February 03, 2007
Indian Travels, Part I
I'm just wrapping up my second day in India and have tons of thoughts to put to paper (or, as the case may be, bytes).
We spent much of the day just driving around Chennai—the city's sites are mostly its streets and the amazingly long Marina Beach, the second longest white sand beach in the world and where the 2004 tsunami infamously rolled ashore in India. We visited our host's impressive round church and stopped by to see the relics of Thomas the Apostle who, legend has it, was killed in Chennai long about 78 A.D. Mostly we just drove, with the windows down, let the city's humanity roll over us. The ubiquitous yellow autorickshaws and motorcycles zipped among us honking endlessly in what first seemed like chaos but gradually emerged as a highly refined system of rules of the road (Rule #1: The larger the vehicle, the more right of way it has). Suicidal pedestrians wandered across the streets as if its second nature; cow-drawn carts plied the roads alongside overcrowded city buses; and there were tons and tons of people. There's lots of activity on (and in) the streets, not the least of which are the endless merchants selling fruit,
This being my first trip to Asia, it was entirely mind-blowing. I had begun the morning with a walk around our pristine hotel, but turned around overwhelmed after only a few blocks. It was just sensory overload. The streets of India are exactly the way they're pictured in the Amazing Race or whatever other show you've been watching, but without the noise and the smells video and pictures capture such a tiny tiny part of the experience.
I just can't get over the incongruity of India: It's so high tech and low tech at the same time. There's amazing prosperity and opportunity just blocks away from squalor, beggars, and thatched hut communities. Tonight in Hyderabad, after braving crazy, loud traffic and swarms of people at the confusing airports, five minutes after checking into our Sheraton, I'm in my spacious room where Kenny G is playing on the TV and my wireless internet connection is letting me do an audio chat with K back home. Downstairs, we sat in the hotel's cigar and scotch bar listening to two Eastern European lounge singers perform cover songs. We could have been just about anywhere in the U.S.
Earlier today, just a few blocks from the gleaming glass high tech parks rising above the scrub jungle, we watched weary women load bricks onto their head to carry them into a decidely low-tech construction site. One minute you're on the cutting edge of the 21st century; the next, you could be in the fifteenth century.
Anyway, more later. Here's a selection of today's photos—looking back at them at the end of the day I'm disappointed at how little of the experience I captured, but it's not possible to do just with photos.
