Not Too Spicy

The Broome Street Blog is proud to present the first in a series of essays from Broomies studying abroad (scroll down for three others from Michael Vergara, Carl Cota-Robles, and Rebecca Cushman). Throughout the semester, several students will document their lives living and exploring their foreign countries. We hope that these inspire you to broaden your views of not only the city, but also the global community in which we are a part of.


Not Too Spicy

By: Carolyn Balk

January 28, 2012

This past January I went with Gallatin to southern India, specifically to Bangalore and its surrounding areas. I absolutely loved the countryside and the food, but the city’s smog and ubiquitous KFCs and Dominos (thanks to heavy globalization in Bangalore or India’s dubbed “Silicone Valley”) not so much. The experience overall was immense, and the class, “Development, Culture, and Globalization in India,” only enhanced my time there.

The countryside we went to was eight hours driving north of Bangalore: a small town called Anegundi and its neighboring more famous town Hampi. Hampi holds many ancient temples and was just recently declared a UNESCO world heritage site—something that has created much controversy. There is astrange binary view of heritage: “old” heritage vs. new or “living” heritage.Which one takes precedence? Is one better than the other? Is one more valued, whether by the local people or tourists, than the other? For the Indian government (and indirectly UNESCO), the “old” heritage won, and the homes surrounding Hampi’s main temple (a temple still in function) were bulldozed last November in order for the temple to have a more “classic” or “traditional” look and feel. Although the homes are gone, hawkers still congregate daily to sell tourist trinkets or bananas to feed to the temple’s resident elephant.Amidst the lush rice paddies, beautiful sunrises, 20 cent fresh coconut water,and chai-tea drinking monkeys (I am not kidding), was a covertly discussed heritage controversy that I would not have known about or uncovered if it were not for this course and actually physically visiting the site.

You always hear, “so-and-so’s food is not the same when you are actually in so-and-so,” and let me tell you: this is all too true forIndia. Although Basmati rice is a staple at any of New York’s Indian restaurants, we had Basmati rice only once in our time in India. I recognizedmany of the names of dishes, for example my favorite Saag Paneer (a spinach and cheese dish), but the spice factor and the fresh taste factor in India was ten times more than anywhere I have been in the US. I like spicy food, but even I had to ask for the dishes to not be spicy in order to get the tamer spice I could handle. There were very interesting desserts, my favorite being jalebi, or as I called them, honey friedgoodness. It was like hot liquid-y honey and fried dough with a cream sauce all in one bite. Nomz factor = through the roof. Bottom line: The Dosa Man on the southwest corner of Washington Square Park does not measure up to MTR’s dosas (MTR is a restaurant and also a prepackaged food brand) in the heart of Bangalore city.

Bangalore proper was very, very different from New York, or any city I have been to for that matter (granted, this was my first time in India). The city bounds spread greatly, and each year the city grows and acquires small towns surrounding what used to be the city’s outskirts. The metropolis multiplies yearly especially as more and more Indians move from the countryside into the city looking for work and a better life away from farming. Because of this, shantytowns made of metalsheeting stand right next to large gated houses, and cows roam the streets next to BMWs. This multiplying effect also leads to poor city planning making it a hassle to get from one end of the city to another. Luckily, you can hail anauto-rickshaw (an open-air taxi) to take you just about anywhere—but beprepared to bargain heavily. Some of the rickshaw drivers I had didn’t speak English, but those that did loved to have conversations with my friends and me—saying anything they could in English.

The traffic is crazy—many drivers do not pay attention to the yellow line going down the middle of the road and allof the motorbikes will zig-zag between larger cars and trucks like nobody’s business. Crossing the street is an art form that takes meticulous and scrupulous practice. Needless to say, if Bangalore implemented New York’s $300 fine for honking, the city would be rich. Unfortunately, with a big city comes smog. Smog is a huge problem, and while driving in an auto-rickshaw I oftencovered my mouth with a scarf to breathe.

The most intriguing part about India I thought was thinking of its colonial past and how this influenced its present day state,and also how India and China are in constant and overt competition with one another. Although India gained independence from England in 1947, India’s youth today look to England (and the US and other European countries in general) for brands and new ideas. It is an intriguing blend of modern and traditional—a dichotomy I am still trying to decipher. As well, India strives to excel like China in terms of exports and manufactured goods, and many newspaper articlesand businessmen will point out this competition.

Simply put: visiting India was an amazing experience, filled with interesting fusions and contradictions and of course, lots and lots of spice.