Friday Jan. 15, 2010
Today I had appointments with a dentist and an allopathic doctor. The dentist's office was on the main road of Gurgaon. It looked like a shop in the worst part of Chicago. It was 6 feet by 20 feet long and divided into waiting room and work area. I was told this was his upscale office, as opposed to the one for less wealthy people. His partner is a woman with the same last name. I immediately fantasized a "love match" while in dental school. My fantasy was dashed when I was told they were brother and sister. Anywho, after 3 visits I ended up with a perfectly fitting cap over the tooth I had badly chipped. It cost $100 as apposed to $700 in the US. He was very proud of how good a job he had done. Then JP and I went off to the doctor. This was the nicest office of any type I had ever seen in India. On the wall were certificates from Johns Hopkins and Harvard. The doctor examined JP and was not at all convinced that his arthritis was rheumatoid. He then checked my blood pressure (my one enduring problem), prescribed medicine and off we went. He wants to see me again in about a month to see how the new drugs were working. Cost of visit, $12 each.
Driving in India is an exercise in blind faith. The comfort zone for Indian drivers is not measured in car lengths or feet, rather, in inches or fractions of inches. Although it appears to be totally chaotic, it is actually more like an intricately choreographed dance. As we drove to the dentist's office, we passed a group of 20 or so people, squatting by the road, many crying. Surbhi explained that the government had just torn down their illegally built shacks, and not they were totally homeless.

Sat. Jan 16
The doctor had ordered JP to have blood tests. Instead of going to a hospital for these tests, the tests come to you at your home. Nice. Since the sun had finally appeared today, everyone in the family was sitting outside, playing games and chatting with neighbors. All the housed are walled, with gardens inside the wall. Pretty much like Taos. I love these little gardens and am determined to create one at home. Everything here in India is smaller. From squirrels to servings of tea. Here, a small serving of tea is 2 oz., a large is 4 oz. JP and I have noticed over the years that American sizes have changed. 6 oz used to be a small, 12 oz a large. Now 12 oz. is small. The sizes of tea seem to be in a direct ratio to the sizes of us Americans, who have been supersized over the last 30 years.
The train to Varanasi was to leave at 8 PM on the 16th. However, the fog was terrible and the train was already 5 hours late. There was also a very bad train accident due to fog the day before, so the trains were going extra slow. Since we had alot of extra time, I decided to postpone a bath and take a long walk instead. After walking about a mile, we got a call from Shashi saying that now the train was on time and we had to leave ASAP. So, no time to bathe, change clothes, or for the women to prepare food for us to take. Off we went to the train station, only to have to wait for 2 hours to be told that the train was actually 8 hours late. The train station is a whole blog in itself but my legs can't stay curled under me for another minute, so I will continue later. By the way, when I read the blog after it has been posted, I noticed that some words or whole lines had morphed out of order. Don't know why.
It is almost midnight and there are sounds of loud drums and monks chanting coming from across the street. I find it soothing, not annoying.

Peace,
Nadine