"Life in Chicago is Easy"

That is a direct quote from Jeff's trainee on this assignment. He is originally from India and works out of the New Delhi office, but he spent about a year in Chicago training, so he can definitely compare the two. The following are a few things he pointed out that make life in Chicago so easy:

1. The power almost never goes out in Chicago, and when it does, it is usually because of a major event like a storm. In Panipat (and we understand the Delhi region too), the power constantly goes out for absolutely no reason at all. The first time it happened we were kind of freaked out, but when it kept happening we realized it must be a chronic problem. I did a little research, and I guess the demand for power grossly exceeds amount of power the city's system can generate. I am stuck in the hotel room for the majority of the day, so I started keeping a tally of how many times the power goes out. We've been here four weeks and on average the power has gone out about 12 times a day. It usually doesn't stay out for more than 10 seconds or so, but sometimes it lasts up to a minute. Many hotels have back-up generators that kick on pretty quickly to minimize the impact, but we aren't sure that our hotel has one as some of the outages can get quite lengthy. We've gotten used to it, but it still can get pretty annoying when you are in the bathroom or the elevator or in the middle of doing something online (the wireless internet goes out when the power goes out too).

2. Driving in Chicago is easy. That's right, I said it, driving in Chicago is easy . . . compared to driving in India. Jeff's company doesn't let employees drive here, and I can definitely see why! In the big cities people are earning more money and one of their favorite big ticket purchases is a new car. That has lead to a boom of vehicles on roads that simply weren't built for this level of traffic. Driving is not only hard because of the number of cars, but also because of the way Indians drive. I think it must have something to do with the culture, but Indians drive very impatiently. If you leave the littlest space in front of you, it is pretty much guaranteed that a car will sneak in there. If there is a little gap between your car and the edge of the road, someone will drive on the side of the road and try to pass you. People drive so close to each other that you constantly feel like there is going to be an accident. However, traffic moves so slow that accidents don't seem extremely common.

That is city driving. Driving in the country, and out here in Panipat is slightly different. There is still a great deal of traffic, and people still drive very impatiently and use their horns incessantly, but there are not nearly as many cars here. But if there aren't as many cars, then how can there be traffic you ask. Good question. In Chicago traffic may get backed up, but at least you know you are only fighting with other cars and trucks for space. In India cars, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, ox/horse/donkey/camel carts, tractors, pedestrians and stray herds of animals are all competing for space on the roads. Now all of these vehicles cannot move at the same pace, so it is a constant battle to get around the slow moving vehicles and drive at a reasonable speed. I don't know what the speed limit is around here, but in those few rare moments where you are unencumbered by traffic you are fearful that something is going to jump in the road and cause a serious high speed accident (we have seen a few of these and they are not pretty). As of 2000 (which was the latest statistics I could find) an average of 270 people died on the roads each day in India.

One thing that initially drove us crazy is the number of times that Indians honk their horns. In the US you may hear a horn honking every so often if a person is driving like a jerk. In India, horns are constantly honked so that other drivers know you are there. If there is someone in your lane that is going to slow you just keep honking until he moves over. If you are frustrated with the guy in front of you and want to pass him in an incredibly tight spot, you just keep honking so that everyone around you knows what you are doing. It almost seems like drivers don't really use their mirrors or watch for other drivers; they just honk and people will get out of their way. It is really something amazing. When we are back in the city in traffic we will have to try and take a video to show you what it is really like. The thing that is amazing though is that despite all of the chaos on the roads, no one seems to be getting angry. They all just accept that this is a part of life and they don't let it stress them out. Even as a passenger I get completely stressed out by the driving, but the drivers are cool as cucumbers.

3. You don't have to constantly worry about what could possibly be in your food in Chicago. Anyone who talked to me in the very brief amount of time we had to prepare for this job knows that I was borderline paranoid about getting sick from the food in India. Hygiene isn't quite the same here, and I had read reviews of our hotel detailing horrible illnesses from the food. We started off slow, eating very little hotel food, but now we full meals and so far we have been okay. Jeff was extremely sick two weeks ago and could hardly move for several days. We're not sure if it was from the food, our malaria medicine, or just exhaustion (he's been working 10-14 hours every day) but luckily he is much better now.

4. There are not nearly as many people in Chicago as there are in India. And not just that there are not so many people, but there are not so many really poor people. Everywhere you look here you cannot help but see the poorest of poor. It seems to me that in this town you either live in a gated community or in a shack (if you are lucky). Our hotel, which is light years away from many of the hotels we have stayed in, is by far the nicest place in town. We chuckled to ourselves because it is a "three star hotel," but compared to the city surrounding it, this is a 25 star hotel.

5. You don't have to worry about having hot water in Chicago. In India, access to hot water is not as easy as you would think. Even at our extremely nice hotel in Delhi our first night here, the water was luke-warm at best. At our hotel here in Panipat the water is hot, which is excellent, but it is only available a few hours a day (a lesson I learned when I attempted to take a shower the first afternoon here). And lets just say that the water pressure leaves something to be desired.

6. There are places to go and things to do in Chicago. This comment is specifically aimed at the city of Panipat, not the country of India as a whole, as there are TONS of places to go in the country. In Panipat however there is absolutely positively nowhere to go and nothing to do. There is work and there is the hotel and that is it. There are no shopping malls or restaurants or bars. There is work and there is the hotel and that is pretty much it. If you look at our pictures and videos from the previous post I think you will agree.

Some may read this post and think that it is just us sitting here complaining. I can see how it can come off that way, but we had a purpose. Being here has really opened our eyes to a whole different lifestyle, different than any country we have been to before. While we may complain about silly things in Chicago, we really have so much to be thankful for. Life may not be perfect all the time, but remember, it could be worse!