Thursday, June 26, 2008
Child Abuse
I do not believe what just happened. I was sexually harassed by a 7 year old child. Just came back from the movies in PVR Select City Walk and tried to catch an auto. As I was bargaining, about 5 small children walked up to me and started begging. I took my bag in my arms and ignored them for the rest, but they insisted. Two of them were holding my hands really tightly, another one started pulling my bag. The fourth put his arms around me and squeezed my body. Suddenly the fifth one was deliberately touching my chest. Then I did something I thought I could never do. I got so angry that I became aggressive and pushed the kids away in a quite strong way. I could finally jump into the auto as they got a hold of my bag again and drove away. The whole time there were about 5 auto guys standing around me, not doing anything.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Rose Petals and Tooth Paste
Just had my second Indian pedicure. I never want a Belgian one anymore!
You walk into some dirty indoor market in Gulmohar Park in Delhi, one floor up. You make your way through the dust and find the entrance to this small beauty parlor Excellence. The door and windows are tinted so you actually don't know what kind of place you are about to walk into, but you do it anyway because you were told to. You open the door and there is this older man sitting at a desk, as if he were a lawyer, and a couple of maroon colored ladies in all kinds of Indian races standing around. The older man tells you to go through a curtain. It leads to the actual beauty parlor, which, to you, looks more like a hair salon. In this area there are even more of these maroon females, all of them looking very surprised to see a white woman entering their kingdom. Then one of those maroons asks you what you want to have done. You mention you want to have a pedicure. At first it looks quite impossible as you don't really see a space that could accommodate a pedicure. There are only these hair saloon seats, but ok, you are open minded and do not have any expectations.
Then your maroon starts running around the small area gathering all kinds of attributes from magazines up to tooth paste and yellow bottles and a big basin of steaming hot water with rose petals and all other kinds of today's greeneries found in the backyard. At the same time, you feel these other maroons are staring at you through the mirrors.
Then the practical part of the pedicure becomes clear: you stay in the hair saloon seat and the maroon sits on this small tabouret doing the footwork on her lap. Not like the European way where you lie down and she does the work while sitting on a chair.
First she removes the nail polish from your toes and cuts the nails if you respond yes to the question whether you want to have your nails cut. Maroon asks if you want a facial. You say no. Then she puts some kind of greasy yellow cotton on each of the nails followed by a soak in the hot steaming bath (my feet have never been so red) full of rose petals, greeneries and soap. “Didi, facial?” “No”. Then it's time for the tooth paste. No it is not for brushing, it is supposed to whiten the nails. “Didi do you want some juice” .
Then comes the good part. She pulls up this kind of foot scrubber tool which you have never seen before . She takes one of your legs, lifts it up in the sky and starts scrubbing with full force. That’s the point when you cannot manage to read in your magazine anymore. You feel extremely ticklish, painful and an indescribable necessity to kick the maroon ... but you love it. And after several rounds, your feet are free from hard skin and are clean. And you somehow just feel exhausted. “Didi, after one foot you have to give me the other one” maroon says. And other things in Hindi that you don’t understand.
Then comes the regular hard skin scrubber which she uses with the same force. The kicking necessity flings up again.
After all that is done, maroon removes the basin and puts your feet onto her lap. She takes some ... yes .. maroon... massage oil and starts rubbing you legs and feet with a strength that you have rarely seen before. She is basically beating you up. Especially when she inserts her knuckles into the soles of your feet, pressing spots you never even knew they could be painful. But the sensation afterwards is so relaxing!
Finishing touch with nail paint and of you go.
I said: "Maroon, you are one strong woman!" and tipped her.
You walk into some dirty indoor market in Gulmohar Park in Delhi, one floor up. You make your way through the dust and find the entrance to this small beauty parlor Excellence. The door and windows are tinted so you actually don't know what kind of place you are about to walk into, but you do it anyway because you were told to. You open the door and there is this older man sitting at a desk, as if he were a lawyer, and a couple of maroon colored ladies in all kinds of Indian races standing around. The older man tells you to go through a curtain. It leads to the actual beauty parlor, which, to you, looks more like a hair salon. In this area there are even more of these maroon females, all of them looking very surprised to see a white woman entering their kingdom. Then one of those maroons asks you what you want to have done. You mention you want to have a pedicure. At first it looks quite impossible as you don't really see a space that could accommodate a pedicure. There are only these hair saloon seats, but ok, you are open minded and do not have any expectations.
