Beth Goes to India

if a picture is worth 1,000 words, I have a lot of typing to do

2007-01-08T18:09:00.000-06:00

I'm finally putting all of my photos online. You can see them here, courtesy of flickr. I'm slowly but surely adding descriptions, tags, and geographical information to all of them, but I think that's going to be a loooong process.

snazzy

2007-01-08T17:56:00.000-06:00

I was just flipping through some of my journal from my trip, and I found my favorite piece of Indian English. I don't have a picture of it - because I was too shy to pull out my camera at the restaurant - but mounted proudly behind the counter of the restaurant in our hotel in Amritsar (Mohan International, and oh how I wish I had some pictures of that place) was a sign that read:
HAVE SOME SNAZZY
NEW TEMPTIES
SPECIALLY PREPARED
to SATIATE your TASTE

Yes please!

very very fun

2006-12-08T09:25:00.000-06:00

"Horn OK Please" by Flickerpix Animations. I feel a little bit pathetic that I identified with the hapless tourist; on the other hand, India was very, very good to me, so what's an overtip here and there? However, I am proud that I knew the Gateway and the Taj Hotel all on my own and needed no one to point them out. Baby steps.

read this now

2006-09-29T09:15:00.000-05:00

Really really great blog, Proxy Indian, sent in by alert reader Kamla.

the man, the legend

2006-09-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

Legendary, I tell you!

If you want to know more about Rajan - and who doesn't?!? - go here. I made him this photo album so he could download everything easily - I swear I'm not obsessed. Just amused. Besides, he called me "didi," which is totally nice.

things I thought about today that have to do with India

2006-09-01T12:50:00.001-05:00

1) I am wearing (on my toes) some nail polish I bought at a grocery/drug store in Mumbai with Debbie one very fun afternoon (when we went to the bunk-bed computer lab and had lattes at Barista), which is clear with orange glitter in it, and I love it a lot, even though my shoes cover my toes.
2) Trivial Matters told me about the Welfare of Stray Dogs organization that helps take care of stray dogs in Mumbai, which is the perfect organization for me. Here are two of my favorite dogs in India

in a tuktuk in Ahmedabad

and on a park bench in Mumbai. I took this photo because my dog sleeps like that too, although he is lucky enough to get to do so on a sofa.
3) I keep hearing about Lage Raho Munnabhai and it made me remember meeting Arshad Warsi in the hotel in Kolkata and what a strange and funny experience that was.
4) And then I realized that it's been four weeks since I got back, and it doesn't feel like that long, because in some ways I feel like I was there yesterday and India is still very close by and a very big part of my existence, and in other ways it feels very far away indeed and that makes me really sad, because I loved being there.
5) And THEN, just as I started to log in to write this, the NPR archive I have on started up a story on the whole pesticides-in-colas mess.

this photo uploading process takes forever

2006-08-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

So. Here is my photo album. [For whatever reason, these appear in reverse chronological order in each album (or in the slideshow or film loop thingy) - so if you want to see things as I took them, start on the last page of each album and go forward. No idea.] There's a sub-album for each city/area we went to. (Bollywood people, I'm making a separate one for film-related photos because there are so many. That will come later.) At some point I will go back and make posts here, city by city, narrating a few select photos from each place. A few, I promise. My dad sat through all of my photos last weekend and it took four hours. I'm not even sure I like my stories that much.

happy Indian Independence Day yo!

2006-08-14T18:41:00.000-05:00

(Detail of a truck somewhere in West Bengal.)

It sure is great! And yes, this is a smidge early by my clock, but it's Indian Independence Day somewhere in the world - like, in India!

The trucks were beautiful, and after a few hours of seeing countless painted trucks and buses out the window, all of a sudden painting trucks with flowers and cows and little scenic views of lakes seemed a perfectly everyday - in fact, noble - thing to do. Why don't we all do that? (Because then West Bengal wouldn't be quite as special, that's why.)

This is one of the ways in which I don't quite feel fully readjusted yet - a little part of me keeps expecting to see a peacock or a painted truck, or hear those multi-tone traffic horns or Rajan's mobile phone ring - but I'm wondering if maybe that little part of me doesn't want to be fully readjusted and she's just holding out.

so much of the lonely only

2006-08-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

You know what I miss? I miss the way people talk. I miss Indian English(es). I miss "only." I miss "so much of [adjective]." I miss "Is everyone having their luggages?" There is a particular voice that I hear in my head many times a day, and at random points I'll run across a phrase or word that I long to hear that voice say, because I cannot do any of these accents justice, even in my imagination.

flower garlands in a market in Bangalore

2006-08-05T15:10:00.000-05:00

This picture loading process is going to take a lot longer than I thought. Here's a favorite. I like it because it reminds me of so much of what I saw - colorful, full of people and activity, and unexpected yet familiar too.

wish I'd thought of that

2006-08-05T07:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Kamla for this funny blow-by-blow of the O'Hare-Delhi flight. If I had done it, though, I'd have to post a picture of Robert sleeping with his mouth open, and I don't know how many people want to see that.

On topic, sorta, my flight to Delhi was great and passed by in a snap. The flight home was heinous, so bad that I was annoyed with myself for being as annoyed as I was. And that way madness lies, for sure, with hours and hours of shifting around in my seat, too hot, too cold, too horizontal, too vertical, where's my pillow, why does the person in the next row have the shade open when we're over the land of the midnight sun, why does the tv monitor say Shaadi Se Pehle and 36 China Town are playing when really the movies showing are Shikhar and Fight Club (I know! totally inauspicious!), why does my tummy seem to respond poorly to this bag of potato chips when it is clearly not possible that Saif would advertise something bad for me, how are there possibly still 7 hours to go. I had a bad attitude and I apologize to the whole plane for putting that out in the universe.

Now that I've had 12 hours of sleep in my own bed, I feel pretty good. Could really use a shower, even though my towels are not nearly as big and soft as the ones I left in the Taj in Delhi - JC Penney's fluffiest are still so v not Taj. The group members who took the bus to the airport Thursday night have decided to use "Taj" as a verb and adjective - "Did you see that buffet? Totally Taj!" or "Yeah, I traded in my miles to upgrade to business class - why not Taj it?" Actually it wasn't decided if we should capitalize "Taj" but for now let's do, since it adds to the air of swank.

home

2006-08-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

Am in clean pajamas in my study with much-missed Mrs. Peel. Am so tired can hardly think straight. Must share how weird US streets and towns seem - so open and vacant and quiet. Things that used to be normal now seem decidedly not. Which is good, becuase it means I really was somewhere else.

Already miss the group, even though have been lucky enough to see three of my favorite people today, including saintly Dana, who got up very early and came and picked me up at O'Hare at 7 a.m. and took me out for breakfast. Friends rock.

Sleep. Will post pictures soon.

we're on our way home

2006-08-03T05:01:00.000-05:00

In about 9 hours I'll be on the plane, waiting to take off to come home. It's time, but only because I'm just exhausted from these fantastic adventures. And to be honest, I'm also really sick of the clothes in my suitcase, and I could definitely use an iced coffee (or ten).

I hope within a week or so to have my pictures online, and I'll post them all here, city by city - with captions of course.

