Let sleeping Duncans lie…
I have not been very well for the last few days – some viral infection of some sort, so at Dr Stephen’s suggestion, I had today off resting. Nothing that 12 hours of sleep won’t cure, it appears – having had a really good night’s rest, I seem to have knocked the worst of this on the head! Amazing what a good nap can fix! I suppose I should keep a sack of them in supply, eh Jess?!
I felt so much better this morning, I ventured out on a shopping expedition to stock up on provisions. Shopping here, I have discovered is an inverted affair; by which I mean that the things which you would buy if you were on a budget in England and trying to save is very expensive, sometimes more so than at home, and the fresh stuff is incredibly cheap and readily available. I learned all of this to my cost the first time I went shopping, and the bill for some basic packaged foods came to the equivalent of £20!! They have some things right here though (this is for you Sat!) – I got some amused looks and some bewildered expressions as I staggered into an autorikshaw laden with bags of shopping. It turns out that any bill over 1000Rs will be delivered to your address free of charge. Not that I would have known how to give them my address anyway!! Directing the rikshaws is done mainly by general landmarks and waving of arms, and frantic “BAS BAS BAS” (Hindi for enough or in this case “far enough”) when I want them to stop! Crude but surprisingly effective.
The way forward is definitely to buy fresh and cook yourself, or to eat out. It’s a hard enough life! Buying fresh things is a real pleasure, everything is so ripe and ready to eat. One of the most delicious things I have enjoyed here is the fresh pineapples which the seller will peel and prepare (cutting out all the eyes expertly while you wait) – awesome! The watermelons are ripe at the moment and not bad either. It seems that some things cost the same ludicrous amount wherever you go though. I went to get some chicken and at the same shop, they sold frozen prawns, but at £3GBP per bag (200RS) – the same as in J Sainsburys, Haywards Heath!!!
One of the things I am having to get used to is remembering to sterilise the stuff that I am eating raw though. Tomatoes and peppers are washed carefully in a tincture-of-iodine solution to nuke the nasties. Water has to be gotten from an electrical anti-microbial filter attached to the mains – this can be really annoying when one of the frequent powercuts is in operation.
Last night, I managed to cook my first curry – chicken with some home made Chapathis which I have learned the trick of cooking from my Australian friends, who had been expertly taught while they were here. Genevieve and Andrew left yesterday evening for home. It has been really nice to have their company over the last week, and the flat seems really empty without them here, and they made my first week settling into the rhythm of Lok a little easier – chiefly by diverting the obligatory consultant ward-round grilling of Junior staff and students with questions about medical things away from me! Thanks guys – much appreciated!
Having blathered on for the last few paragraphs about food, I can’t help but think of some of the images I have seen that have disturbed me since I have been here. Lok Upvan district of Thane is not touristy at all, so the poverty and squalor that I am seeing is all the more hard hitting. Just around the corner from where I live, along the road to one of the nicest parts of this area, and separated from it by some lush woodland, is a small shanty town. Mostly the people that live in these makeshift corrugated shacks are villagers who have moved to the area in the hope of making a better living for themselves. There is no running water where they are, and what happens to sewage, I can only imagine. One of the things that struck me as I walked past the other day is how the humanness of daily living somehow struggles on, irrespective of the circumstances people find themselves in. People were crouched round a big cast iron cooking pot, and rags and brightly coloured threadbare Lunghis were hung over a piece of old rope tied between the corners of 2 shacks. The chatter of the folk around the lunchtime fire was punctuated by the squeals and squeaks of delight of some little children, oblivious to their circumstances, racing through the filth behind the shacks at some game or another. Meanwhile, a little way down the road, a woman in a sari sifts and picks over the rubbish overflowing from the skip, searching for some reusable or resaleable items...
I think the challenge that keeps running round and round my head is the unfixable seemingly insurmountable size of some of these problems. It is something that will keep me coming back to God to pray for places like Lok that are trying to change this inequality; and it makes me look forward all the more to the day this injustice will be set right once and for all, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess…
Talking of which, I am sat in the lounge of my little flat, typing this and looking at a FANTASTIC Christmas present – well, I suppose it’s more of an advent present really. Sat and Gill gave me a “squashable present” to take out in my luggage with me. I was told to open it yesterday. Inside was a little mini Christmas tree, which has pride of place in the middle of my lounge. Jess’s parcel arrived yesterday and inside was a stocking full of presents. Between them, my gorgeous wife and my wonderful friends have managed to get a little bit of festive cheer out here to me! Thanks so much guys – majorly appreciated. Although, I must confess, I am finding it somewhat disorientating coming in from 30 degree heat to look at a Christmas tree!
