Backwards

I don’t want to write a post like this but I just have to get this off my chest. Tonight we were at a friend’s house because it was her birthday and we had dinner there after school. It was getting pretty late and everyone in my apartment is going hiking tomorrow (I am staying behind and writing cover letters… joy). We were walking along the street trying to find a rickshaw and three or four young girls came up to us asking for money. Now I have had children come up to me before asking for money and I normally just ignore them and keep walking. They may follow us for a little but then they eventually give up. We gave these girls the same treatment and ignored them. At some point they realized that we were not going to give them anything and instead of walking away from us they followed us and were basically taunting us. During our orientation session our program directors said that we will get looked at because we are so different from everyone here, but no one will do anything but look. These girls took it to a whole new level. There were things thrown in our direction, and they did not stop until we drove off in our rickshaw.

I must live in some sort of fantasy world because I really just cannot fathom how one person can treat another person like this. I have seen it in the news etc. but I have never done this to someone nor have I been on the receiving end of something like this. I knew that India would be different but I did not expect to be stared at, or treated like we were tonight, as much as we are. I thought I would be OK because I am half Indian, and have the dark hair, dark eyes, and a darker complexion, but I still get stared at. We have had discussions about the stares and I always say that I don’t understand why people here look at us like we are the blue aliens from Avatar (we just saw that movie here so we always compare ourselves to the blue creatures). It is not like Indians have never seen a white person, they are all over billboards in Pune. I come from a society that doesn’t see color. We are used to interacting with people of different religions and cultures. My friends on the program always say that seeing a person on the TV or a billboard is different than seeing someone in person. I guess that is true, but tonight just set me over the edge.

There are people like this in every society. I am not that naïve, but sometimes I do like to believe that we live in an ideal world. We live in a time where so many different people come together and do great things. But we are all also somewhat backwards. This term backwards is used so much in Indian society. The term to me has come to mean that a country that is on its way to becoming a very important player in the world economy, can still have people that don’t have basic human rights, like water, electricity or an education. And I also think that there is no society that is not backwards. There are still people in every society that do not have basic human rights, and also are not accepting of others- and that’s where the importance of an education comes into play. But I digress…

What happened tonight pretty much opened my eyes to how much of a journey we all have to becoming accepting of others, and who knows if we will ever get to that point. I really hope we do in my lifetime, and I hope I will be able to come back to India some day after this trip and not be harassed like I was tonight.

Sorry for the heavy post, but it had to happen sometime, and may even happen again who knows.

On a lighter note- I noticed that I am developing a healthy farmers tan… what fun.

Peace

Sinhagad

This past Tuesday was Republic day in India, and that is when India declared itself a sovereign state. This is different from Independence Day because India was still occupied by Britain when India declared itself a sovereign state. So basically republic day was the start of India’s quest to claim independence. We went to a school that one of the girls in our hostel teaches at, and they did a big program with dances from classical dance to folk dance to what they call western dance. This little boy pictured below is adorable!



We all took a bunch of pictures of him, and he was so cute in his little orange turban! I don’t think he was very rhythmically gifted because he stood there waving the flag while his classmates all danced to Jai Ho. And yes they did multiple dances to Jai Ho, unfortunately not the Pussycat Dolls version, which I thought would have made for a more interesting number. After the performance we went to Sinhagad Fort. The story of this fort is really cool and should remind you of a certain movie….

This fort belonged to Lord Shivaji, who was the ruler of Maharashtra about 600-700 years ago. He was away from his fort when 2,000 Moghul warriors attacked. There were a total of 300 of Shivaji’s men (here’s where the story becomes familiar) left to defend the fort. Sinhagad was the general in charge and he and his men fought off all 2,000 Moghuls. Lord Shivaji’s men won but Sinhagad died in battle. So Shivaji decided to name this fort after his brave general. Just like 300 the movie but the Indians did not all die like the Spartans did.

And here is what’s left of the fort



It is interesting that the Indian government let phone towers be built on top of this fort, but to each his own.

Now to get to this fort it is a 10k trip up a very large hill/small mountain. I was with 13 other people plus the taxi driver in a car that is the equivalent of a jeep. The roads were not paved very well, and the road was only one lane. I put my complete trust in that taxi driver going to and from the fort. Once we were at the fort it was cool to see Pune in the distance. There is also a village on top of this fort. People have made their homes there, and they cook meals and sell snacks to the tourists. Their food is also a specialty of Pune. I did not try anything seeing as it was 10:30 in the morning and I had already had breakfast. I hear it’s supposed to be really good though.

After the fort we came home, chilled a little bit, then we went with our host mom/hostel owner to a music performance in the evening. We were told he plays the water bowls so we were all excited about seeing a Sandra Bullock, Miss Congeniality water glasses performance type of thing but way better. This performer did no such thing. He was seated on the floor with different sized bowls filled with water in front of him, and he played them like they were drums. It was really interesting to watch because I have never seen anything like that but a few of us were so tired from the day that we could not really appreciate it. Also the mic’s were way to close to the bowls and certain notes, that he tended to play a lot, really hurt my ears.