My thoughts are so scattered and I really ought to be packing, but in the meantime, thank you India (ha ha ha, you'll all have that song stuck in your head now!) for once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I know I'll be back here (although probably not at the Taj Hotel in Delhi, much to the dismay of Adnan, my very best business center staff friend), but for now, leaving is so sad. I hope there's a funny movie on the plane - Munnabhai, perhaps?

Varanasi: generally not what is meant by "hands-on learning in the museum"

2006-08-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

Back in Delhi after two days in Varanasi/Benares/Kashi. I have so much to say and so little brain power to do it with. In 48 hours I will be heading to the airport to go home, and believe me those hours are packed. Tomorrow we go to Agra, and my stoppy-looky soul is thrilled.

Varanasi was amazing. For someone who is not religious, being surrounded by so much faith is...something, I don't know what. Fascinating. Last night we sat quietly bobbing in a boat on the Ganges watching aarti on the banks, and it was truly beautiful even though I understood almost nothing of it, which I guess speaks to the universality of certain human emotions and endeavors. This trip has been amazing for that, for realizing how much any two people have in common and can share.

Okay, now for an explanation of this post's title. Yesterday we went to the archaeological museum at Sarnath (the site of the Buddha's first sermon). Again, an amazing collection, including the column capital from which some of India's official symbols come, and poor labeling; this museum does win top prize for physical environment for the artifacts, as it was somewhat air conditioned and everything seemed clean-ish. By the time we got to this museum, I had begun to lose my patience with listening to our tour guide (not Rajan, who now referes to himself as our "tour manager" or "tour escort," which we have explained to him has a different connotation in American English) because somehow I just didn't think he knew what he was talking about (for example, he said Benares Hindu University, with 22,000 students, is the third biggest university in the world, which is plainly not true). We had been up since 4:15 a.m., having gone to watch sunrise prayers on the Ganges, and it was really hot out, all of us sweating buckets. It's towards the end of the trip, the group dynamics are not so dynamic becuase everyone's tired, and my emotions were running very high and scattered yesterday, and everything just hit the fan in the musuem. Strike one was the guide touching the artifacts. Strike two was one of the USEFI staff touching the artifacts, at which point I threw my hands in the air and left the room - it hurts me when people do that, I know you may not believe that, but it really does (but Kim, I know you understand!). Strike three? Being groped by high school boys. I know Americans, probably especially midwesterners, have very large personal space bubbles. I know that that is a culturally relative concept, and prior to yesterday I have had very little discomfort with crowds or even people just standing closer to me than I imagine they need to. But being followed for half an hour by a handful of silent, staring, skulking boys was weird, and having them try to accidentally brush up against me was even weirder, and realizing where some of their hands were was the limit. I am not the kind of woman that men make any effort to be near, so I have no previous experience to help me handle this. I wish I had had my wits about me and smacked one of them, I wish I had thought to scream in their faces or something, I wish I had done something to let them know that is seriously not cool - but in truth I would have been yelling not only at them but at all the grown men who try to sell me useless plastic crap, who follow me down the street, who grab my arm as I walk by, becuase they are old enough to know better.

I know, I know. Ugly American all over the place here. But that was the end of my rope for that kind of thing. There are culturally relative norms and needs, and then there are things that are icky, and for me yesterday was just icky. And in a museum, of all places. For me, that made it even worse.

Fortunately, I had splashed a bit in the Gagnes that morning, and if I understand my informant correctly, the sins of this lifetime have been washed away, so all the anger I had for those boys is, I hope, forgiven.

I have now lost track of where this post was going. Sorry. I'm really tired and in serious need of a shower. Clean clothes would be great but I don't have any of those. I do, however, have a hotel room that smells like jasmine. It's good to be me.

The answer to the zillion-dollar trip-to-India-related question is...

2006-07-30T03:00:00.000-05:00

...quite unexpectedly, yes. Go to Beth Loves Bollywood to read what in the world I'm talking about.

Oh Kolkata! (Sorry, it had to be done.)

2006-07-26T07:08:00.000-05:00

Everyone else in my group was sad to leave Kerala, but I'm thrilled to be back in a city. I sure wish I had a penpal here, because it's really clear I could use a guide as I bumble around the hotel area, under constant siege from vendors and taxi- and rickshaw-wallas. Today two guys made the clever approach of just coming up and talking to me like we were actually having a conversation (rather than "madam, madam, look, please look, very nice, very cheap"), saying "It's very hot, isn't it?" Where I come from that's the kind of thing you can say to strangers perfectly innocently, even if you have no intention of getting them to buy stuff from you. Last night Debbie and I went exploring for dinner and in the hour and a half we spent outside the hotel, we saw a grand total of two other women. That's right, two. One middle-aged woman on the street and one twenty-something in the restaurant we went to. Every other person we saw was male, which is an experience I have never had before. I'm glad I was with Debbie, that's for sure - she's a lot more savvy than I.

More on museums. Please know that I am desperate to find out from someone (preferably someones) who work in museums here about what's going on in the field in general. I readily admit that there is so much I don't know. But I can't just stop thinking about this. I have to think about it, process it, especially as we keep going to museums. I simply cannot turn off that portion of myself. I've bought two books on Indian museums, one by one of the speakers we had in Delhi who was an amazingly sharp woman whose views on culture and heritage I really dig, but I mailed the books home, so that will have to wait.

Today a bunch of us went to the Indian Museum, just a few blocks from our hotel. I forgot to say on my previous post about museums that overall I find the collections in Indian museums to be simply amazing and completely fascinating (at least, I assume they're fascinating, as there are no labels to confirm or deny any information I already have about them or answer any questions I have...grrr...anyway). So it's not a question of the quality of the artifacts themselves (although I've heard the argument put forward that the British and other European-types took the very finest things away years ago). I couldn't believe all the beautiful sculptures I saw, and again there was an utter lack of information about them. There were more general context labels here than in most museums, but what text there was was not engagingly or clearly written. Typos I can forgive; boringness I cannot. Pigeons as well as artifacts are at home in this museum, and some of the sculptures had the evidence, if you know what I mean. Ewww. And the natural history section was like stepping into a different era completely - like it had been set up in the late 19th century and not touched since. (A lot like UIUC's old Museum of Natural History, but moreso.) Interesting note: the only room that was air conditioned was the Egyptology section, and I think that was because it had a human mummy. I guess it's not good hospitality to bake other people's cultural heritage?

Okay, off to experience more Kolkata. Or watch movies on tv. Hmmm....