More of the paradoxes of India anon,
Dunc
I felt so much better this morning, I ventured out on a shopping expedition to stock up on provisions. Shopping here, I have discovered is an inverted affair; by which I mean that the things which you would buy if you were on a budget in England and trying to save is very expensive, sometimes more so than at home, and the fresh stuff is incredibly cheap and readily available. I learned all of this to my cost the first time I went shopping, and the bill for some basic packaged foods came to the equivalent of £20!! They have some things right here though (this is for you Sat!) – I got some amused looks and some bewildered expressions as I staggered into an autorikshaw laden with bags of shopping. It turns out that any bill over 1000Rs will be delivered to your address free of charge. Not that I would have known how to give them my address anyway!! Directing the rikshaws is done mainly by general landmarks and waving of arms, and frantic “BAS BAS BAS” (Hindi for enough or in this case “far enough”) when I want them to stop! Crude but surprisingly effective.
The way forward is definitely to buy fresh and cook yourself, or to eat out. It’s a hard enough life! Buying fresh things is a real pleasure, everything is so ripe and ready to eat. One of the most delicious things I have enjoyed here is the fresh pineapples which the seller will peel and prepare (cutting out all the eyes expertly while you wait) – awesome! The watermelons are ripe at the moment and not bad either. It seems that some things cost the same ludicrous amount wherever you go though. I went to get some chicken and at the same shop, they sold frozen prawns, but at £3GBP per bag (200RS) – the same as in J Sainsburys, Haywards Heath!!!
One of the things I am having to get used to is remembering to sterilise the stuff that I am eating raw though. Tomatoes and peppers are washed carefully in a tincture-of-iodine solution to nuke the nasties. Water has to be gotten from an electrical anti-microbial filter attached to the mains – this can be really annoying when one of the frequent powercuts is in operation.
Last night, I managed to cook my first curry – chicken with some home made Chapathis which I have learned the trick of cooking from my Australian friends, who had been expertly taught while they were here. Genevieve and Andrew left yesterday evening for home. It has been really nice to have their company over the last week, and the flat seems really empty without them here, and they made my first week settling into the rhythm of Lok a little easier – chiefly by diverting the obligatory consultant ward-round grilling of Junior staff and students with questions about medical things away from me! Thanks guys – much appreciated!
Having blathered on for the last few paragraphs about food, I can’t help but think of some of the images I have seen that have disturbed me since I have been here. Lok Upvan district of Thane is not touristy at all, so the poverty and squalor that I am seeing is all the more hard hitting. Just around the corner from where I live, along the road to one of the nicest parts of this area, and separated from it by some lush woodland, is a small shanty town. Mostly the people that live in these makeshift corrugated shacks are villagers who have moved to the area in the hope of making a better living for themselves. There is no running water where they are, and what happens to sewage, I can only imagine. One of the things that struck me as I walked past the other day is how the humanness of daily living somehow struggles on, irrespective of the circumstances people find themselves in. People were crouched round a big cast iron cooking pot, and rags and brightly coloured threadbare Lunghis were hung over a piece of old rope tied between the corners of 2 shacks. The chatter of the folk around the lunchtime fire was punctuated by the squeals and squeaks of delight of some little children, oblivious to their circumstances, racing through the filth behind the shacks at some game or another. Meanwhile, a little way down the road, a woman in a sari sifts and picks over the rubbish overflowing from the skip, searching for some reusable or resaleable items...
I think the challenge that keeps running round and round my head is the unfixable seemingly insurmountable size of some of these problems. It is something that will keep me coming back to God to pray for places like Lok that are trying to change this inequality; and it makes me look forward all the more to the day this injustice will be set right once and for all, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess…
Talking of which, I am sat in the lounge of my little flat, typing this and looking at a FANTASTIC Christmas present – well, I suppose it’s more of an advent present really. Sat and Gill gave me a “squashable present” to take out in my luggage with me. I was told to open it yesterday. Inside was a little mini Christmas tree, which has pride of place in the middle of my lounge. Jess’s parcel arrived yesterday and inside was a stocking full of presents. Between them, my gorgeous wife and my wonderful friends have managed to get a little bit of festive cheer out here to me! Thanks so much guys – majorly appreciated. Although, I must confess, I am finding it somewhat disorientating coming in from 30 degree heat to look at a Christmas tree!
More of the paradoxes of India anon,
Dunc
posted by Duncan at 4:18 am
1 Comments:
Not sure yet, but I think we might be going out for a meal as Adams parents and brother and sister are here, and there is only a microwave combi-oven!
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