Some observations after spending a week in India

(This post also functions as a sort of travel diary.)

This post is going to be too long for some of your email readers, so you may have to click through to see all of the photos and text.

OK folks… as was previously mentioned, we spent a week in India to conclude an international adoption process. Particularly we spent the time entirely in Delhi, in northern India, the world’s second most populous metro area. I have been to Mexico, Canada, the UK, and Italy, and India was certainly the most different place I have ever been. Along a bunch of photos what follows is, rapid-fire and definitely in no particular order and not in order of importance (more like the order in which photos came off of my phone), some of my observations and impressions from that trip.

Wild birds

Seeing parakeets and peacocks (OK, we only saw peahens) as wild birds is pretty neat. The below was taken in Lodi Gardens. Yes, there were also plenty of pigeons.

Hindu devotionals

Little Hindu devotionals on the dashboards of automobiles were super common. We also saw them for sale in shops. Most of our Uber drivers had one… but I can’t take a photo inside my own car, so here is one from a passing auto rickshaw (and you can see how common the rickshaws were, as well).

Apparently I did sneak one photo inside an Uber… the devotionals were super common. Actually one shop owner told us they make Hindus feel safe.

Wild dogs

I was surprised by the wild dog population in Delhi. Nobody had alerted me to that ahead of time. They were all over the place, usually sleeping. They didn’t seem to much care about who was around them or display the sort of curiosity you often get from (owned) dogs in the US. Sometimes people would be petting them, sometimes people (especially shop owners) would be shooing them away. We saw a bumper sticker encouraging people to feed the dogs. When we were flying out, there was barking at the airport, and the people in line behind us said “is that a security dog or a local?” Below is a photo taken at the Lodi Gardens in Delhi, gives you some idea.

Or, the below was taken elsewhere in the garden. They’re just hanging out.

The protected modesty of women

We encountered a lot of “don’t harass women” or “I respect women” messaging. The below sign was at a pretty Westernized, and frankly kind of woke, mall adjacent to our hotel, but you might find some of the language interesting. “Resist any attempt of physical eve-teasing.” “Any act… which is intended at insulting the modesty of any woman… is punishable by law.” “Eve-teasing” is apparently an Indian colloquialism for sexual harassment, and yes, that is a reference to the Biblical creation story, despite India not being a Christian nation.

Don’t touch women

On a related note, there was also a culture of “men cannot touch women” (and maybe that went the other way as well, that would be harder for me to tell). That remained true even if the man was a security guard. The same mall as the photo above had a security screening on the way in, and if only a man was on duty, I would get screened, but Rebecca and Kriti would just be waved right in. It was also very common (at the US embassy and at the airport) for some effort to be made to “hide” women for the screening (like with a curtained booth) to protect their modesty. Men were just screened in public view.

The continuing caste system

We have all read about India’s former, and to some extent still extant, caste system and particularly lower classes. It did come to my mind especially when we went to a travel bureau which was accessed by going down some outdoor stairs. Also at those stairs was a woman who would occasionally sweep them, kicking up lots of dust and so being yelled at by, for example, the worker at the travel bureau. I assume no one was paying her to hang around and sweep outdoor dirt, this is just what she did, the just consequences of her behavior in her previous life, it might be believed in Hinduism.

The photo below does not show the woman, but does show the travel bureau, Kem Travels. Gives you some idea of what a typical Indian commercial strip might look like too. Many many many tiny shops in India. The US idea of more and more goods and services being moved into fewer, larger stores, appeared to be not-entirely, but largely, missing in India.

Begging and selling on the street

Perhaps on a related note, it was very common, when stopped in traffic, for a woman (often holding an infant) to approach your car, tap on the windows, and make a motion of moving her hands toward her mouth (give me money for food, in other words). I wondered what you do with that kid when they are older, and if perhaps that was Kriti’s early life (but no one knows). For reasons which are obvious “people begging in the street” isn’t something I was apt to photograph, but I did quickly snap one.

Vendors would also be happy to have your attention in stopped traffic.

Old and diverse architecture

Architecture older than the United States is, of course, neat. The below photo was at the entrance to Isa Khan’s tomb, built 1547-48, but it reminded me of Lord of the Rings with the “little door in the door” thing going on.

And how about two more from Humayun’s Tomb proper (Humayun’s is the major tomb at the same site).

And inside the tomb,

I am going to take this chance to drop a few more photos from the Lodi Gardens as well. These structures are slightly older yet.

And, this might be the “gardens” part,

And,

Still correct ideas about sex and human development

Happily, the latest Western “discoveries” about sex and gender have apparently not reached the Science Centre in Delhi. What would such a thing look like if built new in the United States now I wonder.

And the “baby” is a “human being” from conception! There we go.

I was also happy that the science centre came with a station to help you discipline your child. (I kid, I kid. Anyway, Bec tried it, it wasn’t working.)

