A Symphony of Horns!!

Movement in India - or I should say movement in Delhi translates to - get there as fast as you can! which in reality turns into a big mush of cars with everyone honking and no one really gets over 60km hence everyone is always late! lol, when I first got the Delhi the traffic drove me nuts! I would cringe with all the nonsense honking, and jerky braking but after being here for a couple of weeks, a) I'm getting used to it and b) I'm starting to see that there's a method to all the craziness that lurks beneath the surface. Take for example the honking, if your new here it just sounds like  alot of noise, people honking and honking, it sounds rude and abrasive but theres actually an etiquette to honking here, let me explain it to you.

1- a short honk =  hey just letting you know I'm here

2 - multiple short honks = hey just letting you know I'm trying to over take you so please move to the side OR to pedestrians or opposite traffic = hey I see you and I know you see me so I'm not letting you in so don't move forward buddy

3. - a single honk that lasts btw 3 - 5 seconds = hey I already warned you I was here, maybe you didn't hear me so move

4. - a single honk that lasts btw 5- 7 seconds = HEY buddy Its time for you to move, stop being a slow poke and hit the gas a little!

5 - a single honk that lasts more than 7 seconds (importance/frustration increases as length of horn increases) = HEY BUDDY LEARN HOW TO DRIVE or HEY BUDDY THE LIGHT'S GREEN...MOVE IT or BUDDY GET THE F%&^ OUT OF MY WAY or BUDDY...MOVE!

So these would be my classifications of the Delhi Honking system, oh and as I've experienced first hand - if theres any kind of light fender bender, both parties roll down the windows....argue about who hit who...tell each other to learn how to drive...and they drive off. No police, no insurance, no names exchanged. Just a few short words about driving etiquette and they're on their way. That definitely doesn't happen in Toronto!! but on the plus side, the honking kind of replaces the need for road rage, if you look at people their quite calm while driving, they let their horns do the talking.

As for the Toronto mentality of "pedestrians have the right of way" yaaa that doesn't apply in India. Here the biggest car has the right of way, and as a pedestrian you must tread carefully, but I've noticed that confidence helps. Just stick out ure hand, life you head high and walk, if you show nervousness or doubt, they wont let you pass, but no one really gets over 60km so its not too difficult for them to brake. confidence = power when it comes to crossing the road :D

Movement here = chaos, but its manageable chaos don't ask me how but after getting used to the traffic you realize theres a method to the chaos, and here things just work themselves out :D

beauty in india = fair and lovely :S

okay so if i had to define beauty in Toronto I'd say unique, exotic, trendsetting - beauty or beautiful in Toronto can mean a million different things, because were so multicultural every culture for us is beautiful. But here in India beauty = fair - period, plain and simple - no question about it. Every other television add or billboard sign is for some "fairness cream", girls here die to be fair. And its not just a physical attribute, a girls appearance here can change her whole future! Which school she goes to, which boy she ends up marrying - its a well known accepted unchallenged fact here that fair girls have better lives than darker girls. Is it just me or is that not the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard! I can understand if it was just a physical preference, like how in Toronto, tanning is considered beautiful - tanning salons, creams, built in tan lotions, going on vacation and of course the "GTL" hype, but here in India its totally opposite. Moisturizers like dove and olay have built in fair creams, a company called "fair and lovely" promises that you can become up to 4 shades light in just 1 week if you use 2 of their products together, and these Ad's promote this fantasy that if your lighter, your life will be better.

And the sad part is that a lot of these cream's are being endorsed by bollywood stars, like Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone , I would think that as actress's and such major media figures, they would want to promote the "beauty isn't just external" campaign instead of making money off campaigns that tell girls that if they're dark, they're ugly. And let me just say for the record - Deepika's skin in not as light as it looks in this add, she's actually significantly darker, but that doesn't make her less beautiful - it just means they've digitally lightened her skin - so in truth - they're selling a lie.

Look at this link to get a better idea of what I'm talking about!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiKyQqS7CQc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2kPIIUsRDE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWdfmxa23YE

This is beauty - defined by India - and I'm not a big fan :(

Saalam Namaste Delhi!!

OMG! Finally I have arrived! While most of the York Interns are just getting back, my adventure is just beginning. What a struggle, first no response from the High Commission, then the task of finding me another placement, but Larissa and my fairy godmother came through for me. Then the Indian Consulate wouldn't give me a visa...thanks to my parents Pakistani heritage. To them it didn't matter that I was born in Canada, or that my parents had been citizens for 30 years, because I checked "yes" in that little box, my wait time went from 3-5 business days to 6 weeks! The wait was long, but my patience (which if you know me, you know I have very little of) paid off :D I landed in Delhi on Friday, and the first thing you notice is the overbearing eruption of horns honking. It's been an adjustment, and no matter how many people you talk to, and how prepared you think you are...your not. It hits you hard, culture shock, jet lag whatever you want to call it - when it hits, it hurts. It took me about 2 days to adjust, to get used to the sharp reality check that I am not in Toronto anymore, but now that I'm adjusted, I really like it here!. It's my first day at work, not too much to do, but I can tell this is going to be an amazing experience! P.S I already saw the Taj Mahal - breathtakingly beautiful :D

stay tuned...more to come xoxo Farah