Since I've been incredibly busy at work this week, I haven't had an opportunity to post daily. Thus, here is a recap and some random thoughts from this past week. There are several included below, and if you haven't noticed by now, I could post something like this just about every day and still not cover all the bizarre daily occurences.
-Every dining establishment in this country has their menus broken out into "vegetarian" and "non-vegetarian". This is due to the large contingent of Hindu's in the country that are vegetarians, and to accomodate the other folks in the country as well as all of the westerners here. At fast food type establishments, you most often have to go through one line for 'veg' and a different line for 'non-veg'. Additionally, there is a system they use to indicate as such, which can be found on most menus and on all condiments, etc. As illustrated in the pictures below, there is a square box with a dot in the middle that is green for 'veg' and red for 'non-veg'.
-While driving around this weekend, there was a guy on a two-wheeler that was wearing a Vanderbilt University shirt. I found this strange because I can't even think of a time in the states (outside of Nashville) where I have seen any Vanderbilt affinity items, and certainly didn't expect to see any in India.
-On that note, I wore my Auburn visor to play golf and one of the first questions a guy from Singapore who played in my group asked me was if I went to Auburn. WDE!
-Indians are very nosy people. This is evidenced most clearly by the bag boy at the grocery store. It took the guy at least twice as long as it should have to bag my groceries as he picked up and examined every single item that I purchased. Look dude, your job is very simple. Grab the items off the conveyor belt and put them in the bag as quickly as possible. I guess maybe I would be a little curious also if some guy from another country was buying items I had never seen in my home before.
-I hope that I don't find myself in need of purchasing shoes over here because I'm pretty sure they don't carry my size. Browsing quickly through a store last week, it appeared that the largest size the stores carry are size 10 (I wear size 11-12, depending on the manufacturer).
-All office supplies are called stationery (yes, that is with an 'e'). I was very confused by this my first week when I inquired about getting a stapler, binder clips, etc. and was told I could get stationery on the third floor. Ok, but I really need the aforementioned items, not paper.
-There are 'automation' laws that exist in this country. By that, I mean that there are laws against people purchasing items such as a leaf blower, weed eater, etc. I learned about these after my most recent visit to the golf course and was curious as to why there were people everywhere using homemade brooms to sweep leaves and trimming grass and weeds with garden clippers. With the multitude of people here, and not enough jobs for all of them, these laws are in place in order to provide more jobs for people and to keep them busy for an entire workday.
-With respect to the above, everywhere I go there are always way too many people assigned for specific tasks. For example, I was in the gym one day and they were installing a clock. A very simple task of measuring to find the center, hammering a nail in, and hanging the clock. How many people were present for this assignment? That'd be six. Going through the toll road the other day, there were eight people working one line. Technically, this job should require one person, two people max. This brings new meaning to the old joke, "How many XXXX does it take to change a light bulb?".
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