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
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