India - Day 20, Hash

Today I did two things. First - I went to a used books fair and bought two more books for myself. Secondly, I participated in a hash. Now in more detail about both of these things.

I went to the book fair accompanied by Shrewan and Venela (his sister, also one of Tom's assistants). We went by riksha to what seemed to be quite a distance away until I started spotting books being laid out on the pavement on the side of the road. There was maybe a kilometer of such improvised bookstores. What was most interesting to me is that there were very many textbooks on mathematics, computers, engineerind and physics there, all of which cost nearly nothing (20-30 rupees or 5-8 kr). Novels and popular science books were a bit more expensive, costing around 100-150 rupees (40 kr) which is still quite low, all things considered. I was also taken to two stores that sold new books, but there prices were about the same as in the rest of the world and, as nothing really interesting stuck out, I did not buy anything from these. I did buy two more used books though.

On my way back, I recieved a call from Gabe. As I was in traffic, I told him I would get back to him. Which I did. He said he planned to go to the hash and I asked where we should meet up. He named a place and I set off towards it.

Now a "Hash" is an event similar to "Friday night skate" except
a) you walk or run (a distance of 5-10 km), depending mainly on your shape.
b) it takes place somewhere outside the city
c) there is beer and food afeterwards
d) most of the people doing it are foreigners (although this is probably specific to india).

Just before the start, Gabe introduced me to this guy who he said is a programmer but who turned out to be a mathematician instead (specializing in geometry). We had a rather interesting discussion, first about what we were researching and then about religion (as the walk led us through a graveyard). We discussed evolution, Dawkins and different aspects of religions, which was quite fun.

After the walk, I met a couple of other people as well. There were people of all ages from 14 to 60, at least 8 of which were americans, a few french and a few germans as well as a few natives, maybe 40 people in total. They asked all the new people to introduce themselves, and Estonia recieved a wide applause as they had not had anyone from there before.

A few things that this event drove home for me:

Firstly - no matter how crazy things you have done or how many things you have seen or how much you have thought about a topic - there will always be people who beat you in that hands down. And chances are good you run across one in any given company, especially an international one. It is fairly easy to forget that, being the big fish in your own small pond.

Secondly - conversing in a language non-native to you in a culture space that is completely foreign is.. complicated. And if there are people who share your cultural space and language, you find it much easier to speak with them. MUCH easier. So fitting into the conversation is quite hard at first... but it gets easier with practice, as you start figuring out the cultural space and its implicit rules. That seems to come with trial and error, however, so one has to be ready and willing to make mistakes. And as one has to make an effort to do so, so it is often much easier not to bother. I have seen this in both my own behaviour and in others behaviour towards me.

Thirdly - spending a longer amount of time abroad will change ones view of the world. However, the change might not necessarily be for the better,

I'm going to finish up with one interesting factoid.
It is illegal in India for a doctor to tell the parents the sex of their child before he/she is born.