Then your maroon starts running around the small area gathering all kinds of attributes from magazines up to tooth paste and yellow bottles and a big basin of steaming hot water with rose petals and all other kinds of today's greeneries found in the backyard. At the same time, you feel these other maroons are staring at you through the mirrors.
Then the practical part of the pedicure becomes clear: you stay in the hair saloon seat and the maroon sits on this small tabouret doing the footwork on her lap. Not like the European way where you lie down and she does the work while sitting on a chair.
First she removes the nail polish from your toes and cuts the nails if you respond yes to the question whether you want to have your nails cut. Maroon asks if you want a facial. You say no. Then she puts some kind of greasy yellow cotton on each of the nails followed by a soak in the hot steaming bath (my feet have never been so red) full of rose petals, greeneries and soap. “Didi, facial?” “No”. Then it's time for the tooth paste. No it is not for brushing, it is supposed to whiten the nails. “Didi do you want some juice” .
Then comes the good part. She pulls up this kind of foot scrubber tool which you have never seen before . She takes one of your legs, lifts it up in the sky and starts scrubbing with full force. That’s the point when you cannot manage to read in your magazine anymore. You feel extremely ticklish, painful and an indescribable necessity to kick the maroon ... but you love it. And after several rounds, your feet are free from hard skin and are clean. And you somehow just feel exhausted. “Didi, after one foot you have to give me the other one” maroon says. And other things in Hindi that you don’t understand.
Then comes the regular hard skin scrubber which she uses with the same force. The kicking necessity flings up again.
After all that is done, maroon removes the basin and puts your feet onto her lap. She takes some ... yes .. maroon... massage oil and starts rubbing you legs and feet with a strength that you have rarely seen before. She is basically beating you up. Especially when she inserts her knuckles into the soles of your feet, pressing spots you never even knew they could be painful. But the sensation afterwards is so relaxing!
Finishing touch with nail paint and of you go.
I said: "Maroon, you are one strong woman!" and tipped her.
Contraceptive
Although the Indian government has been campaigning a lot to increase the usage of condom, India's young upper class' sense of an contraceptive is more of an after-the-deed matter. Whereas many women in Europe take the normal birth control pill everyday and in case of an accident, gather all their courage and visit the pharmacy for an emergency pill, Indian young women seem to be very comfortable with not caring and find buying the emergency pill every time after sex the easiest way to prevent pregnancies. Not even mentioning that emergency pills do not protect in anyway against STDs. "No condom? No worries, there is the emergency pill ...".
The morning-after-pill is actually a very high dose of the regular birth control pill and messes a lot with a woman's hormones, causing many side effects, especially when taken regularly and when taken at a too young age. Emergency pills are not meant to be taken on a regular basis but are meant in case of ... as the name says ... emergencies.
The one to blame for this recent behaviour in India is definitely the manufacturer of the brand "i-pill". India's TV channels do not show advertisements for regular birth control pills or condoms but do show plenty of clean, family planning advertisements for "i-pill". "i-pill" sales have been rising a lot after it become a rage for Indian young people and the ignorance of the young people about the "i-pill" is striking: it is considered "a contraceptive method" as any other.
Long live sexual education!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Good excuse ...
Always wondering what kinds of excuses to use if you want to stay one day longer on your vacation? Try this one:
I was asked to join a filming crew on their quest for monkeys (rhesus macaque) in the Shimla area with my still camera. The goal of the documentary, by All Time Productions, was to show how monkeys and humans influence each other's life, after deforestation has lead the monkeys to migrate into the cities and onto the fields.
