My first (real) day at work

I have great news for all of you.

Today I saw a monkey.

It's true! Right on the way to work. There is a little grassy area in one of the medians on one of the bridges, and in that grassy area there were monkeys! Four of them! Jumping and climbing and hooting and picking each other for flies like only primates can do. It was the best day...

Now you may think that, considering the name of this blog, my trip has climaxed. You may think that this is trip is as good as over, and its only the first week. You may think that my dream has been fulfilled! Well, to tell you the truth I thought the same thing...that is until I decided to redefine "meeting" a monkey to "being formally introduced to" a monkey. For that I still have some time.

Anyway, I consider today my first real day of work for two reasons. 1) I was actually at the office rather than out in the field. 2) I did not get driven to work.

1) The office was all right for the first day. I really do not have much work to do yet and because my projects necessitate the input of a lot of other busy people I end up sitting around a lot of the time. I think I read every single New York Times article yesterday...and that was after running through my normal series of news websites and other things. It was excruciating.

But! Some interesting things happened. First, we have office men...or guys? boys? I don't know, they are probably around 40. But they serve us all tea and go out and buy us lunch. This made me uncomfortable at first, but with so little to do getting tea became the highlight of my afternoon and I kind of wished I knew Hindi so I could send them to do other things. Really, they were the only ones paying attention to me.

For lunch I had aloo parata...which is kind of like a fried chapati stuffed with potato. It came with some green sauce that was also really good and a bit spicy. I'm aiming to get kebab parata tomorrow (or today actually...since I'm writing this post at work the next day...still with nothing to do because nobody is here....).

2) Up until this point I have been driven to work by a nice guy whose name is Mahipal. I'm not sure if he is employed by the office, but he seems to know people here. I think he might be a "driver," which disappoints me because I initially thought he was trying to be nice and be my friend. It turns out he was just doing his job. Either way, I felt the need to cut the tether and not depend on him anymore, so I learned how to travel alone.

Traveling alone for the first time was quite intimidating but went over pretty smoothly. Getting to work takes about 20 minutes or so and costs 5 Rs. First I have to walk about 5 minutes to a main road near my apartment. At this street I can get a tempo (which is an autorickshaw) toward Nishat Ganj. To clarify, tempos are more like subways than they are like taxis. By this I mean that they travel predetermined routes. You can't just pick one up on the street and tell the driver to take you anywhere. So this is why there is so much walking involved. Anyway, the ride takes about 8 minutes or so. Then I have another 10-15 minute walk to the office.

This was no problem on the way to work. In fact, I really enjoyed the independence! "Nishat Ganj" I yelled at the tempo! "*Something in Hindi that seemed inviting*" the driver yelled back! I could do this all day.

My trip home was much more problematic. For one I have to walk a bit farther to pick up the tempo because the route home is one block over. But this really wasn't the problem. Because I am the whitest person within the city limits, driver after driver kept trying to cheat me.

"Hazrat Ganj" I said, thinking fondly of my morning ride.

"50 rupees," the driver replied.

"No, 5 rupees," I responded, showing him my palm and 5 outstretched fingers.

"50," the driver replied.

"No...5. 5 rupees. I know the fare."

"*Something in Hindi that did NOT seem inviting*."

"5 rupees. 5 5 5 5 5. 50? No. 5. "

At this point I would think that the driver, his scheme unhinged, would just give up and drive me. Surely, he would realize that it would be better for him financially to drive one person (me) for the normal fare than no people for no fare. But no! Instead he turned off the tempo and crossed his arms and pouted. So I had to get out and find another ride.

This happened 5 times in a row.

I took me 40 minutes to get home.

Tonight I am going to try to buy yogurt and a zucchini! Wish me luck!