We have officially moved and settled in Ahmedabad for 7 months now. Which probably means we have more or less settled to a comfortable routine. The ‘comfortable routine’ was what I was looking forward to when we first arrived, because hopefully that would mean that you no longer feel so lost in the place you now a resident of. As we pass the half-year mark and reflect on the journey we’ve taken, I realised that I’m not sure whether I have really learnt to live here.
(A) Safety was always an issue even before we decided to move here, especially for women. Women are still largely viewed as the inferior sex, although there is increased talk about how this should change. To date, I have not gone out in Ahmedabad alone. I have taken walks alone in Mumbai and Calcutta though. Mumbai was okay. Calcutta was a little scarier. Overall, a slightly stressful walk because I was trying hard to be constantly guarded and alert, making sure I was as aware of my environment as possible. I have not been to New Delhi. Generally, Ahmedabad feels safer simply because it is not as crowded, but I’m not sure if that’s a rational reason to feel safe in a place.
(B) The traffic here is not as crazy as that of the bigger cities. It would follow that crossing the road is overall easier as well. A larger percentage of the traffic lights here do not work though, so that might be a trade-off in terms of road safety. The easy trick is to just follow a local across the road, because the locals know best. We once followed a man on crutches across a busy junction. If he could do it with his compromised speed, I’m pretty sure he would take us safely to the other side. I haven’t had much practice crossing the streets, so I’m still following the locals.
(C) Sadly, I still do not know how to take the buses here. In my defence, we never had to learn how because we were provided with a company car and driver as part of the work package. And even without the car, we would probably take the auto-rickshaws which are cheap and convenient, save the small problem of communicating your destination effectively. Upon identifying this lack of knowledge, I googled the public transportation in Ahmedabad and found that the bus routes on the official transport website were written in Gujarati. There is a newer bus system that has a comprehensive website in English that will probably be useful for foreigners. There is no metro/subway-equivalent here.
(D) The Indian food here is awesome. One good thing about having grown up in Singapore is that our palates are used to a variety of cuisines. We cook a lot too. Buying ingredients, however, is somewhat frustrating. Supermarkets only sell vegetarian products. Basic items like rice, salt, sugar, bread, etc can be found easily. We buy meat weekly from a Muslim stall selling fresh chicken and mutton.
Photo credit: Juxxtapose
We know it’s fresh because they kill the chickens in a separate area behind the stall front. There is blood everywhere. We buy frozen prawns from a small shop selling imported food products. Haven’t bought pork or fish or beef or squid or any kind of shellfish so far. The variety of leafy vegetables is minimal, we mainly have cabbage, spinach (when it looks good), and broccoli (it’s not leafy, I know). Oh and the occasional bak choy when it gets stocked up in the imported section! I’m not sure whether we will ever get used to the lack of variety.
(E) Tap water is not clean, but we’ve gotten used to remembering not to put it in our mouths. Checked!
In many ways, I think I’ve learnt to live according to how Ahmedabad works. I haven’t understood it fully though, and I don’t think I can say that I have learnt to live in a place when I haven’t learnt to go out on my own. We still rely a lot on our driver to help us contact the relevant people for getting things done, or to take us to telcom shops or hardware stores. And we need him as a translator in many of these situations as well.
Juxxtapose 