agra (uttar pradesh), monday 7 january 2008

may i have your attention please: 4863 marudhar express from varanasi to jodhpur WIA [some cities including lucknow and jaipur] is reported to be 1h20 late from its shhheduled time, 6h10. inconvenience cost i deeply regretted.

(note the WIA, this is how indians would normally pronounce VIA.)

we've been sitting in the "upper class wait room" at the agra train station for the last 1h15 and we've been listening to the message above constantly since then---of course, followed by various similar messages, in english and hindi, notifying travelers that all trains arriving at this station are delayed. it's been 5 days since we arrived in india and this has been---as expected---a recurring theme in our trip. but it's ok: having multiple connection with india, we had been warned that patience is the greatest virtue in this country.

india welcomed us with open arms---too many of them, actually! the first sight as soon as you get out of the luggage claim at delhi airport, is that of hundreds of people, some anxiously waiting for their friends and relatives, some standing there with a sign to pick up business travelers, some touts who want to take you to some shady hotel, and some just standing there, or in common p.o. parlance, just being frank.

(for those who are unfamiliar with these terms, p.o. stands for party office, and this is basically as my office, room b4 at 37 hillhouse avenue in new haven, has become widely known in the yale economics department. being frank just means to stand leisurely, to procrastinate---basically, to do nothing... and i will leave the detail of ths word's etymology for some other time.)

anyway, one of the people who stood there and who somehow managed to be anxiously waiting for his friends and to look frank and to look like a tout, all at the same time, was rahul, a.k.a. perro. he stood there amidst the other touts and the sardars and the sikhs and the sari-wearing women, with hi cute big grin and wearing his (brand) sneakers and his black kenneth cole peacock coat---very indian middle class, of course. he had taken us to the train station in new haven when we left for helsinki, and it was weird seeing him again, now picking u up in india, in his hometown, in the middle of this orderly chaos.

we left the airport immediately, not after having had a small argument with a group of frank people who were standing next to our car, one of whom had parked right behind us and simpáticamente refused to move his car because, according to him, we could totally get out of the spot. so, instead, he offered to give directions (and at least 3 other people followed suit), and just let us know when we were about to hit his car or the one in front of us, and so on, until we finally got out. next, we got out of the lot and tried to find directions to vasant kunj, the neighborhood where perro lives. my friend was unsure of the road because of a big detour you're required to make when exiting the airport. the roads are in extremely poor condition, there are no signs anywhere, there are people standing in the middle of the street, not dressed in uniform, giving incomprehensible traffic instructions, and unexpected intersections and bifurcation appear out of the blue. several thing came to my head at once. i remembered that article i had read on fp online a few weeks back about delhi airport being one of the bottom 5 in the world; i recalled those big signs i saw immediately as soon as i got off the plane that read "a world-class airport is coming to you in 2009. in the meantime, please excuse the inconvenience," or something to that effect. i also wondered whether my sister and rafa had made it safely to their hotel and what their first impressions of india had been, coming out into the city in the middle of the night, their first time in india, in this chaos, in a taxi by themselves.

(to be continued...)