this is what I'm going to miss most about India.
a few months ago I was walking to class and I noticed a little boy practicing writing his numbers in chalk on the sidewalk. I walked back the same way a few hours later and noticed how far he had gotten - 26.
at first the fact that pretty much all spaces here are public spaces bothered me. I didn't like to walk in the park much just because there were always so many other people there; I go into it rarely now, but I love to watch the people in it from my terrace. two men trying out kung-fu and breakdance moves on each other (sometimes failing hilariously), a group of kids teaming up to move a park bench, the old guy that's REALLY into calisthenics... and other things that are less pleasant - a couple fighting, a child teasing a man with no arms or legs who sits in the gutter begging, a kid with no pants on shitting into the gutter.
in the US we pay for privacy in a lot of ways. we forget that we're actually living in a world with other people that are busy living in the world too. people here are trying to gain more privacy - gated communities, resettlement, etc etc - but the population has reached a point here that no amount of money is going to make everyone go away. everyone shares the same space, and part of the price of being able to see these beautiful terrible hilarious intimate moments of other people's lives is that they see yours too. that's why people stare. by coming to India you've virtually invited yourself into their house. and that's not easy, and sometimes pretty unpleasant. but at the same time it can be really rewarding.
sorry for not updating this more - when I haven't been working on homework I've been exploring or just enjoying being here for the little time I have left (about three weeks). I'll update soon with the rest of my spring break and what I've been up to since then.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
oh delhi belly
so in addition to everything else that I've experienced in Delhi, I've experienced yet another thing: HOSPITALS.
The main problem with foreigners visiting India is that you will certainly get sick. It doesn't matter if you don't drink the water (which you shouldn't) or are careful of your diet and wash your fruits well and all of that - it just happens. There's too much bacteria here that our bodies don't know how to handle. I've been sick with various stomach issues before on the program, but this last Wednesday I pretty much checked myself into the hospital because I didn't think that I could tough it out with ginger tea this time. I'm feeling fine now, and barring any random terrible thing happening I should be able to leave tomorrow morning. The hospital is really quite nice, and the nurses here are extremely kind to me - I'm going to miss them when I leave. I'm ready to go though. There's only so much time that I can spend in bed, believe it or not.
I might as well take this chance to update everybody on my spring break, even though that happened a good three weeks ago. My friend Deborah and I decided that we wanted to go to Darjeeling, which is in the state of West Bengal very close to the border to Nepal, and while we were in the area we might as well visit Kolkata (Calcutta), because if you're in India you have to. It's too important to miss. So we flew to Kolkata and stumbled around Sudder Street, which is where most of the tourists stay in the city. Our hotel was... not the best, but ok. The most remarkable thing about the area though was Karim, a 13 year old girl who lived on the street. She helped us find our hotel after the one we had made reservations for fell through (typical India...) and showed us around the neighborhood, introducing us to the women that she lived with and shooing away the ubiquitous Indian men that gawked at us. It was a complicated relationship though - the first night I helped her buy baby formula for her little brother, which was more expensive than I had guessed, and after that everybody on the street knew who we were and asked us for money. Deborah and I helped Karim and her mother out a bit more, buying them rice and lentils, but somehow that wasn't enough for them either. One moment it would be "Thank you sisters, God bless you," and the next would be "but one more thing..." It put us into a difficult position, because on one hand they really were facing some considerable problems. In addition to oh, not having a house yet having four children (Karim is the oldest) to care for, Karim's father has TB and they don't have the money for medicine. Plus the money for shoes. Plus the money to make sure that the kids stay healthy enough to stay in school. And and and...
The thing that I've learned about India is this: nothing is simple, and the closer you look at anything, the more complicated it gets. Because almost everyone who begs for money has these problems, or similar ones. And there's only so much that two people can give. That's the bitch of it.
Outside of Sudder Street, we explored a lot of Kolkata. We went to the Armenian church and found an abandoned synagogue nearby; we went to the used bookstores crowded College streets; we visited the Botanical Gardens and saw The Great Banyan Tree, which is I think the biggest tree in the world; we went to Kalighat and saw where Mother Teresa worked; we wandered around the Victoria Memorial and watched couples make out under every single tree; and we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and the Academy of Fine Arts.
A few awesome people that we met along the way:
Shurjendu - this is Anila's (one of the girls on our program) friend from back home who has relatives in Kolkata. We had dinner with him and Anila our last night in Kolkata in this really nice restaurant called Peter Cat (god knows why) where I had my first gimlet.
George - we met George outside of St. Paul's Cathedral, where he works as the groundskeeper. He told us that we were a little too early for visiting hours, but we ended up talking and having chai with him. He's probably one of the most interesting people that I've met in India - he's over 70, grew up in Goa, worked his ass off to get his two daughters through college/graduate school, and loves to dance with his wife, to whom he's been married for nearly 50 years. An amazingly sweet guy, deeply spiritual, and I hope that I can be half as cool as he is when I'm all grown up.
That's it for part 1 of spring break - I'll tell you all about Darjeeling in the next post. But first! A few pictures!
Deborah and me with Karim's mother, who gave us henna!
Here's Deborah with George!
The main problem with foreigners visiting India is that you will certainly get sick. It doesn't matter if you don't drink the water (which you shouldn't) or are careful of your diet and wash your fruits well and all of that - it just happens. There's too much bacteria here that our bodies don't know how to handle. I've been sick with various stomach issues before on the program, but this last Wednesday I pretty much checked myself into the hospital because I didn't think that I could tough it out with ginger tea this time. I'm feeling fine now, and barring any random terrible thing happening I should be able to leave tomorrow morning. The hospital is really quite nice, and the nurses here are extremely kind to me - I'm going to miss them when I leave. I'm ready to go though. There's only so much time that I can spend in bed, believe it or not.
I might as well take this chance to update everybody on my spring break, even though that happened a good three weeks ago. My friend Deborah and I decided that we wanted to go to Darjeeling, which is in the state of West Bengal very close to the border to Nepal, and while we were in the area we might as well visit Kolkata (Calcutta), because if you're in India you have to. It's too important to miss. So we flew to Kolkata and stumbled around Sudder Street, which is where most of the tourists stay in the city. Our hotel was... not the best, but ok. The most remarkable thing about the area though was Karim, a 13 year old girl who lived on the street. She helped us find our hotel after the one we had made reservations for fell through (typical India...) and showed us around the neighborhood, introducing us to the women that she lived with and shooing away the ubiquitous Indian men that gawked at us. It was a complicated relationship though - the first night I helped her buy baby formula for her little brother, which was more expensive than I had guessed, and after that everybody on the street knew who we were and asked us for money. Deborah and I helped Karim and her mother out a bit more, buying them rice and lentils, but somehow that wasn't enough for them either. One moment it would be "Thank you sisters, God bless you," and the next would be "but one more thing..." It put us into a difficult position, because on one hand they really were facing some considerable problems. In addition to oh, not having a house yet having four children (Karim is the oldest) to care for, Karim's father has TB and they don't have the money for medicine. Plus the money for shoes. Plus the money to make sure that the kids stay healthy enough to stay in school. And and and...
The thing that I've learned about India is this: nothing is simple, and the closer you look at anything, the more complicated it gets. Because almost everyone who begs for money has these problems, or similar ones. And there's only so much that two people can give. That's the bitch of it.
Outside of Sudder Street, we explored a lot of Kolkata. We went to the Armenian church and found an abandoned synagogue nearby; we went to the used bookstores crowded College streets; we visited the Botanical Gardens and saw The Great Banyan Tree, which is I think the biggest tree in the world; we went to Kalighat and saw where Mother Teresa worked; we wandered around the Victoria Memorial and watched couples make out under every single tree; and we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and the Academy of Fine Arts.
