India – my second week

May 9, 2010

Inbetween bouts of applying for a bank account—which has included turning in the same set of forms 3 times—I have set up a local cell phone, registered with immigration and struggled with setting up mobile internet service.  Truthfully, immigration isn’t quite over as I need to return and get a stamp.  I am not sure if it is for approval, recognition, my protection or India’s.  No one said anything at the immigration office.  There I waited behind a Chinese tour guide (my assumption) as he registered a whole phone book’s worth of people.  When I got to the man at the desk, he looked at the ‘R’ on my VISA and asked, ‘Research or Religion?’  I was tempted, but I told the truth.  So he looked at my papers (including one that I had mistakenly put upside down, which didn’t seem to phase him), scribbled on a blank sheet and told me to go to ‘the other room.’ “Where?” I asked.  “To the left.” There was no room to the left, but after a couple of rights and a left—guided by men wandering the halls—I entered a full room of people, but they told me to go right to the front.  So I did. The woman took my papers and ticked one box (here we tick boxes, not check them).  She said to do to Counter One.  It was back in the same room as the man at the desk.

Counter One was, of course, empty of people.  There were two other counters, manned, with digital read-outs that said what number was being served.  I had a 15 written on my paper, but no one at the Counter and no digital read-out.  A woman did show up, but she just waited.  So another Chinese tour guide got ahead of me with another phone book of paper.  Then I went to the Counter, but had to wrestle with a small old woman to get to the booth first.  We didn’t really wrestle, just playfully nudged each other.  So then I got a piece of paper that said I needed to return—on May 12 between 2 and 3 pm—for a stamp.  So we’ll see.

The mobile internet service started with a Rs2300 modem, a Rs500/month plan and 2 GB of download.  After 5 days the internet switched off and claimed I was Rs2000 over my plan.  So I downloaded 8 GB in five days?!  The customer service guy didn’t know.  This company, Airtel, cannot access your bill until the billing date.  So, he suggested I just pay the money and wait until the billing date to settle the problem.  ‘And what if the internet is switched off again?’ argued my friends (more on my friends arguing in a moment).  ‘Just pay the money,’ he suggested.  Well, a day later, a new internet provider and another Rs2300 modem and I am using another plan (and have refused to pay the other one…yet).

My friends are good at arguing points.  It is quite stylish to watch how people argue points here.  If it was the US, you’d say people are angry with each other.  Here they just say that’s the way to do it, but nobody is angry, just making their points.  In fact, in the midst of the internet argument, I was pacing the floor and the customer service person stopped and politely said, ‘Please sit and be comfortable.’

But what of India?  Chennai is a New York-sized city in population.  There are a plethora of smells, a crush of vehicles and a multitude of people. There are no lines, just mashes of people trying to get to the door or desk.  People walk on the street, not on sidewalks, which are used as parking areas occasionally. Traffic is a complete wonder.  If two vehicles can fit in a space, why not three? And if three, surely four, right? A friend explained traffic intersections like this.  Fill a container with rocks—it’s full, right?  Now add pebbles—they fill in the empty spaces and it’s full, right? Now pour in sand – which fills in the empty spaces, right?  Now dump in water, which fills the empty spaces, right?  Stop at an intersection for 90 seconds and you will end up in the midst of a massive, machine mosh pit that explodes into beeping, reving, weaving and maneuvering moments before the light turns.  And on the road, what an adventure.  Although many roads are now one way, there is a lot of two way traffic, sometimes on the same side of the street.  You know those dotted lines in the middle of the road? They act as a kind of gentle suggestion here, but if four or five cars can fit across a two lane highway, well then all the better for everyone, yes?

To end, I took a walk to the Marina this evening.  How very cool.  In many ways.  The wind was blowing off the sea and the colored lights of the vendors lit up the mass of people hanging out eating hot nuts and flying kites on a Sunday night.  A lovely way to end a full week.  I will be visiting the marina more often.