Durban

Hey all.

Made it to Durban after a wistful goodbye to Neeti and Didi (who unfortunately are still in S Africa! stupid 4 feet of snow in London...). Everything worked out in terms of timing, and although I just missed the airport shuttle by like 90 seconds (should have gone to the bathroom in the plane instead!) it turned out to be sort of a blessing in disguise because the airport shuttle driver was fascinating and I spent a lot of time with him (see below). Now I'm sitting at a really cool internet cafe called Cityzen, on Florida Road and Gordon Road in Morningside. It's a good time to reflect, just had a refreshing appletizer and a thin crust veggie pizza, and now I'm chillaxin' while I gather some thoughts about the past few days. Incidentally, the name of the place I got the appletizer was "Chill" -- I'm sure Didi would have approved :).

So -- back to philosophical musings -- I'm currently reading a book called "Breakfast with Socrates," by Robert Rowland-Smith, a fellow/lecturer at Oxford who is now a free-lance journalist. It's a very thought-provoking book about the "philosophy of every day life," in that he examines issues such as waking up, eating breakfast, and going to work -- and puts in his two cents about what he thinks famous philosophers would say about those mundane things. I really like his writing style, not entirely coincidentally because I've read most of those philosophers myself, in college, and it's fun to rethink about what JS Mill, or Plato, or Elaine Scarry wrote in a different context. I'm almost through it, but I can already tell it will be a highly recommended read (I can already imagine what Tony, Deip, Kallem, or Robbie would say about it!).

To go full circle again -- dunno why I'm thinking about Indians and Indian-ness so much this trip, but I bet Didi would say it's because I'm examining what it means to me to be an Indian -- I wanted to write about two encounters (already! and it's been less than 24 hours here!) with Indians in Durban. I go back to one of dad's main tenets, that Indians, everywhere the world over, are in general very sociable people who look out for their own (though I suspect many would be inclined to look out for *anyone*, really, viz. dad). The second encounter first -- I had a very cool stroll from the backpackers' this AM to the big Indian Bazaar in town, Victoria Market. It was a really nice walk, I had a fun time exploring the big bazaar and all the side streets, and only got myself lost about three times before I found my way around. I did buy some presents for mom from Sattar's Crockery (hope you like them, mom!). It started to drizzle, so I decided to walk back before the downpour came (luckily it missed us, I think...though I shouldn't speak too soon!). On the way back I took a bunch of side streets (don't worry, lots of people around, expensive cars, and lots of Indians; I think I blended in) and ran into a mom pushing a baby stroller with her 19 month old daughter. Baby's name is Aryanne, and they were on their way back from the park. We started chatting and Aryanne took a liking to me, I guess, so her mother invited me to a cup of coffee; that's when we went to Chill (and of course it was too hot for coffee, so Appletizer it was). It was fun, keeping little Aryanne entertained (but I realize now that I am desperately lacking skills in parlour tricks or other sleight of hand, and my most amusing trick was the old straw-mustache routine...). Her mother, once she found out about me traveling alone, gave me their family's contact info, gave me a standing invititation to join them for dinner, and directed me to a pizza place and then this cute internet cafe. She is half Indian and half Zulu (though, I must say, Aryanne looks all Indian to me). Again, it felt nice to chat with someone about being a second generation (or third, or whatever) immigrant, and issues related to the diaspora (interestingly, the mom reminded me of Didi's friendly optometrist from Cape Town, and in turn, Didi.)

But more to the thesis (I know, my blogging is so full of digressions), that Indians are friendly and look out for other Indians (me), I wanted to write about my airport shuttle driver. His name is Prahlad, and he's actually a mechanic, who works 6 days a week in the Engen gas station repairing cars, and on Sundays he does an airport shuttle shift. He was the one who told me I missed the previous shuttle by 90 seconds; he told me he was waving and honking as I came wandering out looking for the shuttle, so that he could get me to run after the previous shuttle, but apparently I was looking in the wrong direction. So we started chatting (I had to wait another hour before his shuttle was allowed to leave), and we talked about everything from cricket (hooray for Tendulkar's 50th century! boo for the poor Indian first day's performance...) to the scandal about the Cape Town kidnapping. He told me about his family; one daughter who completed her law degree and works in Joburg, and another who is finishing undergrad this year. He also expounded on his religious persuasions (Hindu, no meat on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays; prefers the smaller Hindu mandir in the suburbs to the big Durban mandir). He did this all while driving through crazy traffic, lots of people honking at him, passengers being annoying (misstating addresses for drop offs; not being on time for pickups), and was really remarkably calm through the whole thing. He gave me two options to drop me off; either first (since I had been waiting the longet), or after everyone else (in which case he could give me a personally guided tour through Durban's city centre). I chose the latter, and it took about 1.5 hours but I got a really good sense of the city, and visited pretty much all the sights/sounds/beaches (though surely I will repeat it on foot if the weather improves). He also stopped in the middle of the road for an Indian family (Gujrati, from Mumbai, but living in Brazil for work currently) who were getting drenched by the downpour, and offerred them a ride to their hotel. He was really nice, and I'm glad I got to spend time with him.

So there, maybe people are really friendly everywhere (Didi's experience in Istanbul was rather incredible, too). But I'm pretty happy being Indian while in Africa. :)