Thursday, August 17 Class, Egyptian Eye Shadow, Crazy Metro Riders

I went to bed alone, and when I woke up I found Nikhil lying in the bed next to mine. Whoa! I had boring class early, and luckily I can take State and Society in South Asia instead of the class on Pakistan. After class I came back and relaxed. Outside the apartment they were doing construction on a new pipeline. Instead of using a jackhammer to bury it, a man was using a regular hammer to pound at the cement in the 100-degree heat. That has to be the most Paleolithic/worst job I’ve ever seen. Then I went out with Tahara, Puran, and Nikhil to dinner at Wenger’s. I finally discovered what it was that babies were wearing on their eyes. What I thought was black eye shadow painted on like an Egyptian was actually medicine for eye infections that are put on young children. One thing I have noticed while riding the Metro; people are crazy. Whenever a train approaches at the station, people run and crowd around the door, thus creating an impenetrable wall of people. There is a beep, and the doors start sliding open, and everyone is pushed inside by the crowd. Once inside, there are always these little men who run to get the open seat. And it’s the same when people are getting off at a station; the same guys look for someone grabbing their belongings to leave, and they jump to the open seat like gophers to their holes. I don’t even try anymore, I can’t compete with that. The three or four people who try and get out are as hopeless as a blind man driving. Then, once everyone is inside, the doors will stay open another 10 seconds with no one moving. But then there are always the stragglers running to hop onto the train at the last second. On one such occasion, a mom and baby were hit and sandwiched by the closing doors. It’s the one thing in India that’s actually on time, so they’re willing to literally close the doors on people to make it that way.