Post Trip Perceptions, a response to #5

Cultures and religions are very prevalent in everyday life and work just as I had imagined. Families usually lived in multigenerational homes. Elders are taken care of my children and children go back and live with their parents after they are married. Also, hired help sometimes stays with the family that they work for, but not very often. I would have to say that I did feel a sense of family in visiting the country of India as most people were very welcoming. The people were as unique as the colors that could be found anywhere in India.

From the places we were able to visit, I did not experience the diversity or the religions of the many people or the exact effect of democracy on the population. What I did observe when visiting the Hare Krishna temple, Jain Temple and the Akshardham temple is that everyone respects each other's religions and deities and goes on their merry way.

Post Trip Perceptions, a response to #4

As for my thinking that the entire country would be colorful, I was right and it was even more colorful than I could have imagined with all of the textiles, food, flowers and places of worship.

First, the textiles and traditional clothing always incorporated at least three colors, some complimentary, some secondary and some tertiary. Some you wouldn't even expect to be next to each other, but they all looked great and rich and wonderful. Personally, I think the people look happier just because they are wearing colors; it really brings out their personality and lights up their eyes.

Name a color and I am pretty sure I could find a food dish, a spice or a drink anywhere from a nice restaurant to a street vendor. The food and drinks were as rich and flavorful as the colors they exuded, sometimes even more flavorful than I could have imagined! The vegetable and fruit markets were very vibrant.

We visited a Jain Temple in Mumbai and it was the most colorful place I have ever been and I took one of my favorite pictures there! I am not exactly sure what was going on, but the use of color was everywhere. At first, I thought, a color explosion, but the more time I spent there, the use of color was deliberate and thought out in a subconscious fashion. AMAZING! It was almost like a dream world with the different textures and paintings complimenting each other.

Flowers were everywhere and beautiful and fragrant; buckets and strings all over the markets. Marigolds flower garlands were used in worship as an offering to their deity or to decorate their place of work.

Post Trip Perceptions, a response to #3:

I can't say that I saw too much similar to a Hollywood life, Bollywood life or a bustling area of possibly famous people. Maybe we did not go into those specific areas to experience it. We did have the pleasure of dining at a condo in Mumbai on the 26^th penthouse that was amazing and very beautifully decorated and western-like, but not Hollywood!

We did drive by the slums in Mumbai where movies have been filmed, but I have no idea what it is actually like on the inside. We could only see the outsides, not the small communities living inside. And as in the movies, the unbelievable amounts of construction going up all over the place.

The television programs and MTV videos were dramatic, but in the sense of colors, singing, dancing and speed of the story line. Some of the programming that we watched while in our hotel rooms was very colorful and everyone looked to be having a grand time, whether they were eating or had a gun in their hand!

Post Trip Perceptions, a response to #2:

I would have to say that I was not too far off on my perceptions of the workplace in India that we saw. When the companies were big, they were really big and advanced. There were a lot of help desks and IT centers, but there were a lot of small businesses on the street as well. I did learn that Indian's speak British English and probably know the rules of grammar a lot better than we do! The offices were set up very similar to the way I imagined, with conference rooms, cubicles, bathrooms, and kitchens.

One thing that surprised me the most was that outside of the IT companies, the likely hood of brown outs and not having connectivity was prevalent, for example getting on the wireless internet at the hotel or using the computers seemed to be more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined. I thought more of the country would be connected and technologically advanced, but I was wrong. One example that sticks in my mind is when we went to visit SpiderLogic in Pune and the bus was unable to travel close to the business because the telephone and electrical lines were too low for the bus to pass under!

Yes, I was right to say that people will do anything to make money (as similar to the USA), from work at a big MNC to a family business, to picking up my luggage and carrying it to the bus for me. For those not specifically employed by a company, tips were the way to earn wages on the street for services performed, such as shining shoes, carrying bags or putting jasmine flower bracelets on your wrists even when you said no at least 10 times.

Post Trip Perception, a response to #1:

It is true that all cities we visited were very busy with people, autos, animals and motorcycles, but the one thing I was very surprised about that nothing was as much real chaos, as I thought it would be. Despite the amount of items on the roadways and non-existent walkway, there was language to the traffic that I cannot really explain. Everything ebbed and flowed in all directions while horns were going off and people were still smiling. The noise pollution was absolutely unbelievable, yet nothing like the noise pollution here in the states. From the amount of noise, first thought would be that 'this place is a mess,' but that was not the case. The reasons for honking were pure consideration, not unhappiness (at least most of the time!).

As for the squeezing into every last space, we did not feel the effects as much as I thought we would, probably because the train portion of our trip was cut out because of the fog in Delhi. The understanding that in India personal space is nonexistent in India, it is true in all aspects of life, especially the roadways!

The disparity between the rich and poor was evident as the rich, were very well off and the poor were in the slums or on the streets. The one aspect of India that shocked me the most was that the entire country was happy. Absolutely unreal. One of the guides mentioned that the caste system was prevalent in everyday life, so the Indian people are happy where they are now, for hope that in their next life it will be better. I can't say that I saw anyone that was angry and mad like I see daily here in the USA.

The cleanliness of the places we visited was as expected. If it was dirty, it was really dirty; if it was clean, it was really clean. The one surprising aspect was just around really clean places, it would be really dirty, for example around the Jal Mahal was clean on the street, but then in the gutters and grass it was filled with pollution. I can't really grasp it, but I might be more of a neat freak than originally thought! It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined especially the Taj Mahal and the surrounding area.