Lots of life

Perhaps my first impression after arriving was just that, “there is a lot of life here”. Driving in the evening from the airport to the hotel, there were many people out and about. There were many, many vendors setting up shop (permanently or apparently itinerantly) along the roadside. Next morning I was even struck by the number of large-winged birds (probably supported by the warmer climate). There was a lot of life. This is as good an excuse as any to post a quick video I took after leaving our hotel, gives you at least some idea of local adjacent-to-major-road culture.

Yes, free roaming cows

Beginning that first night we did see, by the end of the trip, nine cows just hanging out enjoying the urban environment. It’s a stereotype but yes, it is also true, there are cows just walking around in Delhi. Sadly I never got a photo, we always saw them while driving and they went by pretty fast. Sometimes they were walking around, sometimes they were just laying down in a corner of an intersection. I was told, although I can’t personally verify this, that they are owned, but their owners let them out, and they come home when they get hungry enough. You farmer types can tell me if a cow would really behave in that way.

Bicycles with tons of cargo

Hey, no one can complain about the cargo I move by bicycle ever again! I think I saw about everything. A dozen lawn chairs somehow strapped to the back of a bicycle. A hundred bottles of coca-cola being delivered somewhere by bicycle. I’m quite tame. The attached is not a bicycle per se but we did also see many people on such vehicles moving large pieces of metal or piping, and I do wonder what the story is there.

I have to get one of these.

Agorism?

If agorism dreams of the world being a vibrant, unregulated marketplace, that’s sort of what Delhi felt like. People would literally just pull over on the side of the “interstate”, throw up an umbrella, and start cooking… but no one is actually going to stop their car and buy food from such a person, are they? But they did. Quite a contrast from “I feel like Wendy’s for lunch, I know Wendy’s, just keep driving until we find a Wendy’s.”

And now I’m going to illustrate this point which a photo of a government-owned market, which is not particularly agoristic, but it’s pretty. This is Dilli Haat (and, to be fair, the fee charged by the government to vendors is tiny tiny).

And some more Dilli Haat,

But here, have some more informal market snaps.

Or, getting some ice cream outside of Humayun’s Tomb, because the vendors often appeared where there was reason to expect a crowd.

Or, buying some fruit juice outside the Science Centre.

Or outside the Lodi Gardens,

Delhi health safetyism

You may have noticed in some of the photos above that people are wearing masks. There was still an outdoor mask mandate in Delhi. In fact on paper, at least, the culture of health safetyism there was more advanced than it ever was in most of the United States. Zomato, a sort of DoorDash that is popular in India, listed whether the delivery driver was vaccinated and also what his body temperature was the last time it was checked.

At the same time, compliance was… well, perhaps better than you would think, but often nominal. I sensed a sort of general “we only kind of care what the rule is” mindset that might be the way Indians think about most rules issued by the state. Our hotel did thermal screenings of your hand temperature on the way in… but only maybe 10% of the time, and even then it seemed to me that the guy doing the screening often never actually bothered to look at the number, he just waved the thing over your hand and so did his nominal duty.

Below you can see some of that so-so compliance, but I am also just taking this excuse to share another fun market photo.

Globalization

On a related note… on the one hand, it was refreshing to be in a place that has largely, for now, resisted the monoculture of globalization. You know, if you dropped in St. Louis, or Dallas, or Toronto, someone who was a stranger to all those cities, they might have difficulty knowing which city they were in. (They’d figure it out eventually of course, but the point is, to a significant degree a city in the West is a city in the West, and that is more true all the time.) Drop that same person in Delhi and it is immediately obvious they are somewhere else. (Random, but one example that comes to my mind is outside of a hospital, there was a long strip of tiny outdoor pharmacy vendor after tiny outdoor pharmacy vendor! In Lansing there is just a Rite Aid surrounded by a parking lot.) At the same time, though, that globalized language was there, especially in matters health - “social distancing”, “we got jabbed to protect you”, and so on. For example, at Lodi Gardens:

But, below, enjoy the rickshaws and some vendors outside of a hospital. That sort of “entrance gate” architecture was also quite common.

And then, the below video was taken a little before the above photo, gives you another perspective of the street life.

Higher prices for foreigners

At many attractions we saw higher prices for foreigners… just because they have more money, or is that like out-of-state tuition, I wonder? But even for foreigners that was like $1.30 equivalent to get into the market below, which shows you how cheap it was for locals.

Warm climate culture practices

It seems to me that certain cultural practices will naturally develop in a place where it is warm year round. There is a reason Michigan does not have a plethora of open air markets, or building designs (as for the US embassy in Delhi) where people are expected to wait in a line out of doors. There is a reason Michigan doesn’t have rickshaw cabs with curtains for doors, or no doors - they would be cold and undesirable to much of the population for much of the year. (Wait David… don’t you bicycle in winter? Look, I’m not claiming to by typical, here.)

The homeless population

Delhi appeared to have a large homeless population living outside (something also that is more tenable in a good climate). We would even see them drying their clothes on fencing, for example. It occurred to me that, especially for a not-that-wealthy and very-populous country, there is very little the state can do to regulate the homeless population. I remember a while back some story circulating about police in India forcing people to do pushups if they were caught not wearing a mask… well, that’s about the only punishment you can, or would want to inflict, on a poor population. You can’t fine them, they don’t have any money to pay you. You don’t want to imprison them because then the state has to care for them. So what do you have left? Just let them do whatever they want (the usual response, I am sure), or something like immediate compelled pushups.

