Real People | Real Stories

Stayed up till 2am last night preparing for our BIG DAY of interviews. We have had this Saturday all booked up and scheduled perfectly for over a week now. We were supposed to conduct our interviews with Pragya, Manita (her mom), Shanta and her brother, Kumar, today. Saturdays are key because it is the only day of rest in this country. All other days our work and school days–unless, of course, there is a strike, and then no one goes anywhere.

We received a call from Ramesh last night saying that today was most likely a NO GO. Students as well as all transportation people are demonstrating throughout the city demanding that the government do something about the huge price hike in petrol and transport fares. The lines for gas here are incredible. People wait in line for hours. One of our cab drivers routinely sleeps in his car all night while waiting in line. We have heard of people waiting for 4 hours only to have the pump run out. No refunds given.

The car and motorbike lines for gas are so long that they block traffic. Scott and I can’t pass this scene without imagining what would happen if this situation hit America. I know we did it in the 70’s, but…. I shudder at the thought of it happening right now… Americans and waiting? I don’t believe this is our strong point, and we aren’t getting any better at it as our world gets faster and faster and faster. 

It might be our American-ness that made me and Scott believe we could still continue with our BIG DAY despite the roadblocks. We got up at 5:30am, called our taxi driver who was like “yeah, right,” called Nutan, our translator, who told us her street was already under siege (burning tires, people breaking windows on cars that try to pass), then we still tried to hire a private car to take us…. But he wanted so much money, it just wasn’t worth the risk, especially without Nutan. We kind of pretty much need a translator for our interviews.

So, we returned to the hotel wishing we had just stayed in bed. Scott took off on foot with camera to shoot some B-roll around town. I am a little under the weather, so I stayed behind. Maybe this day of rest is good.

We have plenty of logging to do. I just don’t know how we are going to reschedule and fit all that we need to into the next week. But, I haven’t really known how a lot of stuff was going to happen on this adventure, and it has just came together, so I am going with that. (Or, at least I am telling myself I am going with it.)

I am so thankful to be doing what we are doing and to have this time to do it in. We are so blessed.