Bangalore, Mysore, and Kerala

2006-07-23T08:22:00.000-05:00

Bet you're all wondering where I've been. In a tropical paradise, that's where. Those of you who have traveled with me know how little appeal tropical paradises tend to have for me, but even I am impressed by this one. (Luci and Melina, I'm thinking of you particularly here.) We're at the Leela in Kovalam Beach, Kerala, and it is stunning. Just when you think the hotel can't become any more beautiful, it does. They have bowls of floating rose petals everywhere; last night I discovered that once the sun sets they put candles in the bowls too. I mean, seriously. There is no point to these things except to be pretty, and they certainly succeed. Building aside, the setting is superb - the hotel is terraced into a bluff over the Arabian Sea, coconut trees all around ("Kerala" means "the land of coconuts"), waves crashing, and stars overhead. I realized this is the first time I've seen stars in India, since I've been in big cities everywhere else.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Bangalore continued to be fun, and mad props are due to Gangarams bookshop, recommended to me by one of my Mumbai friends. Debbie (the librarian, totally my favorite perosn to pal around with) and I went crazy in there, buying books and presents. Then we strolled over to the customer service desk where they estimated my shipping costs and brought me tea. While this was incredibly convenient and kind, I had a moment of feeling really guilty about the color of my skin and the baggage of that: a staff person brought over a chair and kept saying "sit, sit" even though I told him I didn't need to, and the Indian man behind me made some sort of clucking noise, making me think he had probably had enough of white women getting special thigns. This was not the first time it has appeared that we've gotten to do or see something special, or at least something a little unusual, because we're a bunch of mostly white American scholars/tourists, but this was the first time it had happened to me by myself. It's tricky - I certainly don't ever intend to act like a memsahib but when the government is putting you up in the hotels like we're in, I can see why everyone thinks I am one (or thinks that I think I am one).

From Bangalore we took a day trip to Mysore. Bollywood people please note that we drove through some hills in which parts of Sholay were filmed. We stayed in the maharaja's guest palace. Yes, that's right. It was like being in a period piece; one felt wildly underdressed in trousers and a shirt, wishing one had a ball gown on and a bejewelled prince on one's arm. One, however, did not have any such things, but one did have the chance to celebrate a colleague's birthday, so one celebrated royally. We squeezed in two visits to educational institutions and then some sight-seeting to Mysore Palace and Srirangapatnam, an island city.

Museum-related detour: everyone keeps asking me what I think of the museums in India, so I will just say: I think they're abysmal. Let me say right up front that I had made some assumptions about how museums here would tend to funciton - namely that due to the British legacy, many museums would appear to have similar purpose and methods to ones in the US, Canada, and Australia. Based on what I have observed, I am very, very wrong about that, and I apologize to the entire Indian museum community about the befuddled comments I have made as I have poked around the nine musems I have visited. It now seems pretty clear that as a whole Indian musems have different missions, purposes, and ways of operating that I do not intuit.

That said, there are major problems in both conservation and education in every institution I have visited. This country's physical cultural heritage is being baked, steamed, and eroded; it is dusty, dingy, overly lit, and encased in plastic that I'm sure was PVC; metal artifacts are mounted with unbuffered metal nails, furniture fabric is water damaged, and textiles are pinned to backing boards with thumbtacks at the corners, sagging in the middle. In Bangalore I noticed a stone sculpture had actually fallen through its wooden support furniture and had just been left there, only its top portion visible amidst the splintered wood. That same museum had rows of miniature paintings nicely framed but the frames were all crooked on the wall. It's like nobody has worked there in the last 100 years, even though I saw at least three staff people there.

Some more examples: today at an art museum we had to take off our shoes before going in, which is fine and not at all uncommon in various types of institutions and homes here of course, and we were told it was so we would not track in dust; we get inside to find the windows all wide open. The National Museum of Modern Art in Mumbai had signs in English and Hindi telling us to be quiet, but the labels were only in English. What kind of message is that? Only people who can read English deserve to know what something is? I don't know why I ask - text of any kind is not a habit here and I have been able to find out very, very little about any artifact in any musem. The Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai provided some context here and there, especially in its Indus Valley civilizations section, and the musem in the summer palace in Srirangapatnam had some very clever labels with pictures of artifacts from that time/place that had been given away or taken, with an explanation of what it was and where it had wound up. I thought this was an exceptionally smart way to raise the issue of conquest and cultural heritage without making a big stink about it. These labels left the reader to wonder why that stuff had gone away and whether India might like it back, which is what we should all be wondering. Anyway, overall, most artifacts have only a name attached to them; sometimes you can find a date and place. Very seldom is there any kind of overarching contextual panel with information on what the exhibit is about and why anyone should look at it, what it can tell us, how it fits within Indian culture.

Okay, that's done. Please, please, please believe me that I'm sure there's a lot I don't know about Indian museums, how they are intended to function, what services they hope to provide, etc. And I can only imagine how big a question resources mgiht be. But there are so many things that oculd be improved so easily, almost for free. And yes, please do write in and tell me what I don't know. And yes, I'm willing to come help, if someone can put me up for a few weeks at a time. But I'm not helping in July - November through February only.

Museum detour over. What was I talking about before? I have no idea. Anyway. Now we're in Kerala. I bought a sari. I have no idea what I'm going to do with a sari, but it was so pretty I had to have it. (I also bought a sari for Spurlock but frankly it's much less lovely, but that's fine, because it's going get little grubby kid hands all over it.) Today we visited a film studio and we met a famous Malayalam (is that a fun word to say or what?!?) actor. I have no idea who he is but I promise to post a piture when I get home and people can write in and tell me. We also got to see the sound studio where they dub in the dialogue, and there was a cluster of music stands, I assume for playback singers. Super cool. South India has really delivered on movie posters and I've seen two of the giant painted actor cut-outs. Again, pictures will come in August. I've been flipping through my photos and a shocking proportion are movie-related. Well, maybe not so shocking.

I'm sorry, I'm completely running out of steam. A cold has been making its nefarious way around our group and I have a touch of it, and the steamy weather makes me sleepy. Truly it is hard to be me. (Those who know will dial Sting for me, na?)

The other day we were talking about our top five Indian experiences and I was hard-pressed to choose; just being here, just realizing every few hours that oh my goodness I'm in India, is amazing to me; meeting friends has been the highlight, though, these wonderful people who have shared so much with me and been a continual supply of fun and interesting learning. Very special apologies to the two in Bangalore I wasn't able to meet up with - phone problems, schedule problems, bah!

Okay. The power keeps cutting out and it's time for dinner. On the beach.

from Mumbai to Bangalore

2006-07-17T08:10:00.000-05:00

We left Mumbai this morning and all I can think about is when I'll get to come back. We were there such a short time and got such a teeny, tiny taste - which is true of all the places we're going, really, but I felt it so dearly in Mumbai. Heartfelt thanks to all the lovely friends who were willing to come across the city to meet me - and for sharing their city and their lives with me! There's no real way to describe how wonderful it is to get to spend face-to-face time with people I've known virtually; their perspectives on their city, culture, current events, etc., are icing on the cake.

Speaking of cake, Mumbai yielded some excellent western-style desserts; while I've cheerfully sampled my way through and over my pre-trip feeling of "enh" towards Indian sweets, sometimes there is no substitute for chocolate mousse cake.

So, what did I do in Mumbai other than hang out with friends? We watched a documenary about Dharavi, Asia's biggest slum, and its community cohesion and had a discussion with the filmmakers and the social workers who were profiled in the film. We visited a municipal school that has been adopted by a wonderful charity agency and saw just how amazing their work is, how great these kids and teachers are doing. We went on a sight-seeing trip to a Jain temple (where the incense was so strong I thought I was going to pass out; I was reminded of my trip to Italy with my dad after graduation when we went to some cathedral and saw some saint's finger or something with a bunch of candles all around and he leaned over and nudged me and said "not like Macomb First Presbyterian, eh?"), the hanging garden, a Gandhi museum, and the laundry district.