A few awesome people that we met along the way:
Shurjendu - this is Anila's (one of the girls on our program) friend from back home who has relatives in Kolkata. We had dinner with him and Anila our last night in Kolkata in this really nice restaurant called Peter Cat (god knows why) where I had my first gimlet.
George - we met George outside of St. Paul's Cathedral, where he works as the groundskeeper. He told us that we were a little too early for visiting hours, but we ended up talking and having chai with him. He's probably one of the most interesting people that I've met in India - he's over 70, grew up in Goa, worked his ass off to get his two daughters through college/graduate school, and loves to dance with his wife, to whom he's been married for nearly 50 years. An amazingly sweet guy, deeply spiritual, and I hope that I can be half as cool as he is when I'm all grown up.
That's it for part 1 of spring break - I'll tell you all about Darjeeling in the next post. But first! A few pictures!
Deborah and me with Karim's mother, who gave us henna!
Here's Deborah with George!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
so
Here's an update finally, but I'm not going to talk about my trip in this one.
No, this post is about the many problems that plague IES Delhi.
Some problems are inherent in study abroad programs, I know. For one thing, this particular program is extremely new; for another, any and all study abroad programs, particularly those in developing countries, are going to subvert expectations to a certain extent. That's partially why I came here - I know that I needed my world-view shaken up a bit. However, this particular program has certain problems that I don't think are unavoidable. We'll start with the one that has become most pertinent.
"Domestic Help" + theft
like most middle-upper-class Indian households, the IES student residence has servants. The staff refers to them as the domestic help, but for a Westerner who has never even had a cleaning lady, that's pretty indistinguishable from servants. All of us were uncomfortable with their presence simply because of different cultural standards - it's very strange watching someone sweep my room when I know that I can do it myself - and honestly Parul, our residence coordinator, didn't help with that much, as she especially treated them as if they owed her the world. Every morning Pawan or his wife Maya would come into our rooms and sweep the floors, which was all well and good until one girl found a few hundred rupees missing from her wallet. She took it for simple absent-mindedness until more girls started realizing that money was being taken out of wallets and bags. This came to a head when one girl had 4000 rupees (about $100, but it buys so much more here) taken out of her wallet while she was in the room sleeping. Vibha, the program director, was pretty reluctant to accuse the staff, so we all got a big lecture on the importance of not stealing and of keeping everything important locked up even if we were in the residence, despite the fact that all of the locks to the drawers of our desks - if they even work - are identical. The thefts stopped for a few weeks and started up again at the beginning of this week, climaxing when one girl's entire wallet went missing. She searched for it furiously and we all helped, again assuming it was merely misplaced; at one point however, her room was empty for about the space of a minute, with the outside ground-level window open. The wallet was then discovered, empty, in the middle of the room, most likely having been thrown in from the window after the hue and cry of the wallet search had started. The only people with access to that particular side of the house is the 'domestic help.' Additionally, students from last semester have reported missing money as well under the same circumstances.
So basically this has made an already awkward situation worse. There's no way of trying to ignore the thefts at this point or pretending that we don't have relatively clear evidence as to who has been doing it, and all of the students have agreed that Maya and Pawan should no longer be employed by IES or present in the residence. Which breaks my heart even as I agree with it - it's pretty obvious that the stealing was in part driven by compulsion, and they have a two-year-old kid. But over 10,000 rupees has gone missing in a program that we are already paying a hefty sum for. Vibha is going to announce her decision tonight - I can't imagine that it will be anything other than Maya and Pawan leaving their position.
What frustrates me most is how this has been handled. Vibha is constantly asking us for help and then putting the responsibility of what happens to them on us despite the fact that the responsibility is hers, as she hired the staff and did not handle the situation adequately when it first arose. Also, this is, you know, HER JOB. Parul is pretty useless when it comes to this, as has been the case almost always - apparently she was the only one who even applied for this position, so we're not exactly getting expert help here. She's incredibly small-minded, tactless, and incompetent, and Vibha, while intelligent, is extremely duplicitous and pretentious.
I've loved being in India, but if I had known what I know about the program now, I would not have chosen IES. The entire program is marked with miscommunication and misinformation - much of it deliberate - and the inability for the leaders to treat us like adults. The majority of the staff I respect and love (then again, it consists of maybe 10 people including professors), but these two positions are incredibly important and are filled by people who are not doing their jobs correctly and moreover often blaming us for their lapses.
Sorry that this isn't a very happy update - you should check out my pictures to get a sense of where I've been going. Spring break was honestly amazing - I think that I want to end up living in Darjeeling, it's so beautiful. (Plus the tea and momos are amazing!) Feel free to ask any questions here about specifics of my trip or my complaints; I know already that I'm going to ask the UPS study abroad office to put me into contact with anyone who is considering this program because people honestly need to be warned about the inefficiencies here.
No, this post is about the many problems that plague IES Delhi.
Some problems are inherent in study abroad programs, I know. For one thing, this particular program is extremely new; for another, any and all study abroad programs, particularly those in developing countries, are going to subvert expectations to a certain extent. That's partially why I came here - I know that I needed my world-view shaken up a bit. However, this particular program has certain problems that I don't think are unavoidable. We'll start with the one that has become most pertinent.
"Domestic Help" + theft
like most middle-upper-class Indian households, the IES student residence has servants. The staff refers to them as the domestic help, but for a Westerner who has never even had a cleaning lady, that's pretty indistinguishable from servants. All of us were uncomfortable with their presence simply because of different cultural standards - it's very strange watching someone sweep my room when I know that I can do it myself - and honestly Parul, our residence coordinator, didn't help with that much, as she especially treated them as if they owed her the world. Every morning Pawan or his wife Maya would come into our rooms and sweep the floors, which was all well and good until one girl found a few hundred rupees missing from her wallet. She took it for simple absent-mindedness until more girls started realizing that money was being taken out of wallets and bags. This came to a head when one girl had 4000 rupees (about $100, but it buys so much more here) taken out of her wallet while she was in the room sleeping. Vibha, the program director, was pretty reluctant to accuse the staff, so we all got a big lecture on the importance of not stealing and of keeping everything important locked up even if we were in the residence, despite the fact that all of the locks to the drawers of our desks - if they even work - are identical. The thefts stopped for a few weeks and started up again at the beginning of this week, climaxing when one girl's entire wallet went missing. She searched for it furiously and we all helped, again assuming it was merely misplaced; at one point however, her room was empty for about the space of a minute, with the outside ground-level window open. The wallet was then discovered, empty, in the middle of the room, most likely having been thrown in from the window after the hue and cry of the wallet search had started. The only people with access to that particular side of the house is the 'domestic help.' Additionally, students from last semester have reported missing money as well under the same circumstances.
So basically this has made an already awkward situation worse. There's no way of trying to ignore the thefts at this point or pretending that we don't have relatively clear evidence as to who has been doing it, and all of the students have agreed that Maya and Pawan should no longer be employed by IES or present in the residence. Which breaks my heart even as I agree with it - it's pretty obvious that the stealing was in part driven by compulsion, and they have a two-year-old kid. But over 10,000 rupees has gone missing in a program that we are already paying a hefty sum for. Vibha is going to announce her decision tonight - I can't imagine that it will be anything other than Maya and Pawan leaving their position.
What frustrates me most is how this has been handled. Vibha is constantly asking us for help and then putting the responsibility of what happens to them on us despite the fact that the responsibility is hers, as she hired the staff and did not handle the situation adequately when it first arose. Also, this is, you know, HER JOB. Parul is pretty useless when it comes to this, as has been the case almost always - apparently she was the only one who even applied for this position, so we're not exactly getting expert help here. She's incredibly small-minded, tactless, and incompetent, and Vibha, while intelligent, is extremely duplicitous and pretentious.
