Saturday

While I was very much looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal, especially at sunrise, getting up at 4 was brutal. We had to meet at the bus at 4:30. Two people in our group, for whatever reason, hadn’t been informed of our plan to leave so early, so at 4:45 Amit had to go wake up Taylor and Maira, who joined us about ten minutes later. It wasn’t their fault they hadn’t been told, but it was still frustrating to have to wait at such an early hour. It didn’t take very long to get to the place where the bus dropped us off, and when we went inside, around 5:10, there were only two other people there. We discovered that entry to the Taj Mahal would be free after 2pm, so Nita ma’am proposed that we change plans and begin the day at the Agra Fort instead, and return later. When we voted, that idea got totally shut down. We all bought our tickets, and then got on little tram things (like at Disneyland) to take us from the parking lot to the entrance. When we got to the entrance, the east gate, we were some of the first people of the day inside the site. Andrew and Cameron promptly took off toward the royal gate, through which the Taj would be visible. When Miya and I tried to follow, the tour guide Nita ma’am had hired told us we couldn’t go, because he needed to tell us some things first. Aggravating! It turned out he wanted to tell us about the royal gate, which was actually kind of interesting, but he made a serious mistake when he said that the Arabic on the gate could only be read by Arabians and Muslims. Irfana and I caught each other’s eye with a look of amused perplexity, and Nita ma’am actually corrected him, saying that non-Muslim people can also read Arabic. He apologized, and then said it again. After a few more minutes of telling us unnecessary facts which we could easily have read in a book, he finally told us we could go in. By that time, I was extremely irritated, and kept trying, unsuccessfully, to convince myself that it was worth hearing what the guide had to say. When we went through the gate, tourists had already gathered in the way of the Taj, so we missed the chance to take a picture without anyone in it, even though we totally could have had he not stopped us. UGH! I was tired and cranky to begin with, and my frustration was augmented by the idea that this lazy-eyed Indian man was spoiling my Taj Mahal experience. After a few pictures by the gate, we walked further in, and when we were walking by the fountains, I smiled at the idea of pushing him into one. We continued toward the Taj, and the guide, who had already told us about the perfect symmetry of the structure, explained that the two buildings facing the Taj itself were the guesthouse and the mosque. Facing the Taj, the guesthouse was on the right, and the mosque on the left. Strategic placement: the mosque faces east. A few of us circled the monument; I was pleased to get away from the guide. We went around clockwise, as I’ve observed is the correct way to go around temples and religious altars here. I’m not sure though, whether it’s just a Hindu thing. Finally, we went up the stairs onto the marble itself. Because it was so early in the morning, and the sun hadn’t broken through the clouds, we were able to manage going barefoot. I love being barefoot, especially on marble, plus I was happy not to have to wear the awkward tourist shoe-covering bootie things. I think those are excessively silly-looking. When we were up there, I still took my time on going into the Taj. Miya and I walked around it again, going slowly, appreciating the beautiful designs on the outside. We took a few pictures; when we got back to the front, Nita ma’am was still sitting on the steps, intently reading the script on the outside. We sat with her for a few minutes, and then the three of us finally decided to go inside. Free of the guide, I was relieved to find that my disposition had greatly improved; earlier, I had been disappointed to be in a sour mood while fulfilling such a life dream. When we went inside, Nita ma’am explained to us that the reason entrance would be free later that day was because it was Shah Jahan’s urs – the anniversary of his death. (Shah Jahan was the one who constructed the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife, Mamta, who died giving birth to their fourteenth (?!) child.) She also told us that, because it was his urs, the real tomb was open to be viewed, rather than the replicas which sit in the main chamber of the Taj. She commented that it was extremely lucky that we had the chance to see the real tombs, because she hadn’t before, and because we hadn’t even planned to be there on that day. The real tombs lay beneath the replicas; we went down the marble staircase to the room, which was very bare except for the festive sheets adorning the tombs. Nita ma’am identified the tomb in the middle as Mamta’s, explaining that the person for which a monument is built gets buried in the middle of the room, directly in front of the door. The adjacent tomb, then, belonged to Shah Jahan. I got goosebumps thinking about how special it was to be seeing the real thing! So exciting! We stood there for a minute or two, appreciating the significance of our opportunity. There were a few men there who were praying. I turned the flash off on my camera and took a picture. Though there was no sign prohibiting photos, I still felt uneasy doing so, which was why I turned off my flash. We went back up, and walked around the building. Miya and I quietly agreed that we greatly preferred Nita ma’am’s stories and facts to those of our guides. We looked at the replica tombs, which didn’t feel very worthwhile after having visited the real ones moments before. We walked around a bit more, through a few chambers. We sat down in one near the back of the building, on a ledge near a window (intricate marble grate through which you can see). To my dismay, our guide found us there. He was with Cathy, who I suppose had been humoring him by listening to him after the rest of us had abandoned ship. Pleased to find us again, he began rattling off some useless facts. I was amused to find out, though, that the room we’d stopped to rest in had coincidentally been a ladies’ chamber. We stood up and continued to the exit, where the rest of our group was sitting on the ledge. We joined them, and we all sat and chatted for about an hour. There was a cool breeze (!!!!) blowing through, and it was pretty incredible to be literally sitting on the Taj Mahal, chatting casually about things like culture at CMC. We took a few pictures, and finally decided to start heading out. The rest of the group was ahead of us, and went back down the stairs to retrieve their shoes long before we joined them. Miya, Nita ma’am, Irfana, Amit, and I stood there in front of the Taj (still up on the marble) for quite a few minutes. At one point, our guide was waving madly at us, gesturing that we join them. Irfana commented that we were probably stressing him out, that he was probably worried about keeping the group together for the sake of a tip. We laughed, and continued to torture him by pretending not to understand his evident dismay. Finally, we went back down, got our shoes, and began walking toward the gate. We stopped though, several times, for more touristy pictures. I didn’t mind; I kind of wanted to drag out our time there as much as possible. By that point, I was extremely happy to be there, and was also grateful that the guide wasn’t getting to me anymore.

After we left the monument itself, our guide took us to a shop where people were demonstrating the process of inlaying designs into marble. At that point, most of us were ready to go back to the hotel and nap and also to get away from all of the people trying to sell us things. They were especially pushy there. Also, Amit had warned us against “pocket sniffers,” (haha) so I at least was tired of being especially wary of small children coming too close to my purse. When we got back to the hotel, most of us ate a delirious breakfast and then headed to bed for a short nap. At 10, 40 minutes later, we met in Nita ma’am/Irfana/Nandani’s room for a continuation of Nita’s lecture. She provided background history on the Mughal empire, and Shah Jahan specifically. A few years into the construction of the Taj Mahal, he was “arrested” by one of his sons, who imprisoned him in the Agra Fort for the rest of his life. She told us that he was able to see the Taj from his “prison,” which, ironically, he had built. She also told us about how the Mughals created a cultural synthesis in India, facilitated by generations of intermarriage, which ultimately resulted in emergence of a new language: Urdu. Overall, I thought the lecture was very interesting.

Once her lecture was finished, I went back to sleep for an hour. At 12:30, those of us who were interested met Nita ma’am, Irfana, Nandani, and Nawal in the lobby to go out and explore one of the markets and find lunch. When we got off the bus, we walked around for a bit before stopping for lunch at an average, cheap Indian restaurant. I sat with Miya, Katie, and Nita ma’am. I don’t remember much of what we talked about, but it was a pleasant meal. I had cumin potatoes, which were delicious. I remarked, as I have a few times, on how different it is to be eating from a cuisine in which it is entirely customary to eat carbs by picking them up with your hands using more carbs – bread. Not that I’m complaining. We had a few sweets after our meal; I really need to write down the names of these amazing desserts. Right now I can identify my two favorite ones by describing them to the Indians among us: one is really flakey, melts in your mouth, and has a softer, butterfinger-like consistency. The other is like a sticky donut hole with a really sweet, oozy inside. Delicious. After lunch, we went back through the same market, and, between all of us, made several shoe purchases. Hadley, you just keep getting bonus gifts; the least you could do is give me back my sunglasses when I come home.

