random indian observations

This post is a smorgasbord of thoughts that didn't quite fit in other posts during our five Indian weeks:

• Many mornings we see bicycles with live chickens go past. There are 15 or so chickens on each side of the back and sometimes front wheel. They're alive.

Pictures are from a Google search

• My mom likes vintage country decorations. She likes the old milk canisters. It was neat to see such tin canisters being used in India and, similarly to the chickens, being carried on bicycles. They are not used for mill, however. I saw no milk in India during my entire stay.

• I learned that you need to specify between rickshaws. We regularly referred to auto rickshaws as just rickshaws but that actually refers to human drawn carts.
• If you read the traffic blog or have any inkling on how traffic in this country works, the billboard posted by a transit authority of some sort is hilariously ironic: "Safety first. Safety next. Safety always."
• Celine Dion is liked here. When we were at Quest mall, the extremely fancy mall, Celine was being played the entire time
• In the Dominican Republic sugar cane is common. Because I have only really been exposed to sugar cane there and in Haiti, my natural assumption is to associate sugar cane with that island. Seeing sugar cane stands in Kolkata weirded me out a bit. I was oddly territorial of "Haiti's thing". Anyhow, just outside of Kalighat (and elsewhere) there was a sugar cane water stand. It had big metal wheels that compress the cane and squeeze the juice out of it. Each cane went through at least five times. The wheels are cranked by hand and the cranker was jacked. I was invited to drink some and politely declined; I felt like I would have betrayed my Dominican friends.
• Kolkata has a lot going for it. Considering its density, traffic and people often move well. What I find very interesting is that there is water in the streets for all, and not just because it is monsoon season. People always have access to water for drinking, bathing, cooking and laundry. 
• India's caste system is deeply embedded. There is a belief that actions in this life affect your next life just as your past life affects your present. There was a man who ran a booth on our way to Kalighat selling Hindu temple worship offering things. He regularly wore a burgundy shirt that said, "no past, no future, just now". 
• There is an older lady who lives in the New Light neighbourhood. One of her arms has two 90 degree bends in it. Resiliently (not that she has a choice) she figures out ways to function and use it. I was impressed.
• We went to a Chinese restaurant. When they brought our dishes they served us. This was nice. We were intrigued by the couple in their early 20s sitting beside us who called the waiter over to serve them seconds from their food plates that were already on their table, mere centimetres from their fingertips.
• I find it interesting that I've spent the last two summers landscaping with my brothers. I've been outside, under blue skies and surrounded by green. This has almost been nonexistent this summer. A drastic change to say the least.