Riots in the streets = Miday Treat

So was going about my daily, boring routine. Yoga in the morning, watch Grey's Anatomy, shower & dress. When all of a sudden Apoorva walks in (and scares the hell out of me because I was half naked and I thought it was some stranger, since he should have been at work). Turns out some guy that is head of the Indian mafia was arrested today, and everyone was rioting in the streets. And of course it wasn't some peaceful demonstration. By the pictures on the news there was plently of rock throwing and police brutality, along with some attacks on some innocent bi standards just trying to get home in their cars or taxis. Nice right? So apparently everyone in Bombay got to go home for the day. I guess a "Riot Day" is equivalent to the "Snow Day" of the northeast.

It's really lucky that I was blissfully unaware of what was going on until Apoorva came home and told me. I would have bee freaking out about him getting home. He said he didn't encounter any riots, but at some points on the highway there were lots of stones on the road where the police and the rioters had been already. I spent a few minutes calling up some of my expat friends to make sure they were home and safe. Everyone was home and bunkered down for the day.

Gotta love India and it's crazy people. What's so funny is that people are taking the day off from work because they want the excuse, not because this shocks or scares them, which makes me think it's a regular occurrence. Laws really mean nothing here. Their existence, along with the police, def. don't make me feel safe. Just the other day Apoorva read in the newspaper that a mob of coworkers beat their boss to death for making them work late. This mafia guy was arrested because he was breaking several laws (including stoning people and vandalism) in protest that another law (which he apparently liked better than the ones he was breaking) was not being followed or enforced. How nuts is that? They say that police cannot survive off the wages they are given so most of their income comes from bribes. They will turn their heads and ignore any offense as long as you give them 100 Rs., including serious traffic accidents, public urination, and I'm sure other more serious offenses.

Oh well... at least Apoorva got to come home early and we got to eat lunch together and hang out this afternoon. A nice treat for me because normally I would just be on my own, alone and bored.

Yesterday was fun. Went to a book store to pick up "Holy Cow", which is apparently a very funny book written by an expat who lived in New Delhi. Then I went over to Caryl's house for lunch. While there I helped her get into a Saree for the first time. Her husband's boss was making her attend a work party and of course assumed she would want to dress like an Indian woman so bought her this saree. I felt bad for poor Caryl, she really did seem miserable in that thing. Of course I understand, since whenever I have to wear one I'm miserable as well.

Well I'm off to enjoy a bit of reading until I have to make dinner... Oh yea, one more thing...

My Yoga instructor will not stop pointing out the fact that I'm a little fat (do people think that I'm unaware that I'm overweight?). She actually gave me a diet to follow which no nutritionist in the world would recommends. Two meals a day consisting of fruits and vegetables, no carbohydrates and no protein. Yea right! I find that Indians have no qualms about pointing out any extra weight you may be carrying. At first it kinda pissed me off, now I just blow it off. It actually may be helping my self esteem because I find myself thinking "I'm not that fat", "I'm ok the way I am". So instead of bashing myself I'm actually defending my body. Eh, it's annoying, but as long as it's not damaging my self esteem I'll just deal with it

Weekend Travels

Both Apoorva and I were feeling better this weekend so we decided to take a small trip to Aurangabad, which is a small city about 400kms east of Mumbai. It's name means "Built by the Throne", named after Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb who founded the city. It's just as hot as Mumbai, but because of the open spaces there was a nice breeze. The landscape actually was really beautiful and reminded me of the Southwest back in the US. Here is a picture of Apoorva and I at one of the more scenic places off the highway (photo courtesy of our "rented" driver).

The city is famous for the many historical sites that surround it, including the Ellora and Ajanta caves. These ancient "caves" are temples (Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain) carved into cliffs. The first day we went to the Ellora caves. There are about 30 caves total, devoted to all three religions. You can see in the picture below that they really are just carved out of the cliff face.
The largest one was completely open on top. It was a three story temple carved from the top down. It was huge and amazing. There were thousands of carvings of Hindu gods and stories.

After that we stopped at a roadside fruit stand that was selling a local fruit called sitaphal. It really is the weirdest fruit I have every seen. Here is a picture of the outside.

It's so soft you can just rip it in half. Inside are all these mushy pods with big, black seeds in them. You pull the pods our and each the soft flesh and spit out the seeds. They are quite tasty, just really messy to eat. Very slimy.