Back at the hotel, we had an hour for more naptime before we left again to visit the Agra Fort. As has become customary, I woke up in the middle of my nap to Amit calling to tell us the plan, which I usually already know. When I went into the lobby, I told him he had a special talent for calling unnecessarily at times during which I’d really like to continue sleeping. After a couple of exchanges, I reiterated my initial sarcastic comment, to which he responded with a genuine and enthusiastic, “Thank you!” We all laughed, he’s such a character.

Agra Fort was impressive. As Nita ma’am told us (we didn’t get a guide this time, as none of us had enjoyed the one in the morning), Akbar had originally constructed the fort out of red stone. Then, Shah Jahan came in and, according to his own personal preference, redid part of it in white marble. We walked around, especially appreciating the architecture. We spent a lot of time looking around and sitting near Shah Jahan’s imprisonment area, which was of the white marble he preferred. It was an extremely posh “cell.” He had a verandah and several rooms, all of intricately decorated white marble. We saw the courtyard area where ladies attended him, fanning and such. From the balcony, it was fun to look out and see the Taj again, because by then, our morning visit totally felt like a dream. We spent an hour or two perusing the Agra Fort; I was intrigued and excited to notice more of Akbar’s integration of different religious symbols in a part of the fort which Shah Jahan hadn’t changed. When we left the Agra Fort, there were more extremely pushy men and children trying to sell things. As it was our last time visiting such a tourist destination, a few of us braved the chaos and began bargaining for things. I wanted postcards. One young man had two packets of postcards, one of the Taj Mahal and one of the Agra Fort. Bracing myself, I asked how much. He wanted 200 for both. I said I’d give him 50. He said, “Okay, 180.” I just gave him a look. “Okay, 160.” I gave him another look. He added a packet of Delhi postcards to the pile and said, “Okay, 150 for all three.” I asked Alex what he thought, and we both agreed I should ask for 70. The guy said, “Okay, 140.” When I continued to give him blank stares, he said, “Okay, 130.” Silence. “Okay, 120.” Silence. He added a packet of Jaipur postcards and said, “Okay, 100!” Because I’d originally been asking for two for 50, and he was now offering four for 100, I took it. Whatever. They were all places I’d been, and I ultimately just wanted the postcards, so I was content. We got back on the bus; Britta and Cameron had negotiated two marble boxes down from 1000 for both to 100 each. Impressive. When we got back to the hotel, the plan was that we’d wait to hear from Amit about going to dinner. When he finally called, after I’d showered and gotten ready to go out, the revised plan was to just stay in and eat the hotel’s crappy buffet food again. No thank you. I went upstairs to see what the other kids wanted to do. Cathy, Taylor, Britta, Cameron, Ben and I (the same group who went on the late night adventure in Jaipur) ended up deciding to leave the hotel and walk to a restaurant. As we were leaving, one of the security guards, who was headed home, offered to walk with us and show us where we should eat. We ended up walking pretty far, but he took us to a really nice, westerner-friendly restaurant. We told him he should join us, and he came in, but ended up going outside for a smoke and never came back. We ordered a couple of chicken dishes, a potato dish, and a variety of breads. When our food came, I have to say the best combo was the garlic naan and butter chicken. Amazing. It turned out that between the 6 of us, what we’d ordered was the perfect amount. Love it when that happens. After dinner, we went outside and caught an auto back to the hotel, where we went back to our rooms and packed and went to sleep.

That was Saturday. I have more to write about Sunday and today, but am tired and will leave this for now. I’ll just say that I’m really happy to be back in Varanasi – it feels like home!

Jaipur

The drive to Jaipur which was supposed to take 4-5 hours ended up taking us over 8. On our way, after I finished writing and began looking out the window, I saw lots of camel-drawn carts. Of all the animals I’d seen in India, I had yet to see a camel. When we got to the city, we drove around a lot; I thought we were sightseeing, which I’m sure we did some of, but it turned out that our bus driver couldn’t find the hotel. When we finally arrived at the hotel, we were received like royalty. There was an awkward trumpeter, and they gave us each the Indian lei things and bindis when we got off the bus. At that point, at least Mya and I were really tired and somewhat overwhelmed/put off by the reception. The hotel manager led us to a large room with paintings, marble, and a chandelier where we sat as they distributed our keys. They also brought us fresh lime water. I keep discovering the prolific, useful nature of limes. Key in hand, Sheila and I let ourselves into our room, which had an entryway larger than my room at Nirman (or a non-Claremont Hall single at CMC). The room itself was also pretty large, but it was mostly taken up by the giant bed Sheila and I were evidently sharing. The flatscreen TV on the wall was exciting to see, as I had made plans with some of the Kalamazoo kids to watch the World Cup game later that night. Our bathroom wasn’t as decorative as the one in the Delhi hotel, but it still had a huge tub and overall was very functional. The entryway and end of the bed were decorated with sheer, red curtains with golden glitter stars. It felt like a palace. Irfana told me later that night that the hotel had, in fact, been a mini-palace until the family decided to convert it to a hotel. That information explained the intricate, striking nature of the decorations and architecture throughout the building. We had forty five minutes to kill before dinner, so a few of us went to go see what the pool looked like. It was a pretty small pool, but was outside in a beautiful, marble statue adorned courtyard. Very nice! They were treating the pool with chemicals so we couldn’t go in that night, but were promised that it would be ready to enjoy when we returned from shopping Thursday afternoon. With a few minutes left before dinner, I investigated the free wifi. It was pretty slow, but satisfactory.

Dinner was a buffet. There were Indian options and continental options, but I went with a couple of Indian chicken dishes, including chicken curry, and some roti. I found dinner extremely enjoyable. Afterward, we took our tea and coffee up to the roof where two traditional Rajasthani puppeteers put on a little show. Afterwards, some of us got to try using the puppets, which are like marionettes, except you tie the strings directly around your fingers. I was a bit spastic (to be expected, I suppose) and Andrew, the music professor from Boston U, made a comment that the puppet looked epileptic. He’s really funny; before the show, all the women were standing on one side and the guys were standing on the other, so I said it reminded me of a middle school dance. Andrew said, “add a half a pack of Marlboros and a pregnancy scare and you’ve got high school!” Hilarious. Also, he and Cameron were in a couple of pictures together in which they pretended to kiss each others’ cheeks. They hadn’t officially introduced themselves, so when they did, Andrew said, “it’s a pleasure..or at least it has been so far.” It’s really fun to be around dry, moderately crude humor again. Also, Andrew’s jokes’ funniness are enhanced by his English accent. After the puppet show, we went back to our rooms. I showered and then went upstairs to the boys’ room where we watched the game. It was exciting to be able to watch something which I knew friends at home were watching too, on the other side of the world. I love feeling connected to home in ways like that. Everyone I was with was rooting for Spain, but I felt hereditarily obligated to support Germany. The final score was a bummer, but I was mostly pleased just to have been able to watch the game. Once it ended, I went back downstairs and slept.

In the morning, we got to sleep in a bit and all met in the restaurant for breakfast around 8:30. It was a buffet again, and I had banana pancakes and a bowl of chocolate cereal again. I went back to my room and got peanut butter to have with the banana pancakes and syrup. I pretended that I was at brunch at Frary on a Sunday morning. After breakfast, we all got on the bus and headed into the pink city, where, after being accosted by begging children, we visited a site filled with old astronomy tools from the Vedic period. It was super interesting. We spent almost an hour there, and then headed to a carpet and textile house, where we got to see the different steps of how carpets are knotted. We then proceeded inside where the man, with some of his helpers, presented many of his carpets. Irfana and I were commenting on the choreography taking place, with two men rolling out the carpets with a flourish, fluffing them up and down to show the sheen, and then spinning around in a circle to show the design. After at least half an hour of looking at the carpets, he began telling us the prices. For each carpet, the price was no more than half of what I expected, or what you’d pay in the US. He then let us walk around and sit on the carpets, which were very soft and pleasant. Andrew bought one of the silk ones, and the rest of us went into a store down the hall where we looked at tablecloths, bedspreads, pajamas, scarves, ties, fabric, and many of us selected fabric and patterns to have clothing made. They said they could have our items delivered to the hotel that evening. I selected the pattern of a sleeveless western dress and had them make it knee length and asked for a belt to be added. I picked out a green and blue floral (haha Hadley) blockprinted fabric for the dress itself and selected a navy cotton-silk blend for the sash. I also bought several other things for family gifts.

