Gold Plated Blog Posts

Whatev.

• Topics:
• Picasa
• India
• Bumper Stickers
• Travel

Who cares about elevators?

It's been two weeks since I arrived in India and things are becoming pretty normal. The traffic rarely frightens me now and I'm not surprised to see rows of parked cars with people sleeping in them. However, while things have become normal, they haven't necessarily become reasonable. So expounding on what a said a few days ago about the little difference, I thought I would spend some time outlining these oddities. None of them are things to get outraged about, they're just different and curious.

Elevators

Take a look at the picture to the right, which is the elevator in my office building. Notice anything strange? Well, keep in mind we're on the 5th- but not final- floor. Look closely and you should see that there's no Up button. Now I rarely have a reason to go any higher than the 5th floor but I often times find myself on the 2nd floor, where the situation is the same, getting a frosty beverage. How do I get up? I watch the numbers on the floor indicator as they go 0-1-2-3-4-3-2, and then stop...and then start going down again because, of course, I hit the down arrow. This started my realization that everything takes longer in India, which I will undoubtedly get to on a later date.

Coffee

I have provided an image to scale that depicts two strange things. The first is the thimble full of coffee that is typically provided at most coffee shops. The second is the comparatively massive amount of sugar that is contained in each packet. The coffee is one quarter sugar! Apparently Alec ordered his coffee black one time and then watched as everyone around him dropped their jaws and walked away slowly.

Checkout

I didn't get a great photo of this but something I found very peculiar is the number of people involved in me purchasing cookware. Look in the photo and you'll see that people do not do things alone. The two employees in the foreground are helping each other bag items. The people behind those two are ringing up customers: one to read the price and the other to type it into the register. I would not only argue that this is unnecessary but also more error prone. It doesn't stop there, though. First there was the guy directing me which line to get in. Then there was the guy handing out baskets to put my items in. Then there was the register duo. At this point my purchase mysteriously vanished and I was handed a receipt. After asking a few people, I found out that I had to go to the center counter to pick up my items, which had been bagged by the bagging duo and placed under the counter. So I count a total of 6 people to buy 5 items.

Menus

It's not the actual menus that confuse me here. In fact, the menus are relatively straightforward. The only information they don't include, unfortunately, is what's not available. Take a look at a picture of Brio's menu, which is a very westernized coffee/sandwich shop. I've taken the time to modify the menu to reflect their actual offering, which you can see better by clicking on it. Also, they have a large class cabinet in the front which houses pastries that would be perfect for breakfast. Unfortunately, I've been informed several times that the pastries don't arrive until 1:30 in the afteroon. While Brio is pretty westernized, this is a common characteristic amongst Indian restaurants.

Hand Wash

The actual need for a Hand Wash room is obvious, and I more than appreciate the attempt at sanitation. However it makes sense to me that in a situation where everyone expected to wash their hands before and after a meal, you would provide some method of drying. I've only ever seen one restaurant that had a solution to this problem and it was a big bath towel that I did not dare touch. And thankfully, too, as the exact same bath towel was there a week later when we had lunch there again. You may assume that the towel had been washed since then but judging from the looks of it, that was almost certainly not the case. As a result, I can typically be found with a large hand print on both sides of my shirt.

While these items stood out the most, there are other questions I'd like answered. For instance, why does everyone walk in the street instead of the sidewalk? Why does everyone eat with their fingers? And why are there urinal cakes in all the sinks? I've been here two weeks and I'm no closer to solving these mysteries than when I arrived. Can anyone help me out?