A miracle - I have internet at home. Also surprising things about India

For the last 3 hours I've had internet at home. It's wonderful. Also it means I can post this entry I prepared earlier (just like those TV cooks!!)


Unexpected things about India (in no particular order)

• It’s not that cheap for many things – notable example hotel rooms are higher than New York or Chicago. One extreme example is Bangalore were a colleague paid $450 a night and it wasn’t even such a great hotel. But the average for a Marriott-type hotel is $200 - $250 then there are all sorts of taxes and services fees on top of that
• Men urinating everywhere – and making absolutely no attempt at modesty or privacy
• The number of cows
• Cows eating rubbish at the site of the street
• Temporary makeshift homes no more than a few square meters, constructed out of sticks and blue plastic. It’s amazing to think people live there – but more amazing to see that many of them have TV sets! (the electricity wires are cut and fed into the homes illegally)
• Power cuts – for hours at a time; many homes and business have generators to compensate
• Almost impossible to buy tampons
• People ask “Please let me know your good name, sir”
• You can go whitewater rafting on the Ganges
• Most women wear traditional dress
• People (mainly men) waiting at the side of the streets for no particular reason and with no apparent purpose (a friend suggested there could be drivers; a reasonable suggestion)
• My driver says things like “Would madam like to go to market” I hate being called madam and being questioned in the 3rd person is just weird
• The definition of considerate. We had been on a very long bus journey, about 10 people were singing loudly while about 20 tried to sleep. Eventually at 11.30 I asked the minority to stop singing. My Indian colleague explained to me that Indians were very considerate as they did not complain that they could not sleep. I, of course define the 10 singers as being incredibly inconsiderate
• I don’t find the people polite – they speak in fancy antiquated language but basically have no concern for your comfort or place no value on your time
• Airtel has 6 million internet subscribers in Delhi!
• Foreigners have to pay more to enter national monuments (about 10 times more) or to travel by plane (about double)
• Plastic surgery is big business here
• Arranged marriages are the norm. Even “love marriages” need parental approval – my colleague told me “I was lucky my parents approved that I could marry a girl from another religion” (both are Hindu but one drinks alcohol and the other not and some other differences that didn’t seem so big to me)
• Extended families often live together
• Despite a serious lack of women at work, there are quite a few women in senior positions
• Practically everybody aged 30 or more is married. I am a complete anomaly here (but I would not be if I were a man)
• Everybody talks at the same time
• The concept of queuing up for something doesn’t seem to exist. Though as discussed previously the concept of waiting is integral to the Indian culture!
• Even the Indians get Delhi belly. Our HR manager told me he assumes people will miss 2-3 days per month (that’s every employee, every month) because of illness! Just as well there’s a lot of people here!
• It’s cheaper to hire a person to stick labels to letters than pay for self-adhesive labels (or at least this was the case when my landlady worked in an Indian office a few years ago)
• There is no attempt to make India look even remotely inviting at the international airports. Delhi and Bangalore are both shabby and dirty with limited toilet facilities
• When booking train tickets, they insist upon knowing your age. My last train ticket is issued not to my name but to a 30-year-old female!!!!