Culture Shock: Noise

India is loud. It just feels like everything is louder here than anywhere else: the roads, cooking, opening doors, just everything.

We moved to a house that is near the road on one side and near the train tracks on the other side. And if you’ve been following this blog since the beginning, you’ll know that we have old windows that have cracks to the outside allowing the noise (and bugs) to enter. Thankfully, we at least got new windows for the bedroom about a month ago.

It is also ironic that in India, being such a loud country, it is so hard to find earplugs. Even back in the quiet U.S., Josh used to wear earplugs to sleep and even many times during the day. Luckily we packed a packet but being disposable, they get dirty quite quickly. I went to town and searched all around for earplugs, to no avail. Even when we went to Pune last week, we couldn’t find any at the mall nor at the “indian walmart” in the mall. They don’t even know what they are. I hate earplugs, but I sleep with them now. Luckily I found a silicone pair in my luggage that hurts me less than the foam ones.

A few days ago, Shekhar came to our house with 3 pairs of earplugs. He said he had to drive about 10km to get them. We still have no idea how he knew where to find them, or where he found them, but Josh was happy. They weren’t cheap either, it was about $6 dollars for the three pairs.

I remember about a month and a half before we got new windows, when the trains passing by were waking me up 5 times during the night and they were SO loud. I told Shekhar: “the trains are so loud it is going to take me 6 months to a year to get used to that.” After new windows, we could definitely still hear the trains but a bit more mildly, and after adopting the practice of sleeping with earplugs, I can now sleep through the night without being waken up by a train. So, I guess it took less than a year. It is not every night that this happens, but it is a lot better than when we first moved in. The road noise, I am mostly able to ignore it now, unless a truck drives by honking a really loud and annoying horn.

So, I guess noise, even though annoying, is something that the body can adapt to relatively easily.