Things I have seen today:
The first cat I've seen so far in India. I've seen goats, camels, cows, and a million yellow dogs, one for every corner, but only one cat. Maybe the cats have enough sense to stay inside.
Three kids playing cricket on the roof across the street from my office.
A very old, very tiny Indian couple on a Vespa, woman riding sidesaddle, sari flying in the wind.
A man taking a shower in front of his tiny tin-roofed house by ladling water out of a bucket.
Women working on the construction of the companion tower to the building I'm in -- their job was to move a pile of gravel from one place to another, which they did one round, wide, flat trayful at a time. They carried the trays around on their heads, which were also wearing special hard hats with little platforms for balancing the trays. The women were also all wearing saris in every color you can think of; it's so odd to me that someone would say to themselves, "Hmm, what should I wear to my construction job today? Oh, I know. My hot pink sari."
I also decided to leave work at 6 today instead of 7:30, so I would have some time to walk around the new area. I tried to map a route in my head when I was being driven around this morning. Basically my route went like this: Walk out of the hotel, and turn left.
Pretty easy. I that way for a few miles, wandering in and out of shops and maybe buying some stuff for folks. It's a whole different experience walking around here, especially the difference between walking around in the daytime, and at night. To start, the hotel is across the street from the main train station, so the street is kind of a main drag. There are huge mobs of bikes and rickshaws and motorcycles and cars, and very little sidewalk. You just have to sort of rush along the shoulder. The only reason it didn't totally weird me out is that traffic is so heavy, nobody can go more than a few miles an hour. It's just loud, and congested, and smoggy.
Still, it was really facinating; the people here just congregate on corners and outside storefronts, buying cigarettes one at a time or eating something they've gotten from street vendors. I went up to one of the booths to buy a pack of Camels -- I asked how much they were and the guy said it was, are you ready for this, 25 rupees. Twenty five. For the record, that's like fifty cents. For a pack. I gave the guy a 100 rupee note...and he gave me back 21. I didn't even have the heart to argue about it, so I just smiled real big and waved instead. Stupid American; can't even count.
Further down the road was the Pune Central mall; I had to check my bag at the door with these guys behind a counter wearing crazy ornamental uniforms. I hung out outside for a minute first to make sure the locals were also checking their bags, just to be on the safe side, though.
Inside was a lot like being in Macy's, except the staff is actually attentive and will help you. In some cases they're a little overly helpful -- they tend to follow one around from rack to rack as one browses, and at one point when I picked up a jacket, one guy actually ran across from another area to breathlessly ask if I was interested in a blazer. Three guys tried to help me find a pair of sunglasses, and four guys, FOUR, were spraying cologne onto strips for me to smell.
After I left the mall, I kept weaving my way down the street, between clumps of people and speeding motorbikes, and found my way across a bridge, the "sidewalk" of which consisted of a single row of cobblestones beside the roaring traffic. Everyone else seemed fine with this arrangement, so I soldiered on and tried not to jump every time a motorcycle got too close. The other side was getting more and more urban; the side of the road was entirely populated with these little stalls selling cigarettes and snacks and roasted nuts and fruit and food that I have no idea what it was, but that smelled really fucking good and reminded me I'd forgotten to eat lunch and had yet to eat dinner. I'd probably walked a good couple miles by this point, so I crossed the street and found an autorickshaw to take me home. Autorickshaws are totally fun, in the "taking your own life in your hands" kind of way.
When we got back to the hotel, the difference between all the marble and doormen and buffets and decadence, and the rest of the city, was astounding. My fare was 3 rupees, but I gave the guy a 100 ($2!) and told him to kep the change. Stupid American. Can't even count.
Side note: If you ever. EVER. have a chance to try Indian mango in April when they're in season, do it. I have never in my life had fruit as brain-meltingly good. It tasted like peach and lime and mango and tiny perfumed white flowers, and it felt like velvet. I may not ever need another kind of fruit ever again.