Ae!!! :))

It's good to know you're happy - and alive!
Enjoy your honey moon period!!


:))

Barbora M said...

Moje male, som rada, ze si v poriadku a ze sa ti tam paci. Neviem sa dockat tvojho dalsieho prispevku! Keep me posted. Pusky a take care *

Baska

Manveer said...

I think we should quote you several times in our preparation document.
And yes, we are crazy & random - the only way we know how to be ;) though makes so much more sense to be learning how to manage things in AIESEC eh!

Unknown said...

Namaste Natas!
jeeej to super ze sa mas dobre nauc sa vela dancov od tych disco maniacov a potom posunes dalej hehe

uz sa tesim na tvoj dalsi article
sak zachvilu aj ja zacnem

krasny den ti prajem

dominika