Two stories about the right hand and left, the capital, and a lavish Hindu temple,

June 17, 2016

Two stories to tell about how things go in India…at least in our experience here. This week I had an appointment with a glaucoma specialist mainly to establish a relationship in case I had any problems here. Last summer I had a traubeculectomy on my left eye. The clinic wanted to do some tests. At one point a technician dilated my eyes and told me to wait in the reception area with my eyes closed. After about five minutes someone came over to me and handed me the bill for the services and told me to pay at the desk outside the reception area. I walked to the desk outside and there were several people at the counter and one person behind the counter. Someone else came over to me, took the bill and asked for the payment. Keep in mind we stand out here. We arrived April 1^st and I have seen fewer than eight Caucasians since then in this city of six or seven million folks. I took out my credit card and handed it the woman who then took me to a room where someone processed the payment. I was taken back to the reception area of the eye clinic and told to have a seat. There were no seats available as the room was filled to capacity so I said aloud, ‘I think I’ll take a stand not a seat’. Then the technician who earlier had told me to keep my eyes shut came over and said ‘shut your eyes’ and at that point a gentleman stood up and gave me his seat. If it wasn’t so funny I would have to wonder does anyone who works there have any idea what anyone else who works there is doing.

Parliament building

Next story: On Friday Ron took the day off because he needs to work on Saturday. We visited Gandhinagar, a planned city built in 1970 as the new capital of the state of Gujarat. 














Rahul suggest we visit a place that had something to do with Gandhi but we were unsure of what he was saying. So we drive up to this huge cone shaped structure and look for an entrance. Rahul always stays with the car. It was a museum. The guards opened the door and signaled for us to go across the way to bag check in. I carry a large backpack purse and it wasn’t allowed inside the museum. When we go to that place a young woman in a loud officious voice told us to go to yet another building next to door to buy tickets. So we go buy tickets and go back and check my bag.  Then we go back to the original building and again the guards came out and point to the ticket building. Ron showed them our tickets but again they said to go back in. It turns out the ticket seller was supposed to give us an additional laminated ticket that had a number on it. We get that item and go back we go to the entrance to where the guards AGAIN come out and tell us we can’t come in until 3:00.  I need to ask why one person could not have explained these details and why were we sent to the bag check first instead of the ticket seller as it was closer to the entrance, right across from where the guards were??? Welcome to our current world. Ron was in no mood to wait so he returned our tickets although there was no refund, the laminated tickets and we picked up my bag and left.

On the brighter side we visited Akshardham, a famous Hindu temple built in 1992 by a wealthy sect of Hindus  to commemorate Bhagwan Swaminarayan (1781-1830). This huge temple is set in a 22 acre site. Because of a terrorist attack a number of years ago, security is high and we had to check cell phones, my purse and Ron's camera & phone.