When we were finished there, we went to the main street with all the shops, where we met back up with the people who hadn’t wanted to spend so much time shopping. Then we headed to lunch, where Kathy, Mya, Britta, Amit, Alex, and I all ordered different things so we could try each other’s food. I had a chocolate milkshake, too, which was totally refreshing. We sat at lunch, enjoying the AC, for over an hour. Afterwards, we went shopping. Trying to buy things at each shop was totally overwhelming and I had a hard time with negotiating prices. It turned out that I ended up spending way more than I should have on nearly everything I bought, about which I was pretty upset/frustrated with myself. I know I can’t do anything about it, and ultimately I’m pleased with my purchases since I’ve got almost all of my gifts for people taken care of. When we went back to the hotel after over two hours of exhausting shopping and avoiding beggars, we went swimming. It was glorious. When I got outside, Mya, Kathy, Ben, and Cameron were already in the pool. Eventually we were joined by Alex and Amit. Finally, it was decided that we’d postpone leaving for dinner in favor of swimming more, so Irfana, Nita ma’am, Anne, Sheila, Nandani, and Nawal all joined us. We taught each other splashing techniques and had a totally ridiculous time. Around 9 o’clock, we headed out to dinner at a nice restaurant which was clearly meant for tourists with its steep prices and descriptions under each item on the menu. I had dum aloo (aloo = potato) in some spices typical of Jaipur with garlic naan. We had to split up, so the smaller tables finished long before the big table at which I was sitting. Once everyone was finished, we went into the adjoined shop to buy sweets. There’s one which I am now particularly fond of which is flakey and melts in your mouth…reminiscent of the inside of a butterfinger, without the peanut butter. It took the people in the restaurant a relatively long time to sort out our bills, so by the time they finished around 11, we were all very ready to leave. When we got back to the hotel, Ben used my phone to text a person he’d met that day who had invited him to come out that evening. At midnight, six of us (boys went, don’t worry) took an auto rickshaw and met up with this guy and some of his friends. At one point, one of them brought up the comedian Russell Peters, who, I explained, visited CMC. He got really excited, and started trying to tell one of his jokes. One of his friends interrupted him, to which he responded, “Hey, man, this is Rusell Peters! He is like the Jesus of comedy!” It ended up being a really fun adventure, complete with another American who talked to me about music and Seattle culture. I loved it. I’d been apprehensive of the situation but trusted the people I was with and we’d agreed to stick together. I’m glad I went.

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 to Amit calling our hotel room to say that our 8:30 meeting would now be at 9:30, so I slept a bit longer before getting up to pack and get ready. After breakfast, we all met in the decorated room and Nita ma’am asked us all to say one thing we’d made note of about life in India. She then gave a bit of a lecture addressing some of the topics, especially the concept of modernity in India. At 10, we left the hotel to head to Agra via Fatehpur Sikri. The drive to Fatehpur Sikri took about 5 hours, but I slept for a large portion of the trip. Fatehpur Sikri is a complex and palace constructed by King Akbar. We had a really great tour guide who explained a lot of really interesting nuances, such as the fact that Akbar had three wives: one was Hindu from Jaipur, one was Muslim from Turkey, and one was Catholic from Portugal. Nita ma’am elaborated that Akbar advocated synthesis of religion, and often hosted religious debates, between members of different religions as well as between members of different sects of the same religion, for entertainment. As we walked around the palace, he showed us the different buildings he’d constructed for each wife. First we visited the Muslim wife’s quarters, which were the smallest but decorated in extreme detail. The carvings were mindblowing, and I wished I’d brought crayons to shade the outline of some of the designs onto a piece of paper like we used to do in preschool. Our guide drew our attention to the incorporation of symbols from many religions, including the swastika from Hinduism, cross from Catholicism, and on the ceiling: an 8 point star from Buddhism, a 5 point star from Islam, and a 6 point star from Judaism. Very cool. Next we visited the king’s chambers, where he had both a summer bedroom and a winter bedroom. Summer was on the bottom floor with much ventilation, while winter was on the 3rd floor, completely closed off. After that, we saw the quarters of the Catholic wife, which were a bit bigger. There was a bedroom, a prayer room, and one other room. I spent a bit of time in the prayer room, appreciating the slight happiness and surprise I felt at seeing a Catholic place of worship among all of this Eastern religion. Finally, we visited the Hindu wife’s chambers, which were definitely the largest. We sat there for a few minutes and then our guide told us he’d be taking us to a public area, where our tickets were no longer necessary. He warned us of hawkers and pickpockets, and told us to be careful. We walked maybe 300 meters to the next place, a mosque, where we had to take off our shoes. There was a giant square enclosed by buildings of amazing architecture. We walked along the perimeter, shaded by the buildings’ roofs which were held up by impressive stone columns. We made our way through tons of kids selling things and past a number of tombs belonging to, our guide told us, family members of holy men who formerly lived there. We ended up at the main mosque structure, where we took turns going in (with our heads covered) to appreciate the phenomenal shell decorations inside the inner room. There was a handful of Muslim men there, deep in prayer. We later discovered that women are prohibited from entering the mosque, except tourists. Wow. After that, we sat down on the steps outside to hear some men play music, but prayer time started right then so we had to wait. During that time, we walked around the square a bit more, and observed some men praying in another portion of the mosque. When we went back to the steps, we waited a bit more, and then the music began. It was a group of four, rugged looking Muslim men, one who sang and played harmonium, one who also sang and played the drums, and the other two (one very old, the other a teenager) sat there and clapped their hands and sang occasionally. I don’t know how long we watched them for, but after a bit, the drummer invited Nawal to play. He did, but before he started, they put a handkerchief on top of his head. I hadn’t noticed that those making music were all wearing skull caps. Prior to the performance, Nita ma’am explained that their practice of worship was Sufism, and told us that it was a different way of expressing devotion to Allah. Their music was beautiful, but I kept getting distracted by the red paan residue left in the singers’ teeth. Yuck. Once it was over, we walked back across the square to head back to the bus. There were a lot of little kids hassling us to buy necklaces, postcards, etc. and at one point, Ben told a kid whom he’d befriended that I was his girlfriend and not to bother me. It didn’t help much. Once back on the bus, kids started opening our windows in a last, desperate effort to get us to buy things.