And now here we are in Bangalore. We had a completely free day today, and I am happy to have spent the afternoon exploring the city market with three intrepid friends. Pros for Bangalore: the first genuinely cool breeze I've felt since Chicago and a stunning variety of dessert at lunch, more then enough to push me into a food coma. Cons for Bangalore: the most disgusting traffic-based air I've breathed in maybe in my life; this was made more exciting by a autorickshaw driver who was smoking and reading the paper while driving. But we made it back to the hotel, so that's all dandy. I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow; I look at the schedule each day and all the info promptly goes right back out of my head.

Oh, and another pro for Bangalore: vibrant, moustachioed movie posters that I cannot in any way decipher.

I'll try not to gush...

2006-07-15T02:26:00.001-05:00

...but I'm in Mumbai, so the odds of pulling that off are poor. We arrived yesterday afternoon and for the whole very long bus trip from the airport to hotel I sat staring out the window, still not quite able to believe where I was - and that feeling didn't really subside until later in the evening, when I went to the Gateway of India, where I strolled around and then sat staring at the sea (the Arabian Sea - woah) and the lights, and then it started to rain. I ask you, is there a more perfect introduction to Mumbai for a filmi lover than that? No. No, there is not. Even on the bus ride in everyone could tell how excited I was; Rajan came up to me and said "Beth! You're in Mumbai!" and made a sweeping gesture towards the panorama out the window.

I've been here less than 24 hours and am already loving it. The city vibe seems to have reenergized some of my colleagues, and there is a night outing planned for some dancing and people-watching. The funniest part of this to me is that I am somehow the person in charge of figuring out where to go; those of you who socialize with me will realize what a topsy-turvy world it is in which I am the person who chooses a nightclub. Clearly I will have to fob off most of these responsibilities onto Rajan.

Sorry, my thoughts are not pulled together. But just know that I am in Mumbai, and I am very, very happy for many, many reasons. But also know I had a short but powerful surge of homesicknesses the other day, and that I miss everyone and everything very much. Meeting friends here is really helping, as is being in scenery that I've seen before. A full night's sleep will also help - but who wants to sleep when they're in Mumbai?

Ahmedabad (not in Mumbai, so don't worry!)

2006-07-13T03:36:00.001-05:00

First, thank you so much to everyone who wrote expressing concern for my group and my friends in Mumbai. Everyone is fine. My group was in Ahmedabad, which is in a different state than Mumbai, when the blasts happened; thanks to my mobile phone, I was able to get in touch with my closest friend in Mumbai, who had not left his office yet. As far as I know, the loved ones of my friends are okay as well. Let me share with you the piece of good news I have heard out of this - a friend with whom I have been speaking almost daily since arriving here told me that on his way home from work yetserday (Wednesday July 12, one day after the blasts), the streets were packed with people of all ages passing out tea and biscuits to commuters, that everyone was out on the street being kind, offering, helping.

Okay, on to less dramatic news. I'm enjoying Ahmedabad and Gujurat very much. Yesterday we drove north of the city to see some historic structures - and you know how much I love historic structures - and I was a very happy camper indeed. Two stepwells and an 11th-century temple, all of which were mindblowing. Simply beautiful. Of course my camera battery died at the first of the spots, so I haven't got many photos, but everyone else in the group does. Yesterday night I ate a yummy, if unbalanced, dinner of some kind of peppery hush puppy-type things from a street vendor (no idea of the name of the dish and my usual informant of all things Indian has not been able to help - darling Akshay, what say you?) and a chocolate orange sundae from an ice cream shop called Hapinezz. I figure if you can buy hapiness for only 55 rupees, life is pretty good, na? This morning we did a walking tour of old parts of this city - well, not very old, I guess, a couple hundred years - and witnessed the deity image being brought into a big Hindu temple in the morning, complete with bells and prayers and this amazing scent of jasmine coming from I have no idea where. And tonight there is an outing of 12 of us - plus Rajan of course - to go see Krrish (for those who are not in the know [shame on you!], this is India's big action movie of the summer, and the first real superhero-type movie, complete with Hong Kong action and wire work and all that).

And tomorrow...Mumbai! Is it wrong to fall to the ground and kiss it before I'm even out of the airport? Just try and stop me. And the very first moment I can get to the Gateway of India, I am going to run, twirl around with my arms outspread, and sing and dance. Even if it's raining.

(Bollywood-interested readers, hop over to BLB for special news.)

from Amritsar to Delhi (yes, I know that's backwards from what I just said)

2006-07-10T07:01:00.000-05:00

The pace of this trip is quick quick quick (someone tell me how to say that in some Indian language please) and despite a lackluster review in my guidebooks as a messy one-horse town, Amritsar proved to be a whirlwind and fascinating visit. Sites as they may be, the real joy for me here was meeting a variety of students and teachers in Indian schools. We saw Pingalwara (sorry for the horrible spelling, but my notes are back in my hotel room), a donation-based school for a range of disadvantaged, orphaned, and physically and mentally challenged children; visited a small village called Konke, where we were the main attraction at the school and in the streets; and a government industrial training institute for women, where we were treated like rock stars. I kid not - there was a hand-painted banner out front when we pulled up, the beautiful pigment drawings on the sidewalks, garlands, bouquets, special presentations of games and handiwork, and Punjabi folk dancing. And yes, as soon as it became clear that it was okay for us to join the dancing, I did so. Oh, and the school had put out a sapling tree for each of us to plant - I have never been so honored. I cried, I just couldn't take it anymore - the generosity and kindness of people here is overwhelming, and sometimes it seems we don't have nearly enough time or energy to really connect - we zip in and out, exchange pleasantries and get a quick tour, as a few questions, then off we go. On the other hand, it strikes me as profoundly true that a smile really is universal.

Now for the non-actual-people-related highlight of my trip thus far. Friday night, we were presented with a program of Punjabi folk dancing by a professional troupe, who had brought with them a light-up dance floor. Egged on by our Fulbright India staff member, Vartika, who is Punjabi, we all got up and joined in. Later on, dancers came out into the audience to grab a few more volunteers, and one of them made a beeline for me. Those of you who have never danced with me need to know that I am a lousy dancer, but what I lack in talent and grace I make up for in enthusiasm and effort. It was so. incredibly. fun. After the formal program ended, there were DJs with a giant catalog of Bollywood music, and our tour guide, Rajan, who also loves Bollywood, had clearly clued them in to things he knew or anticipated I would like. So I'm sitting there, thinking that now that the program is over I might go get something from the buffet, and I hear the strains of "It's the Time to Disco" and all the joy I find in Bollywood movies just wells up and sends me flying to the dance floor, grabbing my friend Debbie as I go. (Debbie is a supercool librarian who also happens to be a midwesterner, and she totally rocks, by the way.) So Rajan, who was in dance competitions in college (Bollywood people: I know, right?!?! those really happen! I haven't gotten up the courage to ask him if people bring hand-lettered signs to those), is up there with some fantastic moves. He has clearly watched these songs over and over and knows a lot of the sequences by heart. With Debbie and me behind him, we groove through "Pretty Woman," "Chaiyya Chaiyya," and "Boro Boro" from Bluffmaster, which I always have to play several times whenever it comes up on my itunes. The only word to describe how happy I was is...superwow. I told Rajan he had made my trip to India and he just gave me this half-smile and the head-wobble, which I have no idea how to interpret. He might have meant an earnest "you're so welcome, you insane woman" or he might have meant "this job does not pay me nearly enough."