The performance was supposed to start at 6, and in true Indian fashion it did not start until 6:45. They played a few songs and finally everyone started clapping and the EMCEE came out on stage and said a few words in Marathi and the curtains closed. We thought, “Yes! It’s over we can go home and eat dinner!” We said to one of the Indian girls “It’s over right?” She said, “No, it’s only intermission.” I looked at my roommates, Naani and Brynna, and we were like we have got to go home. We told our host mom that we were tired and needed to go to bed, so we got a rickshaw home. The rest of the girls from our program did not get home until 10:30. Good decision by us!

And the rest of the week continues with school, and the weekend will be filled with cover letter writing because I need an internship this summer!

Keep checking back! Sorry it’s kind of random when I post, internet in India is not as reliable as it is in the states. Also keep checking my flickr page (link is at the top of the page)! There are pictures on there that aren’t on facebook!

Peace out cub scouts!

Tiger Balm

HINDI IS FINALLY STARTING TO MAKE SENSE! I spent most of last night writing and re-writing the characters and the combinations, and I am now looking around town and sounding out words… I feel like a five year old learning how to read but it’s awesome. This is how I must have felt when I learned to read English. I did yoga today and its really different here than what we are used to back home. It is less about movements and more about breathing and relaxing every part of your body. At one point we were breathing like a dog, tongue out and everything, and I almost burst out laughing. Other than that it was really relaxing.

I discovered something great… Tiger Balm. I think we have it in the states and its pretty much like Bengay but sooooo cheap. 33 rupees to be exact, which is a little under a buck. I am going to buy out the Ayurvedic store slowly and build up a supply. I am basically using Tiger Balm on my back every night because my mattress here couldn’t be any thinner. I am pretty much just sleeping on the metal planks that make up my frame.

If Tiger Balm sounds interesting to anyone let me know and I’ll get some for you!

That’s all for now, Peace

Realizations

And the first week of school is over! It was a long week I have to say. Maybe because I am at the school all day, which is not how it is back at Bucknell. Usually I go to class a couple of hours then go back to my room or the library. It is too far to go back to my apartment/hostel during my breaks, so I stay on campus. Right now I am taking four classes and may be adding a fifth next week. I am taking political economy and development, contemporary India, a research methods class, Hindi, and may add public health. All of my classes are interesting so far but I know that research methods and Hindi are going to be a lot of work. Research methods has a few papers during the time that we are in school which is fine, then a 5000 word paper for our internship. Anyone who knows me knows I am shaking in my boots right now about that 5000 word paper. I don’t write, I don’t like to write, and the shorter the paper the better. I will let you know in April how that paper is coming along!

Now to Hindi… man is it hard. I took Italian in the fall, which wasn’t that bad, mainly because it uses the same alphabet as English. Hindi does not. It has about 53 characters, half of which are the same letter but have different sounds most of which we don’t even use in English. Then there are the consonant vowel combinations, which have a combined script, and we haven’t even gotten to the consonant consonant combinations! I have to say though it is a beautiful script, and sometimes I will just sit in class and write the alphabet out.

This week and weekend we used just to settle in more. We have been shopping a lot, and I bought three saris, and I know there will be many more that clutter my closet! We have been acclimating ourselves more to the city, and we are not letting the rickshaw drivers over charge us anymore! We actually got into a fight with one of the rickshaw drivers because he was trying to charge us 20 rupees more than the meter. Not that 20 rupees is a lot of money (its actually about 50 cents) but it’s the principle of the matter!

I have also recently found out that Hulu and any other video streaming sites do not work outside of the U.S.! Again anyone who knows me knows I love my TV shows…. It has been a little bit sad that I can’t watch my shows, but I have gotten over it. Honestly there is too much to do around the city, and I am too tired to stay up and watch TV. I am planning on catching up with my shows when I am back in Lewisburg and everyone is studying for exams in the spring!

Tuesday is republic day so no school yay! I have been looking through my schedule and we actually have quite a few days off of school, which is a nice surprise seeing as we don’t even get labor day off back at home. The Indian girls in the hostel are planning on taking us to a fort nearby so I will have plenty of pictures to share! That’s all for now I am tired and going to bed!

Peace

We Shall Do Better Than Anyone Else Can

The first couple days in Pune have been fun. We got a chance to explore the city by ourselves and Indian students also showed us around. Traffic is still something I have to get used to. Whenever we cross the street it is inevitable that one of us is clinging for dear life to another person in our group, in hopes of either being dragged across the street, or bring someone down with us when we are eventually hit. Our program directors say, in time, we will be able to navigate the streets; hopefully that time will come soon.