Back on the road, it only took a little over an hour to get to Agra, and then about twenty minutes to get to the hotel. The hotel is extremely nice: claw footed bath tub, marble everywhere, chandelier sconces on the wall…the pool is also really big. Exciting. The one drawback is that we have to pay quite a bit for wifi. Sheila and I have strategized that we’ll split the cost of an hour each night. Not bad. We should be leaving for dinner soon; it’s almost 9pm. The people we met in Jaipur last night said that Agra is a shithole, and, from what I’ve seen, I might have to agree. It reminds me of Varanasi, though I have become both accustomed to and a bit fond of the chaos of Varanasi. I’m also kind of looking forward to going back, because I haven’t had a lot of time by myself while we’ve been traveling. At monuments, I’ve tried to walk alone a bit, but otherwise, I am constantly surrounded by people. It’s not a bad thing; I just like some solitude on a more regular basis. On the bus, I’ve been sitting by a window and listening to my ipod with my noise cancelling speakers in order to create some semblance of aloneness…bottom line: it will be nice to get back to Nirman and be able to lock myself in my room. But first! Taj Mahal tomorrow at sunrise! :)

teaching and traveling

Sunday was extremely uneventful. I slept in until 11:30, which was really nice, and didn’t actually get up until noon. I spent 25 minutes on the phone with my dad, and at 12 I took a shower. We had lunch (dhal and roti…as usual) around 1, and then I spent several hours dividing my time between facebook, packing, and writing a lesson plan for 2nd grade maths tomorrow! I also went to Lanka for half an hour or so by myself to run some errands. I bought two small notebooks – one for making flashcards of the Hindi alphabet, and one to keep in my purse to write things down while we’re traveling. Mamta has encouraged Alex and me to write down Hindi words we see so we can figure out what they say later. Exciting… On my errands I also bought a hairbrush and some pleasant-smelling honey/papaya face scrub stuff. I’m sure it sounds mundane, but the hairbrush is one of my most exciting purchases of the trip. Brushing my hair felt so clean and luxurious…yes, this is what my life has become. When I got back, I kept trying to pack. I had a hard time deciding between western clothes and my Indian clothes, because Indian clothes, especially in this heat, are exponentially more comfortable, but because the rest of the tour group will have just gotten to India, I’m afraid of looking like the awkward fake-Indian white girl in all the pictures if I only have kurtis and salwars. I resolved the problem by just bringing a lot of both kinds of clothes…I’ll decide later. Around 8, after much deliberation, Dost, Abhijeet, Alex and I decided to go to dinner at this somewhat sketchy looking establishment called the Hindustan Hotel, right near Ravidass gate. We had chow mein (it’s really good here), butter chicken, Handi (?) chicken, roti, and rice. Given the choice between roti or naan, I finally got to ask what the difference is. Dost explained that naan is made with flour, and roti (chapati) is wheat. We chatted about a lot of things during dinner, including religion, partition, and Abhijeet’s first crush. Dinner ended up being about 100 rupees per person – not bad, and the food was actually better, we thought, than it had been at the more expensive restaurant. After dinner, we walked up Lanka toward BHU, and I stopped at a stand to recharge my phone. I feel like I spend a lot on my phone, but it is so comforting to be able to call home whenever I want from wherever I am. It’s also nice to be able to be in touch with my friends here in India, like Harshita, Saloni, and Avi. Speaking of Avi, I booked my ticket to visit Bangalore Friday 23rd July to Tuesday 27th July. So exciting! I’ll be able to see Sanskriti, and hopefully Divya (both are other CMC friends) will train up from Chennai to spend the weekend with us! I’ll go there 12 days after getting back from the traveling we begin tomorrow, so I constantly will have things to look forward to from now on. This is a very good thing, as I have started feeling really homesick and wishing I could spend time with people at home. After we got back from our post-dinner walk, we skyped with Avi (!) briefly, and I worked more on packing, facebook creeping, and finishing my lesson plan. We also bid Nita ma’am, Nandani, and Amit farewell as they left to catch the train – they left for Delhi tonight, we follow 24 hours later.

After staying up really late Sunday night to pack and finish my lesson plan, I slept in a bit on Monday since there was no yoga. I ate breakfast quickly, but wasn’t sure what to do until 9:30, which is when I officially begin teaching for the day. I asked Irfana, and she told me I should just start the day with that class and help out until it’s time for math. From 9:30 to 10:15, I help Mitali and Rupali teach 5th and 6th grade math. On Monday, Mitali had planned to combine their English and maths lessons, so I facilitated while a group of 6th graders played scrabble. The math component was that the scoreboard pieces were organized by units, tens, and hundreds, so she used it as an opportunity to review the concept of place value. It was fun to teach them how to play scrabble, but less fun to try to keep them from cheating when they needed to pick new tiles. I helped all of the teams with making words, but there was a pair of boys who, after only 15 minutes or so of play, won the game with 67 points. For one of their words, they only played one letter – the x. They made the word ox, but were lucky enough to place the x on a triple letter score. I was impressed… Before the class activities started, we went around the room introducing ourselves, and Mitali was kind enough to write down the students’ names on the board so I could see the spellings. Mitali is one of the best English speakers of all of the teachers, and is especially excited by the materials I’ve brought, so she’s been eager to help me prepare them. I’m a big fan of hers. Something which I’m still getting used to as far as teaching the students is being called “ma’am.” “Good morning, Pyper ma’am.” …excuse me? Even some of the other teachers, who are older than me, call me that. It’s odd. After 5th/6th, Rupali and I went to the 2nd grade room, where we helped Mamta teach their math class. I’d created the lesson plan, but hadn’t realized that 2nd grade meant 2nd grade English competency. Language. Barrier. I felt badly because Rupali ended up running most of the lesson in Hindi, and my contribution was ultimately minimal. I got a lot of blank stares. Irfana told me later that day, though, to also keep in mind that they’ve just had summer, three months during which they heard little or no English, so it’ll take a couple of weeks but eventually they’ll be more communicative. After 2nd grade, I met Mitali to go teach 7th/8th grade math. She’d prepared the lesson plan, which consisted of a review exam to make sure they remembered what they’d learned the previous year. This class seemed to be the most respectful and willing to learn, which I really appreciated. After class got out at noon (half days until the DM – District Magistrate thinks the heat has died down enough to have students in school for full days) I went downstairs to the guesthouse and found Sunita organizing textbooks. I kept her company for a while, during which time we chatted a bit, and she told me, “you talk, I very very like.” She explained that she enjoys the opportunity to practice and improve her English. She promised she’d help me with my Hindi, too. It’s fun – I have both her little sisters, Anita and Prema, in 6th and 8th grades, respectively. After a few minutes, I went to get lunch, and Sunita joined Alex and me when we were about halfway done. At 1 o’clock, we had a meeting with the teachers and Irfana, and discussed the day a little bit. After our meeting, I took a quick nap until Hindi lessons at 3. I’m really enjoying learning Hindi…sometimes the language barrier with Mamta is a little difficult, but overall it’s really fun to be able to read some of the signs we see out and about. The script is also so pretty, it’s fun to write. After Hindi, I spent some time up in the centre finishing my flashcard notebook with the alphabet. I need a lot of repetition… When I went back down to the guesthouse, Pushpa had just brought tea. The snack was one which I really enjoy (don’t know what it’s called) but it is a little orange bread puff thing with onions and other spices in it. Sunita came in and had a few, and she said she was going to leave. I said, “See you next week!” which made her very perplexed. She asked why not tomorrow, so I told her we were going to go to Delhi. She said, “Oh, I very very miss you.” She ended up sticking around for about fifteen more minutes. We practiced a bit of Hindi, and she told me she wants me to come over to her house for dinner sometime. She says her mom is a great cook, but I’d be nervous about the sanitation issue, which makes me sad because I am so humbled by their family’s hospitality. When she finally had to leave, she gave me a hug. It was a long, clinging, thoughtful hug which almost made me cry. She is so kind and loving, but at the same time she has some of the saddest, most tired eyes I have ever seen. When she smiles, though, she looks genuinely happy. I’m really glad to know her.

I spent the rest of Monday afternoon and evening packing, listening to music, organizing my room, and basically just killing time until we were to leave for the train station. I took a shower around 10 and changed into clean clothes for our nine hour train ride. At 11:30, Irfana, Alex, Nawal and I left for the train station. Ramesh drove us, and the streets were really quiet, which was a nice change from all of the daytime noise, dust, and honking. We got to the train station around 12:20; Nawal’s train was scheduled to leave at 12:50, and ours at 1:20. The train station was one of the grossest places I have ever been. It smelled worse than any outhouse I think I’ve ever been in, and there were fat, creepy rats crawling around on the tracks and on the floor of the waiting area. To pass time, Alex and I practiced Hindi, which drew a bit of a crowd at one point. I was really tired, though, and every time I did something wrong, I got really frustrated, so I knew it was time to stop. I tried to read, but my eyes were too tired. I ended up spending most of the time zoning out, watching people walk around. At 3, Nawal caught his train. Shortly after, there was an announcement saying that our train would be arriving shortly at platform 6. We speedily walked up the ramps, over some tracks, and back down to the platform. We waited less than five minutes, and our train arrived. We boarded, and to my great satisfaction, each had bunks to sleep on. We made our beds, and promptly passed out for the majority of the train ride. We arrived at Delhi around 2pm, and I think I spent less than two hours of the entire train ride awake. Being on the top bunk, the AC was pointed directly at me, so I slept really well all wrapped up in blankets.