Traffic in Delhi

Traffic in Delhi was remarkable… not just for the amount of traffic, but even more so for how people drive. A lot of the traffic, perhaps half, is motorbikes, and “if my bike can physically fit in that location, it is allowed to be there” seemed to be the rule. Actually that went for all vehicles. There was a slogan, “lane driving is safe driving”, because often people just ignored the lane markers. I am sure low-speed collisions happen constantly and are just expected (and never reported to police as they would be in the US). Our last day there our Uber was hit by the mirror of a passing car… didn’t seem to bother anybody. Another day we say a motorbike driver standing by the side of the road with his bike, rubbing his knee, looking to be in pain - I assume he was nicked by a passing vehicle. Must happen quite regularly. Below is one video we took while in traffic, gives you some idea.

If there was a traffic jam, the motorbikes would just go around it if they could… riding on dirt adjacent to the road or, in this case, the sidewalk.

There was also certainly a sense that the roads were for everyone, and everyone just needed to watch out for everyone else. (On a very major road we even saw a sign warning that animal-driven vehicles were forbidden.)

Compare to US auto safetyism

US auto-safety rules would strike most Indians as ridiculously overkill safetyism. I’m not recommending this, but it is illustrative that on the way to the airport on our last night, we saw a family of four on a single motorbike. Presumably that is dad in front below, then older kid, and then mom is cradling an infant (hard to tell that in the photo, but she was). Many vehicles (like the rickshaws) lacked seatbelts or any other sort of safety mechanism, and would probably just crumple in any serious accident.

OK, we only saw four people once! But please, while hubby drives, take the time to catch up on your reading.

I did enjoy seeing women sitting sideways on the back in their Indian finery, which was very common.

Or perhaps I can interest you in a bunch of guys sleeping in the back of a concrete truck?

Shake culture and no beef

There was a “shake” culture that surprised me… a lot of places had milkshakes, served usually in glass bottles, and there were milkshake restaurants. And then, of course, there were lots of vegetarian food options. And I don’t think I saw beef available anywhere. There were, even, US chains (the Westernized mall by our hotel had a Burger King), and you could often get a chicken burger, or a lamb burger, or veggie patties.

More diverse architecture

India’s diverse history is reflected in its architecture. The photo below was taken inside Isa Khan’s tomb where, for some reason, a security guard just up and decided to give us a tour. He told us the interior writing, below, stands for Islam. The lotus flowers in the corners are a nod to India. And the black is symbolic for Afghanistan.

Having said that, I should give you some wider interior and exterior shots of the same tomb.

Fractured English

English may be an official language of India, and we were told that any educated person would be able to speak it… but we found that most people had a pretty fractured knowledge of English and were certainly not conversant. One amusing conversation in an Uber comes to mind where the driver asked, in Hindi (though we didn’t figure this out right away), “is she your girl”… because he later asked the same in English, and then said “she doesn’t match”. So that made me chuckle a little. But that was also all he said to us on that trip, and it was a struggle for him, and that was pretty typical.

Racial minority and two experiences

It occurred to me that, I guess, officially I was a member of a racial minority in India, but I never “felt like it”, if that is supposed to feel like something. I didn’t feel like people were looking at me, at least not for that reason. There were two times I felt like people were looking at me. One, at Dilli Haat on our last day there, when we were walking out with many bags, I thought the vendors were eyeing me with the lasciviousness of “there is a guy who spent a lot of money, he might spend a lot of money with me!”

And then two, when we visited the US Embassy to get Kriti’s visa, there was a huuuuuuuuuuge line of Indians waiting to get into the Embassy, presumably mostly for immigration visas. I figured we’d be in line for hours. But our guide said “no no, you’re US citizens and adoption cases have priority. So just say ‘pardon, pardon, pardon’ a lot and walk past everyone.” And so we did, and that was nice, but you can just imagine all these people, bored out of their minds because they’ve been standing there for how long, looking at you like “who is this guy?” (Though given the fact that we had a kid in tow who didn’t look like us, likely they figured it out.)

Uber was super cheap in Delhi

Have a screenshot from my phone.

This is interesting for a lot of reasons actually. So there is a rickshaw option called “UberAuto” that offers the benefit of no bargaining, and doorstep pickup (because the little rickshaws can get places an automobile cannot). Then there is a “sit on the back of someone else’s motorbike” option. But also, these prices are supercheap. I didn’t save how long this ride was, but I don’t think, with Delhi traffic, we had any ride that was under 20 minutes. If you want to get a “premier” car for that ride that’s 200 INR, which is about $2.63. A rickshaw would be about half of that and get you there just as well (probably faster, long as you don’t feel the need for seatbelts or doors!)

But that isn’t India

And finally, just for the locals, I’ll end with a snap of downtown Lansing, Michigan I took when flying home. (But Delhi, I was told, despite having a huge population, did not have any sort of skyscraper core anywhere.)