October 28th, 2019
This is the day after Diwali and the fireworks are still going off, and certain interesting things are still happening. I went downstairs this morning and there was a lady making things that looked like gingerbread men out of cow poop and placing them outside the steps of the hostel. She was using her bare hands and just making patties of all these figures with cow crap. After she made the figures, she would decorate them with flowers and other little fruits and vegetables. When we walked around town today we saw these “holy” poop figurines everywhere outside of doors. Happy Diwali I guess.
There is a really big and most amazing stepwell in all of India called Chand Baori that I wanted to see on our way to Agra. Once again, it seemed like a logistical nightmare trying to figure it out as it would require multiple transfers as there is not a train or a bus that goes there directly. Hiring a private driver was way too expensive when you go through a legitimate service. There were no affordable Ubers so after spending some time looking into our different options to get there, I eventually just gave up. It was much easier to just have our hostel book us an overnight bus to Agra so we did that and arranged to leave tonight. We went out and got some breakfast and were on our way to the post office when I told Brendan I just wanted to go back to the hostel and forget about mailing the post cards. There were a couple of reasons why my energy, motivation, and nerves were at their complete end…
I really like the food and especially all the vegetarian food here in India but it definitely upsets both of our stomachs. From what I have heard, it is pretty much impossible to come to India and not get an upset stomach. I thought after the miracle of not getting sick in Nepal we were maybe prepared to handle it but it still has been messing with us. Not bad sick… but after we eat we are both really uncomfortable and can only eat little portions at a time. After breakfast my stomach hurt and I wasn’t feeling that great. Then the CONTINUING constant lighting of fireworks was really getting old. This is all by where people are walking and most of them are just big explosion noise makers. They will set them off right by you and it always scares me to death when I don’t know it is coming. It makes all the dogs start barking and going crazy and the cows get scared. These bomb sounds rattle all the buildings around and are really intense. I think I was starting to hate Diwali as this seemed to be the main thing they do to celebrate it. When we were trying to find the post office we got into some streets where they were just lighting so many of the fireworks I was afraid I would get one in my eye or some other place that would hurt. As I mentioned before, they don’t even shoot them up but just out in the street. It’s really hard to believe this is acceptable, like so many other things here.
When we were in Delhi and one of the continuous horn drivers who never lets his hand off the horn (no exaggeration) got behind Brendan, he looked at me and said “I really wish I had a brick to throw through that guys’ window”. Lol. Neither of us are violent people but I feel like this kind of environment brings out the worst in us. Today we are walking in this supposed “holy city” having to navigate through explosive fireworks, dogs that are losing their mind, cows running around spooked, priests begging for money, vendors trying to sell us things and this motorbike gets right on my heels and just LAYS on the horn. This horn is no average horn, but one of these extreme after-market, louder than you could ever imagine horns and he’s just non-stop blowing it right on top of me, undoubtedly causing permanent damage to my hearing. I was literally about half a second away from turning around and using every ounce of strength I had to knock him off his bike! Seriously!? Shut the ‘F’ up! Who does that to someone and why is this normal here??
Like I said, neither of us are violent people and I especially always try to be very culturally sensitive but some things just cross the line and the stress from the environment just brings out the most angry, frustrated self. So, after the ringing in my ears stopped and my hearing started to come back,I told Brendan I was done walking around, and we went back to the hostel.
We signed up for an afternoon cooking class which I have really been wanting to do. I thought an Indian one would be great since I like the food so much and our class in Thailand was such a wonderful experience. A little nervous because our stomachs were still unsettled, but it seemed like the best kind of activity that didn’t require going back out to walk around in the chaotic streets.
You hate India, you love India. Today was a perfect example of that as this morning I was sick of it, but then the afternoon came with a whole new beautiful experience. Brendan and I went next door to our hostel, to this lady’s home. She cooks the food for the café in our hostel and also does these classes. It is a private class and she had us pick five dishes off the menu we wanted to make. This was nowhere near as good as the class we had in Thailand. She kept going back and forth between all the dishes making it really hard to keep track of what we were doing. One of us would try to write down the recipes but she didn’t measure anything and everything was just in her head so it was really hard to estimate how much of what ingredient to use if we were going to try and recreate this at home.
She was however very welcoming and it was a good experience just being in her home and watching all the interactions between the family members. Her daughters would come help us sometimes or come help to clean dishes. The instructor just sat up on the counter cross legged with her bare feet right where we were prepping and cooking things. She had chewing tobacco in her mouth the whole time. There was a guy passed out snoring on the couch, and her sister was watching some Indian TV program that kept talking about Diwali.
It took a couple hours but we got through making all five dishes including garlic naan. She was ready to serve us the food we made but we had to tell her we needed to save it for later as our stomachs were still trying to digest some food she had given us right in the beginning. She said no problem and took us into the living room where she said she will do a henna tattoo for me. I didn’t refuse and this was my favorite part.
We just sat there talking and she told me all about her family and some of their customs and traditions. Again, I didn’t understand all of it, and when I was trying to ask more about the religion I was pretty lost with her answers. She spoke pretty good English but you still lose a bit in translation with the accent. At one point some grandfather figure came in, and her sister immediately had to cover her face to show respect and be blessed. She was telling me how with certain males she will not show her face out of respect, but I was a little confused on what males those were. As the one guy who came in, it was okay for my instructor to show her face but not for her sister. Anyway, we drank her special recipe of chai tea and just hung out until we were able to eat a few bites of our dinner before leaving for the bus. Because of our stomachs we couldn’t eat much, but she packed all our food up so we could take it with us which was very sweet and she put extra goodies in our bag.
When we are not on the street, the Indian people we have interacted with have been so amazing and nice. I wish they would do a social experiment and just eliminate all horns for two weeks and watch how the whole society would be transformed. I guarantee cancer and disease rates would go down, stress and anxiety would decrease, violence and crime would go away, people would feel better, lose weight, have more energy and report more happiness! I say this lightly but the reality is that it is all probably true! I understand that people have gotten used to it, but it is like getting used to torture. They don’t even realize what a nice environment they could be living in if they would just lay off the damn horn and definitely eliminate all SUPER horns.
