I Went, I Saw and I Conquered

Approximately 10 days from now I’ll be on my way out of India, and I just want to share some funny/major experiences. After I cleared from immigration and their likes @ d Airport, coming out with my luggage, I met this guy who was obviously Nigerian, and sure he was either a cab man, or someone who wanted to make quick money that early morning. Well, I ignored him! Am sure u are wondering why; well the manner of approach was terrible, he spoke in pigin, was too confident, and not gentle @ all. A few steps to a phone booth and I meet an Indian guy, who is gentle and sweet( don’t get nasty tots) he approaches me with a mannerism close to professional, but good enough to get a customer for the day. My call didn’t get through, and he drove me to a hotel, where I was charged 2,600 rupees, for less than 6 hours. Okay that was my first encounter of Indian 419’s……lol, as I later learned it was pretty expensive for the sort of hotel.
Well I guess my expectation of the Institute, and the country was well overrated, I was picked by an old guy (Lacthman; sweet old man, that runs errands for the institute) in a black and yellow badly smelling cab. As a matter of fact, the environment had this odour, and I tell you, it still does and probably always will (the pollution is pretty terrible, even though they do not use petrol for their automobiles like we do). On our way to d institute, we passed this terribly smelling river/ocean/sea (it still smells every time I pass the place on my way to shop). As if that was not enough, I got to the institute, and I was going to have to share the same room with a Congolese guy; okay am stunned but am sure I’ll cope. So I moved my things and the bed provided to the kitchen, as there was some space there; the kitchen became my room for about 3 months.
Feeding for the first one month was terrible, their food at first passed to me as garlic filled, and within days I knew I was depreciating. So I asked for a stove or a gas to cook, I paid 200 rupees for this, and they got me a pumping stove (cool technology u might want to add). The first day I tried cooking with it, d food never got done, and I had to pour it away. With time I became a master in fixing the stove (my flat mate calls me CCIE in stove). Throughout my stay, I never ate beans for once, God I was deprived of protein, and had to make up for it by having fruits; these I soon got tired of.
My first outing with some girls in d institute was to a beach; on getting to the supposed place all I saw were rocks, and the sea with waves, and the water was not close to clean @ all. Well these are major highlights anyways.
Shopping in Mumbai was fun for me, and more fun when I was doing it alone, even though I encountered the India junior brothers of Nigerian 419’s……..lol. Seriously, this is funny even as I remembered incidents when I knew I was being cheated but had to keep quiet, because I just couldn’t communicate. Hey but there were times I walked out of the shop angry, without buying nothing and the seller knew I caught him trying to cheat me. Reminds me of when I got missing, and couldn’t explain to the cab man; because he obviously couldn’t speak Basic English, and I couldn’t speak basic Hindi…lol
I also will have to include this; there was a high level of un-organization, irresponsibility, un-professionalism, in this institute. What do you call having irregular Schedules for class; I wasn’t too bothered about this, because I was sure they knew I had to complete my classes within 3 months. What do you call not having a standard rate, and cheating people; I was crazy when I was told I had to pay $350 for my kitchen room without a window, and not just for the whole period, but for every month. I should include this also, I later on had 2 roommate; 2 guys( 1 Congolese and the other Indian)I was crazy because I actually know that in the U.S, $350 will get you a lot better than I got here, and in Nigeria $350 is #52,500 which is not small money @ all. I made friends though, that portrayed better values of Indians despite this.
It might interest you to know that throughout my stay, there were holidays every 2 weeks, they had Diwali, Elections, and Ganpati ;( ganpati was for 20 days). Well when Diwali was about starting , I was actually complaining about d whole holiday thing; unbelievable one Brazilian guy said ‘well it’s because of these holidays India is a rich country , and can buy Nigeria 4 times’….I felt terrible, then I kept my mouth shut. Now the point is that, this guy has a problem called the danger of a Single story (Chimanda Adichie). The only thing he’s probably heard about is that African countries and Nigeria is filled with poverty and bla bla bla.
Well in Nigeria, and other parts of the world smokers are liable to dying young, but in India everybody smoke and tobacco is sold in shredded form, and sold to all, including kids. The most annoying thing was to find out that even Asthma patients smoked. Like there was this other old man (The Father of the Guy that owned the institute), he’s probably in his 60’s, and he has asthma, and smokes every 10-15 mins. He probably smokes 96 times a day….lol
After the period of 1 month and 2 weeks moving with the Indians, and every where they took me to, was either for shopping, or some boring dirty water beach... I decided to move with foreigners. Well with foreigners I enjoyed myself (A click of 1 Nigerian, 1 Brazilian, 1 Congolese and 1 Iraqi Guy).
Looking back, I really can’t say I enjoyed my stay:but I came, I saw and I conquered.