Travel 2013: One line thoughts from India

Itmad-Ud-Daulah, Agra - Click for more photos

- In Agra , water is stored on the top of the roof in a large, black plastic tank. So after a day in 115 degree heat, taking a shower is not refreshing at all.
- Bathrooms are never air conditioned and rarely have a fan, so if you're in there for any more than 30 seconds you're sweating.
- People ask us where we're from (actually the question is usually, "what country?").  A few times I asked back, "where do you think?"  Responses have included Canada, Germany and Iceland.  This is strange to me because I had assumed they knew we were Americans, but I guess that's not the case.
- Most checks at restaurants are served with a bowl of fennel seeds, which are sometimes coated in sugar, but more often raw and accompanied with large sugar crystals. It aids digestion and is called saf.
- Amid other smells, frequently I smell incense burning in vendor's stalls, restaurant checkout counters, and shrines in nearly every place.
- There are small shrines everywhere - in trees, in taxi/rickshaws, in the middle of strip malls, in many homes,...
- At lunch one day, we talked with Uma a little about gender. She said that having children is the pinnacle of womanhood, something that men will never be able to. Since this is the case, she suggested that women don't have reason to worry about “success” as men do – in terms of their career.
- The taxi drivers often approach us saying: “Yes ma’am, taxi” – assuming we’ve asked. Sometimes they say “taxi maybe tomorrow."
- It’s really great to see men holding hands and walking in the street with their arms over each other’s shoulders. I’m glad men can express visible camaraderie with other men.
- Being here makes the U.S. seem so organized.
- Most residential (non-slum) buildings I’ve seen are made of brick and cement – not wood, but I assume this is more typical of big cities.
- At some point, Uma told Licia she needs to gain 10 KGs – something that may be typical for all old world parents and grandparents.
- We saw stairs leading to tunnels labeled “Subway” in Mumbai but were confused because we had heard of no subway stations. Then, on the way to Haji Ali, we decided to use a subway to cross a busy intersection and were both surprised to see nothing remotely like a metro station – that’s because a subway is just that – and underground way to cross the intersection.
- In addition to normal express trains, the Indian Railroad runs “superfast express trains.”
- Any space can become a cricket field. Whether it is an empty field, a garbage dumping space, or ruins in the middle of a city, groups of young boys convene to play together.