INDIA: My First Week Living in India

Hello,

Welcome to my first blog post on my page! My name is Stefania Lombardo and I live in Liverpool, UK and study Fashion Design and Technology in Manchester Metropolitan University. For my placement year I got the opportunity to live in Jaipur, India and study at Pearl Academy on a Postgraduate course, where I will be studying Fashion Design, Business, Marketing and Merchandising, with some industry opportunities within my 6 months here.

In today's blog I am going to talk about what Jaipur, India is like for someone who has never visited before or even thought of the culture shock that would hit me as I arrived. To help you understand Jaipur a little, here is some history; Jaipur is the capital of the Rajasthan state and since 1876, when the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria visited India on a tour is painted majority in pink. Since pink denotes the color of hospitality, *Maharaja Ram Singh of Jaipur painted the whole city pink in colour to welcome the guests. Since then the city has been called "The Pink City". Jaipur is home to some of the most beautiful sights and has a lot of beautiful textile work.

When thinking of India, maybe one of the top things you link it to is the types of special tea's. Well they are great, with many tea houses around for you to try, they have almost everything for everyone. I visited one of the most popular tea houses called Tapri which has a beautiful view of central park and almost all of Jaipur.

The food in Jaipur is great, if you are careful and pick the good stuff. Before travelling to India I had never heard or tasted Paneer, Paneer is a fresh farmers cheese made by curdling milk with a fruit- or vegetable-derived acid, such as lemon juice. Its acid-set form is called chhena. This cheese acts as a chicken substitute in almost every meal as almost everyone in India is vegetarian, with one person telling me that many people only eat chicken, and even then it is once a month.

Another shock to me was that people do not eat cow meat as the animal is sacred to the people here as they provide medicine and milk to the people, with some people in more conservative areas are punished for eating cow meat.

This brings me onto my next point, as an animal lover it was a shock to me to see so many animals free on the streets in the city. As it is only my first week here I have seen up to now cows, bulls, dogs, cats, goats, monkeys, camels and elephants on the side of the road, with only elephants and camels with a human. As you know the majority of the animals listed are kept either in a zoo, farm or in a house, meaning this was completely bizarre to see them just walking past you on the street. According to some of my research on local news and locals many of the animals are being pulled of the streets and vaccinated to keep the streets safer for all the animals and humans, as rabies was becoming a danger to everyone and everything.

When you see a gif or a facebook video of the traffic or the roads in India you probably think it is set up for a film, well I am here to tell you that it is 100% not set up and if you take your eyes off the road for 2 seconds you have probably been in like 5 crashes. The picture below is not my own, however it gives an idea on how it is, and at rush hour it is even more chaotic. There are no side of the road, the traffic lights are come and go and the Tut Tuts and motorbikes are a deathtrap. However, in my first week here I have been on the road for 40% of it and have not witnessed one crash or bump at all, so you are "safe".

As you are already aware, the Indian people are the most respectful, hardworking and kind people you will ever come across, they're hospitality is top notch, they treat everyone like a king and queen and even the disadvantaged on the streets have so much passion that everywhere you look you see everyone making a living. Additionally they are intrigued by the western world. One of the biggest frights and shocks I had was how much people stare at you because you are different, and on one occasion I was asked to take a picture with a family in a shopping mall because I was western looking and white. This happened on multiple occasions on one day with some people taking pictures on their phone whilst you are unaware. Therefore, if you want to know what it is like to be a celebrity, visit India. Additionally, there is a dress code everywhere you go in India, you are to be dressed smart, with your shoulders and majority if your legs covered out of respect for the religions here. In the hot weather this may be hard for a while but just stay hydrated and cool during the day.

Lastly, as I am a fashion student I was in awe of all the beautiful fabric and embroidery Jaipur has. I will write more on the fabrics of India in it's own blog but everything I imaged for fabrics is just nothing to what I have seen, women of all society classes are dressed in their best everyday, and everywhere you look brightly coloured fabric catches your eye.

Thank you for reading my first every blog, I will be back soon on my trip to this beautiful country.

Stefania Lombardo

*Maharaja is a King

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