T.I.A

I know I promised to write about Africa/ Jo’burg a long time ago. I guess my mind has been pre-occupied with stuff and just couldn’t get down to writing. I’ve had a series of weird things happening to me in the past couple of months. First the terrible, unexplainable backache, and when that got better a sprain in the neck mixed with a fainting spell and then a couple of days back a weird dislocation in the jaw. Let’s just say that I’ve been keeping the doctors happy! They say that everything bad happens in threes. I hope this is the end of bad stuff and the beginning of good things… Do good things also happen in threes?

Back to the blog. South Africa (SA) is similar to India in a lot of ways. They have the same sense of diversity with a lot of national languages which make English the most commonly spoken language. They wear a lot of color and thank God for that. I was dreading this would be the repeat of black, white and grey of Sweden. And there is as much noise and chatter in a public place. The economic disparity among people is also present. There is a super-rich class, rich, middle and then the poor class.

But there is a lot that we take for granted in India, which you cannot even dream of doing here. Walking on the road for instance is almost unthinkable here. Try and imagine not being able to walk for even the shortest distances. Here if you go for an evening walk on the road, you can be sure some people looking back from their cars and wondering if you are crazy. Imagine living in a place with alarmed response security, electric-fenced gates and security guards and still looking over your shoulder to make sure all is ok. People tell me that one gets used to it. But as of now, I feel as if I am caged. My day-dreaming while walking days are over for sure :-(…..

It’s been 15 years since apartheid ended, yet they have black areas and white areas. And for some strange reason the visual difference is stark. Not just that, even the new developments end up having the un-official tag of “white” and black areas. The real estate prices also vary depending on this tag. I wonder who is to blame now.

In India the necessities are cheaper than luxury items. You don’t need to shell out a lot of money for education, doctors, medicines etc. However it’s quite the opposite here. Diamonds go on a discount, BMWs and mercs are the order of the day and yet good private education and good doctors can wipe your savings account out!!

The “under-privileged” here are given free houses, water, electricity and education. They get sponsored by companies to study if they wish to. They also get reservations for jobs. All they need to do is study and they almost never do that. They don’t mind resorting to theft of all sorts to get what they what. But never do they put the same effort to try and get a decent education.

The difference between India and this place is that in India each generation learnt from mistakes of their parents and did better. Here they never learn and end up repeating the same old mistakes. That’s the reason why you here you would find a teenage mother whose parents dies of AIDS. That’s probably the reason why the country is far from progressing. You have the infrastructure here but no will to do anything. No wonder my husband’s reply to my amazement is always T.I.A.

Something to remember when travelling to SA

- Robots mean traffic lights. I wonder what in a traffic light resembles a robot.
- Garage is a petrol station. I remember an Indian travelling here told me she hunted for a garage for an hour before realizing what it means here :-)
- “Shap Shap” means ok.. I wonder in which of the 12 languages though
- Always start a conversation with anyone you meet with a “ How are u doing?” no matter how artificial. I still haven’t mastered that art and get the dirty glares from A :-)
- Never ever hitch hike and I mean Never