Day 31 Ahmedbad..

Day 31: Ahmedbad is Gujurat's major city. I stayed with my cousin Seema who is a housewife and her husband runs his own business. I soon realized that alot of my cousin or cousines wives who went to college are now housewives. My cousin Seema's husband wanted her not to work, but to stay home with the kids. That day we headed to the Mega Malls. Ahmedbad and soon I would see that alot of the other major cities in India are full of these Mega Malls, basically similiar to like any mall in the U.S. I was surprised to see how modern the stores were inside and it was all air conditioned and were no haggling with prices. I soon wondered what would happen to the independent stores that still worked on haggling with prices, if everything was going to fixed prices. As we headed to the mall I saw a camel driven cart in front of the mall. I thought to myself this is India in the 21st century, going to the new and modern with all the mega malls, mega cineplexs, and gas stations, but still keeping the old with camel driven carts etc.. It will be interesting to see India in about 20 to 30 years from now.

That night my aunt and uncle from my mothers side came to visit. Another close relation as my aunt is my mom's sister and my uncle is related to my father. We had dinner the men and kids ate first and then the woman. I thought how interesting the men eat before the woman. I thought boy this would never happen in the U.S. I began to think how my life would have been so different had I not had the opportunity to live in the country where the men and woman are more equal and there are more opportunities for woman. I headed to the airport to buy my ticket to Jaipur that night. My cousines husband drove me to the airport and he brought along his two kids. In the car we started talking about the differences in the U.S. and India. India is a country where anything goes, which is similar to most 3rd world countries that are poor and desperate, bribery is common. My cousin told me that he doesn't have a license for a scooter, but if he drives one and gets stop then he slips the policemen 10 rupees vs. getting the 100 rupees or so for the ticket. Then we stopped to buy the ticket at the airport. My cousins husband parked the car in front of a no parking sign, he didn't seem to worried about getting a ticket. The policemen came by and said something, but my cousin was able to get him to go away without moving his car. We drove home that night with my cousin playing Hindi music and the kids happily singing along. We got back to my cousines house. My cousin Seema has three bedroom flat, but only one room has AC. We all piled into the room with the AC. I was really beginning to appreciate my level of privacy.