Anyway, now I'm back to Delhi. I love the train. I love the nonstop snacks, even if I don't know what they all are. I like the piped-in Hindi music. I like the porters at the train stations with giant hard-sided luggage on their heads. I like zipping through the crowds, desperately trying to keep an eye on Rajan so I don't get lost, splashing through puddles.

Oh! It rained! Our last few hours in Amritsar yesterday, it rained. And it was every bit as glorious as in the movies. People came out onto their balconies and rooves, children splashed, the temperature dropped, and you could feel some relief. I loved it. I ran out from under the hotel awning and twirled around. Lovely.

Off to Ahmedabad tomorrow at 4:00 a.m. Yes, 4:00 a.m. So now to bed!

from Delhi to Amritsar

2006-07-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

Dhadek dhadek! I took my first Indian train today. Very fun. So much to see out of the window, and I had not a clue as to what most of it was. I was surprised by how much the area between Delhi and Amritsar looks like Illinois - basically flat with lots of fields, even some corn, although here the fields are much more subdivided, by little earthworks or hedges. And train snacks are good! I very much enjoyed my pitcher of boiling water and little coffee packet - and my paper-wrapped white bread (the whitest bread I've seen in some time, I might add) and jam.

After having a late lunch in the hotel, we went to Jallianwala Bagh and then the Golden Temple. I don't really know what to say about either - I don't think I have quite enough context to appreciate the importance of events at the first (the British shot a bunch of innocent people who were gathered in a garden [I think it was a garden, right dostis?], and this is an important event in the Indian freedom struggle) and I felt like we were treating the Golden Temple like a zoo, stopping at inconvenient places to take group photos and things like that (although to be fair I am never quite sure how to behave in houses of worship of any kind when I am there just to visit rather than to participate in something).

I would tell you what we did our last two days in Delhi, but mainly we were in very interesting lectures and then driving around the city to visit a Muslim school for street children and visit curriculum development experts at some national educational baord. If you see Beth Loves Bollywood you will see that I went to my first Hindi film in India, which as you can imagine was a treat beyond treats.

Okay, the group is leaving the internet cafe. Off to find dinner and something cold.

Delhi #2: academic hoopla and tuk-tuks

2006-07-02T10:18:00.000-05:00

I am officially in an Indian city because I have taken an autorickshaw ("tuk-tuk") and lived to tell the tale. They are actually a lot of fun and not at all as scary as I had thought they would be. Of course, our ride was about 3 minutes and it wasn't raining.

Yesterday our program began in earnest, with a big reception under a bamboo-pole tent with little twinkle lights (red, white, and blue, of course) and fans spraying cool water all over the place (very nice until you stand in front of one for ten minutes and look like you got caught in the rain). We were given quite an introduction with much fanfare of "finest educators in the US" etc (which I can tell you is clearly not true, but still nice to be told). I had several interesting conversations, in particular one with a young man who had just finished studying at UIUC law school and a journalist who had written a book on the museums of Delhi and wanted me help trying to figure out where to shop it in the US. My roommate felt completely overwhelmed with all the attention and accolades, and I realized that my years at Massey had gotten me plenty used to that. Although I am v glad not to have an academic gown on at this particular moment.

Today we had more classes - on the role of arts and culture in education in India and the Indian perspective on globalization - and in the afternoon we went sight-seeing around Delhi. I just have to say this: I have never been so hot in my life. We went to the Rajghat, site of the cremation of Mahatma Gandhi; the Bahai Temple (shaped like a lotus blossum made of white marble), where I thought I would turn into liquid before we made it into the temple; and the Qtub Minar, the first mosque in Delhi. This last was my favorite, architecture nut that I am. The maker of some of the buildings here re-used pieces of old Hindu and Buddhist buildings, so you could see where human figures had been hacked away to suit the Muslim architecture - and lots where no one had bothered, so you could find entertwined couples, Ganeshas, etc. Really lovely. I'll figure out how to load up pictures at some point, but don't hold your breath.

And they have been feeding us so much that I'm going to burst, so dinner tonight was a Limca with some pistachios. Fortunately the hotel coffee is good and plentiful, so I can start the morning properly fuelled.

The guy at Champaign's Indian grocery store was right: Delhi and Champaign are different!

2006-06-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

It is very difficult not to say that India is just like the movies when you're staying in the Taj Mahal hotel. And when you turn on the tv you instantly see two super-recognizable faces (Johny Lever and Farida Jalal, for those of you who are interested).

Flight was long but passed in a snap. Customs easy. Airport big. Left airport to feel a wall of heat - really just like opening the oven door, I know that's trite but it's true - and then glasses fogging up on the a/c bus. Saw both dogs and cows by the side of the road immediately upon hitting the highway out of the airport, as well as a snack bar with posters of Aishwarya Rai drinking Coke. Autorickshaws, scooters, trucks with handpainted signs (and one with a series of pictures of movie stars along the door - perhaps Salman Khan is good for overtaking?), Ambassadors. And fireworks off in the distance.

Hotel is posh and dignified beyond all sense. Literally. We were greeted with fresh lime juice and garlands of jasmine, which I never want to be without ever again. When you put your key card in a slot by the door, the music turns on. The curtains are automated. There were fresh flowers on our pillows and little cards of beautiful stationery printed with a quote by Keats about the joys of sleep. And a candle. And slippers. And the hugest bath towels I've ever seen. And a marble tub. And architectural fragments displayed on the walls. And a sweeping marble staircase down to the pool. And a marble fountain, two floors, with floating flowerse and candles. And. And. And. I really am not a hotel princess but this is beyond anything I could even imagine. And I have been greeted and "ma'am-ed" more times than I can count and it's only 9 in the morning. I do not feel worthy of staying here.

I realize how stereotypical all of this sounds, and believe me it frustrates me that I don't have something more nuanced to say, but every word of it is true. A group of us are getting ready to go to the National Crafts Museum; we have no idea where it is, but we figure a taxi ride through the city will be a treat no matter how circuitous the route.

Good morning India!

freakout, phase...whatever number, I forget

2006-06-25T14:48:00.000-05:00

The suitcase is zipped. Zipped. And it is heavy, although within the weight limit for American Airlines (the weight limit on the airlines we're flying within India is a matter of much speculation, but my stuff is well under what the Fulbright people told us, so...well, so I'll just make do if I have to throw out some stuff as we fly from Delhi to Ahmedabad.) And now I'm not sure what to do other than amuse myself until tomorrow morning when I go to Chicago for orientation. There's a BBQ tonight - thanks, lovely friends who are throwing a BBQ! - but it's thunderstorming.

[twiddles thumbs]

Why is it that yesterday morning, having a weekend to myself ahead of me felt so luxiours, when now it just feels like something to get through on my way to something else? Hmmm. I really ought to cherish this - I have a computer and am online, it's cool out, and there is nothing I need or ought to be doing. Or at least I don't think there is. Maybe that's the problem - given that I am going to be gone for five weeks, surely there is something I should be doing, but if there is, I don't know what it is, and that makes me anxious, as though I'm forgetting something key or am missing out on a fabulous last-minute experience.

Oh, I know, I'll find a nice voyage-related image from Bollywood.

That should do.