We went to one of the big markets here in Pune, and looked around at clothes and jewelry. As people walked by I looked at their saris and I wanted almost every one I saw. We went into a few sari shops and just pulled fabric after fabric off the shelf, and all of them were gorgeous. The prices for really fancy ones run about 1200 rupees, and other ones that are still really pretty but are more for everyday wear run from 150 to 500 rupees. Now remember that the exchange rate is about 45 rupees to one US dollar. So the really fancy saris are about $27 US, and the everyday sari’s are about $4 to $12 US. If we were to buy these in the US or Britain they would be ten times the price they are here… expect me to come back with a lot of saris!

A thing about the cost of living here: I eat out for lunch, and sometimes will eat out for dinner; I have been buying new clothes because I did not come with much, and I have transportation costs. On average I am spending between $10-$15 a day, sometimes less than that depending on the day. I normally spend that much on lunch back home. I knew it would be cheap to live here, but I did not expect this. It is funny because we will go out shopping, and look at prices and it may be a really nice sari and we say “oh 1200 Rupees, hmm that’s pretty expensive” when in comparison to home it is not expensive at all.

Our hostel is really nice. It is an apartment that I share with three other girls from the program, and two Indian students. I am sharing my room with an Indian student, and she is a fourth year law student. She wants to be a criminal lawyer, and she’s from Mumbai. She is really nice, but kind of quiet. I haven’t really gotten a chance to talk to her because she comes home pretty late and I have been so tired that I go to bed early. Our hostel owner’s parents live across the street and run their own hostel, and four other girls from our program live there. We go over to their hostel to eat dinner every night, and the Indian girls there are so fun. We went shopping with them yesterday and had dinner at a restaurant near our hostel with them as well. They have been teaching us Marathi phrases (the language spoken in Maharashtra) and they tell us when we are overpaying for things on the streets.

Classes start today and I can’t wait to start learning Hindi. It is tough here not being able to speak the language, and most people here only know a little bit of English. Also every sign here is either in Hindi or Marathi, and we have no idea where we are sometimes.

Here are a few pictures of Pune University. This is the main hall, and it is under reconstruction right now, but it was a really cool building. I also saw this sign that said “Pune University for the Nation, We Shall Do Better Than Anyone Else Can” I thought it was really interesting, and showed how seriously academics are taken here.

That’s all for now, Peace

First Couple Days

So the flight to Mumbai was not so bad, but the second leg (Frankfurt to Mumbai) did not seem to end, I don’t know if it was because I couldn’t sleep or I had run out of movies to watch, but the landing could not come fast enough. Also I have one question- why don’t some mom’s tell their children not to do certain things? On my first leg this kid would not stop kicking the back of my chair. His mom did not say a word to him. I guess I should have said something but I was too tired and cranky and would have yelled at the kid. Now I know my parents would have told me to stop right away because its not fair to the person in front of me but this mom did not, so the first leg was a bit bumpy.

I arrived at Mumbai two and half hours late and didn’t get to the hotel until three in the morning. Overall, a long, but successful trip.

We ventured to a campsite the next day. It was more like a hill station, and it was really pretty. I never realized how mountainous this part of India seems to be. I really thought that it was only mountainous near the Himalayas, but there are significantly sized mountains in the middle of the country.

Also Mumbai is dirty and crowded. If you can make out the picture the buildings are basically made of tin, and are packed really close together, and they are not that wide. The traffic is also unreal. There are motorcycles, rickshaws and cars going every which way, and they DO NOT adhere to traffic signals… a girl could get killed.



So we spent two days in this camp for Orientation, and we basically went over everything from how to dress, and act, and what to expect in Pune (I thought it was always pronounced Poo-na, but apparently it is pronounced Pu-ney). The weather here is fantastic! Sunny and warm but not too hot. It is cool at night and I pretty much need a light sweater. Sorry for those of you reading this who are stuck in a cold PA windy winter, I am glad I am not there!

We arrived to Pune today (1/14/10), and have gone through academic orientation, and saw the college and city. This city is 10x cleaner than Mumbai, and it looks like a really pretty city! I will be moving into my hostel tonight, and will keep you updated with pictures and more posts

Peace

Still At Home

So I leave tomorrow for Chicago, and I still haven't packed. My room is a mess, clothes are all over the house, and my suitcases are still in the basement, untouched. As I sit on the couch watching Julie and Julia, I still have to make copies of my passport and visa, print out multiple handbooks that have been sent to me, and somehow grasp the fact that I am going half way around the world for four months.

People, my mother in particular, have been asking me if I am excited. Honestly it has not even hit me that I will be in India for so long. I think it will hit me on the plane, but I don't think that is the best place to finally realize what I am doing.

The one thing I am excited about is the warm weather. Apparently India is unusually hot right now aka 85 degrees and sunny. Just what I need. It is unusually cold in the Lou, and I hate the cold. That is the one thing I am looking forward to, no Lewisburg winter, and hot weather for four months.

Ok going to try and pack... as soon as I'm done with this movie!