When we got to Delhi, Nawal met us on the platform. Our driver helped me carry my bag, and we trekked through the station to get back to his car. I was somewhat fascinated by the train station (it was nicer to be in one during the daytime, I think) but couldn’t help wanting to get out of there ASAP. Our driver navigated hordes of insane traffic and brought us to the restaurant where the rest of the group was having lunch. Alex and I shared papri chat (a personal Indian fave) and chow mein. We met the rest of the group, which consists of a Sheila, a Pomona art professor; Anne, a Scripps music professor; Andrew, a Boston U music professor; Maira, a CMC junior; Taylor, another U Chicago intern; and Mya, Britta, Katie, Kathy, Ben, and Cameron, who are all coming to Nirman from Kalamazoo College for a six month study abroad program. After lunch, we all got on the bus and headed to a site (I don’t remember the name) which Nita ma’am described as an Indian theme park of sorts. In truth, it’s a temple which was constructed in the past 10 years and is dedicated to some guy who, Nita ma’am explained, was worshipped as a god during his lifetime. To be honest, I really didn’t enjoy visiting this place. It was expansive and ornate, but for me, knowing that it was built recently and is essentially a tourist attraction really took away from any meaning it might have. After having visited Sarnath and all the temples around Varanasi, I have a hard time appreciating something which isn’t centuries old with ornate carvings done by hand. Also, I had been feeling overwhelmed by the development and comparative cleanliness of Delhi, so seeing this temple, which, though gorgeous, felt like a bit of a monstrosity, stressed me out a bit. After we wandered around the site for about an hour, we all met back up and Nita ma’am gave a short lecture on its significance. She explained that, over the past few decades, there has been a sort of revival of traditional Hinduism amongst the wealthier members of society. She said that before, the wealthier people had tended toward the secular, especially in their public lives. She called it a vacuum which left religion as a facet of people’s private lives. It was an interesting lecture, and I appreciated the new perspective she was giving me on this massive, modern temple structure that we were sitting at.

After she finished talking, we went back to the bus which took us to the hotel. We stayed at the Hans Hotel in Connaught Place, an area of New Delhi, near the center of the city. By the time we got through all of the Delhi traffic, it was about 6:45. We went up to our rooms, but planned to meet back in the lobby at 7:30. The first thing I did when we got to our room (I’m sharing with Sheila, the Pomona professor), after I stood there in awe of the air conditioning, mirrors, lamps, and marble floors, was take a shower. My first non-bucket shower in three and a half weeks! It was glorious. After my shower, I put on knee length black dress and a pink sweater, the most western outfit I’ve worn since purchasing Indian clothes. Sheila had a wakeup call scheduled for 7:30, so we went down to the lobby shortly after that. We ended up waiting until 8 o’clock for some of the group to come down. As it turns out, Amit had forgotten to inform the interns, professors, and study abroad kids that the plan had changed to 8. I wasn’t bothered by it since I’ve grown accustomed to the tendency for scheduling to slide here, but it really bothered a few people. The people who have just arrived in India will need to learn quickly that punctuality isn’t a huge part of planning here; otherwise they’ll get really frustrated quite frequently, which will take away from the experience. I am a bit apprehensive of trying to tell everyone what I’ve found out about what it’s like here, because I don’t want to come off as a know-it-all. The bus ride to dinner only took about 15 minutes. We ate at a restaurant named Mohi (Moti?) Mahal, which is located in Old Delhi. The group split into two tables, and I sat with Nawal, Nandani, Amit, Irfana, Kathy, Mya, and Cameron. We decided to order things to share, so Nandani and Nawal were in charge of choosing bread, Kathy and Mya picked out the vegetable dishes, and Cameron and I selected the chicken dishes. After we ordered, Nawal proposed that we play a game, and then told Irfana she should pick the game. She said he should, which ended up with all of us tapping our utensils on plates, water glasses, salt and pepper shakers…making music. I mostly enjoyed the distressed looks on the waiters’ faces. By the time we were done eating, it was evident that we’d ordered the perfect amount of food, and got to try lots of different things. After dinner, we drove around Old Delhi for a bit (past the Red Fort) and then went back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, Sheila needed to check email, so she went to the business centre. While she was downstairs, I watched a bit of TV (!!), finding some international news, VH1, and ESPN. Yay for familiarity! After a few minutes of that, I took a bubble bath. It was. So. Decadent. While I was sitting there, though, I thought about how many buckets worth of water I was sitting in, and began to feel guilty, especially when I thought about how unlikely it would be that, Sunita for example, would ever get to enjoy such luxury. This is an awareness that I’m definitely grateful to have developed, but it is definitely reflective of the old phrase “ignorance is bliss.” Around 11:30, I went upstairs and chatted with Katie and Mya for a bit in their room. I had planned on going straight to bed, but my mom encouraged me to go be social. It’s hard, because after feeling like an outsider for the past 3 weeks living almost strictly amongst Indians, I feel like a bit of an outsider amongst the Kalamazoo kids, since they’re all here for their long, study abroad program. I told Mya today (Wednesday) about feeling that way, and she told me I totally shouldn’t. We’ve been sitting together on the bus all day and have chatted a lot about books, Kalamazoo gossip, religion, and general observations about people. I’m a big fan of hers.

This morning, getting out of bed was brutal. I slept so well in the AC under proper bedding! At 7:45, I got up and showered (Sheila already had) and I got dressed in Indian clothes. Since we’re driving to Jaipur today, I figured I’d be exponentially more comfortable in Indian clothes. It was a good decision. Around 8:05, we went to breakfast, which was a big buffet. I feasted. Banana pancakes, chocolate cereal, a small sugar donut, pineapple, chicken sausage and fresh watermelon juice. It was delightful. They were showing the highlights of the Uruguay/Netherlands game on the TV, too, so I was doubly psyched. At 9, we met in the lobby, and headed out around 9:35. We went to Qtab Minar, a mindblowing site with the tallest brick minaret in the world, and an assortment of other really old structures, including the oldest mosque in India. Super cool. In the hour and forty minutes that we were there, we all took an absurd amount of photos. In the tomb area, there were two Indian women there who offered to take my picture. I knew exactly what they were doing, but figured “whatever” and resolved to only give then 10 rupees. One of them took my picture in a few different places, and they actually turned out really cool. She asked for twenty rupees, but I insisted ten. Shortly after, Kathy did the same thing, and then Amit came up and got upset that we’d paid her. I assured him that I knew what I was in for, but he was still bothered by it. I continued to meander around; I walked around by myself, which I really enjoyed. At one point, though, a group of about twenty creepy looking 20-something Indian men cornered me and one asked me to be in a picture with him. I was notably uncomfortable, and said no at first, but ended up saying yes and then they left me alone. It was pretty weird. A few minutes later, I ended up having about a ten minute conversation with an American woman from New York, who was out touring by herself while her husband was working. We chatted about what it’s like to be a tourist in India, and I really enjoyed comparing stories with her since she’s been here for long enough to be accustomed to things the way I am. Being with the new arrivals isn’t annoying, but it’s tiresome to keep hearing them exclaim about things which I’ve just grown used to. I understand their sentiments since I felt them too, but I’ve gotten so used to being amongst Indians and being the new kid, that it’s weird to be with people who aren’t used to things in India yet.

