Quotes from India

We’ve been in India for twenty-four hours, and it’s just like I remembered it. Our plane touched down yesterday just before dawn. The darkness that colored the landscape created an odd stillness in a country where chaos reigns. As the sun rose, our luggage found us and we made our way through customs. Except for the customs agent repeatedly asking Austin whether his Project Cure boxes contained dozens of laptops for resale, we arrived without a hitch. We were all surprisingly well rested and our Indian friends were waiting for us outside of the gate.

We spent the day settling in, getting (re)acquainted with our hosts, and eating meal after meal. By my calculation, we ate 10 meals in the previous 48-hour period. (Lunch, Dinner, Dinner, Breakfast, Dinner, Snack, Dinner, Breakfast, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.)

This is my second time in India. I packed my previously formulated expectations for what is normal in this country, yet I find myself discovering India’s surprises all over again through the eyes of my teammates. And It’s quite fun.

“I just don’t understand why there is an enormous hole in the back side of all of these buildings.”

“Is that a cow – walking in the road? What is it doing there?”

“What is that smell?

“We just ran a motorcycle off the road! Why aren’t there more car accidents?”

“We almost ran over that mother and her baby.”

“I didn’t learn the ‘shake the object in front of the consumer until they buy it’ technique in my marketing class.”

“Shut up!! You have maple syrup?”

And, after stuffing our faces – “It’s a good thing we have these huge drawstring pants to wear.”

We're off to visit the slums this morning. More later.