I've arrived safely in Lucknow and I'm now in the office I'll be working in. In the past two days I've seen more things of interest then in several years in Canada. It's the little things that grab you and fascinate you. Cows eating garbage. Men getting shaved on the street. People with massive airconditioners strapped to bikes peddling down the highway.
I arrived in Delhi at three in the morning. Vahid, a friend of ours from Canada, met me at the Delhi airport and we grabbed a taxi. It was surprisingly cold. Delhi at night is completely orange. The light from the street lamps seems to stick in the thick smoggy air. It's dusty and smells of exhaust, faintly of burnt rubber, and something else. I actually like the smell. Our taxi smacked lightly against a truck and we pulled over. Vahid took command of the situation. The police arrived and a small crowd gathered. They all shouted at each other for a long time. Under a nearby overpass I saw three people crowded around a fire. In India people wrap themselves in blankets and head kercheifs at night, rather than big coats. Eventually a new taxi arrived and took us to the Bahai House - Delhi's Bahai centre and lodging for visiting Bahai's. I had a shower and an hour and a half's sleep. I went to bed at about six, and we were gone by nine.
That night, the cold and the sleep deprevation had left me feeling a little miserable, but the next morning I saw a tree. A tree that wasn't a pine tree! There are no pines here, and the trees are beautiful and exotic. My spirit rose instantly. We took a rickshaw to the train station. There are two kinds of rickshaws, bikes, and a kind of motorized three wheeler, we took the latter. In India there are really only two laws of the road. Stop at red lights, try and keep to the left. There are no lanes, no order. I could reach out and touch any of the surrounding vehicles. Small cars, rickshaws, bikes and motorbikes all weave between eachother trying to find openings. I love it.
We stopped at the train station to buy my tickets for the next day. Then we grabbed lunch at a McDonalds. They had McCurry, but I stuck with the McChicken.
We reached the Bahai Lotus Temple. It's hard to explain, but the temple has a presence to it beyond what you see in the pictures. Whenever you turn around and see it again it punches you afresh. I prayed in the cool marble hall and then went to see my friend Katie. Vahid left and I hung out with her for the rest of the day while she served, working at various information stations. At one point we were standing outside the exit of the temple, where Katie and some other Bahai's would hand out pamphlets about the faith, and direct people to the information centre, when an Indian woman with a camera says "take picture." I reach for her camera and she shakes her head. "You in picture." They wanted to take pictures with the white girl. I took about three pictures with them. A few minutes later a man had me hold his baby for another shot. Katie and I were laughing our heads off. I've noticed sometimes the men here stare at me. In Canada if you stare at someone and they notice, you look away. In India they just stare.
Vahid arranged for a rickshaw driver that he knew to pick Katie and I up once she was done for the day. At one stop light we saw people moving between the cars trying to peddle trinkets, so we hastily engaged in an apparently engrossing conversation about the nature of the universe. The woman peddling little lights came up and started talking in Hindi. We ignored her, and continued talking. She tapped my cheek with one of the lights. What amazing audacity! Can you imagine walking into a store like Bootlegger and have a worker tap a shirt into your face? We also saw several monkeys on a bridge railing.
We ate at a nice Indian restaurant and then I went back to the Bahai house. The next day, Vahid took me to the train station. This was at about five o'clock in the morning. I got on the train at about six fifteen. It was supringly nice though I didn't eat much of the food because it looked unsavory and had eggs in it. I read my book and stared at the countryside from time to time. It was all argricultual squares and rectangles, dotted with trees. Little huts and a few villages dotted the green fields. Now and then we'd pass through a city and I would think "Thank God I wasn't born into such a life." India is poor, and dirty. It is old brick buildings that are crumbling and piles of dust. I'd say seventy percent of the buildings I've seen here wouldn't even be slums in our country. They would be the slums of slums.
After the six hour train ride I reached Lucknow and stood at the station waiting. The train stations here are the stinkiest places. They smell like feces and urine. Sohayl picked me up in his car, the first I had seen that had seatbelts in the back. We drove through Lucknow and I realized that this, not Qualicum, is now my home. Lucknow is poor like every place here, but for some reason I like it.
We reached Sohayl's house which is in a district of houses much nicer than many. It's a white house with high ceilings and marble floors, sparsly but nicely furnished. Nicole, Sohayl and I chatted over some white tea, which was very nice. Sohayl then left for the office and I read for a while and chatted with Nicole. After a little while we went to the market taking a bicycle-rickshaw. We went to get some material for my outfits. When getting punjab suits (which is what most women wear here) you first pick the material, which usually comes in two sets of patterns, one for the top and one for the bottom and scarf. Then they size you up, and fashion the fabric. Today we only bought the fabric. I picked my patterns fairly quickly and Nicole was delighted that I'm a quick shopper. I got a Pepsi (the cans are taller and skinnier here) and we went back to the house. I read for a bit longer and then the kids came home from school. There are three of them, two boys and a girl. Arastu, Rachelle and Armon. They said hi but were kind of shy. Then Sohayl took me on his motorcycle to the office where he talked to me about the office and the work they do here. And then I began to compose this e-mail. Tommorrow I get to work!
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