Bye! Please write!

words of wisdom from Fulbright India

2006-06-24T15:58:00.000-05:00

Our guide to India document includes the following piece of advice: "Joy and pleasure can be the best learnings you take back to the US." Balle balle to that, yaar!

calming down, phase 1: Saturday morning

2006-06-24T10:33:00.000-05:00

As the cool morning breeze blew in over my toes, I realized this is my last Saturday morning to myself in a long time. And while packing is the main item on my agenda today, I figured I could combine useful things like laundry and folding and the shuffling about of papers with lovely things like coffee and email and sitting in front of a fan. So I have. And I actually feel calm for the first time in weeks. It may not last, but it's beautiful while it's here. Now how to maintain it while sitting on top of my suitcase to get everything to fit....

freakout, phase 3: update

2006-06-23T08:54:00.000-05:00

No effects from the scary anti-malaria medicine other than grogginess. And that could be from any number of things, really. Phew!

Today is my last day of work until August 7. I really, really love working for a university that wants its employees to go do things like this. I really, really love my museum for being so good to me in so many ways, for having coworkers who truly support me, for people who understand and are excited for me and for what this means for our museum, not just "oh that's nice." Lucky hoon.

freakout, phase 3: the mefloquine edition

2006-06-22T19:22:00.000-05:00

I have just taken my first dose of my antimalarial medicine. The list of side effects on this thing is a little scary: upset stomach, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, loss of appetite, muscle pain, dizziness, loss of balance, ringing in ears, headache, sleepiness, difficulty falling or staying asleep, and unusual dreams. Golly. I haven't slept well, truly well, in months, so I'm a little concerned.

I heart info

2006-06-13T11:31:00.000-05:00

Have just received our program schedule for the trip! So now I have a reasonable idea of what we'll be doing every day. Quickly scanning the first week of events for museums (very, very few, sadly), I noticed we are given an optional visit to the US Embassy on...you guessed it, July 4. Somehow I think I'd rather enjoy Delhi.

more websites - this time on the Indian-American community

2006-06-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

Asians in America Project's Community Profile: Indian Americans
and
Wikipedia Indian American

An interesting offshoot of what we'll be learning about....

freakout, phase 2

2006-06-10T13:27:00.000-05:00

With the arrival in the mail this morning of the bulk of the presents I will be taking, it hit me that I likely have more stuff than will fit in the suitcase. While not at all a procrastinator by nature, I sitll find myself unwilling to deal with this realistically, to haul out the suitcase and put things in it so I can know with certainty. And then put it on the scale to see if I can even take everything.

And on Thursday, some of the lovely ladies of Amasong took me out for dinner at one of our Indian restaurants (love that buffet!) and it really hit me that I am leaving for quite awhile. I haven't been away from home for this long, whatever my home was at the time of travel, since 1995. I will miss many people very, very much. Suzanne gave me a little photo album for pictures of favorites from home, and it's going to be really hard to prioritize what to put in there, to predict what I'll miss and what I'll want to show people. I do have a picture of Custard Cup already, though, so all systems go.

It's an interesting question: when you live in a place that is wonderful for living in, but not necessariyl for visiting or looking at, what do you take pictures of to capture is greatness? I love sitting at a sidewalk table in downtown Champaign on a breezey summer evening, but the pictures I took of one of those sidewalks don't at all convey the joys of being there, how magical the little lights in the trees are, how freeing it is to sit and let the air blow around you while you laugh away with dear friends.

I choose option B, thanks

2006-06-09T14:11:00.000-05:00

I was just telling my friend Mark, who is studying Chinese, that I know four words for "love" in Hindi but cannot say "Where is the toilet?" He suggested that while I might end up peeing somewhere odd, I also might just find true love, which almost made my coffee come out my nose. Mark is not in the loop about my current fake-pretend international fight over a certain young man, documented here, and he's from Tennessee, with all the charm and manners and mischievously twinkling eyes one would expect from a southern gentleman, which greatly added to the effect of said comment. Mark would be great to travel with.

get a moooove on

2006-06-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

I found this little guy (gal?) on the side of the road while walking my dog the other morning. While he probably came from a set of farm figurines, with a few pink pigs and a big red barn, I like to think of him as a good omen for my trip. So here he is with a few of my DVDs.

this post makes no sense, but I have a good reason

2006-06-09T13:17:00.000-05:00

which is that, oh my stars, I only have ten days of work left before I go. There are a few things I have left to shop for, including presents. So at lunch I walked to the university book store to buy UIUC-themed prezzies for people I haven't met and know nothing about, but anyway. I was blown away by how much UIUC crap is available. Room after room of stuff - there was the typical range of school supplies and t-shirts, which I was expecting, but things like dog leashes, foam hats, pig-shaped keychains (of which I purchased two, in case I meet any small children - and these are appropriate mementos form a hog-producing state). Woah. There is so much irrelevant, ridiculous stuff to spend money on. Here's a picture of the t-shirt room of one of the three campus bookstores (this one not run by the university, at least).

And yes, I know blue and orange are ugly together. Not a thing I can do about it. On my way home I'm going to figure out this power and voltage adapter question. No one seems to know, but I have my camera battery recharger with me, which is the only thing I'm taking that requires power. Can I just say I think it's ridiculous that none of the three Radio Shacks in this town has what I need, so now I'm forced to fight traffic on North Prospect and go to Best Buy? Bah.

On an entirely different note, here are some pictures from my visit last weekend to Chicago's Indo-Pak neighborhood. They are inspired by a conversation with darling Akshay (this is what he always gets called now, for whatever reason, I do hope that's okay with you, dear) about food. He taught me how to say "yum" in Hindi, and it sounded familiar...

And look, the emperor has yummy food mixes.

freakout, phase 1

2006-05-30T17:52:00.000-05:00

It's just hit me that in, let's see, 27 days, I'll be flying to Chicago to begin orientation for my trip. Which means I will have to have finished making all my decisions about packing, purchasing wee gifties for unknown hosts and teachers, creating my Very Special Present for My Lovely Penfriends, paying bills ahead, leaving appropriate information with appropriate people in appropriate places, figuring out exactly who will be in my house when and making sure they have keys, etc. And somehow this all came out sideways at 11:45 this morning. I was unpacking my lunch at work, happy to be settling in for a few minutes of chatting with John, and realized I had forgotten a piece of leftover birthday cake - and I flipped out. I really wanted that piece of cake. It was really good - Suzanne made it for me, and it was lemon with strawberries and candied lemon peel on top, with cream cheese frosting - and I had been counting on it for emotional momentum for the rest of the day, even though it is just cake and shouldn't be accorded those kinds of powers. And when it wasn't there, I felt so sad and overwhelmed.

But somehow I collected myself and went back to my office and scheduled work on my house that has made itself known as not being able to be put off any longer, dealt with the credit card people to tell them to expect charges from India in July and switched types so I can get air miles with it (these staff were incredibly friendly and not pushy at all, I should add, thank you citi bank), cleared off a bunch of correspondence, and grabbed my bag to head out the door for some iced coffee. And even though it's really hot today, it's windy, and it felt good to be smacked in the face by nature instead of by my own stupid worries.

