The awkward stare...

Yesterday morning 2 other volunteers and I all went for a walk to go to the market that we had previously visited the day before. We had not yet mastered the way out of our gated community in which we are living so we had a hard time getting out of the complex. Once we did, we were already in an unfamiliar setting. We then asked a few ladies on the street to tell us where we could find the market. They pointed us in the right direction and so we walked where they said to go.

We finally did find the market, but it defintely was not the same market we had gone to the day before. So, we decided to just check this market out. We walked by several vegtable and fruit vendors, I ended up buying some pomagranites since I have only drank the juice and never actually ate the fruit. I was excited to eat a new exotic fruit.

Then we continued to walk around and go deeper into the market. But as we went further down the road there were many more people setting up their shops when we slowly began to feel some of the Indians on the side of the road just stop and stare at us. It was beginning to feel awkward. It got to a point where people stopped everything to look at us!! (I guess it didn't help that one of the girls was wearing shorts and a tight t-shirt. Something that would be no problem in the US but in India they are extremely conservative and they do stop and stare if you are showing too much skin.) It got so crazy that one of the Indians took out a camera to take a picture of us!! I couldn't believe it!! He actually took a picture! But it was so interesting b/c we were just as interested in them as they were of us. We then decided to turn around and head back to our flat. It was the most interesting experience to be stared at by a crowd of Indians doing their daily thing. I guess the feeling is mutual because I find the demographics, the culture, the people and the city so facinating that I too have to stop everything to take a picture.