Frustration Affirmation

I signed myself up for a Hindi class downtown, near Flora Fountain in Coloba, at 10:30am and thought I'd take the train down. After a bit of research online, I grabbed a rickshaw to the Kurla train station. It's decorated outside with curtains so it doesn't look like a train station which made me suspicious and I questioned the driver who said to 'just go in'. The neighborhood around the train station is busy with shops, vendors, and everything else you can imagine. So I just followed the crowd into the station. 

Kurla, where I live, is a middle to lower class neighborhood, very conservative and very traditional. Several of us newbies have been told by others on various occasions to be careful, to move elsewhere, and that the neighborhood isn't very 'expat friendly.' So I was wearing jeans and a loose T-shirt with a scarf that I tie around my head in the rickshaws so my hair doesn't go crazy. Most people were too busy going where they were going to notice me, although I did get a couple of glances now and then…but nothing like the construction workers with nothing to do on my road. 

Rickshaw Traffic

There isn't much English in the station so I decided I'd take the long line at the ATVM (automated ticket vending mating) over the incredibly long line for the teller. When it was finally my turn, I couldn't get the machine to communicate with me in English. Frustrated, I realized I was late so I left hoping to get a cab. It was crowded and some vendor was pestering me so I jumped in an empty rickshaw and had him take me to a cab…half a block away. I was more irked than frightened, but love that you can always just jump in a rickshaw and tell them to GO!

The cab I grabbed was old, with an old driver, but they tend to know the city better, and he did. I was downtown in no time. We didn't take the Sea Link, we took the fly over and it was a straight shot. I took my class, walked around a bit afterwards, and planned to visit an ATM before taking the train home (I'm too stubborn to give up). 

I walked around by myself and aside from vendors, no one 'bothered' me or even looked at me funny. I will say that I noticed a guy going from one group of foreign girls to another trying to chat them up. Poor for him, I learned how to say 'go away' in my class which took him by surprise. I needed an ATM but after trying three or four with no success, I got fed up and walked into a nice store to window shop and enjoy the air conditioning. 

Got to the CST train station, stood in another ridiculously long line, got my ticket, got on the train, got to Kurla and caught a rickshaw home. Several times in this process I had to stop and ask for directions, ask if I was in the right line, right train, etc. and most people were always friendly – in their Indian friendly way which at times seems unfriendly. They stood too close to me in line and bumped me with their bellies; they made noises – like an obnoxious kissing sound – to get my attention to give me my change that I forgot or point out my stop when I guess I looked distracted; and some little street punks pointed and stared at me – after they'd made fun of beggar and harassed a vendor, so they were just jerks you'd find anywhere. 

I've also been told Kurla isn't expat-friendly, but today was a good day. The women I interacted with were all lovely. The older men were mostly kind and helpful too. And yes, with all the construction it is dirty in my neighborhood, but on my way back from the station to Kohinoor I actually thought, 'Yeah, it's a bit dirty here, but it's MY dirt.' 

 

I've also probably had more run-ins with the apartment society than anyone else who arrived with me, and I'm sure they 'love' me, but I'm still smiling at them and they're still either smiling or smirking at me. I think my neighbors are slowly adjusting to having me here (one thinks I'm a hair dresser!) if the frequency of chit chat in the elevators says anything. 

Some of the newbies are worried that the riots happening across several mid-east countries as a backlash to the anti-Islam movie might erupt here too. Eh, maybe, but I find that if I patron their shops, use their same transportation, and smile at their children, it's easier to fit in and be forgiven when whatever I'm doing in their eyes is wrong. And I'm sure my apartment society has a list for me. :)

And to be honest, I am the foreigner so I AM wrong for not doing it their way or knowing their language or knowing whatever else I'm suppose to know here. That's just part of living overseas...of really living in another country, not just continuing your life in another place. They say you know you're no longer a tourist, or even a 'traveller' (stupid hipster elitist term), when you move to the rhythm of the country, and no longer to your own. 

So right now, as I learn the dance of India, I'm just stepping on toes and getting my toes stepped on too.