Saturday, November 07, 2009

The Air is Visible

That's been the main problem with Amritsar, the dirty air. Now, I've been in India for 5 and half weeks this trip. I've spent nearly 3 months of my life in India. For me to comment on the pollution at this point, you know it's bad. There is a constant haze over Amritsar. My eyes watered several times, something that has rarely happened to me due to pollution (the movies Schindler's List and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry are different stories). It was virtually unb(air)able. Pun!

Last night, I ventured through some of the old city. Today, I walked around the posh part of Amritsar, Lawrence Road. As everywhere here, the traffic fills every inch of the road/sidewalk. I yelled at one guy, "Hey this is a sidewalk, not a sidebicycle!" He couldn't here me over the rattling of autorickshaws. There seems to be less garbage and only a trickle of beggars here. Today I had lunch at Burger King. Not the Burger King, just some restaurant that jacked the name. I sat down and two Indian girls, probably from the nearby women's college, said hello to me. When I said hello back, they both giggled. That might not sound like much, but I was so taken aback that an Indian woman would initiate any interaction with me, I was nearly left speechless. Women here don't even like when you talk to them, let alone say something to you first.

Some famous looking people I'e seen in India:
The Indian Craig Stadler
The Indian Don Sutton (or at least an Indian guy with Don Sutton's hair)
The Indian Ghostface Killah
The giant Indian Stephen Spielberg
The Indian Sadam Hussein
The Indian Larry King (may have actually been Larry King)

Things I'm worried about when I go home:
-That I'll drive on the wrong side of the road
-That I'll swerve in and out of lanes without regard
-That I'll forego utensils and only eat food with my right hand
-That my stomach will do flips when I eat a cheeseburger
-That I'll hock loogies all over the place
-That I'll mutter bad things about people to their faces in English, thinking they can't understand me

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