Thursday, August 11, 2011

if you dig a hole in the us, you'll get to china (india). if you dig a hole in india, you get a bore well.

wow! internet!

lovely jp nagar (nagar = hood) allows me to get to an internet cafe in no more than ten minutes. i just have to cross a bustling and possibly fatal two way street-- nothing new. and, the path to getting here does not require passing under rail way tracks that smell like the urine of every animal on noah's boat.

what's special about today's trip is that i walked here by myself. literally the first time i've walked further than ten feet without accompaniment. why, might you ask? because my teacher told me so. yeah, i'm going to be writing a paper on this. the assignment:

Spend some time (15-30min) on your own in the city. What happens? What's different or the same? How do people view you? How do you see things?

My response may or may not contain the following:

  • people like to stare. regardless of the fact that i kinda look like some of the locals, i'm so out of place.
  • 2 guys my aged followed me for quite a bit.. giggling... i'm not even that pretty! (have you seen indian women? hawt)
  • i was super aware of the fact that there were only a handful of women on the street. 99% of them auntie status.
  • i looked lost, confused, on the verge of tears, high... i kept looking at the sky to avoid people from staring, but that isn't exactly what most people do here. if you're not people watching you're sidewalk watching so you don't fall into the side walk.
  • i feel safe in this internet cafe.

it's downpouring and dark outside. like seattle in the summer at eleven oclock. the streets are unfamiliar and the buildings look fake like a hollywood scene.

on the subject of rain and water. this city is definitely lacking in management-- more specifically water management. at least that's what i've been learning for the last 2 weeks. bangalore used to be a geographically perfect rain catcher. now with all the "development," i.e. new neighborhoods and landfill filling up previous tanks (lakes) water is totally lacking. any that does find it's way into bore wells (wells that tap into the underground water tables) are tainted from the pollution. there's more access to soda here than drinkable water! not bad for me (considering i can buy bottled water), but how crazy does that sound?

some things you can do with water but probably wouldn't want to do with soda:
take a bath
water your plants
wash yourself after using the toilet
wash your clothes
boil veggies
wash your car

it's sad. what's even sadder is that the water that is drinkable is being privatized. imagine that! private h20?! wtf!? exactly! i could go on for a couple of hours on the logistics of water that i learned in class but i could talk to you for days about the people and villages i visited who've been affected and even displaced by the water "crisis" here. it's really unimaginable until you see it. and it's really ironic that as tourists we're picky about our water so as to not hurt our tummies, when the locals don't even have access to enough water to thrive.

the rain is dying (ish) and i need to get home in 8 minutes or my auntie and khoi will worry (i told them to call the cops if i'm not home by 7:30). h20 is the issue for now. as i walk the streets home i'll be drenched in the life of this city and thinking about other things, like soda and hotdogs, to keep me sane. love ya seattle!

from the seattle of india,
donelyn

2 comments:

  1. i'ma slap those two boys!!
    is the water cheap to buy?

    ReplyDelete
  2. para una pelicula sobre agua, mira. lo tiene muchas a las mismas ideas que tu!

    http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?titleID=water-thirsty-world&catID=1

    and then, more specifically, i think you should take a look at this. issues como eso really help support my own eating habits :) this is my major plug for vegetarianism.

    http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/embedded-water/

    its cool that you're seeing the tangible results of wasteful water practices--and more specifically, who suffers. i hope it sticks with you when you come home...and that we work to change it :)

    ReplyDelete