first days in patna

6 jan 2010, 5 am presidents hotel, patna

and so begins my first full day in patna. arrived early afternoon yesterday, greeted at the airport by raja president of dord), still on holiday but there all the same, then turned over to ajitesh (a project coordinator) and mishra (one of two accountants) for a search for a hotel and a general ride around the city center. the agency is being incredibly kind to me. it is wonderful having such supportive help. i am so far from a stranger in a strange land.

i am now in the presidents hotel, 1000 rupees/night ($25). it is remarkably like simple hotels in every non-western country in which i have traveled (costa rica, mexico, thailand). old, clean, bare bones, aging tile. my room has a plastered edge above the baseboard, repairing a more elaborate stone trim from days gone by. industrial bolts on the doors. mismatched furniture. such a contrast to the resort on the mexican riviera in cancun where we stayed on our family vacation. that place was spic and span, and they were planning major redecoration. the haves and the have nots.

walked around last night. it will be to my children’s surprise, but i was approached by no beggars nor anybody foisting their services on me. i suspect patna will be much different than delhi or kulkuta. the street was literally a sea of cars, motorcycles, bicycles, pedaled rickshaws, auto rickshaws, pedestrians. although there were sidewalks, no one used them, preferring the inner lane of the street. a cacophony of sounds, mostly honking. as i’ve read, there are three things necessary for safe driving here: good brakes, good horn, and good luck. no stop signs, no stop-and-go lights, simply a continuous pulsating movement of people and vehicles. crossing the street requires a step of faith, but each moving object is prepared to slow or stop at the last minute, whether a moving conveyance or a person. the worst to do is to stop cold. it interferes with the flow. seriously.

again, as in other non-western countries, the street is lined by food vendors and small shops, carts selling a variety of small wares. no big stores, certainly nothing like the chain stores in the usa (unfortunately now true in both big and small cities back home). i am struck by the empowerment such small businesses allow individuals/families. a 15x10 foot storefront, sufficient for a toiletries or medicine shop, a sundries store. larger plots for shoes, but just shoes or dresses or cloth or rugs. a number of electronics stores, televisions, computers. repair shops everywhere. it seems that very little is thrown away without progressive repair. many shopkeepers sitting alone, waiting for customers. and then there are the street food merchants by the hundreds. there isn’t the despondency that i would expect from my american experience., though. a simpler economy, a slower merchantilism. people can survive on rs 300 ($7)/day, but they are the poor in slums unlike any in the usa. i have done a lot of walking, and will describe what I have seen later.

I haven’t eaten since i arrived and i’m not sure how i will approach food. there are lots of street vendors, and an indian coworker of mine suggested i simply start to eat and get the inevitable diarrhea out of the way. i’ll probably venture to cooked food today, noodles, simple fried breads and such. i am tempted to eat the cooked foods. prepared on small coal or wood fires or small gas burners, a lot of it is fried in woks with hot oil which should kill a lot of microorganisms. the fresh vegies and fruits without a skin i will avoid. still getting used to converting rupees into dollars. i also need to carry smaller bills. i don’t get the sense anybody is out to cheat me, though. i bought a universal plug adapter today, gave him a rs 100, and he returned rs 70. it cost me about 65 cents. he could have charged me anything he wanted, and i certainly expected to pay more.

the weather is pleasant, not hot, and certainly not mosquito season (that comes in july with the rains). there is a floor heater plugged into the wall, but i was ok with two blankets and two light bedspreads. took a lovely shower yesterday. the porter brought in a bucket of hot water, i mixed it with cold water from the tap, and poured it over my head. no shower as such, the water all going down a drain in the floor on the other side of the room. the porter also recognized me as western, and brought a squashed roll of toilet paper. the alternative is the small bucket and spigot near the toilet.

7 jan 2011

I stand corrected. it is very chilly here, stuck in a cold wave for a month. overnight temps ~7 c (45 f), my room has a heater but i’m not using it. two t-shirts, a regular shirt and a jacket. outside, everyone wears a stocking cap and muffler, some wrapped in blankets. i can’t imagine how the poor people sleeping on the sidewalks can stay warm, and they are everywhere.

up at 5 am yesterday, took a walk to gandi maidon, a large park that used to be a race track. i read in the paper they are planning a major facelift, although they don’t specify cost, which they often do in newspaper articles (times of india is delivered under my hotel door).

went to a target like store yesterday, vishal megamart. not sure how to navigate street vendors or small shops yet. i need to be quicker in calculating dollar prices. gym shoes around $25, two alkaline batteries for 66 cents, a liter of mango juice $1.60. the newspaper today reported food inflation over the past year of 18%; onions up 198%, milk 19%, egg/meat/fish 21%, potatoes down 15%, vegies up 58%. it will be interesting to follow the public/political course of such changes.

the newspaper does good reporting, with fair detail. a 35 y/o plumber was killed by a turning truck, a mob pulled the driver out, demanding compensation for the family. police arrived, only to be repelled by stone throwing. in andra pradesh province, telangana wants to secede, but hyperabab resists. a panel made six recommendations to resolve the conflict.

tonight is shabbat (no jewish presence in patna, i lit candles, kiddish with mango juice, rice from yesterday for my bread).

spent the day taking a rickshaw to gandhi ghat in sultanganj locality shahganj muhammadpur area, then walked back, past hundreds of small stores and more hundreds of street vendors. absolutely reminiscent of chicago’s maxwell street in its hey-day, but without vendors trying to cajole one into their stores. no one seems to notice me except when i stop to take a picture. if they notice me, i ask permission by mime. i came across my first two beggars today, both polite and respectful. a man missing his right arm below the elbow, the other an old woman whose appearance cried out for help.

I will be leaving for bodh gaya on sunday, returning by next friday for official ajws orientation. I will take a bus and stay at a hotel run by monks.