No amount of planning will protect you against failure. This is true anywhere but more true here. I have always been a strong believer that one should hope for the best but plan for the worst. In India, I have had to modify this to plan for the worst and then plan some more. I know that sometimes my blogs come off as doom and gloom but that is not my goal, I hope that you can find the humour in each situation as I do and if you ever have the opportunity to visit or work here, you will use my experiences to make your time a little easier. It is up to the visitor to conform to the way of life here, not the other way around
I am learning how ill equipped a traveler is who relies on travelogues before coming here. Having gone through the many travelogues, I can say this with confidence. These were not written by recent visitors, in fact some were written by non-visitors because if you read enough of them you realize that they are often exact or near exact copies of each other, essentially cut and pasted from one travelogue to another.
I will add a new observation; Never ask only one person for information, whether it be directions or anything really. I average about five people before I am confident and I use the best 3 out of 5 strategy, if 3 of the 5 people have said the same thing, this is the most likely truth. An Indian will not say 'I don't know.' for which I believe there are two reasons. First, they have a natural politeness which causes them to want to help and second, they desire to not want to 'lose face' by not appearing knowledgeable.
I recently attempted to expand my horizons a little, going to the same places all the time is not educational. I wanted to go to a D-Mart, which I have been told is the closest relative of WalMart that India has. I did my usual exhaustive search, going from Mapquest to Google Maps to Wikimapia to Google Earth to identify landmarks that I already knew and when I was confident I knew where I was going I departed. Followed this road, crossed that, went through there, came to next cross street at which time based on the map I should have been able to see the next road from where I was standing (right next to a water tower near a train station). The road was not to the left where it should have been, and even accounting for some inaccuracies, I was at a bend in the road so I could see in both directions for probably a mile, there were NO cross streets at all, either way, just marshland or what they call mangroves. I stood there for a bit and a crowd began to gather around me, so I say "D-Mart?". At least three people point in three different directions, west, south and north (west was through the mangroves so I discounted that one).
I started walking South since accordingly this was the most likely, but even after a short walk, I could see no new turnoffs in the distance. Several people were following me, talking to me in Hinglish (which I do not understand any better that Hindi. I decide to call this a failure and return to more recognizable areas. I return to the train station because I need supplies so I need to go someplace that I can find to get them.
Before I buy my ticket a train goes through the station and I see that the people in second class are literally hanging out the doors. Some people are outside of the train car, holding on to something. So I buy a First Class ticket, 65rp (1.10Cdn). What I do not take into account is that there is only 1 or 2 First Class cars per train. As I mentioned before the train doesn't really stop, it slows to a near stop then goes again, so train comes through and I cannot get to a FC car in time and SC is stuffed full (another fail) so I estimate where the FC car was the previous time and sit down to wait for next train. This train comes and I am only off by one car but i can run and jump and make this train.
On the positive side, my new little friend was waiting for me, this time she brought many friends, I was fortunate since I had a lot of cookies for them. I buy local cookies and usually find that I do not like them so I save them up over the week and when I am asked for handouts then I give away my cookies. I had about half a bag today which was good because she had at least six other children in tow. I wish I could do more but as a tall white guy, I already bring too much attention to myself. A tall, white, overly generous guy would be mauled.
Someday I may understand the food.
I am learning how ill equipped a traveler is who relies on travelogues before coming here. Having gone through the many travelogues, I can say this with confidence. These were not written by recent visitors, in fact some were written by non-visitors because if you read enough of them you realize that they are often exact or near exact copies of each other, essentially cut and pasted from one travelogue to another.
I will add a new observation; Never ask only one person for information, whether it be directions or anything really. I average about five people before I am confident and I use the best 3 out of 5 strategy, if 3 of the 5 people have said the same thing, this is the most likely truth. An Indian will not say 'I don't know.' for which I believe there are two reasons. First, they have a natural politeness which causes them to want to help and second, they desire to not want to 'lose face' by not appearing knowledgeable.
I recently attempted to expand my horizons a little, going to the same places all the time is not educational. I wanted to go to a D-Mart, which I have been told is the closest relative of WalMart that India has. I did my usual exhaustive search, going from Mapquest to Google Maps to Wikimapia to Google Earth to identify landmarks that I already knew and when I was confident I knew where I was going I departed. Followed this road, crossed that, went through there, came to next cross street at which time based on the map I should have been able to see the next road from where I was standing (right next to a water tower near a train station). The road was not to the left where it should have been, and even accounting for some inaccuracies, I was at a bend in the road so I could see in both directions for probably a mile, there were NO cross streets at all, either way, just marshland or what they call mangroves. I stood there for a bit and a crowd began to gather around me, so I say "D-Mart?". At least three people point in three different directions, west, south and north (west was through the mangroves so I discounted that one).
I started walking South since accordingly this was the most likely, but even after a short walk, I could see no new turnoffs in the distance. Several people were following me, talking to me in Hinglish (which I do not understand any better that Hindi. I decide to call this a failure and return to more recognizable areas. I return to the train station because I need supplies so I need to go someplace that I can find to get them.
Before I buy my ticket a train goes through the station and I see that the people in second class are literally hanging out the doors. Some people are outside of the train car, holding on to something. So I buy a First Class ticket, 65rp (1.10Cdn). What I do not take into account is that there is only 1 or 2 First Class cars per train. As I mentioned before the train doesn't really stop, it slows to a near stop then goes again, so train comes through and I cannot get to a FC car in time and SC is stuffed full (another fail) so I estimate where the FC car was the previous time and sit down to wait for next train. This train comes and I am only off by one car but i can run and jump and make this train.
On the positive side, my new little friend was waiting for me, this time she brought many friends, I was fortunate since I had a lot of cookies for them. I buy local cookies and usually find that I do not like them so I save them up over the week and when I am asked for handouts then I give away my cookies. I had about half a bag today which was good because she had at least six other children in tow. I wish I could do more but as a tall white guy, I already bring too much attention to myself. A tall, white, overly generous guy would be mauled.
Someday I may understand the food.
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