[nukkad] FW: India, a different perspective

[Nikhil Shah/MUK/SEEPZ <nikhils@meghdoot.mastek.com>]

>>The owner of the Tandoor restaurant told us that the border of Old 
>Delhi
>>and New Delhi crosses his restaurant. The
>>kitchen is in Old Delhi, but the dining area is in New Delhi.
>>Gerard van Hal - The Netherlands (12/94)
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>When I think of my time in India, it's the encounters with people that 
>I
>>remember most fondly. For example, one day
>>in Jaipur, I was resting on a bench in front of a shop when a small boy 
>sat
>>down beside me and reached into my bag.
>>I was not alarmed because the bag was strapped to me and there was 
>nothing
>>in it except a large piece of fabric I
>>had just bought. The boy ignored the fabric and reached to the bottom 
>of
>>the bag as if he were searching for
>>something. I watched him knowing he would find nothing and wishing I 
>had
>>some small object to give him. I'd seen
>>how other tourists prepared for children like this and carried wrapped
>>candies or ball point pens to hand out. As the
>>boy rifled through the bag I said, half to myself, 'I'll bet you're 
>looking
>>for a pen'. 'No, a solar calculator', he said
>>suddenly in English. 'Pens have come to Jaipur'.
>>Robert F Krumm - USA (10/95)
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>We were sampling breakfast in the Le Meridien Hotel in New Delhi. Third
>>world or not, this is a decidedly
>>first-world hotel. The glass elevators soar up 20-plus floors in the 
>huge
>>atrium and the nightly room-rate probably
>>equates pretty close to the average Indian's annual income. But there, 
>in
>>the middle of this luxury, was somebody
>>crawling across the floor towards us with a dirty wash-rag in his hand. 
>Why? 
>>
>>'Why?' is a question you often find yourself asking in India. Why 
>hasn't
>>the mop handle been invented yet? Or why
>>can't this fancy five-star hotel afford mop handles for its workers? In
>>this case, the answer was probably that
>>anybody crawling around on his hands and knees washing the floor is
>>obviously a pretty low caste and people higher
>>up the caste ladder like to see the lower castes down there where they
>>reckon they belong. Standing up to wash the
>>floor, five-star hotel or not, would be getting far too uppity! Better 
>the
>>lower castes stay on their knees. 
>>
>>You can forget Kerala's famous Kovalam Beach; a wonderful beach it 
>might
>>be, but it's also a grubby rubbish-tip
>>crying out for a major cleanup. Next time I'm in Kerala, however, I 
>want to
>>stay at the quite beautiful Surya Samudra
>>Beach Garden, at Pulinkudi, eight km south of Kovalam. This small, very
>>select and rather pricey resort has
>>individual cottages, many of them constructed from antique Keralan 
>houses.
>>It looked superb. During our foray up
>>the Keralan coast we stopped at a couple of other beaches. One of them,
>>Varkala, is a beach resort just getting off
>>the ground but unfortunately looking as if it too could be 
>comprehensively
>>trashed within a few years. 
>>
>>Much more encouraging was cruising the backwaters - the network of 
>rivers,
>>lakes, lagoons and canals which
>>parallel the Keralan coast. This is a prime southern Indian attraction 
>and
>>we joined one of the boats making the daily
>>eight-hour journey from Kollam (Quilon) to Alappuzha (Alleppey). It's a
>>wonderful trip and a complete escape from
>>the crowds, noise and confusion of India. In fact, it was such fun that 
>we
>>did it again the next day, chartering our own
>>small boat to take us from Alappuzha to Kottayam.
>>
>>From Kottayam we climbed up into the hills known as the Western Ghats 
>to
>>explore the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.
>>No, we did not see any tigers, but there were elephants enough to make 
>it
>>worthwhile, and another reminder that
>>even in India you can escape the crowds. Our hotel in the park also
>>provided one of those glimpses of 'how things
>>work', which we had got used to but our children found utterly 
>astonishing.
>>We decided to rent bicycles and ride to
>>the village just outside the park. Our hotel had 10 very new-looking 
>bikes,
>>but not one of them, it turned out, could
>>be rented. All 10 had flat tyres, and the hotel: 'was waiting for a man 
>to
>>come and pump them up'!
>>
>>Our most luxurious stop was Mysore, where we stayed at the magnificent
>>Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel. Actually
