Myself and three others signed up to stay with a host Indian family for two nights in Chennai referred to as a homestay. The ship docked in Kochi which is on the west coast of India and Chennai is on the opposite east coast of the India peninsula.
Just some general notes about my home stay. The family was very wealthy and has travelled across Asia, many countries in Europe and the US. They spoke English like an average American, while most of the taxi drivers and commoners had very broken English. Therefore, my stay in India was distinctively different then other visits. I learned a lot about the politics, culture, economy of India and other countries through my multiple conversations with my homestay parents. I will try to relate a lot of the information I learned so the blog post may get a bit lengthy and thick.
We left the ship Monday, March 12 at 8:30pm and travelled to Chennai on an overnight train. The train was set up with a cubby of four beds, one on top and the other on bottom. By the time I figured out where I was sleeping, the other two locals were already sleeping. I sat with a couple people in the hallways and chatted until I was tired. The beds had one blanket and a hard pillow, however I slept relatively well. The train shook a lot throughout the night but I am used to that from the ship.
In the morning of March 13th, we arrived in Chennai (after a 14 hour train trip). In the train station, I was introduced to Gireeshan, the dad of the family and another girl and I followed him to his nice white Suzuki car. In the car ride to his house, he explained that because the economy was good in India, everybody was buying cars but the roads couldn’t accommodate that many vehicles. The roads in the country were being widened to accommodate the influx of cars. In the city, the buildings are very close to the side of the roads and it is difficult to expand them. Therefore, they were building a metro or subway throughout the city. However, the construction was done on the main road and created a lot more traffic problems throughout the city.
Cassie with Menna & Gireeshan
Cassie with Mohitha
Gireeshan has two children, who both are studying engineering, just like him. His son is studying in Buffalo and his daughter is in her first year at an Engineering University in Chennai. Many of the Indian students are studying either engineering or medicine because those are the upcoming fields that make the most money. He had wanted his daughter to go into accounting interestingly enough.
We arrived at their home and his wife had to open the gate so we could drive the car onto the small driveway. Their home was unexpectedly furnished beautifully and spectacular to be in. As one walks into the house, they step into a large room with the dining room table and the kitchen and guest room coming off of it.
On the side of the front door is the living room with four pristine couches surrounded by glass walls. There was an elevator in the house to be used in the future when they get old so they can still go up and down.
The second flight of stairs brought us up to the roof
where we could overlook the houses and city and then later that night to admire the stars. Liz (my housemate from SAS) and I noticed a dummy bird hanging off a wire. Apparently, their neighbor is extremely religious in the Hindu religion where they believe in reincarnation of everything in nature. The family takes time to care for and feed animals, such as birds. Gireeshan had to install the wires on the edge of the roof because all the birds would come to his roof after their meal.
After a breakfast of muffins and corn flakes (they got us American breakfast because they weren’t sure of what we liked), we talked for two hours about multiple topics. Gireeshan, because he is in the industry sector of the economy, had a day off on Tuesday. Each sector of the economy has a different day off because currently India can’t meet the power demand. It is also common while one is in a restaurant or store to have a couple of 2 minute power outages. In addition, different areas of the states have power outages for 2 hours a day. For our family, it was 12 to 2 but they have generators to keep the fans on.
We sat at the table with Gireeshan as he explained to us about the violence and issues in Sri Lanka, the history of Singapore, the economy and imported cars from Germany in India, and Italy as the head of design. I learned more in that day of conversation than any other world history class. As an engineer in charge of a factory, he has travelled and has to stay up to date on the world economy.
When we asked him about how he felt about local and national Indian politicians he says he doesn’t really get involved in his nations politics because they are all corrupt and keep the wealth of Indian citizens so their party doesn’t matter to him. Their presidency can be impeached by the Congress at any time so they have to try and please all of the members and it makes it very difficult to get anything done. It is also well known that most of the policemen in India are corrupt. I heard of some taxi drivers that had to pay the cops off so they could park in an illegal spot. Later, my friends’ brother was explaining to me that he rather have the cops being corrupt where they are more honest about it then have the corporate corruption that is proliferated throughout corporate America.
Meena, Gireeshan’s wife, cooked us lunch while we were talking and she made us a typical Indian meal per our request. I felt very nervous about how well I would do with eating the Indian food because of its notoriety for being very spicy. However, our family was very keen on our intolerance and tried to make it milder for us. Later I was talking with their daughter, who is traveling to the US in a couple months for vacation, and she told me that she is fussy with food and all the food we have in the US is too bland for her. It’s interesting because I was faced with the opposite problem; at least she can add spices to her food. Meena made us Dosa which is like a pancake that is made with rice and coconut which we would dip into a stew with vegetables. Most of the South Indian dishes include rice in some form and the North Indian dishes typically contain wheat because of the different climates and agriculture. Meena loves cooking for her family and she tries to learn how to make different ethnic foods like Chinese, Italian and Malaysian.
