Postcard from Chennai, India

3/11/08

We arrived early this morning at a commercial dock, surrounded by stacks of containers from China and literally thousands of pint-sized Hundai autos awaiting export. The day is gray, and it's hard to tell if this is a result of weather or smog. There is a distinctive odor that seeped onto the ship as soon as we entered the harbor, which sort of reminded me of Brooklyn – old grime, pollution and dirty water… Jim calls Chennai "the Detroit of India."

They say there are three seasons in Chennai – hot, hotter and hottest! We are in the "hotter", but we lucked out in getting an overcast day, instead of a blazingly sunny one.

India still reflects the bureaucracy of their British heritage, so we had an extensive customs drill on the ship, and were issued "port passes" which we must carry with us at all times and present when leaving or entering the dock area.

There is nothing within walking distance of the ship but more containers and more cars, so those traveling independently around the city must hire a cyclo (bicycle rickshaw that holds two) to get to the customs gate, then hire an auto rickshaw (with a 2 stroke lawnmower engine instead of pedals) to get any appreciable distance within the city.

We were spared the transport negotiations today, as Jim took another busload of Sociology of Mental Health students to a Schizophrenia Treatment Center about 45 minutes from the dock. This gave us a fly-by overview of a good part of the city. We had been warned about the crazy traffic and the number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries (and that no one will stop for an accident unless a cow is involved!). The traffic lights are considered "suggestions", and basically, the bigger vehicle always has the right of way. Karen's opinion: worse than Brooklyn, but nowhere near as bad as Tehran!

The city contains stately old British buildings (the train station, the absolutely huge general hospital, the government offices) lots of new high rises under construction ( the I.T. boom is moving beyond Bangalore into Chennai and surrounding areas) juxtaposed with men sleeping on the street and lean-to shacks of cardboard with sheetmetal or thatched roofs. There are no sidewalks, so the big vehicles use the middle of the road, the rickshaws and motor scooters use the margins, then the bicycles, and the pedestrians do their best to stay out of the way.

We arrived at the Schizophrenia Center and were ushered into a meeting room. Unfortunately, we spent our entire time in that same room, and were not permitted to tour the facility or to meet any of the patients (a big disappointment). It turns out that there are no HIPPA laws here, no patient rights, and the doctors can medicate the patients with or without their consent. If a patient refuses to take their meds, the meds are "administered surreptitiously" by hiding them in the food! The psychologist was very accommodating and answered all our questions. The center has very high success rates for treating schizophrenia, but this appears to be because they don't treat the poor or homeless, the way we do in the U.S.