I've loved being in India, but if I had known what I know about the program now, I would not have chosen IES. The entire program is marked with miscommunication and misinformation - much of it deliberate - and the inability for the leaders to treat us like adults. The majority of the staff I respect and love (then again, it consists of maybe 10 people including professors), but these two positions are incredibly important and are filled by people who are not doing their jobs correctly and moreover often blaming us for their lapses.
Sorry that this isn't a very happy update - you should check out my pictures to get a sense of where I've been going. Spring break was honestly amazing - I think that I want to end up living in Darjeeling, it's so beautiful. (Plus the tea and momos are amazing!) Feel free to ask any questions here about specifics of my trip or my complaints; I know already that I'm going to ask the UPS study abroad office to put me into contact with anyone who is considering this program because people honestly need to be warned about the inefficiencies here.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
brief update
Hey all - I know it's been a while, but just checking in to say that things are pretty much okay now. When I have a bit more time I'll give a more complete update on what I've been doing, as well as pictures of all of the places I've been now, but I'm actually leaving in an hour to go to the airport! For spring break I'm flying to Kolkata, spending a few days there, and then taking the train up to Darjeeling. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.
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Listening to: Sondre Lerche - Things You Call Fate
via FoxyTunes
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Listening to: Sondre Lerche - Things You Call Fate
via FoxyTunes
Monday, February 11, 2008
at a bit of a loss
India is great and all, and the vacation to Kerala was amazing, but I can't help but feel at a bit of a loose end. I've already spent a month here and I feel like I haven't done anything substantial for myself. I'm not not friends with anyone here but I also always feel like I'm tagging along rather than being involved with any activities, which just makes me profoundly tired and even less involved. I just wish that I didn't have to work so hard at being around people here, you know? I can't imagine how isolated I'd feel if I did the homestay. I feel alone enough living with 13 other people, who either seem to be happy being alone or have already split into small groups. I don't know.
This weekend I'm hoping to take the train to Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in India, that I've been wanting to go to since before I came here. Hoping also that I can find someone to go with; I don't feel comfortable traveling alone. I don't know, social anxieties just make it so hard to enjoy myself here, and being aware of that and my fleeting time I get even more anxious and worried that I'm not getting the most out of this experience. I'm lucky to be here, I know. I just wish that I felt like that all the time.
It was lovely being in Kerala for its different atmosphere, but in a way it makes coming back to Delhi that much harder. In Kochi there weren't children begging or salespeople that wouldn't leave me alone after I told them 'no' or so many sad stray dogs. There were goats wandering around instead, which was good because they eat a lot of the garbage, and cats. Kochi's probably not going to be like that forever though. It's developing pretty fast, the land is running out, and no one wants to do agriculture anymore, leaving it to migrants from other regions. I think it'll become more like Delhi soon. I feel like Delhi is somehow an inevitability for any developing nation.
It's easy to despair here. There's a lot of hope, yes, and a lot of really smart people working towards better things. But change is slow and there are just so many people here, so many, and I feel like I'm just taking up space and using up resources because I don't know what the best thing to do is or how to do it. Classes here put me into a bit of an emotional yo-yo -- studies in literature are sometimes uplifting by the simple fact that people can write and think such things and that they are out there to be shared, but economics so far is pretty damn depressing and history isn't always much better.
I don't know. Maybe all of this is just part of the funk I'm in right now. Coming back from vacations is always depressing, and realizing that I don't have a whole lot of time left just puts the pressure on. Will probably do more reading for class and then maybe some yoga.
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Listening to: This Will Destroy You - Leather Wings
via FoxyTunes
This weekend I'm hoping to take the train to Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in India, that I've been wanting to go to since before I came here. Hoping also that I can find someone to go with; I don't feel comfortable traveling alone. I don't know, social anxieties just make it so hard to enjoy myself here, and being aware of that and my fleeting time I get even more anxious and worried that I'm not getting the most out of this experience. I'm lucky to be here, I know. I just wish that I felt like that all the time.
It was lovely being in Kerala for its different atmosphere, but in a way it makes coming back to Delhi that much harder. In Kochi there weren't children begging or salespeople that wouldn't leave me alone after I told them 'no' or so many sad stray dogs. There were goats wandering around instead, which was good because they eat a lot of the garbage, and cats. Kochi's probably not going to be like that forever though. It's developing pretty fast, the land is running out, and no one wants to do agriculture anymore, leaving it to migrants from other regions. I think it'll become more like Delhi soon. I feel like Delhi is somehow an inevitability for any developing nation.
It's easy to despair here. There's a lot of hope, yes, and a lot of really smart people working towards better things. But change is slow and there are just so many people here, so many, and I feel like I'm just taking up space and using up resources because I don't know what the best thing to do is or how to do it. Classes here put me into a bit of an emotional yo-yo -- studies in literature are sometimes uplifting by the simple fact that people can write and think such things and that they are out there to be shared, but economics so far is pretty damn depressing and history isn't always much better.
I don't know. Maybe all of this is just part of the funk I'm in right now. Coming back from vacations is always depressing, and realizing that I don't have a whole lot of time left just puts the pressure on. Will probably do more reading for class and then maybe some yoga.
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Listening to: This Will Destroy You - Leather Wings
via FoxyTunes
Sunday, February 10, 2008
large update!
So it's been a while.
First, two weekends ago I went to visit some friends of my parents from back when my dad went to Harvard. Here's a picture of them with their dog, Fidel. Their home is lovely and they fed me an enormous amount of food.
Second, for my class on the history of Delhi, I went to see the Qutb Minar! It's a pretty amazing structure in the southern area of Delhi and was built by the first Islamic rulers there. There's a mosque attached to it as well as the famous Iron Pillar, the remains of a university, and the foundation of the Alai Minar, which was a failed attempt by an unpopular king to one-up to Qutb Minar. Pictures are up at the other site.
A few interesting things though:
The mosque in the Qutb complex was one of the first Islamic buildings in the area; previously Hinduism had been the main religion. As such, the mosque has many decidedly un-Islamic characteristics. Almost all of the builders were used to building Hindu temples, which are more based on the square and a series of beams, so many of the arches and domes in the mosque that are characteristic of Islamic architecture are lopsided since the builders didn't know what they were doing. Also, despite the taboo against any images of people or animals in a mosque, this one is full of them. A lot of this is due to the fact that many Hindu temples were dismantled easily and the materials used in them, including already carved pieces of stone, were simply reused. This is something that happens a lot in the history of Delhi; Hindu architects rarely used any type of mortar (which speaks a lot to their skills), and as such whenever the establishment changed and something new had to be built the temples were taken apart to be used in something else.
The Iron Pillar, which is made of 98% pure wrought iron from back in the 4th century AD (over a thousand years before metallurgists in Europe figured out how to cast such pure iron) is only now beginning to rust. It is much older than the Qutb complex and the mosque it stands in was actually built around it; however, according to the inscription on it the Iron Pillar originally stood in a village about 50 km away. It's very strange.
That's not all though! Last night I cam back from having spent 5 days in Kerala in South India. We spent two days in Kochi, the capital of the region, and then the rest in Alleppey, which is near the backwater region. Kerala is dramatically different from most other parts of India, especially Delhi: it has a long international history, having traded with the Arabs for centuries before the Muslim invasion and also being occupied by the Portuguese (led by Vasco da Gama) and the Dutch. Currently it is unusually in having a democratically elected communist government, the highest literacy rate in India, some of the best economic growth in South Asia, and a huge emphasis on gender equality. It's much different from Delhi in other respects too. Tourists are typical there, going to the beautiful beaches, the backwater, and the old churches, and as such they're welcomed. People actually SMILED at me! Strangers! Delhi is a fascinating city but it is not a friendly one, so being in a warmer environment - both socially and climate-wise - was really nice. We stayed at a lovely resort in Alleppey and I got my first professional massage, which was at first a little weird with being handled completely naked by a stranger, but in the end really cool.
There's so much more to talk about, but for now I need to catch up on reading for classes tomorrow. I'll post again with more personal impressions rather than a hurried summary of everything I've been doing.
Monday, February 4, 2008
another brief update
Hello all! Sorry for the long silence - the past week has been full of classes sort of starting and I managed to get sick again. Next weekend I'll be sure to update with my adventures at the Qutb Minar and the Lal Kot (pictures are up!), but I'll probably be going to bed pretty soon here. The reason why? I'm flying to Kerala tomorrow! So the next update will be full of all of my experiences there as well. Pictures too; I'm realizing now though that I need a larger memory card for my camera, so I'll be on the lookout for that. I won't have computer access while I'm gone until Saturday. Anyway, I need to finish packing.
Mom, I'll try to call home sometime this week.
(meep)
Mom, I'll try to call home sometime this week.
(meep)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
assorted adventures!
so!
This week was more or less the first week of IES classes - I say 'more or less' because one professor is not going to be in the region until Monday and as such the classes she's teaching are not yet set timings-wise. (Instead of "times" or "hours," in India they're called 'timings' like, "The timings of the FRRO is 9.30 AM to 4 PM" although I think that that estimation is a little generous. Bureaucracy in India is horrible - everything is disorganized and largely random. Avoid it if you can.) I've attended "Cities of Delhi," however, and the readings alone are pretty fascinating. Delhi may not be as popular or well-known as Kolkata (Calcutta) or Mumbai (Bombay), but it has a ton of history that is steadily reincorporated into daily life here. Again, nothing here is ever completely lost. The stones of ruined temples are used to build new ones.
Things have been a bit crazy here because it will be Republic Day this Saturday. Republic Day initially celebrated the creation of the constitution for an independent India; now it's mostly an excuse for India to show off its army. The result is that for the past two weeks most of the roads leading to Connaught Place (the center of New Delhi, which is specifically where the British government resided) being blocked off randomly so the army can practice their parades. Tanks, air shows, everything. Traffic comes to a complete standstill for hours at a time because there isn't sufficient announcement beforehand that roads will be blocked. After this weekend things should be calming down a bit and it'll be easier to get around the city; right now I'm pretty much restricted to South Delhi.
Demonstrating how I am an independent and self-sufficient human being, I managed to find a market that sold imported goods and cook Italian-esque pasta, vegetable stir-fry, and mozzarella/tomato/balsamic salad with what I found for my housemates. It wasn't very difficult, but it's definitely gratifying to attain a bit more self-sufficiency here. One of the most frustrating aspects so far has simply been being so helpless; we don't know where things are, and Delhi can often be overwhelming and dangerous if you don't know where you're going. But we're getting better. There are a few markets I can walk to as well as several parks, restaurants, and a mall, and I know of some of the other places to hang out in the larger local area like the Defense Colony that I can reach by autorickshaw (which I've gotten use to taking). The hardest thing here so far has been the budget that I've imposed on myself: 4000 rupees per week, or around $100. Normally it wouldn't be too difficult, but these first few weeks have involved such activities as buying notebooks and clothes that I need as well as other toiletries and essentials. Hopefully once these die down and I know of cheaper places to eat I'll be set.
I still can't believe that I'm here, sometimes. When I dream, I'm back at home, planning to come here, or traveling here and realizing that I've forgotten things, or unexpectedly back home for a week or so before leaving for here again. And then part of my brain clicks and says, no, you're here in India, and I wake up. I always have strange dreams when I'm getting used to a new environment, and this has proved to be no exception.
More later. There are a lot of strong impressions that I'm feeling but I'm going to wait until they become more effable before writing them here. peace.
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Listening to: Afro Celt Sound System - House Of The Ancestors
via FoxyTunes
This week was more or less the first week of IES classes - I say 'more or less' because one professor is not going to be in the region until Monday and as such the classes she's teaching are not yet set timings-wise. (Instead of "times" or "hours," in India they're called 'timings' like, "The timings of the FRRO is 9.30 AM to 4 PM" although I think that that estimation is a little generous. Bureaucracy in India is horrible - everything is disorganized and largely random. Avoid it if you can.) I've attended "Cities of Delhi," however, and the readings alone are pretty fascinating. Delhi may not be as popular or well-known as Kolkata (Calcutta) or Mumbai (Bombay), but it has a ton of history that is steadily reincorporated into daily life here. Again, nothing here is ever completely lost. The stones of ruined temples are used to build new ones.
Things have been a bit crazy here because it will be Republic Day this Saturday. Republic Day initially celebrated the creation of the constitution for an independent India; now it's mostly an excuse for India to show off its army. The result is that for the past two weeks most of the roads leading to Connaught Place (the center of New Delhi, which is specifically where the British government resided) being blocked off randomly so the army can practice their parades. Tanks, air shows, everything. Traffic comes to a complete standstill for hours at a time because there isn't sufficient announcement beforehand that roads will be blocked. After this weekend things should be calming down a bit and it'll be easier to get around the city; right now I'm pretty much restricted to South Delhi.
Demonstrating how I am an independent and self-sufficient human being, I managed to find a market that sold imported goods and cook Italian-esque pasta, vegetable stir-fry, and mozzarella/tomato/balsamic salad with what I found for my housemates. It wasn't very difficult, but it's definitely gratifying to attain a bit more self-sufficiency here. One of the most frustrating aspects so far has simply been being so helpless; we don't know where things are, and Delhi can often be overwhelming and dangerous if you don't know where you're going. But we're getting better. There are a few markets I can walk to as well as several parks, restaurants, and a mall, and I know of some of the other places to hang out in the larger local area like the Defense Colony that I can reach by autorickshaw (which I've gotten use to taking). The hardest thing here so far has been the budget that I've imposed on myself: 4000 rupees per week, or around $100. Normally it wouldn't be too difficult, but these first few weeks have involved such activities as buying notebooks and clothes that I need as well as other toiletries and essentials. Hopefully once these die down and I know of cheaper places to eat I'll be set.
I still can't believe that I'm here, sometimes. When I dream, I'm back at home, planning to come here, or traveling here and realizing that I've forgotten things, or unexpectedly back home for a week or so before leaving for here again. And then part of my brain clicks and says, no, you're here in India, and I wake up. I always have strange dreams when I'm getting used to a new environment, and this has proved to be no exception.
More later. There are a lot of strong impressions that I'm feeling but I'm going to wait until they become more effable before writing them here. peace.
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Listening to: Afro Celt Sound System - House Of The Ancestors
via FoxyTunes
Monday, January 21, 2008
people are amazing
today was a good day.
i finally took my first ride in an autorickshaw, which is as pretty essential experience for living in delhi. the ride was more than a little shaky and noisy, but really pretty interesting, and the drivers i had weren't sketchy even though one of them wouldn't take me to the place i needed to go so i had to pay another one extra to finish the job.
i've officially been accepted into JNU, and officially decided that at this point actually taking classes there is not the best things i could be doing right now. the classes at IES are pretty kickass and with transfer without problem, and at this point i don't want to overload myself too much academically and with travel time.
the big news however is the internship.
we visited this amazing organization called 'manzil' (not sure of the spelling, i'll check at some point) which works on teaching, among other things, english to underprivileged people. the language/education issues in india are immensely complicated with tons of history, and the one reliably true thing about india is that in some part of it history is still a present way of life. english was introduced by the british empire as a means of controlling those who would control the populace; now it's one of the few languages that indians from different provinces might have in common. it's not only a necessity in international business, it's a necessity within india, particularly in any job requiring anything above a college degree (university courses are only taught in english). even hindi, the most widely spoken indian language, is only understood by 30-35% of the population. LANGUAGE. gods, it's complicated.
in any case, this amazing man runs this organization, which basically consists of very passionate people helping each other and children learn what they want to learn and experience what they want to experience. it might not be the most practical organization, but it seems effective and the man's optimism and charisma and intelligence are simply breathtaking. anyway, i'm hoping that i'll be able to intern with this organization.
not everything through IES delhi is awesome. the director is a very intelligent lady, but at some points in time she needs to remember her social skills. at times she seems to be showing off her knowledge at the expense of the students obtaining information from various speakers. so not stellar. still, the staff as a whole here is pretty amazing and very helpful.
more later. sleepy now.
i finally took my first ride in an autorickshaw, which is as pretty essential experience for living in delhi. the ride was more than a little shaky and noisy, but really pretty interesting, and the drivers i had weren't sketchy even though one of them wouldn't take me to the place i needed to go so i had to pay another one extra to finish the job.
i've officially been accepted into JNU, and officially decided that at this point actually taking classes there is not the best things i could be doing right now. the classes at IES are pretty kickass and with transfer without problem, and at this point i don't want to overload myself too much academically and with travel time.
the big news however is the internship.
we visited this amazing organization called 'manzil' (not sure of the spelling, i'll check at some point) which works on teaching, among other things, english to underprivileged people. the language/education issues in india are immensely complicated with tons of history, and the one reliably true thing about india is that in some part of it history is still a present way of life. english was introduced by the british empire as a means of controlling those who would control the populace; now it's one of the few languages that indians from different provinces might have in common. it's not only a necessity in international business, it's a necessity within india, particularly in any job requiring anything above a college degree (university courses are only taught in english). even hindi, the most widely spoken indian language, is only understood by 30-35% of the population. LANGUAGE. gods, it's complicated.
in any case, this amazing man runs this organization, which basically consists of very passionate people helping each other and children learn what they want to learn and experience what they want to experience. it might not be the most practical organization, but it seems effective and the man's optimism and charisma and intelligence are simply breathtaking. anyway, i'm hoping that i'll be able to intern with this organization.
not everything through IES delhi is awesome. the director is a very intelligent lady, but at some points in time she needs to remember her social skills. at times she seems to be showing off her knowledge at the expense of the students obtaining information from various speakers. so not stellar. still, the staff as a whole here is pretty amazing and very helpful.
more later. sleepy now.
Friday, January 18, 2008
buh
this has been a quiet week for the most part. intensive hindi is predictably intense - in one week we've learned the numbers 1-20 and the tens of the numbers up to 100, polite commands, how to say where things are, basic directions, introductory statements, and a LOT of vocabulary, as well as about half of the extensive alphabet. it's enjoyable to be learning a new language again, but three straight hours of it a day is leaving me pretty frazzled.
not all of the week has been studying hindi. I went with some other people to Ansal Plaza, a huge Western-style mall complex not far from our residence. the first time I went there I was entirely overwhelmed, although in a very different way than how india normally overwhelms me - here everything was Western +10. the indian concept of Western malls is so much more than Western malls actually are. and the mannequins are more than slightly creepy - they have real hair and all of the them are white people. in any case, however, we found our way to the main department store and I managed to find a few more clothes to flesh out the small wardrobe I had brought with me. it's lovely how cheap things are here - I bought three nice pieces for about 2200 rupees, which is only a little over $50. and that's pretty expensive for india.
we also sampled the indian version of McDonalds. unsurprisingly for india, they offer many vegetarian options, including a veggie burger and a veggie pizza roll that looks like a Hot Pocket. the french fries are the same. the ice cream is amazing though.
in other news, I'm considering pursuing the Asian Studies concentration that UPS offers. It requires only 4 classes and two semesters of an asian language, which I could fulfill by taking Hindi through UW back at home after this semester. it's still an idea in the works, but I figure since this semester will already help me fulfill more than half of the requirements it's worth considering.
going to go now - have a bit of a head cold and hindi to study before class.
not all of the week has been studying hindi. I went with some other people to Ansal Plaza, a huge Western-style mall complex not far from our residence. the first time I went there I was entirely overwhelmed, although in a very different way than how india normally overwhelms me - here everything was Western +10. the indian concept of Western malls is so much more than Western malls actually are. and the mannequins are more than slightly creepy - they have real hair and all of the them are white people. in any case, however, we found our way to the main department store and I managed to find a few more clothes to flesh out the small wardrobe I had brought with me. it's lovely how cheap things are here - I bought three nice pieces for about 2200 rupees, which is only a little over $50. and that's pretty expensive for india.
we also sampled the indian version of McDonalds. unsurprisingly for india, they offer many vegetarian options, including a veggie burger and a veggie pizza roll that looks like a Hot Pocket. the french fries are the same. the ice cream is amazing though.
in other news, I'm considering pursuing the Asian Studies concentration that UPS offers. It requires only 4 classes and two semesters of an asian language, which I could fulfill by taking Hindi through UW back at home after this semester. it's still an idea in the works, but I figure since this semester will already help me fulfill more than half of the requirements it's worth considering.
going to go now - have a bit of a head cold and hindi to study before class.
Monday, January 14, 2008
agra and more
so a little thing happened where I sat in a bus for 4 hours with the end result of SEEING THE TAJ MAHAL. you can see my lovely pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/lucinda.stroud/ as well as photos I took while on the road to Agra. In driving to Agra we passed through the more rural side of India which we had seen little of in Delhi, and in some ways it's another world. There are people literally living in shacks by the side of the road that are smaller than my bunkbed at home. There are entire villages that you can see for a few seconds while passing by - barber shops, water pumps, children naked in the street, old men resting on bed frames, women crouched and working. And cows, of course, simply sitting, or pulling carts beside the buses and motorcycles, and herds of goats, and chickens, and camels (!), all mingling with the traffic. The traffic here is crazy and hectic, yes, but in a way it freaks me out less than traffic in the States - people use their horns here as a means of letting the cars ahead of them be aware of their presence rather than being royally pissed off. I'm learning that when the people around me are calm I tend to not panic, even if I can barely hear myself think. And one of the main features of Indian culture is a sort of calm pragmaticism. If you know of a way to make an extra dollar, you try it until someone stops you. If you see an extra meter you can edge forwards on the road, you take it. Things don't always work, naturally - I saw the result of a car accident on the way back from the Taj Mahal where one of the small cars was entirely decimated by a truck that had overturned completely. I can't imagine how there would be many survivors.
But enough of that. I WENT TO THE TAJ MAHAL.
You enter the Taj Mahal complex through the gatehouse. Architecturally it's absolutely brilliant; if you walk in the exact center through the archway, the main building of the Taj is revealed to you gradually, step by step. First you see the center building, then two of the surrounding towers, then the other two, then the mosque and corresponding empty building on the other side. And the size is unbelievable. That people could have built something like this... amazing.
A few facts you might not know about the Taj:
The main building and surrounding plaza is built entirely out of Indian marble, which is the hardest in the world. Not only is it incredibly hard; unlike Italian marble it's completely non-porous, meaning you can touch the marble all you want and no harm will come to it. In fact, the way that the Taj is kept clean is by simply washing it every few years with soap and water; it washes off with no residue. The gatehouse and mosque are built of sandstone and thus have to be periodically repaired/maintained.
Speaking of the mosque, although there are perfectly symmetrical buildings on either side of the Taj, only one is properly situated to face Mecca. The other was built entirely for the purpose of maintaining the symmetry of the entire complex and never served any purpose whatsoever.
The Taj took 22 years to build. After completion, the king's son who succeeded him deposed his father, who spent the rest of his life mostly in prison. He's buried at the Taj beside his wife.
(This is the bit I liked the most) Around the archway of the gate house is a long line of Arabic script; this is repeated around the main arch to the Taj and much of the inlay throughout the building. It turns out that all of this writing consists of 14 passages from the Qu'ran detailing mourning and the humility of man before God (suitable texts for a mausoleum); there are 14 passages because the queen the Taj was built to honor bore the king 14 children, dying while giving birth to the last (who also died). Language is beautiful, and I love how it was worked into the architecture. The way religion mixes with architecture is fascinating.
Visiting the Taj Mahal was definitely the highlight of my weekend, but other cool stuff happened as well. I was complimented by the yoga instructor that visited the residence for my technique and had one of the most physically challenging yet spiritually significant sessions that I can remember. I also washed my socks and underwear by hand out of the same bucket I shower from. In short, fulfilling and challenging. This has been a long post so I'll sign off now, but be sure to check out the pictures and leave comments here if you have any questions about any of them. I'll be working on rearranging some of them into individual albums.
But enough of that. I WENT TO THE TAJ MAHAL.
You enter the Taj Mahal complex through the gatehouse. Architecturally it's absolutely brilliant; if you walk in the exact center through the archway, the main building of the Taj is revealed to you gradually, step by step. First you see the center building, then two of the surrounding towers, then the other two, then the mosque and corresponding empty building on the other side. And the size is unbelievable. That people could have built something like this... amazing.
A few facts you might not know about the Taj:
The main building and surrounding plaza is built entirely out of Indian marble, which is the hardest in the world. Not only is it incredibly hard; unlike Italian marble it's completely non-porous, meaning you can touch the marble all you want and no harm will come to it. In fact, the way that the Taj is kept clean is by simply washing it every few years with soap and water; it washes off with no residue. The gatehouse and mosque are built of sandstone and thus have to be periodically repaired/maintained.
Speaking of the mosque, although there are perfectly symmetrical buildings on either side of the Taj, only one is properly situated to face Mecca. The other was built entirely for the purpose of maintaining the symmetry of the entire complex and never served any purpose whatsoever.
The Taj took 22 years to build. After completion, the king's son who succeeded him deposed his father, who spent the rest of his life mostly in prison. He's buried at the Taj beside his wife.
(This is the bit I liked the most) Around the archway of the gate house is a long line of Arabic script; this is repeated around the main arch to the Taj and much of the inlay throughout the building. It turns out that all of this writing consists of 14 passages from the Qu'ran detailing mourning and the humility of man before God (suitable texts for a mausoleum); there are 14 passages because the queen the Taj was built to honor bore the king 14 children, dying while giving birth to the last (who also died). Language is beautiful, and I love how it was worked into the architecture. The way religion mixes with architecture is fascinating.
Visiting the Taj Mahal was definitely the highlight of my weekend, but other cool stuff happened as well. I was complimented by the yoga instructor that visited the residence for my technique and had one of the most physically challenging yet spiritually significant sessions that I can remember. I also washed my socks and underwear by hand out of the same bucket I shower from. In short, fulfilling and challenging. This has been a long post so I'll sign off now, but be sure to check out the pictures and leave comments here if you have any questions about any of them. I'll be working on rearranging some of them into individual albums.
Friday, January 11, 2008
brief update
not too much more to report, in the light of what I'll be doing tomorrow: going to the TAJ MAHAL, bitches! but I will proceed to relate a summarized account of what I've been doing the past two days. an announcement, though: it turns out that it's a big hassle to import photos to this blog in that it takes a really long time, so instead I'd invite you to view my associated webalbum, http://picasaweb.google.com/lucinda.stroud.
as I take up space I may need to relocate to another server, but for the time being this will work.
in any case, we visited the campus of JNU, which is undoubtedly the largest and most politically active campus that I have ever seen. it remains to be seen whether or not I'll be taking classes there after all - the commute is long and arduous and they don't really have any classes that apply to me - but in any case it's an amazing place. i took pictures of the political posters that cover almost every surface and of the squirrels (well, one squirrel) that frequent the area near one of the outdoor cafes. after JNU was the first bout of "intensive hindi," which was predictably intense but not too bad. what little hindi I had studied on my own proved to be an enormous help in mastering concepts, especially the alphabet. it was tiring though, and i called it an early night.
today involved standing in very long lines. for some reason, only a handful of us in IES delhi have to register at the FRRO office: if you're staying in india for more than 180 days you're required to register with them within 14 days, which makes sense except none of us are actually going to be there for that long. very confusing. anyway, we stood in line for a good hour or so to receive the forms we needed, and after filling them out and preparing to stand in line for at least another hour, probably much longer, we realized that we didn't have the lease or some other sort of necessary document with us. Manoj, probably the only male adult involved with the IES program, seemed uncertain about this, so we vowed to return early on Monday, prepared for the inefficiencies of the office. next lunch and more intensive hindi. and now NOW, in which I am preparing to go to bed and wake up very early tomorrow to be herded off to the TAJ MAHAL, which will be amazing. pictures, I promise.
heart and fuzzles.
as I take up space I may need to relocate to another server, but for the time being this will work.
in any case, we visited the campus of JNU, which is undoubtedly the largest and most politically active campus that I have ever seen. it remains to be seen whether or not I'll be taking classes there after all - the commute is long and arduous and they don't really have any classes that apply to me - but in any case it's an amazing place. i took pictures of the political posters that cover almost every surface and of the squirrels (well, one squirrel) that frequent the area near one of the outdoor cafes. after JNU was the first bout of "intensive hindi," which was predictably intense but not too bad. what little hindi I had studied on my own proved to be an enormous help in mastering concepts, especially the alphabet. it was tiring though, and i called it an early night.
today involved standing in very long lines. for some reason, only a handful of us in IES delhi have to register at the FRRO office: if you're staying in india for more than 180 days you're required to register with them within 14 days, which makes sense except none of us are actually going to be there for that long. very confusing. anyway, we stood in line for a good hour or so to receive the forms we needed, and after filling them out and preparing to stand in line for at least another hour, probably much longer, we realized that we didn't have the lease or some other sort of necessary document with us. Manoj, probably the only male adult involved with the IES program, seemed uncertain about this, so we vowed to return early on Monday, prepared for the inefficiencies of the office. next lunch and more intensive hindi. and now NOW, in which I am preparing to go to bed and wake up very early tomorrow to be herded off to the TAJ MAHAL, which will be amazing. pictures, I promise.
heart and fuzzles.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
pictures part 1 - our residence
So today I'm feeling a bit better and figured that I'd post a few of the pictures that I've taken so far. This first one is sort of the "backyard" to the group residence - it was taken around 9 am, so you can see how foggy it is in Delhi in the morning. The tree that's hanging over the fence has a lot of little orange fruits on it; I don't know what they're called ... yet.
I've never lived in a gated community, but I have to guess that in India it's a lot different; you may have migrant workers there to work on your lawn/swimming pool/ whThis is the inside view of the gate that closes our residence off from the rest of the community. In the US I'veatever, but you don't have them sleeping on the street outside of where you live at night and building fires to keep warm. Not that the upper-middle-class Delhiites are really ok with this - apparently there's been a lot of lobbying to keep stuff like that more "hidden." We'll see how effective legislation is...
This is the gate from the outside. You can see the basic shape of our residence as well as the security booth/guard (I don't know his name yet). The buildings of both the residence and the center are pretty discrete - apparently it's a security risk to have to be incredibly obvious where all sorts of (mainly female) naive foreigners will be congregating. Not that it's not obvious enough to follow all 13 of us when we're being shepherded from one to another as well as whenever we go out to dinner, etc. The lovely girl exiting the gate is my roomie, Beth Graves, who also goes to UPS. She's also now officially our first floor representative!
There are technically four floors to the residence:
THE BASEMEN
TThis is a communal area, although no one has really communed here yet, I think because we're all too tired and the florescent light is scary. The director of IES, Vibha Sharma (soooo awesome), has said that a yoga instructor will be coming at some point and that this will probably be where we'll be doing it. It'll be awesome to take yoga from an actual Indian - I love Martha, my instructor at home, but I feel this guy will probably know more. Anyway, there's computers (even though everyone brought a laptop) and a DVD player/TV.
THE GROUND FLOOR
This is where around half of the residents live and we eat. The kitchen down here is mostly controlled by Pawam, an incredibly nice man with an incredibly beautiful wife and incredibly cute 1 year old boy. It's a small space but we work with it. You can see the water cooler in the back, which gives us filtered water to drink and make tea with.
THE FIRST
FLOOR (note: this is where I live!)This is the common area for the first floor. We have our own kitchen/refrigerator up here that we'll use on the nights that we cook, as well as another water cooler. The rest of the residents live up here, including me! You can see a bit of my room in the corner as well as my bed, which is predictably messy. If you'd like a better look, though ...
MY ROOM
This is the room that Beth and I share. It's small but pretty decent - the only things I'd complain about would be the hardness of the mattresses and the view outside of our window. We basically look out onto the backs of other buildings and a little alleyway that is sometimes filled with garbage. Also, fences. High fences with pointy tops and barbed wire. Mmmm security. I'll post a picture of it when it's light out.Meanwhile, there's one more floor....
THE SECOND FLO
OR/TERRACE
This is the top floor of the building, and is where Parul, our residence director, lives. (Her room is behind me in these pictures, so don't worry - she doesn't live out in the open air.) On the top floor though is a lovely terrace where the air is relatively fresh - for Delhi at least. It was night obviously when I took these photos (about 15 min. ago...), so you can't see it too well, but it's really quite large and pretty. The view from it is decent as well, as I'll show you when it's lighter.
Anyway, that's really all the time I'm willing to put into this particular entry - getting all the photos the way I want them in Blogger takes a bit longer than I had expected. Ah well. I'm feeling a lot better at this point although not 100%; a bit more sleep and careful eating will probably help even things out. Have to say though, if I could change/do away with any part of the body, I'd get rid of the digestive system. Seriously, there has got to be a better way to get nutrients. Tomorrow we'll be visiting Jawaharlal Nehru University which should be exciting. Gonna sleep now. Later!
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Listening to: Paul Cantelon - Tank Graveyard/Valse de Suzana/Dee-yed
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
day 2 con't
the main problem that I have with IES is that I want to take almost all of their classes.
Initially I had planned on taking 3 classes with IES: Hindi, Indian Women in Fiction and Film, and Cities of Delhi. I still want to take these classes, even more now that I've met the teachers. (Except for Hindi - of all of the professors I was least impressed with her.) But there's also Visual Narratives in Hinduism, which would basically be a combination of Visual Rhetoric and Hinduism, and Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality and Literary Traditions in India, which frankly sounds awesome.
There are a few other unavoidable problems too. The pollution is pretty bad here to the point where everyone's boogers are black (TMI, probably, but the best way to describe it). The beds are hard so everyone wakes up with body aches, they gives us too much food so we're caught between guilt and gassiness, and honestly, walking along the street, trying to not make eye contact or step in dog shit or get run over is a bit wearing. Everyone has a bit of "Delhi belly".
One of the things that has most struck me here is the issue of water. Not being able to drink the water that comes out of the tap changes everything - we have to brush our teeth with drinking water. Also the simple fact that hot water is very limited makes showers pretty impractical; yesterday I showered out of a bucket and I'm just about to do so again today. It makes you so much more conscious of how much water you're using and how much you need it. All of this would have made an excellent piece for the water project...
Anyway, going to learn a bit more about mental health and such, so had better go. meep!
Initially I had planned on taking 3 classes with IES: Hindi, Indian Women in Fiction and Film, and Cities of Delhi. I still want to take these classes, even more now that I've met the teachers. (Except for Hindi - of all of the professors I was least impressed with her.) But there's also Visual Narratives in Hinduism, which would basically be a combination of Visual Rhetoric and Hinduism, and Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality and Literary Traditions in India, which frankly sounds awesome.
There are a few other unavoidable problems too. The pollution is pretty bad here to the point where everyone's boogers are black (TMI, probably, but the best way to describe it). The beds are hard so everyone wakes up with body aches, they gives us too much food so we're caught between guilt and gassiness, and honestly, walking along the street, trying to not make eye contact or step in dog shit or get run over is a bit wearing. Everyone has a bit of "Delhi belly".
One of the things that has most struck me here is the issue of water. Not being able to drink the water that comes out of the tap changes everything - we have to brush our teeth with drinking water. Also the simple fact that hot water is very limited makes showers pretty impractical; yesterday I showered out of a bucket and I'm just about to do so again today. It makes you so much more conscious of how much water you're using and how much you need it. All of this would have made an excellent piece for the water project...
Anyway, going to learn a bit more about mental health and such, so had better go. meep!
Monday, January 7, 2008
arrival/ orientation
guess what?
I'm still in India!
Seriously, every time I wake up or go outside or do anything really, I just get so damn excited all over again. I'm really here. This isn't a dream.
Picking up from where I sort of left off last time, I woke up around 11 am Indian time and no one else was at the residence. The house we're living in sits in a sort of gated community, with each house having its own gate and security guard. We're right across the street from a public park, and about a block away is a cricket field for little kids and then another one for adults. I feel bad taking pictures when there are other people around, so none of those yet, but I'm working on it. In any case, I figured that I could take a bit of a walk around to get my bearings.
This isn't a horror story by any means. No one was rude to me; no one even really spoke to me. But I was very very aware that I was a foreigner. People stare. When the IES group walks anywhere along the road, it's like a parade - cars and bikes and stuff honk at us as they pass. Children call us 'goli' - white people. For once I'm in the ethnic minority, and while it isn't bad necessarily it is pretty stressful. I walked around the park a little and watched the birds/children/dogs/construction workers.
A bit later all of the IES students finally met up with each other and we wandered off to the IES center, which is outside of the gated community and across a very busy street. Which is another weird thing about India - if I had to cross a street like that in the US I'd have a panic attack. Here... it's just the way things are, and understanding that makes it a lot easier for me to cope. In any case, we met the director of IES Delhi, Vibha Sharma, who is easily one of the smartest and classiest people I've met. She's amazing and I'm excited to be working with her. After a crash course on safety, rules, academic stuff, we had a tea break (awesome!) and then went out to dinner. Walking over there at night we saw many of the same construction workers that had been working during the day huddled around fires that they built on the side of the street. The class disparity here is so obvious. In a way it's refreshing how little it's hidden, although there are many people in gated neighborhoods like this one working on hiding this inequality.
Dinner = SO MUCH FOOD. India is going to make me fat. Then we went back and passed out.
Today introduced us to more professors associated with IES Delhi - all women and all very intelligent and classy. I'll go into more detail later - right now I need a nap from walking around. Laters!
I'm still in India!
Seriously, every time I wake up or go outside or do anything really, I just get so damn excited all over again. I'm really here. This isn't a dream.
