Thursday, November 30, 2017

Update on India: I have arrived

It has been wildly shocking how different things are here in India compared to living in the USA. Hyderabad is huge, a 400+ year old, densely packed city, where I am now living with my in-laws in a residential colony called Lakshmi Nagar.
Each morning for the last week, I have awaken at dawn to the Azhan/Adhan prayer being sung out ringingly over the city from the neighborhood mosque. Immediately, I can hear people begin their morning ablutions, the hawking snorts and grunts from netti pot users, people flushing their toilets, roosters crowing, the distant call of an ox two houses down who wishes to be milked. A man brushes his teeth.
I have had my first drama moment, with my blood sugar over 400. My Indian family, en mass, took me to see their favorite physician. 
The doctor's  visit was the strangest I've ever had. First of all his clinic was set up almost like a little street shop. We literally just walked up, kicked off our shoes at the door (something you do at every place you visit), stepped through the entry way to sit on a bench and wait our turn; while he held consultations in a cube like office, with sliding milky glass door which YOU closed for privacy IF you wanted it. He did have a separate room for treatment and evaluation.  We waited about 5 minutes before being received, just the length of time it took him to release the patient ahead of us. Can you imagine that? Zero reception hassle. When one patient left the doctor simply beckoned the next person warming his bench to come in with a head wobble and a waive of the hand.
There was no thought given at all toward privacy concerning medical info. Anyone on the bench could hear our conversation and, if the door was open, see our whole visit play out. I was treated like a baby; meaning my family and the doctor talked about me without including me in the conversation.   I didn't know if I should feel pissed at the loss of autonomy or laugh and enjoy having my wellbeing secured be so important to everyone.  It is a commonly held belief here that the patient should be protected from direct knowledge of their medical condition, as it may prove too shocking and be detrimental in their recovery. It doesn't help my plight that I only speak English and everyone but my husband speaks rudimentary or broken English. I chose to go with the flow and enjoy someone else taking the reigns for a moment.
The roads here are Crazy with a capital C! Drivers don't stick to their lanes, honking is a friendly greeting and a spontaneous attention seeking device they employ liberally. DONKEYS, GOATS, OXEN, children. . . you name it and I have probably seen it roaming the streets unattended. Car, auto, truck, and scooter drivers cross in front of or cut around each other randomly with honked warnings. Changing direction with a U-turn may happen at any time and anywhere. There are few traffic lights, if any, and no one pays them any mind.
Everything is filthy. You should wear socks in your sandals to protect your feet, otherwise you get snaggle toes. It is also common to cover with scarves or wraps, much like a Muslim, to protect the hair and clothes. The air is full of dust. It coats everything, houses, cars, people. . . You name it. It gets in your ears, up your nose, and in every crack and crevice. You would have to hermetically seal your house to keep the dust out.
The people stare at anyone white or black as if we are famous. Lol, Children follow me in the market and stand staring, literally doing a double take, running in off the street in numbers to look get a look at me. It is as though they have never seen a foreigner before.  I have begun to pretend I'm a movie star just to cope. I saw an African woman at the bank being treated the same way. We  exchanged smiles of understanding and acknowledgement.
On a side note, the car that my father-in-law (who I will now refer to affectionately as Babba) drives plays a tune when he backs up; Elvis's Love me Tender. It took three days for me to figure out why the song was stuck in my head. Lol
Well that is my update on India post. All is well.
Love and light.

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