India-isms.

So, leaving India was a mixed bag of emotions. I really didnt want to leave this time, and claimed that I didnt want to go to Turkey anymore and wanted to stay. If I think about what I love so much here, what draws me here, I find it really hard to articulate. I think its partly the tragic Social Worker in me, partly how challenged I am by it (the poverty, the generosity, the differene, the shit that does ya head in), but mostly because I think India has all the things that our country (and ones like it) have lost. Their sense of community, family, culture, respect for elderly and their pride in their country are things that we just dont have in the same degree. I feel inspired here, I feel at home... In fact I 'feel' more here in general.

However .. it can be fucking frustrating ...

Some of the things that make people love or hate or love and hate India equally is the irony, the Indian 'way' and the frustration at the way some things are done ....

Setting - Bikaner, a small western style cafe cause Im chasing something homely!

Waiter: Can I take your order please madam?

Brook: You can call me Brook if you like .. (thanks to the British, most people refer to all white people as Madam and Sir .. I hate it).

Waiter: No problems Frook ... what would you like Frook?

Frook: Can I please have the Veg Pizza but with NO CHEESE, NO PANEER, NO EGGS, could you make it like for a Jain? (A sect of Hinduism that is purely vegan and takes no life).

Waiter: Pizza with no cheese madam?

Frook: Yes please, just as it comes but please dont put the cheese on top.

Waiter: But Madam, this is not a pizza.

Frook: Thats ok mate, I dont mind if its not a pizza, is it possible anyway?

Waiter: No not possible as this is not the real pizza experience.

Frook: ummm, Im happy not to have the pizza experience ...

Waiter: No .. not possible to make like this.

Example 2 - Restaurant in Delhi - Sam's Cafe.

Brook: Could you please tell me what is on the Veg Burger?

Waiter: Veg cutlet and salad washed in filtered water on bread.

Brook: Does it have egg or cheese in it?

Waiter: No.

Brook: Are you sure? I am Pure Veg (their version of vegan).

Waiter: well it has a little cheese in the sauce we put on the burger.

Brook: Perfect, Ill have the veg burger without the sauce please.

Waiter: not possible.

Brook: why not?

Waiter: because it will not taste so nice without the sauce, you must have it with the sauce or not at all.

Brook: I dont mind if it takes bad, Ill have it anyway.

Waiter: please order something else madam.

India - the only place in the world where there are seperate ticket lines at train and bus stations for men and women, but all the women are lining up in the men's line and all the men are lining up in the women's line .. and I stand at the back of the line where all the women are, and a man points to the sign "Women's Line Only" and directs me to the back of all the men ... Sorry? I should stand behind the sign for the women's line, where all the men are lining up, and not behind the one where all the women are actualy lining up?? .. I .. dont .. know !.

India - the only place where cows are given right of way.

India - the only place where a traffic conductor was fired to introduce more modern stop signs, traffic lights and give way signs - and then reinstated a week later because everyone complained that they missed him (probably didnt help that all the signs and lights were completely ignored and treated as optional anyway). But they actually missed seeing him every day.

India - where no means yes and yes means no ... and both mean maybe.

India - the place where someone who has made a cave dwelling out of a pile of rubbish will come running up to you and ask "madam, how do you like my India" and when you reply "I love your india", they run off beaming with pride and smiles.

Indida - where subkuch milayga - everything actually is possible, even some Rajisthani shoes at a Juice bar ... everything ofcourse, except pizza without cheese. (Pictures - some shots of Delhi from a roof top restaurant, the night before I left for Turkey, a couple shots of an adorable baby, and a shot of a Jalebi stall in Delhi - took that one for you Nat!, and finally a shot of a very typical sign in India).