Sunday, January 15, 2006
Stumbling around
My second day here happened to be a Saturday. I had already met a few of the other expats the day before at work and had some rough plans for the day but due to all the time zone changes I ended up getting up somewhat early with nothing to do until early afternoon. I went down to the "food" apartment to get some breakfast which turned out to be quite excellent. I know I already mentioned our chefs but they really do deserve a lot of credit for making really tasty stuff at pretty much any hour of the day. This breakfast was unusual in that it was traditional Indian food instead of the toast, pancakes or omelet we normally get. I realized later that I actually got pretty lucky to get it. Another of the expats made it there first, who happened to be from India but working in the States, and ordered it for the two of us. Unfortunately, he went home the next day and when I tried ordering the "Indian" breakfast a couple of days later I still got toast and eggs so knowing the language definitely helps here despite the fact that you can normally pretty much get by with English.
After breakfast I still had a few hours to kill before meeting up with some of the others to go see the Nizam's Jewels on display at a local museum so with nothing better to do I went walking around the apartment complex, exploring and taking pictures of the sights and the people I ran into. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, however it was very interesting to actually leave the gated in area and go walking into the large field just outside our gates. I probably would not have been brave enough to wander out on my own, especially after being warned the night before that it's probably not the best idea to go walking around outside. However, our two chefs must have seen me outside and came out to show me around. When I mentioned the water buffalo I saw grazing in the field from the apartment window they pretty much insisted I go out there and get some water buffalo pictures. I was pretty eager to meet all the interesting animal creatures they have here (stay tuned for the post about my trip to the Monkey Temple) so I didn't need to be convinced too hard.
We went walking into the field and caught up with the water buffalo, who turned out to be much smaller than I anticipated, though I've seen some very large ones in other parts of the city since.
Spotting some stone houses off in the distance we kept going to check them out and came across a tiny village of local people. The guys I was with, along with most people at the office, are not local to this area so the language they tend to speak is Hindi. I'm sure they also speak some other language local to their origin since India has more than 30 official languages (according to Wikipedia), but the people in this area are primarily Telugu and many of them know neigher Hindi nor English. As a result, the bunch of us could not really communicate with the people we met aside from a few basic words and body language. However, despite the fact that my guides and I barely understood each other, and none of us really understood the locals, I managed to get around and meet a lot of people, see how they live, take lots of pictures, and everyone was extermely friendly and happy to see us.
I've realized since that other expats have not actually gone out there so I must have been as much of a sight for the people in the village as they were for me. The way we live here is sort of in a bubble of Western culture and amenities, discouraged to go out and really explore the local culture without close supervision, so I'm glad I had this opportunity to venture out on my own and get to see a part of local life that many of the people who stayed here for months probably haven't seen.
After breakfast I still had a few hours to kill before meeting up with some of the others to go see the Nizam's Jewels on display at a local museum so with nothing better to do I went walking around the apartment complex, exploring and taking pictures of the sights and the people I ran into. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, however it was very interesting to actually leave the gated in area and go walking into the large field just outside our gates. I probably would not have been brave enough to wander out on my own, especially after being warned the night before that it's probably not the best idea to go walking around outside. However, our two chefs must have seen me outside and came out to show me around. When I mentioned the water buffalo I saw grazing in the field from the apartment window they pretty much insisted I go out there and get some water buffalo pictures. I was pretty eager to meet all the interesting animal creatures they have here (stay tuned for the post about my trip to the Monkey Temple) so I didn't need to be convinced too hard.
We went walking into the field and caught up with the water buffalo, who turned out to be much smaller than I anticipated, though I've seen some very large ones in other parts of the city since.
Spotting some stone houses off in the distance we kept going to check them out and came across a tiny village of local people. The guys I was with, along with most people at the office, are not local to this area so the language they tend to speak is Hindi. I'm sure they also speak some other language local to their origin since India has more than 30 official languages (according to Wikipedia), but the people in this area are primarily Telugu and many of them know neigher Hindi nor English. As a result, the bunch of us could not really communicate with the people we met aside from a few basic words and body language. However, despite the fact that my guides and I barely understood each other, and none of us really understood the locals, I managed to get around and meet a lot of people, see how they live, take lots of pictures, and everyone was extermely friendly and happy to see us.
I've realized since that other expats have not actually gone out there so I must have been as much of a sight for the people in the village as they were for me. The way we live here is sort of in a bubble of Western culture and amenities, discouraged to go out and really explore the local culture without close supervision, so I'm glad I had this opportunity to venture out on my own and get to see a part of local life that many of the people who stayed here for months probably haven't seen.