And as though she knew, a lovely birthday present from Tamara was waiting for me at home - a set of packing cubes for my suitcase! She is wise, our Tamara.

recommended websites

2006-05-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

I hope I'm not violating any agreement by posting this publicly. I just wanted to put all my websites in the same place. Which I guess is what del.icio.us is for, but still. This is easier for me for now.

U.S. Websites
Department of State
Information on travel tips and travel advisories
DOS’s temporary registration for U.S. citizens outside the United States
Department of Education
U.S. customs
U.S. income tax
Embassy of U.S. in India
U.S. Consulate, Mumbai
U.S. Consulate, Chennai
U.S. Consulate, Kolkata
Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES)
Institute of International Education (IIE)
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB)
Center for Disease Control
The Library of Congress has a page
called “India – A Country Study.”
University of California, Berkeley

B. Indian Websites
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Ministry of Home Affairs
Embassy of India in Washington, D.C
Consulate General of India, New York
Consulate General of India, San Francisco
Consulate General of India, Houston
Immigration issues in India and here
Directory of Indian Government websites
University Grants Commission
Association of Indian Universities
Ministry of Tourism and Culture and here

Some Indian newspapers and magazines-
Hindustan Times
India Today
Times of India
The Hindu
The Indian Express
The Telegraph (Calcutta)
India's National Magazine by the publishers of The Telegraph
Outlook India
Asian Age (warning, you have to have IE to access this. yay, corporate!)

Teaching About South Asia: Internet Resources
American Forum for Global Education
Teaching Contemporary South Asia
Asia Society ‘Ask-Asia’
The Choices Program
Education About Asia
FirstGov for Kids Global Village
Future State: U.S. State Department for Youth
National Geographic Education Guide
New York Times Student Connection
Peace Corps Kids World
Peace Corps World Wise Schools
Smithsonian Education
Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education
Teaching South Asia, an Internet Journal on Pedagogy
University of California-Berkeley Office
of Resources for International and Area Studies

various cultural resources
Father of the Nation: Mahatma Gandhi
Rock Paintings in India
Indus Valley Civilization
Vedic Mathematics

Indian cuisine and recipes
Indian Food and Cuisine Guide
Ruchi's Kitchen
Indian recipes
Ultimate Indian Food Guide
curries
South Indian Cooking Lessons
All India Food & Drink Page
Indian Dairy Revolution (this is a food product company's website)
Green Revolution in India and here

religion
about the Ramayana
Sikhism
The Sikh Way of Life by Ranbir Singh (ebook)
Jainism and here
Hinduisim and here
Islam
children’s books online
children's audio books
children's stories
PCM Children's Magazine

Bollywood
I'm going to swerve off from the recommended list here and just point towards the resources I've put on the sidebar of my blog, Beth Loves Bollywood. I've used all of these sites a lot and I think they're high quality and useful.

itinerary-ish

2006-05-26T08:27:00.000-05:00

Well, we now know that the travel phase of our trip "will include travel to Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore, Thiruvananthpuram, Kolkata, Varanasi and Agra." Sniff! No AFJ!

point and click

2006-05-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

Where would we be without the web? Stuck in the middle of a 5-person row on a 15-hour flight, is where. I just went online and picked out aisle seats on my transatlantic flights. Remembering my experience on my LA-Auckland flight five years ago, I decided not to sit at the front of one of the long sections of seats, near the little crew areas, because on that flight, that's where they put the people with babies in carrier thingies. As long as I can see the screen for filums, I'm happy.

Anyway, I've spent a lot of time lately feeling agog over all that the web has enabled me to do - and more importantly all the people it has enabled me to meet. I have friends - in India! Wow! So choosing your seat on a flight is really not so exciting, compared to knowing lovely people far away. But I certainly do not knock getting to choose your seat. Leg room is good.

wrinkles

2006-05-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

I have three pairs of linen pants for this trip. And now someone has just told me that linen is too wrinkly to bother with. Sigh. I know linen is wrinkly - it's famously wrinkly. But it's lightweight and a natural fiber, and those were my major concerns. The lightweight cotton pants I have found are...jammies. I love my pink and green striped pajama pants, but I'm pretty sure only Rani Mukherjee

can pull those off. And hers don't look like cotton anyway. But if I can find pajamas that can pass as streetwear, believe me, I'll get them.

mmmmm...packets...

2006-05-14T12:23:00.000-05:00

Can anyone tell me what to do with these?

When I first found out I got the Fulbright, Suzanne got me a little bundle of Indian treats from an international grocery store. In addition to these, there were some masala ramen noodles, which I ate right away. But to be honest, I don't know what these are. Spice/flavoring? If so, to what do I add them? I read the ingredient lists, but that didn't really give me any practical ideas. I am of course very pleased to be able to point out to my friends here that I know what "badshah" means. They are duly impressed, and I just smile sagely, not telling them about the movie.

(For those who are curious, the other items in this still life include my toaster oven; an espresso machine I got for $5 at a rummage sale and can't figure out how to use; my teapot, which was given to me by Wendy in college, hence its mid-1990s color; and the coffee mug I take to work every day. What you can't see, unfortunately, is that my countertop is printed with little blue and brown stars. My kitchen is strangely 1962.)

I want to go here

2006-05-11T15:13:00.000-05:00

Nek Chand Rock Garden, which I stumbled across via PBS. This is what life is all about - dreaming of making a better place and using trash to do so. Love it.

pragmatics - but sparkly ones!

2006-05-09T17:55:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I blitzed through town for stuff I might need on my trip. I've held off on sunscreen and other things whose chemicals should be at their freshest and instead lucked into sales at the camping store and various mall-type places. Among my purchases:

a waterproof stuff sack and ultra-absorbent, microfiber towel (this might be a completely useless purchase, but I have no idea what monsoons are like and it seems like being able to dry something off might be handy at some point)

a very lightweight cotton skirt - conveniently designed to be a bit wrinkly! - that is trendy enough that if I lose it in transit I won't care

shower shoes - please note their Bolly-appropriate beaded, sequined flowers. And yes, I am wearing flannel sheepy pajamas in this picture. It's 6:03 pm but I am exhausted and ready for bed, which means tonight was the wrong night to try my new bread machine to make pizza crust.

So far I have spent $601.12 on this trip. Yikes.

if Betty Boop were a Hindu bronze...

2006-05-09T12:57:00.000-05:00

My friend Trivialmatters just sent me this fantastic link to animated episodes from the Ramayana. Granted I am new to this epic, but from all I've read (Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God; research for work on Balinese Hinduism), this really made me laugh - it strikes me as pretty cheeky but not way off for such short versions of some of the stories. Does anyone else think Hanuman looks like Homer Simpson?

throwing in the towel but picking up books

2006-05-06T10:40:00.000-05:00

I'm giving up on learning Hindi for now. With only fifty-odd days left before I leave, even if I learned one letter a day I could hardly spell anything. Hindi will be here when I get back. Reading up on history and religion and architecture and all that to provide a more informed context for travel, however, will not.

toxic exotic?

2006-04-14T15:27:00.000-05:00

Announcement: it has occurred to me that maybe I am exoticizing India. This is a concept I have only a vague sense about, buried deep in my anthropology-minor past and discussions of "other" from museum exhibit reviews. But I want everyone to know I'm thinking about it.

