First Impressions: People, buildings, icons, and animals.

My most basic impression of India can be divided into four categories: people, infrastructure, religion and animals.

And when I say basic, I mean real basic. So much can be said about the cars, the sky, the sounds, the food, the weather, the colors, the clothing, I mean... there are a lot of impressions to be had. But let's start with people.

Seriously though, where are all these creatures coming from? What are they doing and where are they going? There are masses. Everywhere. Always. I've never seen so many people before in my life, if that makes any sense. When walking along the promenade they seem to come out of the sand to offer small and pretty items for sale. Teeming seems to be the most accurate word to describe the existence of human beings in India. I can't seem to gague social status very well here, besides this disconnect between normal people and people that really aren't normal. Even that line gets fuzzy. No actually thinking about normalcy here is a fruitless and useless endeavor. I guess my first impression of people here is just that there are a lot of people here. They also seem friendly... not so much in a smiley 'have a nice day' kind of way, but in a genuine way that is a lot more real and down to earth.

And the buildings here have literally caused me to lol. They're so full of character and disfunction; one end may be crumbling while the other end has a fresh coast of paint. Everything is under construction or destruction- or both? Shops and homes are clearly understood to be located on identifiable streets by the people who live here, but finding street signs is kind of like playing one of those 'I Spy' books... it takes so long to figure out that you end up just guessing where to turn.

Religious references are everywhere as well. Shrines sit like vending machines sidewalks, beautiful grandiose temples stand towering over the busiest boulevards like theme park attractions, and kolam drawings lay out along the streets like hopscotch. This is not to imply any sort of profanity in these things, but to describe just how ubiquitous the sacred is in India! Religion is so nitty-gritty here, it's in everybody's business and truly in your face (and on your forhead, depending on what type of devotee you are). 

That being said, for how prevalent and normal the sacred is, it still maintains that special separateness. One must remove shoes to enter a shrine or temple, there are regulations and rules to the practice of drawing Kolams, and a general consensus of respect and ritual purity is maintained whenever directly facing a religious entity. 

And then there are the animals. Dogs here are just everywhere. Life for a street dog in India isn't as sad as I thought it would be- the trash situation here seems to be a pretty decent (or at least suffcient) food source for them and they have just as good of chances at crossing streets as the rest of us do. Every dog seems like it has a story or reason for being where it is. They lie under cars or on street corners to get out of the heat, and I can't help but wonder how they feel about it all. Do they divide the town up and each kind of manage a block? There is character in the dogs here- I can't quite put a finger on it but I will figure it out. 

Oh and I saw monkeys for the first time chillin' on the streets today as well, what terrifying and awesome creatures they are! Monkeys, chipmonks, kittens, dogs, cows, crows, rats and apparently elephants (crossingmyfingers) are all part of the chaos here. Sometimes I get pangs of sadness when looking at an especially pathetic looking animal, but it really seems like they exist here the same way humans do- with an acceptance and understanding of life as it is, just as it is.