| Mar 24, 2006 - Around Ahmedabad
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 | | show all 10 | | Street scene | | Nicole and Swapanaa in an autorickshaw | | Out to dinner at a rooftop restaurant with the whole team | | |
| After six days in Ahmedebad, here are some observations:
-Very few people here smoke cigarettes. I haven't seen vendors selling them and have only seen a dozen or so people actually smoking.
-Possibly the smoke-free lifestyle is intended to compensate for the fact that they breathe polluted air all day long. In the evenings my eyes sting when I walk through the crowded streets. I've never experienced pollution this strong before. In the past 18 months, most of the autorickshaws have been replaced with new models that run on cleaner burning natural gas. I can only imagine what it must have been like prior to the change.
- More than 4.5 million people live here and it feels quite crowded. Walking through the city in the evening, you get the feeling that a parade is going to begin at any minute - the streets are lined with people coming and going in all directions and on all different methods of transportation. As we wander about, we try to stay aware and look in every direction so we don't get run over or swept away by the crowd.
-The streets are most congested from 8-11 pm. After the heat of the day has faded, people seem to like to be out of their homes.
-Poverty here is extreme, and widespread. We never walk more than a minute or two on the city streets without being asked for money. In the evenings, we see hundreds of people sleeping on the sidewalks, next to buildings, or in the grass.
-Alcohol is forbidden here. That really cuts into the bar scene. There are some underground activities, but we haven't explored them....yet.
-The stray animal of choice is the dog. Yes, there are bulls that wander aimlessly around town, but it is much more common to see stray dogs.
-People on the street are very friendly to us. If they speak English, they often call out, "Where you from?" or "What's your name?" Many of the men who also want to shake our hands.
-Vendors in the market are as pushy as I've ever seen. Prices start at approximately 4X the minimum they will go to. Children hawking items in the market will follow me around offering ever improving deals for 10 or 15 minutes. They are persistent. I'm learning the Gujrati way to say, "You seem like a nice fellow and your wares are intriguing. However, they don't match the décor of my home and I therefore am not interested at any price."
-Here, "City" means 5+ million people. "Big city" means Mumbai, or Delhi. Villages have anywhere from one hundred to 250,000 people. "Town" seems to cover populations of 250,000 - 2,000,000. "Small city" is the in the 2M-5M range.
- I haven't seen anyone playing cards, dominos, chess, or any other games.
Bottled water costs about $0.25. Dinner at a nice restaurant is about $6/person. A 15 minute autorickshaw ride costs about $0.50. Hiring a driver for 2 full days, using his car and driving about 200 kilometers cost us $75.00.
-At around 6 am, the mosque across the street starts their day. There is chanting that is a pleasant background song from my room, but blares fairly loudly in other rooms in the hotel.
- I haven't seen a single American chain here. On previous trips, I've been amazed at how much 7-eleven, Pizza Hut, Subway, McDonalds, Blockbuster, Gap, and others have spread throughout the world. They haven't made it here yet.
-Mobile phones are priced quite reasonably, and most of the middle class have them
-We have met with 7 people in their offices. They have ranged from university professors, to business owners. Not a single one had a picture of their family displayed in their office.
-The people we have been meeting with are extremely generous with food and drink, but they rarely ask what we want. When we sit down to a meeting, odds are about even that we will get chai, coffee, water, Pepsi, cookies, chips or nothing. We've learned to be pleasantly surprised each time. Except yesterday when we ended up having Pepsi and potato chips for lunch because that's what the entrepreneur served us while we were with him from 1-5.
-The city continues to feel very safe and trustworthy. Even the autorickshaw drivers use their meters to figure out our fares. |
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