After Qtub Minar, we drove around for a while and then stopped somewhere for lunch. There was a mall or small, sketchy-looking restaurants, so Mya, Alex, and I beelined for the mall. Irfana, Nita ma’am, Nandani, and Nawal also opted for the mall. It turned out that the only open restaurants were KFC and Subway. Dost and Avi had told me that the chicken strips at KFC in India are actually really good, so that’s what I had. Alex and Mya followed suit. We also bought water bottles and soft drinks; I had Mountain Dew (what up, cupcake). While we were sitting in KFC, they played some really heinous remixes of American music, including Eminem and Evanescence. I couldn’t help but chuckle. After lunch, we went back to the bus, where we waited for what felt like a really long time for the rest of the group to come back. Since then, we’ve been on the road to Jaipur. We sat in horrible traffic leaving Delhi, and have stopped a couple of times for water/bathroom breaks. We’ve been on the road for at least 4 hours, and I think it’s supposed to be 1-2 more hours, even though it’s only a 180km drive. Mya and I have chatted on and off throughout the trip, and also made a pact to do our best to prevent Amit from taking pictures of us while we’re sleeping. He is such a character. I’ve also been listening to a lot of music, and finally caved on the homesickness (acute 2-0-sickness) impulse and listened to The Town by Macklemore. It feels so surreal to be on a roadtrip through India, listening to music I’d be listening to with my mom and sister if we were going to Montana. I’m also still enjoying discovering music on my ipod which I didn’t know I had, since Sam was kind enough to give me all his music during the pre-flight ipod fiasco on 10th June…which feels like a lifetime ago. I decided to get the laptop out to work on the blog so I don’t have to do it later, when I’m going to want to be enjoying the amenities of the hotel (pool! Internet! Satellite tv…which means Germany vs. Spain!). This is such a nice break/vacation.

part 2

Avi left on Wednesday. For her last night here, Harshita and Saloni stayed at the guesthouse with us (Avi has a double room). We agreed to leave the next morning at 4:30 – the plan was to go to down to the river for sunrise. Less than three hours after I went to sleep, my alarm went off. Getting up was agonizing, and for a few minutes, Alex and I were worried that we were the only ones who had actually gotten up. Avi’s light finally went on, and we were all ready to leave Nirman around 4:45. We had to wake up Tiwari ji to let us out, but that was okay. We took the shortcut Abhijeet had shown Dost and me down to Assi ghat. They were out paving the roads, so we were walking in fresh, sticky tar for a portion of the walk. It was dawn by the time we got down to the ghat; we sat silently on the stairs for several minutes. I listened to my ipod for a bit, too. After a while, someone (I forget who) proposed that we go on a boat ride. Wanting to go back to sleep for a bit before yoga, which would start at 7, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but went along with the group consensus. Harshita went down and negotiated a boat for us, which turned out to be somewhat tiny and extremely rickety. When the ride was over, we had to coordinate one person standing on each side of the boat in order to get off without rocking too violently. We rode down past the southern cremation grounds toward Dashashwamedh ghat (where the aarti is). It was really peaceful to take a boat ride in the morning, the light was very pleasant and it felt quieter down at the river. We saw dhobis washing clothes on a couple of the ghats…we saw some monkeys and goats creeping around. Our boat ride lasted about an hour, and we got back to Nirman around 6:45. Alex and I waited for the yoga instructor until 7:25, but when she hadn’t shown up by then, I went back to sleep for half an hour. It’s really easy to fall asleep here for any amount of time. The fan keeps my room really comfortable despite the heat. Alex said today that it was the first day all week, according to the weather icon on his laptop, that the temperature dropped below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Glorious.

After breakfast, we all sort of sat around waiting for it to be time for Avi to leave. At 10:30, her taxi arrived, and she left by 11. It was so sad to watch her say goodbye to everyone, especially Sunita. Watching her hold Sunita’s face in her hands and tell her how special she thinks she is broke me down momentarily. A small crowd –Amit, Harshita, Dost, Saloni, Sunita– gathered while she got in the cab. I went with her and had the driver drop me off at the tailor where I picked up one of the ten items I’d commissioned them to make for me. Everything was supposed to have been done by Monday, but every day that I went to go pick it up, they told me “next day, next day.” Ugh. Saying goodbye to Avi was really difficult since it’s been so nice to spend time with her, especially with the CMC ties. I’m really looking forward to visiting her in Bangalore at the end of this month; we’ll have a lot of fun. When I walked back from the tailor (I’d picked up the orange blouse piece I got to go with my purple cotton sari), Harshita and Saloni tried to help me wrap the sari. When we didn’t feel like we were very successful, Harshita went and got Khushboo to help us. She folded, tucked, and pinned masterfully. They all insisted that I wear a bindi and put on makeup to complete the look. I was okay with the makeup, but felt pretty self conscious about the bindi. In the end, I went along with it, and Harshita told me that “not everyone can pull off a bindi,” but I could. Oh boy. When we left my room, we immediately saw Rangnath, who asked, in Hindi, “where did you come from, Indian girl?” Wow… we then went to the preschool where some of the teachers were, and they were excited to see me in the sari. Once we were finished making rounds, we worked for an hour or so. I ate lunch after they left, and then took a nap for 3 hours. When I woke up, I was upset to discover that I’d missed Hindi lessons – there’d been a miscommunication, I thought we had class every other day. I put my sari back on when I woke up, and was moderately proud of the job I did wrapping it on my own. Wednesday evening, Nirman hosted a concert in the guesthouse. Dost and I introduced the artists (vocalist who played sitar too, harmonium player, tabla player) – Dost spoke in Hindi, I read in English. The concert lasted about an hour and a half, and Rangnath coordinated snacks afterwards. When we were standing there, Nita ma’am came up to me and said, “I didn’t see you wearing this earlier! I saw you from the corner of my eye and though, wow, what a dazzler!” It was a funny moment. I’m still getting used to the whole, seeing a professor everyday in a totally different environment than Bauer. After dinner, I stayed up late on skype talking to Jack and Drew, which was really nice. It’s reassuring to have consistent internet access.

Thursday morning, I got up for yoga, which was a struggle. Whenever I wake up here, I feel like I could go back to sleep for the rest of the day. After breakfast, Harshita and I got a lot done as far as recreating materials, since Subhash finally got us the beads we’d been waiting for. She had to leave at 11, because she’s gone to Calcutta for her brother’s wedding, so Saloni and Sunita helped out for the following couple of hours. After lunch, there was a meeting with all of the teachers and Irfana. They debriefed their first day of school, and then Irfana assigned a few of them (Sushmita, Amrita, Vandana, Neelam, and a couple more) to help me with the materials assembly. We colored in the black and white photocopies of a modified decimal board, which I then put on Irfana’s desk with a label saying they were ready for lamination. Nice! At 3, we had a Hindi lesson, during which Mamta finished teaching the alphabet. We also practiced writing names. After Hindi, I stayed up in the library for about an hour to use the internet. Around 5, I went back down to the guesthouse, and left with Alex and Abhijeet soon after that to shop for Indian clothes for Alex. Abhijeet put us on a rickshaw (he was going to ride his scooter) and told the rickshaw wallah where to take us. Unfortunately, when we got there, Abhijeet was nowhere to be found. We spent about an hour looking for him, when finally, after several calls with Dost as the middle man (we didn’t have Abhijeet’s number), he found us. By that time I was really frustrated, because I’d been hungry when we left and my mood had continued to worsen. At one point, a man threw his popsicle stick to the ground via my leg, and I whipped around and threw my arms up at him in a “what the hell?!” sort of gesture. He said “sorry.” I felt a little bit better after having had the opportunity to dispel some of my anger in his direction. As it turns out, Abhijeet took us back to the place where the rickshaw driver had taken us at the beginning, though he had dropped us at the back entrance, so Abhijeet didn’t know where we were. Exasperating. We spent about 15 minutes in the store and Alex bought a couple of things. In a bad mood, I insisted we walk back. First, we stopped by the tailor’s, where Abhijeet chewed them out in Hindi for not having my clothes ready. He picked them up yesterday…they’d finally finished them. Also, we stopped briefly to treat Abhijeet to chat, in gratitude for all of his help and generosity. Haha. We had a pretty standard dinner and evening; once again, I stayed up too late talking to people online.