We then went to see the mini-Taj Mahal. It was the tomb that the city's founder built for his wife. Pretty cool, since I have been unable to get to Agra to see that actual Taj.

The next day we traveled about 100kms to see the Ajanta "caves" . They were pretty similar to the Ellora caves, except these ones had paintings on the inside that were preserved from the elements, so they were still quite clear and bright. Didn't really get any good pictures, because we were not allowed to use flash. Here is a view of the outside of the caves. As you can see there were a lot of stairs. You had the option of hiring 4 men to carry you around on a "litter". Of course I did not hire them but we did pay them a few Rs each to just have them pick me up for a photo-op.


Favorite picture of the weekend: I finally got to see MONKEYS!!! I saw them at both caves. This one was taken at the Ajanta caves. They were all over the place, but this mommy and her baby were the cutest and were sitting so close to walkway.Funny Story of the weekend: On the way out of the Ajanta caves we stopped at the various stores that were selling handicrafts. We purchased a few items from this one guy. He noticed I was interested in one particular piece, but I decided to get something else. For some reason he thought I didn't want it because of the price. After we had purchased our stuff he followed us out of the store trying to get us to buy that particular piece for a lower price. Apoorva explained to him that we were not going to buy it, so he left. A minute later, as we were getting in our car, the guy showed up again with an even lower price. He ran after the car shouting lower and lower prices. I guess Apoorva is a good bargainer, even when he's not trying :-)

Medical Misfortunes

This week has been filled with trips to doctors' offices and hospitals, for both me and my husband. That being said, even though the US health care system has many faults (such as being really expensive) I will appriciate it a lot more now that I've seen some of India's health care system.

So first off I've been having "women's problems" for about a week. I'm not going to go into too much detail, all I'll say is that I wanted to go see an OBGYN. So we started to search for one in Mumbai that I would be comfortable going to. Apoorva asked his cousin, who is in the health care field, and she provided us with a list of doctors, one of which is some distant relation. So we called this 2nd cousin once removed and she had an opening the next morning.

I'm not exactly sure how it works here, but it seems as if many doctors practice right out of hospitals, and during part of the day will hold outpatient office hours right in the hospital. So that is where we went for my appointment. The hospital itself, while considered to be one of the better ones in the city, was dirty and run down. I would have never guessed it was a hospital unless someone told me (or if it had not been for the nurses who were dressed in a somewhat more conservative version of the old-fashioned white nurses uniform). But I guess some would argue that US hospitals and Dr.'s offices are unnaturally sterile, so I could forgive a little dirt and grime. What really skeived me out though was that table dressings were not changed in between patients, and many times the door was not closed (and this is an OBGYN we're talking about... not a podiatrist)

But what really bothers me is how patient care itself is delivered. No matter what the setting you would expect care to be delivered in much the same way. But there are glaring differences between the US and India in this department. First of all, you don't see a nurse, no patient history is taken, you are not asked what medications you are on, in some cases your weight is not checked, or blood pressure. The doctor spends about 2 or 3 minutes with you asking about your specific ailment and then gives you a diagnosis and sends you on your way with about 10 different prescriptions (none of which are checked against any medicines you are currently taking, and the pharmacy doesn't do this either). And what really shocked and surprised me is that no medical records are kept. If you want to keep a record of your medical history you have to do it yourself. And even if you did a doctor probably wouldn't look at it before examining and diagnosing you.

Don't get me wrong, the doctors themselves are nice and professional and do everything they can to figure out what's wrong with you and what they can do to help (in a timely fashion considering the patient load is probably 3 or 4 times what a doctor in the US would have). The OBGYN I saw was concerned about some pain I was having, so ordered an immediate ultrasound and was there while I was having it done (which is unheard of in the US). And doctors still do house calls here, and will give out their cellphone numbers. And of course they are just as educated as doctors in the US. It's just that the system is all messed up. I don't want to even think of how many people have reactions because of problems with medications. The fact is that here, you have to be on top of your own health care.

I of course am not basing my opinion on one doctors visit. The same can be said for Apoorva's visit to the clinic today with some sort of viral infection. I've also been to the doctors twice before now (once for a wrist injury and once for a sinus infection) and had one doctor make a house call when I had food poisoning. Yes, it is cheap and easy to get health care here, but there is just something about it that leaves me a little worried that the doctor couldn't have gotten all the information, or than one of the prescribed medicines will interact with something else I'm taking. I definitely feel like I have to be more aware about my own health care while I'm here, because no one else is!