July 7th to July 10th - Indian Bureaucracy and the Mexican Economy

On Monday, we spent the day registering with the Bangalore police department, a requirement for all foreigners with a longer-term visa. After taking a bus to the foreign registration office, we began the long tedious process of police registration. Bringing back memories of the Department of Motor vehicles and waiting in line for ages for a driver’s license, I took my number and sat. And waited. And waited. Five hours later, after every other person in the group had finished, I was still waiting. Only at this point did I get called to meet with an officer and get approval. Within five minutes, he had stamped my paper and informed me that I need to return after another two hours. Excited to be outside of the warm, artificially-lit office, I went to grab lunch. For lunch I had a delicious thali or a fixed meal equivalent to a cafeteria tray of different curries. I went to briefly visit the botanical gardens in Bangalore, only a five minute walk from the registration office. Despite being in the offseason, it was fun to see some of the small bonsai-like trees and be out in this little sanctuary within the city. I returned back to the office, picked up my forms, and excitedly returned home. 

While so far my blog has been describing my fun adventures in Bangalore and the surrounding area, the rest of my week was spent writing a paper detailing the potential for business in Mexico and analyzing its political and economic indicators for a paper in one of my classes. For that reason, I do not have any amazingly fun or exciting adventures to discuss, unless I give a detailed explanation of me sitting a writing my paper or tell you about why you should invest in Mexico (which coincidentally you should, as it is huge in electronics manufacturing and design and still has a lot of potential for cheap but highly technical manufacturing despite the rise of China). Therefore, I will use this opportunity to mention some of the smaller details that I have not elaborated upon fully about my time in India:

The roads and traffic – As a pedestrian in Bangalore, I have been able to fully experience Indian roads and sidewalks. On my daily walk to school, I encounter fairly large amount of cow excrement, pavements that are made from whatever stone was laying around at the time, missing pavements which just drop into the underlying sewage, water flooding the streets after rainy days, and crazy drivers who will not stop even if it means running over a human or animal. While often treacherous, disgusting, and absolutely insane the roads are hugely intertwined with the Indian culture and mindset and can say a lot about the society and nature of the place. Despite getting used to the cows and dogs that roam the roadways and having to stare down my entire walk to school in order to avoid falling through the pavement or stepping into something unsavory, I cannot get used to seeing trash built up along the roadways and the general lack of care for the city. Maybe it is something cultural that I don’t quite understand, but I struggle to understand why the roads and sidewalks of a huge metropolitan area are filled with trash and often impassable. It would be fascinating to look further into the reason for the condition of the roads and what efforts are being made to improve the local infrastructure.

Food – The food has certainly been a highlight of the trip. Most mornings I got to the school cafeteria and grab a dosa or vegetable puff along with a cup of tea. This will cost me 60 cents. Lunches are also eaten at school and are equally delicious. For $1.20 I can get an entire meal including one or two vegetable curries, rice, bread, a pudding, and a milkshake. For dinner, I have gone different places every day, trying various foods such as panipoori, an South Indian cracker filled with a heavily spiced broth, gentgio;a;lfd, an donut-shaped spongy bread which can be dipped into various sauces, and gulab jamun, a sweet ball of doughy bread that is soaked in a sugary honey sauce. Along with these new dishes, I have had some of my favorites including naan, aloo gobi, dahl tadka, and vegetable biryani. What I have found amazing about India is the sheer amount of vegetarian options that are available, many of which are more delicious than their non-veg counterparts. Many of the students have fallen in love with fried Gobi, or cauliflower, which when cooked tastes as good as or even better than chicken. I have also found it interesting how many Western options and food products are available. Items such as Oreos, digestive biscuits, lays potato chips, and all sorts of sodas are available from local supermarkets. Along the streets you can find McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa Johns as well as Italian and American cuisine.

Fascination with Americans – Because in the past I have been in India travelling with my parents, I have not noticed how the local people seem fascinated by the Americans I am travelling with. The tall white guys and blonde girls are frequently stopped and asked to talk to people or to take photos of them. Crowds gather around them at tourist locations with people treating them as if they are an attraction much like the zoo or temple we are visiting.

Bartering and Street Vendors – Another fun part of India are the street side merchants. Walking around the more tourist-focused locations, we are harassed by a number of people attempting to sell us fake sandalwood fans, cheap knick-knaks, decorative bowls, jewelry, incense sticks, and various other items. These items are all marked up by extortionate amounts from their production costs, sometimes as high as 250% in the case of the fake fans and incense sticks. With even the slightest sign of interest, these merchants will continue to follow you for a couple blocks and shove their items in your face. Stores along the street sell all sorts of items, including food, handicrafts, textiles, ornaments, and even some toiletries. Almost any item can be bartered for and bought just by walking along the main street. While malls are fixed price, all markets accept some form of bargaining. Some of the student have embraced this while other cringe at the hassle of the system and will just take the initial price and pay.

Clothing – Much like the food, a lot of the Western clothing styles have transitioned over to India. While female students still wear churridar, or tunics, the male students will wear shirts and khaki pants to class. Even around the city, jeans and collared shirts are frequently worn. The malls are mainly filled with American stores like Tommy Hilfiger, Arrow, Ralph Lauren, and Levi’s.

Laundry – While the apartments that the college have provided us are nice, due to poor infrastructure, power outages occur frequently. During one of these, my washing machine broke down. Due to this, for the past week I have had to hand wash all my clothes and hang them out to dry on our washing line. This has gone about as well as one would expect it to given that I have done laundry only with a washer and dryer previously. Currently, my nice khaki pants all have a multitude of random stains that will not disappear no matter how long they are scrubbed. Nothing is discolored through, which is encouraging.

As I approach the end of my second week in India, I am exhausted but loving every minute of being here. India is an assault on the senses and a stark change from life in the US but is often beautiful and remarkable when you take a step back from the chaos. Despite the challenges, I am eager to see what else I can discover and to make the most of my time here.