Friday morning, I wasn’t feeling very well so I slept through yoga. I got up and went to breakfast, only to find myself feeling hideously nauseous. I went back to bed for a couple of hours, and realize in hindsight I probably took my malaria meds too close to breakfast time – the prescription says I should wait at least one hour before eating after taking it. Oops. At 11:30, I got back up and went upstairs to continue working on the materials. Friday’s job was to color in the black and white photocopies of the checkerboard. I was sitting up in the school library (the one on the second floor of the guesthouse, rather than the one on the third floor of the other building), when three boys from the seventh and eighth standards came in and offered to help. I asked them if it was okay with Shipra ma’am, which they insisted it was, and they proceeded to help me finish all nine of the copies we had to color. So helpful. I asked their names, and was having a hard time hearing the pronunciation so they wrote them down for me. Also helpful. At around 12:50, Tivari brought me a note from Irfana saying there’d be a teachers’ meeting at 1 (Thursday and Friday were half days…government orders which stand indefinitely until the heat eases). I thanked the boys profusely for their help, and left the one I’d been working on unfinished. When I went back up after lunch, one of them had finished it. During the meeting, we played a game to celebrate the end of the week and chatted for a while about planning and the timetable. We took a break before Nita ma’am came in to lead a workshop, during which time I ate lunch. Alex informed me later that she’d led them in nursery rhymes like I’m a Little Tea Pot and Ring Around the Rosey. Needless to say, I was thoroughly disappointed to have missed it. At 3, we had Hindi lessons again, where we practiced the alphabet some more as well as some conversation. I finally began to understand some of the rules of conjugation, which Mamta had been having trouble explaining before. Afterwords, I spent an hour or so on the internet, and then went down to meet Amit. He took me to the hospital on his motorcycle again…when we got there, I marched up to the pharmacy while Amit awkwardly stood in front of one of the fans. This has become our routine. Once I had the vaccination in hand, we went to the ER. It was the same doctor I’d had for my first two shots…the one who isn’t as good at administering the shot but charged twice as much than the other guy did for the fee. This time, though, Amit confronted him about it in Hindi and he only made me pay 20 rupees, as the other man had. I’ve basically gotten over my fear of shots…I even watched him prepare the injection this time. Proud! When we got back, I spent a lot of time online, procrastinating on writing the blog. We had dinner, and I went back to more blog procrastination. I stayed up late working on the first part of this installment, which I’ve begun regretting when we have to wake up early for work.

I got to sleep in a little bit today, as there was no yoga. I didn’t get up until 8:30, and was pretty tardy to breakfast. I was thrilled to find, though, that Kanti didi had made us pancakes!! I had one with marmalade and one with honey…and put cornflakes on top of both (for texture…don’t judge). As usual, we also had a plate full of mango. After breakfast, Alex told me we didn’t have a meeting until ten, so I napped for half an hour. The beginning of the meeting was focused on honoring a man who passed away 13 days ago. He worked here as an accountant for 17 years, and he’d been the one who helped Avi and me make arrangements to take the car to Sarnath. We had two minutes of silence, followed by Nita ma’am, Irfana, and one other person saying a few words about the man. Rupali, who is seriously one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, began to tear up. Once that was over, the teachers, Alex, and I went to a different classroom where Nita ma’am gave a workshop on the importance of having a plan. We sat in really uncomfortable, little kid sized chairs…not my favorite workshop (the rest of the ones, we sat on the floor). Once that was over, Rupali, Mitali, and I coordinated on our lesson plans for Monday. I’ve agreed to plan for second standard, which I’m co-teaching with Mamta and Rupali. Rupali is prepping for fifth and eighth, I believe, and Mitali is taking care of sixth and seventh. I’m going to have a really busy schedule once school starts up in full swing. I’m glad I’ll have my first day Monday and then get to miss a few days while we’re travelling. The idea of having to prepare solid, functional lesson plans that I will have to implement the following day is really daunting. Once we were finished, I had lunch, and then went up to the library for a long afternoon of AC, facebook, and music downloads. The power was on, so the wifi connection was strong enough for me to download a couple of mixtapes, about which I was so excited! Around 6, I went back down to the guesthouse, where I found Abhijeet chatting online, as usual. The four of us hung out for a bit, and then left to go out to dinner around 8. We went back to the same restaurant we all went to a couple of weeks ago, and had a feast of garlic naan, chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, another kind of chicken, roti, and chow mein. Everyone but Abhijeet had soft drinks, too. It was my treat, and, tip included, I spent 800 rupees. Not bad for such a prolific meal. Since returning back, I’ve just been listening to music, chatting with people online, and working on this post. Because it’s such a pain to have to catch up on lots of days worth of blog posts, I’m going to try to start writing things down at least in a word document every night so I don’t end up with so much writing to do. Happy Fourth of July!

new post, pt. 1

I have a lot of catching up to do again…I’m sorry I haven’t been very consistent about posting to the blog. I don’t really have an excuse except that sometimes I’m too tired, sometimes I’m in a bad mood after going out (the staring, honking, and spitting gets really irksome) and don’t want to make a cranky post, and other times I’d rather spend my computer time on skype or facebook. I do take notes on what I do each day in order to keep track of things for the sake of the blog. Anyways, this week went by really quickly, which is really nice because we go traveling next week.

On Saturday, we had a short workshop in the morning, but I slept through most of it after Nita ma’am encouraged me to follow my body’s signals rather than fight them. Eventually, Harshita came and woke me up so we could work on creating the materials. We worked with Mitali and Molashree, and the four of us made some of the 900 or so little blocks we’ll need for using the decimal boards. We used mud clay which comes from the river. Talk about finding local materials, huh Mom? We spent about 20 minutes working on those, and then we were called over for the potluck. Shipra, who can be a bit bossy/interruptive at times, demanded that we come over, and insisted that she serve me. Almost every teacher brought something, so by the time they were all finished proudly serving their contributions, my plate was full of unrecognizable food which they were eager for me to try. Dishes included a noodle dish (Avi, help me out with the name), fruit cake, chips, sandwiches stuffed with potatoes and spices, and many more…I ate slowly, and had to run and get more water at one point (spice alert), so I was the last person to finish eating, and a lot of people at the table had begun to urge me to eat faster, and make fun of the fact that I ate so slowly. It was perturbing because I felt pressured to try everything, but couldn’t eat quickly because I found many of the dishes extremely spicy. All in all, it was the most flavorfully eclectic meal I’ve ever had, and did enjoy nearly everything the teachers had brought. It was fun to get a chance to spend time with everyone outside of the workshop setting, as well.

After the potluck, we had a lazy afternoon. Abhijeet went to the Betawar campus, so Avi, Dost and I were left to keep ourselves busy in the guesthouse. Avi and I watched Angels and Demons on Dost’s laptop in her room while he napped in his. When Abhijeet came back, the four of us went out to run some errands. We dropped four of my kurtis off at the dry cleaners (when I bought them, the shopkeepers advised me to have them dry cleaned at least the first time after wearing them), walked around Lanka a bit, and Abhijeet and Dost picked up dinner while Avi and I walked back to Nirman. We had dhal and roti from some sketchy restaurant near Ravidass Gate, which is an easy landmark to look up if you want to visualize where I am (Nirman is just a few blocks down the street once you go through the gate). After dinner, the four of us spent the evening hanging out in the guesthouse, and Avi, Dost, and I watched Bruno to conclude the evening (cue CMC nostalgia).

