10 Observations of India

I have now been in India for a month. The time has really flown by despite working 8 ½ hour days, 6 days a week. I came in with very little expectations, and while I have struggled at times to find the positive, I am glad that I decided to come here. As such, I am going to share some of my thoughts and observations I have observed.

1.     Indian people are incredibly hospitable. If I want to go to downtown Mumbai, my office always insists on sending someone with me to help. If there is anything I need, someone will help me to get it, or find a way to satisfy my need. They always offer coffee or tea, all out of kindness.

2.     The architecture in Mumbai is incredible. From brand new buildings to historical remnants of British colonialism, the structures in Mumbai are gorgeous. Some incorporate traditional Indian architecture while others represent the modern world that India is very much a part of. Preservation efforts appear to be taking place to retain the beauty in some of the museums, train stations, and old police stations.

3.     Cows are sacred and will often be given nicer living conditions than some of the people living in Mumbai. On my morning walk to work from the train station, there is a cow that lives on the road, and people will pay her owner to pet her and feed her. It is said to bring you good luck.

4.     Religion is a major part of life. I have been in several countries where religion is very common, but none to the same extent as India. For example, my boss and his family make a pilgrimage to a temple in Northern India four times a year. It requires a four-hour flight and they spend 4 or 5 days there worshipping. Many people perform an hour-long ceremony every night before eating dinner. All rooms will have a picture of Ganesh or another god. All elements of life revolve around religion (mainly Hinduism).

5.     Timeliness does not exist. And it doesn’t need to. When someone says that they will meet with you in 10 minutes, that really means that they will see you in an hour. This is rather frustrating to me, but the whole society just functions around it.

6.     Rickshaws solve the last mile problem. While in cities like Shanghai, people rely heavily on bikes to get from the metro to their destination, in Mumbai, people take rickshaws. They will usually cost less than $1 to get you to your destinations and are able to go down alleyways that cars can not fit in, allowing them to be faster than a taxi.

7.     Walking is very difficult. While the physical act of doing it isn’t difficult, finding a place to do it is. Many of the sidewalks are full of construction or merchants attempting to sell fruit or vegetables. It isn’t realistic to expect to walk to your destination without having to spend part of your walk in the street or avoiding stepping on someone’s produce.

8.     The wealth gap in Mumbai is astonishing. There are slums in Mumbai with over a million residents that sit juxtaposed with the world’s most expensive house; a 27 story, 600,000 square foot, $1 billion skyscraper that houses 4 people and their staff of 300. Mumbai is one of the ten richest cities by GDP, yet this is very hard to tell.

9.    The train must be avoided during rush hour. Mumbai has the fourth busiest metro system in the world, and it transports over 7 million people each day. If you travel on it between 7:00 and 10:30 AM or 3:00 and 8:00 PM, expect to have a pretty uncomfortable experience. People push and shove to get a standing spot on the train. Yesterday I was standing on the train is a space that was no larger than 75 square feet, sharing that space with 48 other people. I found a bruise on my chest later that night from having the buckle on my backpack being pressed against my body for so long.

10.  Indians have stomachs of steel. I wake up every morning with a sharp pain in my stomach, inevitably caused by something that I ate. I avoid street food, drinking anything that doesn’t come from a bottle, and eating at restaurants that don’t seem very clean, yet I am always sick. Indians will drink tea that they get from a vendor on the side of the road and never have an issue. It’s pretty impressive.

While India is very different than anywhere I have been to in the last 5 years, it is a constant surprise. I never know what to expect with any given day. While that can be frustrating, it also fun as I am living in a constant adventure.