Belching, bricks, scaffolding, electronics

10 January 2010, 8 PM, Coimbatore.

Belching appears to be socially acceptable in Southern India, judging by the prolific eruptions from one of our yoga teachers and the more minor eruptions from one of the pretty little gals assisting throughout the Institute.  I will use this back home when Catherine castigates me, "They do it in India!".

Those broken white lines indicating traffic lanes don't mean much here.  I sometimes think that one is supposed to try to keep the midline of the vehicle over the lines. 

In fact, any sign prohibiting or prescribing any sort of behavior doesn't seem to be taken too seriously.  When we went to the hospital for our dentist appointment (the dentist's office was in the hospital), they dropped us off at the emergency entrance (where the ambulances come), and one of the hospital staff directed us to walk through the emergency ward to get to the elevator, despite a big sign clearly stating, "Not a thoroughfare".  When we saw the sign and saw emergency patients, nurses and doctors busy saving lives in curtained off areas on either side of the non-thoroughfare, we balked, but he urged us on with greater vigor, so we walked timidly through, and nobody paid any attention to us.

This country makes a lot of bricks!  It's something that can be done manually, without a big capital investment.  They just mix up a slurry of clay, sand, dung and water, put it in a wooden form, remove the form and let them dry in the sun.  One sees big stacks of bricks throughout the countryside, presumably going through the drying process.

I've seen a few backhoes so far, although manual labor is much more common.  The laborers use a single tool that does the job of both a shovel and a pick.  It has a wooden handle and a blade that looks similar to a round nosed shovel, but the blade is attached perpendicular to the handle, like a pick.  They use it to till the land, and also use it to shovel, although the blade angle is different, so the shoveling action is different.

Scaffolding is almost always made of saplings lashed together with jute, even for multistory scaffolding.  It wasn't until we got to Coimbatore that I saw my first steel scaffolding, but even here it is rare.

There are Internet cafes every couple of blocks here.  The computers are somewhat dated, but not really too bad.  They are all running Windows XP and some of them have Skype.  We used Skype this evening to call our twin nephews in Quebec to wish them a happy birthday.  We went in an electronics store to buy some rechargeable batteries and a charger.  Everything was the same price or more expensive than in the states.  My charger with 4 NiMh batteries cost the equivalent of $22!  I guess all the electronics are imported, so they're not going to be priced for India.

Catherine had two pairs of pants made.  For a pattern, she gave them a pair of pants that she had made when she was in India years before we met.  She bought the material in another store here in town.  I think that, between the cost of the material and the cost of the tailoring, it was about 9 dollars per pair, and they are beautiful and fit perfectly.

The cars here are mostly Maruti Suzukis.  Maruti is a joint venture between the Indian government and Suzuki.  They're a decent economy car, and they only cost about $6,000.  There are also Hyundais and  Hondas.  I think I've seen a Lexus or two as well.  The little 3 wheeled motor rickshaws are produced in India by Piaggio India, and a similar vehicle is manufactured by Bajaj Auto.

I'm reading a really good book right now about India that I believe is on the NY Times best seller list (though I bought it here).  It's called In Spite of the Gods, The Rise of Modern India.   I highly recommend it.  It is written by a British journalist who married an Indian and lives in India.

Indian marketing images often show surprisingly risque models in underwear or provocative poses, contrary to the general idea of India as a prudish society.