“There is No Cherai Beach” - Reflections on the “Global South”

(Written Dec. 26)

More and more I find myself remarking, probably to Dave and Saumya’s (slight?) irritation, how things here remind me of Panama, or how things here are like how things are in Panama. I try to limit it because I’ve noticed it and have become self-conscious about it. I don’t want to be the Panamanian equivalent of “This one time, at band camp….”

But there are a lot of similarities I’ve noticed, so I’ve kept a list. Here’s the current one, which has both the abstract and the mundane:

• Trash. There is no municipal trash pick up (as far as I can tell). Instead, trash is thrown into the street or collected and burned. The toxic fumes released by the burning plastic have a distinctly acrid odor. In the evening, or whenever several families are burning their trash simultaneously can get particularly suffocating. The air burns with pollution you can feel.
• Regulation and Rules. There is a conspicuous lack of oversight, rules, regulations, etc. A lot of the ones I’ve noticed are related to health and safety. There are always seat belts, but the short end to fasten it is often shoved back into the seat cushions, irretrievable except to the most fastidious adherent to safety. Men ride on top of trucks with enormous shifting loads, holding on by a rope or a rail. Three teenage boys ride on a motorcycle. Food is sold in the street, literally, in baskets or in tarps that are lying on the ground. I doubt there is much food inspection, etc. The chemicals that are allowed here I am sure are present at more toxic levels than are allowed in the US. Posters and ads cover every available surface of buildings, both residential and commercial. Traffic is a free-for-all (cops are mostly ignored). Bribery and corruption exist on many levels and is often complained about (even though I’ve not experienced any directly).
• “Cold Weather.” It’s maybe 65 degrees here in Patna, Bihar. The high is probably 73 or so. In the early morning it may get to the high 50s. People dress here like they are about to ascend Everest, though. It reminded me of Panamanians bundling up in 60 degree weather, with hats and scarfs and winter gloves.
• Broken Glass on Top of Walls. People embed intimidating shards of broken glass into the tops of the walls around their homes and businesses. Cheap security, these green, blue and clear teeth look ready to relieve a potential burglar of a quart of blood.
• The Answer is Always Yes. We get this a lot, especially when the language barrier is more pronounced. A variation on this is The Ambiguous Response. For example, we asked for directions to a local beach at the front desk of our hotel. The exchange:
  • Us: “Do you know where Cherai Beach is?”
    Hotel employee: “Cherai Beach.” (Not a question. A flatly-delivered repetition).
  • Us: “Yes, Cherai Beach. Do you know where it is?”
  • Employee: “There is no Cherai Beach.”
  • Us: “But our guidebook says it’s nearby, though. You don’t know where it is?”
  • Employee: “It is here.” (Points to map, indicating the entire local coastline).
  • Us: “But our book says it should be up here.”
  • Employee: “It is right here” (Leans over, squints dramatically and tries to find something with the tip of his pen in the downtown area. Determines a very specific spot to answer us).
  • Us: “Our guidebook says we have to take a ferry to get there, and that is just off the main road. We have to go one island over and drive for thirty kilometers.”
  • Employee: “There is no Cherai Beach there.” (Turns to maintenance guy leaning on counter, there is a lively exchange in Tamil)
  • Employee: “Oh, that Cherai Beach. Yes, it’s up there, about thirty kilometers” (what our guidebook originally said – no new information gained in a wasted ten minute exchange).
• Beating Clothes On A Rock. Women will stand in the river and thwack their clothes against a rock. Or they will smack them with a broad wooden paddle. They rub detergent into the clothes before doing this. Think about this the next time you use the laundry machine.
• Stray animals. Hideous, starved dogs were a constant fixture in Panama. Here they seem less physically abused and maybe even (well?) fed. Here of course, cows and water buffalo do roam the streets freely. I can’t imagine how these city cows carry on conversations with country cows, though. I also don’t know what they eat: there is very little grass here that hasn’t been trampled by constant cricket games. Driving to a church on Christmas Day in a failed attempt to find an English-language services, we were barred from entrance to the church by a bellowing and quite angry water buffalo. Our driver leaned on the horn and the beast irritably lumbered off to the side.
• “The Tienda.” I don’t know what the Hindi word is for these, but they are like little general stores you can find anywhere. No corporations or CVS’s though, chains here are something you buy, not where you buy things. You can get everything from cookies to machetes to school uniforms here. In India they are remarkably small: some I’ve seen are not much bigger than 10x10, 10x20, etc.
• Single Serving Everything. You can buy things in single servings. A single pen, a single cookie, a single band-aid, a single diaper. Pretty convenient, actually.
• School Uniforms. Kids out of school in their white and blue or white and brown uniforms. I guess uniforms never really caught on at public schools in the US.
• Mosquito Coils. I guess these exist in the US too. Quite useful. Probably carcinogenic.
• Excessiveness of Advertising. Everything is covered in ads. Ads for toothpaste and luxury silks to ads for your local politician or cellular service provider. The Political Poster With Awkwardly Photographed Local (Often Unsmiling) Representative seems to be a developing-world meme. Ads hang from awnings, are plastered on sandwich boards in the street or against concrete walls in a long duplicative series, in massive billboards against the front or side of buildings, or are hung up in stores.
• Grandma Has Elbows and Knows How to Use Them. In Panama if you weren’t careful, the tiny indigenous old ladies would push you out of the way to get on the bus ahead of you. I’ve had lots of people cut me off in lines here. You have to push and shove to get what you want. I was in line to get tickets to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a man cut directly in front of me and stood maybe four inches behind the next person. I unfortunately made the rookie error of giving the person in front of me TWO FEET of breathing room. I won’t make that mistake again. In India this aggressive, pushy (to Americans) me-first attitude makes more sense, given the massive population and the limited space. In Panama, with a population density roughly of South Carolina, it makes much less sense to me.
• Little Regard For Those Who Are Sleeping. I noticed this this morning. There were four of us sleeping on cots in a hallway and around 6 am people started moving around, talking to each other, opening and closing doors, making the tea, etc. This was a distinct feature in Panama as well: in an open, busy house with multiple generations and few substantial walls, when the first person woke up in the house (at 4:30 AM), there was little regard for the sleeping. You can’t have a “library voice” if you’ve never been to a library.

More to come on what is really distinctly Indian…