This all came up becuase I noticed a common color palette on the covers of the books I've been reading. Pink. Terracotta. Sunny yellow. Elephants. Brush-stroke fonts. Mughal-looking architectural elemetns. And I genuinely like all of these things, find them gorgeous and interesting and always have - but then where do those concepts come from?

I really don't want to be a traveler who has stereotyped. I really want to be thoughtful, to take in all I can on its own terms, to engage with what I truly do find, not with what I think I'm looking for. I know perfectly well that India is no more like Bollywood than here is like Hollywood. That's an easy thing to get past because it's so obvious. But what if I've filled my head up with other careless or frivolous expectations? And how does all of this fit with being aware of and sensitive to cultural differences?

My head hurts.

homework schmomework

2006-04-13T08:33:00.000-05:00

(That's for Michael Marcus, although I don't actually know if he reads this.)

Usually a huge stack of books waiting to be read fills me with glee - "Looky, there are so many great books in the world! All for me!" - but right now I feel like I'm slacking on an assignment. A library copy of Maximum City showed up in my mailbox at work yetserday (not because someone stole it and mailed it to me - the university library will mail you your books - how fantastic is that?), and my order with the Rough Guide and City of Djinns came the day before that, and I'm still not done with Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God and haven't even started the Rushdie novel someone lent me. Out of control!

"lie" 1, "love" 0

2006-04-11T22:04:00.001-05:00

[modified cross-post from Beth Loves Bollywood]

I'm listening to my Teach Yourself Hindi CD,

just the first bit, with a keen-sounding man pronouncing the 12 vowels and 34 consonants. Much to my delight, the sounds are pretty familiar to me, after 79 movies. (Yes, I have a spreadsheet. I have many a spreadsheet.) And I recognize quite a few of the words he's using as examples, like...well, I feel guilty about writing them out in roman characters now that I have a devanagari font installed and a book right in front of me that says which letter (are they even called letters?) is which sound. Oh, but I don't know how to type with it yet. Ha! Anyway, in addition to "lie" (as in "That's a lie!" Remember, what I know I know from movies), I heard the words for "one," "two," "three," "five," and "friend," among others. But not any of the four words for "love." Isn't there something really great about a language that has at least four words for "love"?

This is fun but a little overwhelming. This is my fifth start of a foreign language (bah! fluency is for the single-minded!) (and I shouldn't count Latin, because after a semester I ran away screaming, and probably breaking my Roman historian father's heart) but the first with a non-roman alphabet. So fun!

cures what ails ya

2006-04-06T10:41:00.001-05:00

I have a serious case of the doldrums and no amount of email from friends is helping, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I've never been a big practitioner of or believer in retail therapy, but in this case it's highly purpose-driven, and that purpose is noble, so I feel okay about it. I have just bought The Rough Guide to India,

William Dalrymple's City of Djinns,

and Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.

I've just realized that if I could somehow construct a world so that every view I had, whether at my desk or out my window or anywhere else, evoked the feelings I have when I look at that Rought Guide cover, I'd be very happy indeed. Bright swirling colors will always move me.

advice column

2006-04-05T15:29:00.000-05:00

I'm going to put this post on the sidebar (look! over there!) so anyone who wishes to give me India-related advice or share India-related stories can do so in an organized sort of way.

Today my friend Jenny, who has traveled all over, including India and multiple long-term stays in Indonesia, told me "Be sure not to drop your glasses down the toilet on a train." Someone she was traveling with in India did this, and it was bad indeed, requiring, for reasons that are unclear to me, going all the way to Delhi from somewhere not conveniently near Delhi to replace them.

I am very fond of this advice because it is cumulative - it just gets better and better as it goes along. Let's break it down:

"Be sure not to drop [x noun]" is good advice. Dropping things often leads to breakage and/or hazardous shards and/or sadness.
"Be sure not to drop your glasses" is very good advice, because you probably need them to see, and if you drop them you can't use them for seeing. Plus if you really, really need them to see, like I do, dropping them also means you can't see well enough to find them.
"Be sure not to drop your glasses down the toilet" is universally true, I think, no matter the state or location of the toilet. Dropping anything down the toilet is probably bad.
"Be sure not to drop your glasses down the toilet on a train" is better still, as train toilets involve lurchy motion at the least and are open holes at the worst, sending your glasses skittering down the tracks.

my kind of town, even though we'll be far from Devon

2006-04-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

Our pre-trip orientation will be at the University of Chicago! Which means an easy 2-hour drive for me - or, more correctly, for one of my very nice friends, who will surely be thrilled to drive me from Champaign to Chicago, right? And I even know Hyde Park a bit. Not an exotic start to the trip, but not stressful either - and a nice chance to get a lake breeze before the monsoons.

pyaar, pyaar, pyaar, aur pyaar

2006-04-04T15:54:00.000-05:00

I have a sneaking suspicion I am going to fall head over heels for India. I will be soft-hearted and eager and fall blindly past some stumbling blocks, and I will love facets of it I never expected, and I will be grabbed and shaken by things I never expected, and I will be challenged and maybe devastated in ways I never expected, and I will be frightened out of my wits, and then I will rebuild and be all the better for it. Like the person I never expected to love.

I am so ready for this - not "ready" as in "prepared," but "ready" as in "it's time I do something scary and complicated and messy and challenging that will bust holes in my brain and make be a better person, able to share and embrace more, once I have time to catch my breath." I need it.

guidebook #1 (not to be confused with Hero, Bibi, or any other assorted nouns #1)

2006-04-03T16:10:00.000-05:00

Went out and purchased the Eyewitness Travel Guide for India.

It seemed heavier than the other one the bookstore had, but I was enchanted with all the shiny pictures and simply had to have it. I also got a "teach yourself Hindi" beginner set, with book and two CDs. Here goes!

Me. Hrithik. Cinema hall.

2006-04-01T14:22:00.000-06:00

It has just occurred to me that I might very well get to see Krrish in the theater!

90 days and counting

2006-04-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

Approximately, anyway - too excited to be precise.

My head is spinning with things to read, things to pack, things to buy before I go (e.g. new digital camera), finding the lightest possible cotton clothing - plus my usual travel worry of how many pairs of shoes to take. I am not a shoe horse by any means, but I am always afraid that I won't have the right pair of shoes or that something really awful will happen to whatever my current favorite pair is and I'll be stuck.

Tonight I'll officially get going on my reading. I am partway through Jonah Blank's Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, an amazing book that I started in the fall but put down in the midst of distractions.

This is the kind of book you want to read with internet access handy because there are so many fascinating details to investigate further. Like the Imambara in Lucknow, a palace with a maze on the top - how cool is that! Also in my queue are a concicse history of India, I forget by whom, and three books on Bollywood that have been sitting on my shelf for six months (dang distractions).

I have the best co-workers

2006-03-31T14:03:00.000-06:00

Not only because they were all incredibly supportive of my applying for the Fulbright and excited for me when I found out, but also because one of them, my friend Christa, made me this card.

Balle balle!

2006-03-29T23:15:00.000-06:00

Cannot quite describe how wheezingly, gigglingly excited I am right now. I only found out an hour ago or so, having checked my email just in case something interesting had come in, even though it was 10:30 and I was tiiiiired. I'm rejoicing that I did! But now I'll never fall asleep....

Fulbright India website address

2006-03-21T09:42:00.000-06:00

the site
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