Boardwalk to Garden Path: Bangalore to NC (Sidewalk Comparison)

I visited NC over the holiday break, and of course had a fabulous time seeing friends and family. After being in India for close to 6 months, whenever I return home, the most obvious difference that I notice, is the lower volume of people that surround me. Before I went to India, both the RTP/Raleigh/Cary/Durham and Morehead City/Beaufort areas had become just so crowded, or so I had thought. I wondered, how are we going to handle all of this growth? I now just giggle, and think it would surely be a hundred years before these places could contend with the big city crowds of Bangalore. Of course, I am sure there are legitimate city planning concerns not to be taken lightly, and I am just speaking about my personal experiences and comparisons…..Of course, not being a city planner/developer helps me giggle and not have to sweat it!

Walking into a grocery store in NC, you may be the only person on an aisle (at certain times) with your cart never bumping into one person. Versus in India, crashing into 50 people, or their carts, saying “You go first”...and they in return, “No you go”. High volume traffic that causes motorcycles to take the sidewalks regularly, etc. I believe there may be a threshold on the number of people you have to bump into, or number of horns you hear, or number of people that you see can fit into one room comfortably, when suddenly, your perception is completely changed. What you thought was a crowd before, is suddenly the opposite of crowded. I personally think that if a city planner is getting stressed out over a population influx, a quick vacation to Bangalore could quite possibly provide the needed perspective. (Of course I am half-joking.)

I personally find that my sensitivity on being around “a lot of people at one time” has changed greatly; it does not affect me as it did when I first arrived in India. I NEVER thought this could possibly happen. It goes to prove that you can become desensitized, and comfortable with a lot more than you previously thought. As an aside….although there are big crowds, Indians are more laid-back people, who, if you bump into them, it is rare that that you get a dirty look, or hear public swearing or cursing (at least my experience). You will simply not hear Indians cursing like you hear people in other countries cursing, whether in general conversations or on the street. (A bonus if you want to raise your children in India! Haha) That was actually one of my first impressions of being in India…the lack of profanity. A very noticeable comparison.

So, as I visited Morehead City, NC and Beaufort, the 2 towns where I grew up, my mother and I rode around quite a bit. As I looked at the empty sidewalks in the middle of the day in NC during this visit, they just seemed so empty, though I had seen these same sidewalks for many years prior, and would never have described them as “empty” before. I had taken some pictures, posted above, of Indian sidewalks, and on this trip decided to snap some pictures of Beaufort and Morehead City sidewalks, which follow, below. In some shots taken in NC, I could actually get out of the car and stand in the middle of the street, and take time to focus, with no cars or people driving by for several minutes. Of course, it IS winter at the beach, and this is a different time, so of course taking this into consideration.

I often tell my friends and family in the US...“I wish you could be in Bangalore with me for a few hours to see what it is like”. At the same time, I think, “I wish my Indian friends could see this part of the US, and I wonder what they would think?” During this visit, I looked up the number of Indians living in Morehead City, NC, and the current statistic listed is 31 people, out of the entire small town population of 13K. I have wondered a few times if these are mainly singles who integrated with local US families, or if this 31 represents, for example, 3 Indian families?? I am so curious to know, after living in Bangalore, what brought these 31 Indians to Morehead City, and if they know each other, etc.

Finally, below, I took some pictures on the beach of NC at sunset, ending with a neat and unexpected half moon shot.

I finally arrived back in Bangalore yesterday, one full day later than planned. My flight in Chicago was delayed and left me over night in Frankfurt. Suddenly the Heathrow connection seems like kind of a wonderland! Another travel blog to follow soon...