Random things in India

Because I was too lazy to put together a how-to for this week, I thought I would throw things inspired from pictures I had on my phone.

Things that we have experienced since being in India:

Festivals and holidays and celebrations. People are not kidding when they decide to celebrate. The upcoming/current holiday is called Dussehra. Basically for a few days you pray, put orange and yellow marigolds on everything and then on the last day (tomorrow night) they do some re-enactment where they burn some figurines. I'm excited. In preparation, everyone has been decorating everything. We also went to a grand opening for a store last week (it was for the family that we were staying with) and it was intense. They had a catered lunch, PR group, and valet parking. It's not like it is even a grand shop, it's basically a boutique that sells clothing, but you can't do anything small scale. (If we get lucky, we may be able to see an Indian wedding, but it's looking doubtful right now).

Because your car can celebrate too.

Food from the store opening. This was before I went back for seconds and thirds.

Notice the broken pumpkin thing for good luck.

 In the middle of town, random building.

• Civil unrest (riots because of Telangana. Something you probably wouldn't know about unless you were in India or were signed up to receive emails from the Hyderabad US foreign consulate.) We got to see one of the demonstrations when we were en route to go shopping one day and there was a crowd of men and women wearing pink bandannas and singing. Other repercussions include power outages (although those happen even when the power company workers aren't on strike).
  Side note: most buildings that have glass on the front also have large nets. Daniel and I were having a bit of a debate on why (I thought maybe it was for construction purposes he said it was to prevent birds from hitting the windows). We asked our teacher and he said that it is because they are trying to protect their glass windows from rioters. I guess it happens often enough that if you don't protect them, someone could easily pick up a rock and break your window. 

• Crazy weather. Actually, we only saw some torrential rain storms for a day or so. Mostly it happens when we are in class or asleep, but apparently there was a huge storm that narrowly missed us.
• Commuting by camel.

• People asking us for money. Not just the beggars in the street who come up to you while you are stopped at stop lights and touch your legs (because you are riding around in the open). Not just the random school kids walking around. Even the guard who is in front of the elevator who says he wants to go buy himself lunch and the random cleaning man who sweeps your room with his witch broom. I'm pretty sure they get paid to do their jobs, but something about being white and foreign gives off this sign that I am a walking money tree.
  Side note about money: It all has Ghandi on it. Pretty awesome. Also, I think because of that it might be sacred or something. We saw someone kiss his money after he had dropped it (which for the sake of your health I would not recommend doing). It is illegal to take it out of the country, so who knows.

• Delicious food. Every restaurant (except places like Papa Johns or Subway) serves Indian food. Like the kind you think of when you go to Bombay house. Everywhere. It was actually surprising to me how similar it is to Indian food you eat in the US. We also go to the fruit stands, because it is more fresh and delicious than what you can get at the stores, and get some pretty interesting foods. Like the custard apple or whatever this green orange thing is. 

I thought it was a lime. Nope.