>>staying here was scarcely necessary: a mere glance at the front of this
>>gleaming white fantasy is enough to fulfil every
>>Indian palace hotel dream you could have. Dining in the hotel's 
>restaurant,
>>which one reader suggested was like
>>'eating inside a giant Wedgewood pot', while a sitar player and
>>accompanying tabla player played in the background,
>>completed the picture. This hotel also set the 'silly Indian paperwork 
>and
>>taxes' record for this visit. Not only was
>>our bill inflated 10% for expenditure tax but a further 15% was added 
>for
>>sales tax and finally another 15% of the
>>15% (that's 2.25%!) as a tax on the sales tax. How long before some
>>bureaucrat decides to put a tax on the tax on
>>the tax? 
>>
>>The last day we spent in New Delhi featured another head-scratcher. 
>This
>>time we were sampling breakfast at the
>>new Park Hotel where waiters outnumbered diners but seemed totally 
>unable
>>to provide simple things like spoons
>>and cups! As an entire platoon of lower waiters, middle waiters, upper
>>waiters and head waiters stood around
>>looking lost, we had to scour the restaurant to try and find clean cups
>>from another table so the coffee waiter could
>>pour the coffee. Ah, India - you'll never get bored.
>>Tony Wheeler, Australia (4/95)
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>In Jaipur, we were approached by a well-dressed young man who asked if 
>we
>>could write a letter to his girlfriend in
>>Paris. Why not? He dictated us two complete pages (A4) of real bullshit
>>like "I love you so, I miss you so, we are so
>>far away but our hearts are together, if I was a Maharaja I would build 
>a
>>Taj Mahal in Paris to show the whole
>>world my love for you..." and so on. He was taking it very seriously, 
>so I
>>did my best not to burst out laughing. After
>>finishing his poetic masterpiece he invited us for dinner. We became a 
>bit
>>anxious as we also had other plans with
>>English friends. He insisted because the letter was so important to 
>him. He
>>paid for a rickshaw to our hotel and an
>>hour later arrived with a car. He knew a restaurant with a beer garden 
>and
>>he invited us and our English friends to
>>have dinner with him. I told him my wife was not feeling well and he 
>went
>>away, disappointed. A few weeks later we
>>met a Dutch couple who told us exactly the same story. It was the same 
>guy,
>>same place and the letter was word for
>>word the same. One difference was it was to a German girl this time and 
>the
>>Taj Mahal should be built in Cologne.
>>He also invited them for dinner but they didn't go.
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>One last thing, two menu suggestions we remember are Spegheeti & 
>Macroni
>>and Breakfast and Snakes.
>>Dirk Wyckmans - Belgium (2/95)
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>It was late and we had just arrived in Kozhikode, Kerala. We needed to 
>find
>>a place to sleep. We arrived at a hotel
>>and asked if they had a room. The man behind the desk nodded and 
>smiled. He
>>nodded again. Having spent some
>>time in India, we were getting used to this particular Indian way of
>>spending time. If they do not understand, or feel
>>awkward, the Indian head-wiggle immediately occurs. They move their 
>head in
>>a figure 8. It is very confusing when
>>you first meet a true head-wiggler (and there are many of them, 
>especially
>>in southern India).
>>
>>So there we were in this hotel. After some wiggles the man took a huge
>>guest book and turned its pages. Then he
>>called the manager. He came and the same event took place. A long 
>wiggle
>>and a look at the big book. No, he did
>>not know if they had a room free. He looked again, head-wiggle. Yes, 
>there
>>was a room. We asked if we could take
>>this room. Wiggle and another very long head-wiggle. He explained they 
>did
>>not know if the room had two beds.
>>They sent someone up. Yes, two beds. OK, no problem. My bed did not 
>have a
>>blanket or a pillow. So I asked.
>>No they only had a pillow. He came back with a blanket and a fantastic
>>head-wiggle. We had a great time at this
>>hotel despite (or because of) the head-wigglers: the people were 
>extremely
>>friendly, as they all were in Kozhikode.
>>After six months I still accidentally answer questions with a 
>head-wiggle,
>>I've begun to appreciate its use.
>>Jens van den Brink - The Netherlands (12/94)
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>
>

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