The First Fortnight

It’s been two weeks since our touch down in Nagpur, and I’ve been thinking that many of you wouldn’t recognise me if you saw me now! I’ve adopted Indian clothing – not the sari, that’s too complicated for me so I’ll save that for special occasions – but the kurta’s and salwa’s. I receive a lot of stares basically everywhere we go (we haven’t come across any other Westerners so far), and I think there is particular interest when they see a white girl wearing traditional Indian clothing!

Then there’s meal times….those who know me well will agree that I’m somewhat of a neat-freak and not really into mess or getting dirty at all….but in spite of that, I have basically ceased using cutlery and now eat only with my hands! They generally only use the right hand here, so eating with one hand is a new skill I have acquired.

Driving…I’m a pretty big stickler for following rules, and obeying traffic laws is no exception. But in India, traffic laws seem to be somewhat of a fluid concept! The rules are the same as us, basically, but the difference is that adherence to the rules is a lot less strict! In fact, it makes driving somewhat easier. For example, if you want to turn right, but you’re in the far left lane, no problem! Just cut across everyone, no worries. If you need to do a U-turn, but the opening in the median strip is some way up the road, don’t sweat, just drive the wrong way, up the wrong side of the road till you get where you need to be! If you bang into something, all good – it happens all the time, a regular occurrence – don’t worry about it, just keep going.

Seriously though, driving here is something else. Pushpa has kindly given us free use of her small van, so Marty and I went on a bit of an expedition with Sattu the other day to several different locations. Sattu only drives a two-wheeler, so it was up to me to do the driving (very trusting of them)!! It was a pretty busy time of the day, going through some very busy parts of Nagpur, so I had a few scary moments, which I will be happy to elaborate on some other time to anyone who is interested! After this bit of exposure and giving it a go, my words of advice / thoughts on driving in India would firstly be to watch out for cows. A common phrase which I think you will only hear in India is ‘watch out for that cow’. Secondly, don’t hesitate – if you hesitate, you’ll get collected!

Cooking…the girl who can’t really cook much of anything is working on becoming a master of Indian cooking! Francis, Mum and Steve, I am looking forward to showing you my chapatti skills when you come! The kitchen in our flat is an Indian set up….cold water taps only, pressure cooker and ‘mixie’ the essentials in place, washing dishes Indian style.

Language….picking up bits and pieces of Hindi here and there – still a long way to go, but I can say a few basics now and am having fun practicing with various shop-keepers and rickshaw drivers. With my limited Hindi, I then revert to ‘Indian-English’ – this is a particular version of the English language which involves an accent and re-arranging sentences! Even in writing things, Marty says I am writing like an Indian – need to work on keeping my Aussie culture alive!

So there are lots of things to adjust to and changes to be made. At times it is a little overwhelming, but we’re getting there bit by bit.

Our flat is basically set up now, so we will probably move in on Monday.

Missing you all, thanks for your comments and encouragement!