गाजीपुर (Ghazipur)

I surprised Jeff last weekend by showing up in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, where he is running a voter survey (described in more detail in a previous post). Ghazipur is around a 5-6 hour drive from Patna, but the town where my project is based (Behea) is on the edge of Bihar and mid-way between Patna and Ghazipur, so it actually didn't take too long.

Jeff selected Ghazipur because it is very close to the border with Bihar and nearly indistinguishable from Bihar - I kept trying to detect differences between Ghazipur and what I'm used to in Patna and Behea, and honestly couldn't find any but the chai (Jeff's right, it's better in Ghazipur; sorry for my treachery).

It was obviously great to see him; it's been tough living apart for so many weeks (and facing the prospect of just a week or two together before the wedding). It was also really cool to see where he's living and the life he's set up there - he eats at least once a day at a restaurant called Green Park, where we watched a bit of the Cricket World Cup Final match on Saturday (India won, in case you didn't hear or see the fireworks…). And he eats breakfast at the same dhaba every morning, always ordering "bread and butter" - definitely not a sufficiently substantial breakfast for me! A few times a week he'll go out for lassi after dinner to the place next door to his dhaba - and honestly it was the first lassi I've had that I really liked; tasted like sweet custardy yogurt. Yum!

And of course he works crazy hours, no shock there, so to my surprise I found myself being even more productive with work while I was there than if I had been puttering around Patna or Behea. The only downside was for our little pup - Jeff had painters in the apartment the whole weekend, and the flat is definitely not puppy-proofed, so the little tyke had to stay tied up all weekend. But he was so happy to see Jeff (and periodically sprint around the roof with him) that I don't think he minded.

I took a bunch of photos; it's not where I live, so I don't mind being embarrassing :). Hopefully this will give you a little snapshot into his routines there: