why we study abroad..

link 1: the real reason
link 2: more interesting facts about our kind

surya namaskar

As much as I gripe about living in the middle of nowhere out here, it can be pretty fantastic at times. This morning, much like most other mornings here, went something along the lines of:

- convince myself to get out of bed at 6:50 am
- wash my face, walk for 5 minutes to the yoga studio
- on the way there, play with the new absolutely adorable puppies for a bit
- 1 hour of yoga (new years resolution will be completed by march and i'll have 10 months to celebrate)
- walk back, play with puppies again and hold them for little girls so they can pet them
- breakfast!
- naptime before class!

It's like a little mini awesome day at the beginning of every day. And there's definitely not 10 inches of snow on the ground which, as much as it pains me to be missing such a glorious demonstration of the radness of winter, is actually kind of a nice experience.

Goan Wild, or Seeing the ___ Side of India

Wheeoooo more fun frolicking in India! Contrary to my natural tourist instinct, we did a whole lot of nothing in Goa. It was absolutely fantastic. The place really does not fit into India at all – plenty of non-Indian tourists all over, including a top choice collection of the locals comprised of tourists who never left. There are also more signs in Hebrew than in Hindi or any other Indian language around the beach.

Life in Goa is exceptionally slow, a philosophy we took to heart and applied immediately. Armed with a rented car, we spent most of our time bummin around beaches with short trips to other beautiful stretches of sand and trees, to an open air trance party, and eating. Oh, did we eat, it was mostly just a trip of killing time between meals. Fresh fruit all over the place, great Indian food, delicious grilled freshly caught fish, pizza, hummous (a treat surprisingly high on my list of things I miss), and more more more.

It was really strange being around so many white people though and not getting stared at all the time for being different. Goa was a strange mix of Indian tourists walking around in all their clothes, beautiful Israelis wearing nothing, and the local hippies who were just livin out their dreams. Can’t say I feel the need to get back to Goa anytime soon, but I would certainly never turn down a trip there.

Relaxing as it was, I do wish we’d been a little more proactive about getting out and about and seeing stuff. My highlight was definitely on the last day when we started walking up a trail that led into the woods from the beach. We passed some little pools in a stream where people were taking morning baths and washing clothes, and eventually ended up at the most perfect hippy hideout I’ve ever seen. About halfway up a hill, in the middle of a beautiful forest, about 8 hippies were living under a huge banyan tree, just chillin and smoking pot. One girl was sifting through the ashes of last nights fire, leaving behind only the fine grey powder in the pit – it was a very strange place. (Pictures soon to be uploaded) We kept going up to the top and ended up following a dried up river bed which was lots of fun to climb. We also made a friend for the day – a stray dog whose territory we must’ve been tramping around in hung out with us, I think he was having a good time.

Kya aor? Decent week in there, nothing particularly exciting. One of the girls on my program who worked in a salon for a few years gave me a much needed haircut. It’s somewhere between a mullet and an ‘I cry alone in my room every night’ hipster kind of thing. Doesn’t really matter though because my hair just does its own thing anyway.

Last weekend was great, I went with my buddy to his little cousin’s sacred thread ceremony. This is most easily explained as being a Hindu Bar Mitzvah, according to my understanding. This little 10 yr old Brahmin (priestly caste) boy was being initiated into his journey to the priesthood. They shaved his head except for 5 tufts left to represent the 5 virtues, got his ears pierced, and they dressed him as a sage and he had to collect alms from his family. Then they fed us. They fed us so much, ay carumba.

Following this we went to my buddy’s grandma’s house a few towns over. We had a great Indian day – after the ceremony we had a fun train ride through the country side, more food, then walked through a night market where I bought a lunghi and a pancha (both are fabrics that men wear wrapped around kind of like sarongs – lunghis are pyjamas / laborer clothes, panchas are the traditional south Indian legwear), Indian stylin’ sandals, radios (a great purchase), sweets, and we looked at saris and cricket bats. It was a good time.

It’s been a pretty fun week on campus, too. Mostly because we had a rave on campus in a dusty field. Our generally peaceful campus became a crazy party for a night as a couple hundred students went out to bust moves to mostly bollywood tunes with a few strange remixes of the stuff from good ol’ u s of a as well. Most of the entertainment here was provided by the hordes of really drunk Indian men jumping around and yelling, carrying each other above their heads, and sweating a lot. Girls who get down seemed to be in short supply, so when 2 of the girls from my program got going, they were each surrounded by their own personal circle of about 30 guys, even though there was only about 10 ft between them.

I had my first test too, in my political science. Keep in mind that I’m at a graduate school here. The course (“paper”) is on India’s foreign policy, and we had to briefly explain Nehru’s rationale for choosing non-alignment, and then explain whether or not we agree with him. An opinion paper for a test? Oh, India..

Met a couple more people here, some very nice girls. One is from the northeast part of India, where they get treated pretty terribly by the central government. She’s from a community that lives in the mountains that is slowly going extinct. I also met a couple of KGB babes from Russia. They went to KGB school – one is fluent in Hindi, and they had to study things like psychology and the like to prepare them for KGB services. You think the Cold War’s over, Russia’s just warming up for round two.

So it’s been another weekend, this one no less interesting and full of stories than the rest. Most notably, I went into the old city on Friday, something they told us explicitly not to do. It’s a special day for Muslim worship, so there were cops swarming the place, and the riot squad was out too, decked out in blue camoflauge (did anyone tell them Hyd is landlocked?). I have also located my favourite block in Hyd – there’s a small park with a clock tower with key & lock stalls as well as bird sellers around it (the birds are rad, such beautiful colours). There’s also a pretty mosque across the street, delicious samosas, and meat vendors across another street, where there are goats, chickens, and children running around all yelling loudly. Not to be outdone, the various salesmen of various things call out and compete for your attention over the racket of the animals and kids. All of this is put together over the beautifully orchestrated traffic noise and chanting from the mosque into one hell of a symphony.

Yesterday / last night was a pretty memorable one – a few of us went into town to go see a friend and so one girl could get her hair cut. Well getting there turned out to be an ordeal as we had to take 2 shared autos, then get a little yellow auto, who took us to the wrong place. When we asked him to take us to the right place or at least show us how to get there, he said he had to go pick up his kid from school. I only handed him 30 rupees as I was not about to give this dick the 60 rupees we had agreed on for our destination because we weren’t at our destination. He wasn’t about to accept this and started yelling at me, so I started staring him down. At this point we had attracted a crowd of onlookers from the bus stop who were very much enjoying seeing the farangis who can’t speak telugu fighting with the driver. I didn’t really feel like walking away from the driver and risking him getting violent, as I wasn’t sure who our audience would side with if it came to that, so I gave him the remaining 30 rupes, put a curse on him, and watched his thieving ass drive away. We got directions from someone who said our destination was a landmark and anyone should know it, so we got in another auto and he took us to the wrong place, again. But at least we were closer, so one auto ride later we were finally where we wanted to be and eating much deserved ice cream.

Next few hours were peaceful and enjoyable.

Then we go out for dinner and it’s four restaurants before we find one we’re satisfied with, but the meal is delicious. So now it’s 11:30 pm and we’re a few hours late to meet up with our friends who had gone out, but we decided to go find them anyway because they had rented a taxi for the night and could probably give us a ride home to our middle of nowhere campus. We find them at the Taj Krishna hotel, the most deluxe hotel in the city, on their way out from Ahula, the nicest club in the city. The bar is just closing, because that’s what they do here at midnight. I meet some Indian dad and his son who are from Boston and the dad is looking to party and show his kid a good time (he was sweet), and even offered to have us come back to booze at his place, but we (now I realize regretfully) declined, and instead went to a penthouse apartment to have one more drink before going home.

4 hours later, at around 4 am, our taxi has gone home already with some people who didn’t want to stay out, and we need to find a ride home. Two guys we know offer to take us to food and an auto stand where we can probably catch something. So we get street dosas which were delicious and really fun to get from some random cart down some random street. Then I’m off to go wake up auto drivers to try and find someone who will take us.

We get one, and we’re on our way, and this is where the night gets interesting. We’re driving along and suddenly I hear the girl next to me screaming, and I quickly realize that a motorcycle has pulled up along side us and one of the riders has grabbed her purse. Luckily they didn’t get it, and we’re all kind of reeling from this looking forward to getting home and into our beds finally when suddenly something smashes against the side of the auto. It sounds like a glass bottle and then we realize that we’re all covered in egg.

5 am, we get home and I finally see my glorious and beautiful bed. After comparing stories with another guy in the house who spent his night with his friend talking their way out of police fines, my bed and I are reunited and life is good.

Plenty more has been happening here but I’m sure you’re bored of this right now. I have to give a presentation to Indians about Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy in my English class this week, which should be interesting as I’m the last person who should be addressing them about such a topic, so I’m off to do that. Leaving on Friday for Kerala, the state who has proclaimed itself “God’s Own Country”! Looking forward to 8 days of chillin on a raft, wildlife sanctuaries, ayurvedic massages, and visiting Jew Town (yes that’s where the synagogue is and I couldn’t be more excited). There’s also a huge festival in honour of Shiva while were there, and I’m hoping to see some nayyam or whatever it’s called – these spirit possession dances they do. Zabardast!

p.s. turns out Barack Obama is the nicest guy ever: http://barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com

so perhaps you've been wondering what's been up over here

well, last weekend we went on an organized trip with the group to Chennai and Pondicherry, former french colonies. it was very strange to see and hear French in India. the local authorities do a good job of keeping the streets where the tourists hang out looking perfect and french. we were mostly doing more rural stuff, such as a visit to auroville.

what a weird place.

a more logical but not chronological explanation of the trip may be in order.

so we visited the ashram of the late sri aurobindo, a philosopher who has influenced a great number of indians as well as some of the new age types back in the good ole u s of a. he died though, and "THE MOTHER" took over. an indian woman born in france and raised as such, she devoted her life to sri aurobindo and took care of his ashram for him (strangely enough, her remains are enterred in a big shrine in the main meditation area), established the education centre (the only people i saw there was a big crowd of funny looking french tourists attending a presentation of dynamised water [explained to me as enlightened and smart water that has 'listened' to mozart and bach]), and also established auroville.

auroville is a small village built to put the ideals of sri aurobindo and THE MOTHER into practice. there are no laws or politics, supposed to be no money, and other such communal values. it is technically outside the jurisdiction of the indian government i think. it is about 50% indian and 50% white - the foreign population now experiencing some poverty because they came here decades ago and have now run out of money and don't have useful skills (the communal thing didn't work out so well). there's also the Matrimandir (http://www.worldspirit.org.uk/images/india-matrimandir.jpg) - we didn't go to it but it's the meditation spot for the whole area. auroville is also surrounded by a poor indian population that is hired to do work around the village.

we visited a potter there who doesn't subscribe to the values of the community as such but chose it as a place where she could develop her pottery as an art form. interesting tidbits from our visit: contrary to THE MOTHER, she pays for things with rupees. the locals sometimes set up money-less relationships where they just trade things, but generally, she can't afford products such as the local rice because it sells for so much. she also couldn't afford her own pottery if she were to buy it in a store. she also knows a couple of murderers who live around her.

moral of the story, it was very interesting. fun to visit, might be a bit weird to live there, but cool that some people have made it their home sweet home.

just in case you're interested, i haven't read these entries so they may contradict everything i've come to understand, but it may give you a better sense of the dealy-o:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroville
enjoy!

we did a lot of cultural stuff, the most outstanding by a long shot was a visit to a rural school that both gives kids of lower casts or who need shelter a standard education as well as teaches them kuttikathak dance. they put on a performance of tagores 'deliverance' for us, and hot damn it was amazing. the makeup was unbelievable and these kids did a truly impressive job. seems like a pretty cool place - there were also a few people from switzerland there who were around to give the kids a seminar in acrobatics!

we also visited many temples, a sari workshop, a brahmin vedic school, and a church-complex on the beach in chennai. whoa, weird. neon lights, a meditation room, brides in saris.. we were there on a sunday so it was pretty bumpin', and it was definitely strange to see the indian interpretation of christianity.

rounded it all off with dinner at a diner on the beach (i had a HAMBURGER! sorry, india), where there was a cute little baby monkey hangin out.

last week, i didn't have class for most of the day, so i went in to the old city and tried to get lost. damn it was fun. there were so many beautiful mosques and temples, and i stumbled across such crazy stuff - meat markets, a series of stalls selling all kinds of locks, burqa shops, and all sorts of animals, people, and buildings. i was able to butcher enough hindi to make sense out of what was going on around me! i'm starting to feel comfortable here in terms of being in the city and getting around. (this might be dangerous.) i'm starting to make sense out of the kind of mentality that is needed to succeed here, but there's clearly still a lot left to grapple with.

things have also been pretty fun around campus. had a very interesting discussion with a poli sci guy and this one cat who's renounced paying for stuff and the like and lives as though he's already reached enlightenment. i'm not going to be able to explain this very well, but basically he sees us all as being enlightened and we become more so through our experiences and mistakes. i've had a very interesting past few weeks as i learn more about the immensely diverse perspectives on life and what it means to be in this world. i'm in a class called modern indian thought and we've been learning about hinduism - i had no idea. apparently, putting judaism, christianity, and islam under one banner would be truer than the range of things that are commonly called 'hinduism'. no one knows for sure where the concept of castes came from, and it's hard to tell how prevalent it is here. it's sort of like the concept of race back home, but less easily distinguishable.

i think the reason i still feel somewhat out of the loop here has a lot to do with my completely different background. a big element of that is time - westerners view time as a linear thing, and as such, deadlines, appointments, and the like are much more strict, and the concept of life is also linear. the indians have a cyclical view on time, an explanation of which is unsurprisingly beyond me, but i'll get back to you on that one soon.

i've been making friends with some of the yemeni guys (their tea and coffee is DELICIOUS!). one of them is really funny, he's always making fun of the indians (velcome, vhat? vater, etc.). he used to be on the yemeni national soccer team! been chillin with them though, learning crazy yemeni card games and the like.

this weekend i'm going to goa, a portugese colony in the good ol' days, the hippy refuge of the world when san francisco couldn't cut it anymore in the 60s and 70s. not sure what we're going to do there yet, but my plans are:
- rent a scooter
- find a beautiful beach
- eat a fish
- meet a hippy
- visit a spice plantation
- get an elephant shower / ride an elephant / kick it with elephants
it's a 16 hour bus ride each way which should be a great time.