The last day, we were filming in some fields in a village about four hours from Shimla, connected to the city by an unpaved road on the edge of the mountains. We went down to the crops, talked to some children who are put to work on the fields to scare away the monkeys and then did an interview with the school teacher. By that time, big dark clouds were gathering around the mountains and soon it began to rain really hard. After tons of water, the rain became less strong and we went on with an interview with a farmer's family.
When we finished, we were supposed to return to Delhi. The locals explained us that the road was closed from the left due to a landslide, so we had to do some detour and take the road from the right. We thanked the locals, said good bye and left for Delhi. After a couple of kilometers there was a jeep standing still, in the middle of the road. We took a good look and it appeared there was another landslide, blocking the road. So yes, it happened: we were stuck between two landslides on a five kilometer stretch. It took about three hours of work by the locals and our crew (of course the ladies didn't do anything). Trees, shovel, stones, rocks ... everything was used to prepare the landslide to be surmountable. The jeep succeeded quite early but our Toyota Innova took a bit longer.
With high hopes of reaching Delhi early morning after a full night of driving, we continued our journey.
- And no, the story ain't finished yet. As you can see there is more text following, so you can expect something else to happen. - And it is ...... bam bam bam bam ....... Tension tension......... Yes .... thank you Murphy ....... A BIG ROCK on the road. It was a couple of huge rocks that fell on the road, a couple kilometers further, making it only possible for a motorcycle (Indian English translation = bike) to cross. Stuck between three landslides. And superman just didn't want to pick up his phone. Bloody Lois.
Luckily we knew where the guy with the jeep was staying, so we drove back to the village between the second and the third landslide and could enjoy his lovely hospitality. It was a gaon with about 7-10 houses and many fields. The family served us dinner and breakfast (last food we had was breakfast), offered a bed and a good laugh!
The next day, the landslide was supposed to be cleared by 11 am. After breakfast we left as we were told it was cleared up. We arrived ... surprise surprise ... it was still there.... But some landslide removers were there, trying to hammer the rock in order to make it smaller. It became very obvious that this would take a long time. So they decided to extend the road instead. Now this road extension plan is the most marvelous thing I have ever seen. You have to imagine the edge of the mountain next to the road which is really steep... so there was not really anything that could serve as a support for the road extension. But these men were the best engineers I have ever seen. They started gathering huge rocks from everywhere and they managed to make this steady extra one meter of road supported by nothing in two hours! No education, no nothing ... but Master Engineers! So we passed and drove to Delhi and arrived at 3-4 in the morning!
I hope Murphy left us somewhere in Himachal ...
ps: and all this with me suffering from the dhaba food and no toilet paper ... gotta do it the Indian way, which allegedly reduces the risk of colon cancer (the squatting position, not the water part)
I was asked to join a filming crew on their quest for monkeys (rhesus macaque) in the Shimla area with my still camera. The goal of the documentary, by All Time Productions, was to show how monkeys and humans influence each other's life, after deforestation has lead the monkeys to migrate into the cities and onto the fields.
The last day, we were filming in some fields in a village about four hours from Shimla, connected to the city by an unpaved road on the edge of the mountains. We went down to the crops, talked to some children who are put to work on the fields to scare away the monkeys and then did an interview with the school teacher. By that time, big dark clouds were gathering around the mountains and soon it began to rain really hard. After tons of water, the rain became less strong and we went on with an interview with a farmer's family.
When we finished, we were supposed to return to Delhi. The locals explained us that the road was closed from the left due to a landslide, so we had to do some detour and take the road from the right. We thanked the locals, said good bye and left for Delhi. After a couple of kilometers there was a jeep standing still, in the middle of the road. We took a good look and it appeared there was another landslide, blocking the road. So yes, it happened: we were stuck between two landslides on a five kilometer stretch. It took about three hours of work by the locals and our crew (of course the ladies didn't do anything). Trees, shovel, stones, rocks ... everything was used to prepare the landslide to be surmountable. The jeep succeeded quite early but our Toyota Innova took a bit longer.
With high hopes of reaching Delhi early morning after a full night of driving, we continued our journey.
