Memory Notes from India

1-31-2007; Rajasthan: I’m on the bus from Jodhpur to Jaipur. I look up from my book to notice a green parrot flying along side the bus. I did a double take – it was almost like a cow flying by. I have seen a parrot fly about an apartment, but never like a robin or pigeon. It flew straight, it glided – kelly green, against a blue sky and dry beige mountains. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

2-2-2007; Hyderabad: I am in the Anmol Continental Hotel. The paper is slid under the door in the morning. This morning it is The Hindu – labeled the national paper of India since 1878. In Delhi I had been reading the Hindustan Times and The Times of India. Of course they are all English papers. Most other days at the Anmol the Deccan Times is delivered. I have to find the source of the word ‘Deccan,’ it is common, there is Deccan Air.

Stapled to the morning paper in the upper left hand corner is a blue card. The card is my passport to the breakfast (included with the room). The breakfast is an Indian breakfast, just about everything is spicy. They do have fruit, papaya, mango, pineapple, and occasionally watermelon. Cornflakes are available but the milk tastes too different. I’ve avoided American food on this trip – the tastes are not the same, so it is always a disappointment – an imitation – I assume the same is true with most Indian food served in the US. The Indian food on the other hand is new and filling, an adventure even if it turns out that I do not like it.

English is one of the two official languages of India, Hindu the other – with all the help desks staffed in India it was still a surprise that English is one of the official languages. Every state in India has it own language. It is only the educated class that speak English, the pedicab drivers rarely speak anything more that a few words. Taxicab drivers are more conversant with English. One thing to keep in mind when using the pedicabs or bicycle rickshaw – the drivers are generally illiterate; the practical consequence of which is that they can not read maps. Even if you can point to where you want to go on a map it doesn’t help – they can not make heads or tails of it. The problem is always solved one way or another; I have always arrived at the right destination, something with multiple stops and conferences with pedestrians