India Info

Here's a little info about India - some stuff you might be wondering about our trip. Some of it pertains to our trip - some is just general trivial-pursuit type info for those who are interested.

-Time difference: Right now it's 11.5 hours ahead of Iowa, but they don't do the daylight savings thing so during the summer months it's only 10.5 hours ahead. The whole country is on one time zone. And I am not sure where the ½ hour comes from - I thought time zones were in full hours but I guess not. By the way - when I write my posts, I leave them in Iowa time (for the post time) when I'm here.
-The national language is Hindi (different than the religion Hindu), but the language of Narasimha's house is called Telugu, which is unique to the state he is from, called Andhra Pradesh. That is the language I would like to learn so our kids could learn as they grow up. There are about 30 different languages spoken in India, with many geographical variations of each.
-Narasimha's family lives in a city called Hyderabad - it is India's 5th largest city, and has around 10 million people. One thing Hyderabad is best known for is software engineering.
-We are currently staying with Narasimha's family in their house. This consists of both of his parents and his older brother and his family. His older brother has 2 kids - a 9-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Narasimha also has a younger brother, but he and is wife live in the States.
-India has like 1.1 billion people, and is about 1/3 the size of the US. Last I heard, I think America's population is around 300 million.
-Hyderabad is closer to the equator than Mexico City. It's winter here right now, but quite mild compared to Iowa. I think the nights might get down to mid-60's, and I think the days get to the mid- to high-90's, or maybe more. I know, it's not fair :)
-The main religions of India are Hinduism and Islam (Muslim). Narasimha's family is Hindu, and is in the top caste called Brahmin - the caste of priests. There are other religions of course: Buddhist, Sikh, Christian, Catholic, and others I'm sure.

There's so much more - I can't remember everything that strikes me when I come. Feel free to ask a question if you have one. I love the culture and am happy to share what I know (and if I don't know, I have more than a few people I can ask :) And, my disclaimer, all the above information is from my memory, so if it's wrong, sorry.