- And no, the story ain't finished yet. As you can see there is more text following, so you can expect something else to happen. - And it is ...... bam bam bam bam ....... Tension tension......... Yes .... thank you Murphy ....... A BIG ROCK on the road. It was a couple of huge rocks that fell on the road, a couple kilometers further, making it only possible for a motorcycle (Indian English translation = bike) to cross. Stuck between three landslides. And superman just didn't want to pick up his phone. Bloody Lois.
Luckily we knew where the guy with the jeep was staying, so we drove back to the village between the second and the third landslide and could enjoy his lovely hospitality. It was a gaon with about 7-10 houses and many fields. The family served us dinner and breakfast (last food we had was breakfast), offered a bed and a good laugh!
The next day, the landslide was supposed to be cleared by 11 am. After breakfast we left as we were told it was cleared up. We arrived ... surprise surprise ... it was still there.... But some landslide removers were there, trying to hammer the rock in order to make it smaller. It became very obvious that this would take a long time. So they decided to extend the road instead. Now this road extension plan is the most marvelous thing I have ever seen. You have to imagine the edge of the mountain next to the road which is really steep... so there was not really anything that could serve as a support for the road extension. But these men were the best engineers I have ever seen. They started gathering huge rocks from everywhere and they managed to make this steady extra one meter of road supported by nothing in two hours! No education, no nothing ... but Master Engineers! So we passed and drove to Delhi and arrived at 3-4 in the morning!
I hope Murphy left us somewhere in Himachal ...
ps: and all this with me suffering from the dhaba food and no toilet paper ... gotta do it the Indian way, which allegedly reduces the risk of colon cancer (the squatting position, not the water part)
Aam Ka Achaar
A couple of days ago, the servant forbade all women from the office to touch the big jar of mango pickle. Without using many words the reason was given as such: when a woman is menstruating she is impure. This will cause the pickle to go bad soon. Since it was such a big jar, the servant didn't want to take any risk. He said: "the pickle had gone bad before here, there must have been some woman touching it".
Ok, I am culturally sensitive, the servant is not very well educated and this superstition is historically and hygienically explainable but there are two weird things:
- We are not menstruating the whole month, so why can we never touch it?
- Today I asked the servant to give me some pickle and he asked me to give him a spoon, as I was standing closer to the cutlery. So I touched the spoon which he used to go into the pickle jar, and he didn't object.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Blez
White water rafting in Kaudiyala.
The guy in the back in blue was already being stupid the whole time. During the rafting, I saw something blue on the hill and I asked him what it was. "Is that a temple". "No" he said, "it's a blez". I said a what? He said: "a blez". I asked: "is that Hindi". He said "Hindi, English, both". I looked at my Indian colleague and she had the same surprised expression on her face as me. I said "I'll look it up in the dictionary". He said "yes do that". Then he started explaining what it was. He said it is like a village but only a couple of houses, like three or four. As he was saying this, I suddenly remembering the servant also using this word.
Then at home we tried to look it up. English dictionary: nothing. Hindi dictionary: nothing. We thought - that word just doesn't exist. But the servant also knew it so we continued our search.
Suddenly my indian colleague figured it out ....................................................................
The guy in the back in blue was already being stupid the whole time. During the rafting, I saw something blue on the hill and I asked him what it was. "Is that a temple". "No" he said, "it's a blez". I said a what? He said: "a blez". I asked: "is that Hindi". He said "Hindi, English, both". I looked at my Indian colleague and she had the same surprised expression on her face as me. I said "I'll look it up in the dictionary". He said "yes do that". Then he started explaining what it was. He said it is like a village but only a couple of houses, like three or four. As he was saying this, I suddenly remembering the servant also using this word.
Then at home we tried to look it up. English dictionary: nothing. Hindi dictionary: nothing. We thought - that word just doesn't exist. But the servant also knew it so we continued our search.
Suddenly my indian colleague figured it out ....................................................................
In must have come from the word village, which with the accent changed to billage..... blage....... blez.
Anyone else has an idea?
Monday, May 12, 2008
Alexandre
Alexandre,
that day you chose ...
since that day ...
the sky doesn't have the same color
since that day ...
you feel more peaceful
since that day ...
we feel pain
since that day ...
we miss you
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