Picking up from where I sort of left off last time, I woke up around 11 am Indian time and no one else was at the residence. The house we're living in sits in a sort of gated community, with each house having its own gate and security guard. We're right across the street from a public park, and about a block away is a cricket field for little kids and then another one for adults. I feel bad taking pictures when there are other people around, so none of those yet, but I'm working on it. In any case, I figured that I could take a bit of a walk around to get my bearings.
This isn't a horror story by any means. No one was rude to me; no one even really spoke to me. But I was very very aware that I was a foreigner. People stare. When the IES group walks anywhere along the road, it's like a parade - cars and bikes and stuff honk at us as they pass. Children call us 'goli' - white people. For once I'm in the ethnic minority, and while it isn't bad necessarily it is pretty stressful. I walked around the park a little and watched the birds/children/dogs/construction workers.
A bit later all of the IES students finally met up with each other and we wandered off to the IES center, which is outside of the gated community and across a very busy street. Which is another weird thing about India - if I had to cross a street like that in the US I'd have a panic attack. Here... it's just the way things are, and understanding that makes it a lot easier for me to cope. In any case, we met the director of IES Delhi, Vibha Sharma, who is easily one of the smartest and classiest people I've met. She's amazing and I'm excited to be working with her. After a crash course on safety, rules, academic stuff, we had a tea break (awesome!) and then went out to dinner. Walking over there at night we saw many of the same construction workers that had been working during the day huddled around fires that they built on the side of the street. The class disparity here is so obvious. In a way it's refreshing how little it's hidden, although there are many people in gated neighborhoods like this one working on hiding this inequality.
Dinner = SO MUCH FOOD. India is going to make me fat. Then we went back and passed out.
Today introduced us to more professors associated with IES Delhi - all women and all very intelligent and classy. I'll go into more detail later - right now I need a nap from walking around. Laters!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
arrival
so! I'm in New Delhi.
Left Kansas City a bit after 2pm on Friday, Jan. 4th. Arrive in Newark a few hours later - kind of a shitty airport frankly, but still better than KC's. Found a burrito place and got a veggie one with guacamole. Never managed to get to Chipotle this break - that will have to be rectified upon my return.
Found the gate in Newark and hung around there for an hour or so, sneaking glances at all of the other people waiting with me. A lot of them were Indian, unsurprisingly, but the word "Indian" is so misleading, because there is so much variety there. North India, South India, rural India, Muslim India, Jain India, Sikh India... and even these are gross generalizations. Anyway.
The flight was ... unmemorable, really. Even now looking back on it, it seems to have taken place in some sort of limbo without time; we left Newark at night and landed in New Delhi at night too, so in a way it was as if no time had passed. But of course it had, around 12 hours of it. Spent part of it watching "Knocked Up" and simpsons episodes available on the nifty little tv built into the back of the seat in front of me; most of the rest of it was semi-sleeping. Before unboarding we were handed sheets of paper we would have to fill out to get through immigration and customs - in doing that I found a few other IES students on my flight: Amanda and Beth, who also goes to UPS. We met up again after unboarding and found Laura, also an IES student. Immigration and customs were disconcertingly easy. The airport we went through, Indira Gandhi International (named after the only female prime minister in India; her story is interesting to examine, especially in light of Bhutto) was very much under construction. There was a sense of dust and smoke everywhere, and that didn't stop when we went outside. During winter the nights in Delhi are foggy, which combined with the dust from all of the construction everywhere and the smog makes for pretty poor visibility.
Driving to our IES residence was a bit harrowing. The traffic actually wasn't bad at all since it was so late; even though lanes are pretty much considered loose suggestions to Indian drivers, I actually felt really at ease with the traffic. Everyone knew what they were doing, from the motorcycles to the farm trucks to the autorickshaws to the taxi I was in, and even though there was honking everywhere none of it really seemed in anger, which is what most distresses me about US traffic. So it wasn't the driving that scared me, or even the driver... for the most part. I only became unsettled when our driver decided to stop following the other taxi that was taking students to the IES residence and struck off on its own. Then all of the horror stories I could think of crowded into my head - we were going to be robbed, raped, whatever, by this driver that I don't think spoke any English, or just left in the middle of New Delhi at night. In any case, that all turned out fine, but it was still worrying.
But Delhi!
There are stray dogs everywhere, trotting along and minding their own business. I saw at least seven around the airport and on the way from the airport to the residence, so this morning when I ventured out and actually saw pet dogs on leashes it was a bit unexpected. People make their homes wherever they can. I saw more than a few mud shacks among the construction sites. And there's graffiti, in both Hindi and English (strangely enough, the English writing was advertising classes in English, but it would be necessary to read English to understand where it was being taught in the first place...). The birds here are different, and there are some squirrel/chipmunk animals that run around our house.
I'll update later with pictures of our residence and info about what I do today. Meep!
Left Kansas City a bit after 2pm on Friday, Jan. 4th. Arrive in Newark a few hours later - kind of a shitty airport frankly, but still better than KC's. Found a burrito place and got a veggie one with guacamole. Never managed to get to Chipotle this break - that will have to be rectified upon my return.
Found the gate in Newark and hung around there for an hour or so, sneaking glances at all of the other people waiting with me. A lot of them were Indian, unsurprisingly, but the word "Indian" is so misleading, because there is so much variety there. North India, South India, rural India, Muslim India, Jain India, Sikh India... and even these are gross generalizations. Anyway.
The flight was ... unmemorable, really. Even now looking back on it, it seems to have taken place in some sort of limbo without time; we left Newark at night and landed in New Delhi at night too, so in a way it was as if no time had passed. But of course it had, around 12 hours of it. Spent part of it watching "Knocked Up" and simpsons episodes available on the nifty little tv built into the back of the seat in front of me; most of the rest of it was semi-sleeping. Before unboarding we were handed sheets of paper we would have to fill out to get through immigration and customs - in doing that I found a few other IES students on my flight: Amanda and Beth, who also goes to UPS. We met up again after unboarding and found Laura, also an IES student. Immigration and customs were disconcertingly easy. The airport we went through, Indira Gandhi International (named after the only female prime minister in India; her story is interesting to examine, especially in light of Bhutto) was very much under construction. There was a sense of dust and smoke everywhere, and that didn't stop when we went outside. During winter the nights in Delhi are foggy, which combined with the dust from all of the construction everywhere and the smog makes for pretty poor visibility.
Driving to our IES residence was a bit harrowing. The traffic actually wasn't bad at all since it was so late; even though lanes are pretty much considered loose suggestions to Indian drivers, I actually felt really at ease with the traffic. Everyone knew what they were doing, from the motorcycles to the farm trucks to the autorickshaws to the taxi I was in, and even though there was honking everywhere none of it really seemed in anger, which is what most distresses me about US traffic. So it wasn't the driving that scared me, or even the driver... for the most part. I only became unsettled when our driver decided to stop following the other taxi that was taking students to the IES residence and struck off on its own. Then all of the horror stories I could think of crowded into my head - we were going to be robbed, raped, whatever, by this driver that I don't think spoke any English, or just left in the middle of New Delhi at night. In any case, that all turned out fine, but it was still worrying.
But Delhi!
There are stray dogs everywhere, trotting along and minding their own business. I saw at least seven around the airport and on the way from the airport to the residence, so this morning when I ventured out and actually saw pet dogs on leashes it was a bit unexpected. People make their homes wherever they can. I saw more than a few mud shacks among the construction sites. And there's graffiti, in both Hindi and English (strangely enough, the English writing was advertising classes in English, but it would be necessary to read English to understand where it was being taught in the first place...). The birds here are different, and there are some squirrel/chipmunk animals that run around our house.
I'll update later with pictures of our residence and info about what I do today. Meep!
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