On Sunday, I didn’t get up until 11:15. After waking up before 7 for yoga all week, it was a really nice treat to sleep in all morning. We had a pretty lazy early afternoon hanging out in Avi’s room, listening to music and reading the American magazines I’d bought at Seatac before leaving. We also enjoyed a nice snack of apples which Dost had bargained for with some of the cinnamon peanut butter my mom sent me in the package I got. It was so comforting to have such a purely American-feeling afternoon.

Around 3:30, the three of us went with Pushpa didi to her house, which is in Nagwa, just a short walk from Nirman. Avi had to go there as part of her research, Dost went along to help with Hindi-English translation, and I didn’t want to sit around by myself, so I joined them. She led us down the street that goes to Ravidass Gate and Lanka, but turned right onto the street that becomes a shortcut to Assi ghat (getting oriented…). We walked for less than five minutes, when she abruptly turned up and into a maze of shacks and houses. We saw Rani didi (one of the other women who clean) sitting on the stoop outside of a small shop with breath fresheners hanging from the walls. Then Pushpa didi led us through a small gully which let out into a large backyard area adorned with large piles of garbage, animal excrement, and frolicking goats. Kanti didi (the head cook) came out of one of the doorways and one of the Hindi speakers (Avi or Dost) explained to me that Pushpa had brought us by Kanti didi’s house. We sat there for a few minutes, and a large crowd of probably 12 children gathered. Kanti didi gave us fans and her neighbor (family member? I’m not sure…) pulled up a bench for Dost and me to sit on. After a few minutes, we went back out to the wider gully and continued on to Pushpa didi’s house. She lives in a good sized, primarily brick home. There are a few rooms contiguous rooms with real walls that all open out into an open, main area. We got to look into the rooms, but sat in the main area while Avi conducted her interview (with Dost’s help). Some of her children (and grandchildren?) gathered while we were sitting there. They ranged from probably 4 to 16 years. Because the power was out at the time, a couple of the girls had manual fans to try to keep us cool. This has happened at every home I’ve visited, and I feel guilty every time because I see them getting tired but am afraid it would be rude to offer to help. During her interview, Avi compiled a family tree of everyone living in their home (joint family), and it turned out that there are 23 of them living there. While we were sitting there, one of their goats came into the room and started licking the dirty dishes sitting on the ground…Dost commented on how unsanitary it was, while I was just stuck thinking about how pitiful it was to live in a home where goats can just walk through the living area as they please. Once they were finished with the interview, Pushpa and some of the kids took us upstairs, where there were a couple more rooms and a large roof area. Some of the kids were gathered around a TV watching something in Hindi in one of the rooms, while others were out on the roof area, waiting to show us their pigeons. Such a paradox –TV and goats and pigeons. Someone explained to me that they breed pigeons and then sell them for 150 rupees (about 3 dollars) apiece. We held pigeons, took pictures, and chatted a bit up there. I realized that their roof overlooks the yard we’d sat in and Kanti didi’s house. After a while, we went back downstairs, said thank you, and Pushpa didi’s husband (?) led us back out to the street from where we could navigate ourselves back to Nirman.

After returning to Nirman, we spent a few minutes getting ready, and then headed back out. Abhijeet led us to the southernmost end of Lanka, near the entrance to BHU, where we tried to find an auto that would take us to IP mall (the mall where we’ve gone shopping and saw the movie). We found one eventually, and it took about half an hour to get to the mall. The auto ride, which was relatively long, only cost 70 rupees total for the four of us. When we got there around 6, we got tickets to the 7:30 showing of Raavan, a new movie which is based around the Ramayan. After that, Avi and I insisted on eating dinner, though Dost and Abhijeet were adamant that it would be most logical to eat at 7 so we wouldn’t be hungry after the movie. Whatever. We were hungry, so they came with us upstairs to the food court where we had pizza, garlic bread (which was amazing), chat, and mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin and Robins (yesss) on a still-warm waffle cone. That worked for me. When we were finished, we still had a bit of time, so we went to Café Coffee Day, a European Starbucks competitor. We sat there and enjoyed the AC as well as chocolate cake. Yeah…we feasted that evening. Abhijeet and Dost went to McDonalds for dinner, and Avi and I stayed at the café. At one point, I noticed that they had ESPN on their TV, which was showing the Germany vs. England pregame coverage. So exciting! We stayed there until about 7:15 when Abhijeet and Dost finally insisted that we go up to the theater. We didn’t see any of the game, which really disappointed me. I felt like I’d gotten a momentary connection to the outside world, just to have it ripped away right before the game started. I became really anxious and isolated, which has begun to happen every time I feel overwhelmed by being so far removed from anything familiar. I called my mom, accidentally waking her up, to try and feel better, because the auditorium for our movie wasn’t open yet. We talked for a few minutes, and then the theater opened up. I didn’t hang up immediately, and Abhijeet began snapping his finger at me to indicate that it was time to go. That made things worse…I don’t like being treated like an animal. Though, I’m told, it’s just a part of the way people interact here. I know I can’t take it personally, but I can’t help being irritated by the little things that would be considered so rude and socially improper at home. Anyways…I really enjoyed the movie. Once again, it was all in Hindi, but the music (done by A.R. Rahman…same as Slumdog Millionaire) was phenomenal, and so was the cinematography. Also, because I’m familiar with the story of the Ramayan, I was able to pick up on some of the nuances of the film. Overall, it was exponentially more enjoyable than the previous movie we saw. After the movie ended, we had some trouble finding an auto that would take us back, but eventually Abhijeet got one. We began the journey home, when we suddenly hit traffic caused by a wedding. Abhijeet began arguing heatedly with the auto driver…Dost informed me that, because we had to take a different route, the driver was insisting on a higher price, which Abhijeet was having none of. Eventually we made it back, and relaxed until we went to bed.

On Monday morning, we had a very short workshop in which a few of the teachers, including Sushmita (I love her, she’s really sweet), took turns leading informal discussion on pets. A few of us took turns talking about our pets, and at one point, Nita ma’am was leading the group in the pronunciation of “Grace” and “Toby” because they’re such foreign names. Laughable. After the workshop, Harshita and I began working on compiling lesson plans based on the 1st grade math textbook. We spent a few hours working on that, and then she left. Before lunch, Avi introduced me to Sunita, who helps keep the school materials and library organized. Sunita is 18, but looks like she’s 10 or 12. Her family is extremely poor, as she openly admits. She doesn’t speak a lot of English, but, as she told Avi in Hindi, loves to meet people from other places so she can learn about other parts of the world. She hopes to learn more English; both her younger sisters, who go to the school here, are fluent. Sunita’s desire to learn is both impressive and humbling. She joined us for lunch, which was what it is everyday: dhal, rice, chapatti, and a couple of mushy, spicy vegetable dishes. The dhal has grown on me, and now that I know a little bit of Hindi, I have an easier time communicating to the cooks what I want and in what quantity. Also, Avi and I noticed that Kanti didi is a lot more friendly and motherly with us now that we’ve visited her house. She wanted to take us with her to the park, and took us each by the elbow when she was telling us about how nice it is. She’s a really rough-looking woman, but has a really kind smile. Anyway, after lunch, the new American intern, Alex, arrived. I’m no longer the only white person at Nirman! Not that it was really difficult before, but it’s nice to have someone to relate with on a cultural level. I had a meeting with Irfana around 2, while Avi and Dost went to Sushmita’s house for an interview. After my meeting, Alex and I walked into Lanka to run a few errands. I went to the ATM, bought nail polish, and recharged my phone money, and Alex got his picture taken at a photo studio so he could have passport sized photos – a requirement to get a SIM card. Shortly after we got back to Nirman, Harshita and Saloni came back, because we’d made plans to go out that evening. We had tea while we waited for Avi and Dost to get back, and headed out as soon as they returned. Dost and Alex took a rickshaw, while Avi and I rode with Harshita and Saloni on their scooties. I went with Saloni, she with Harshita, and we went to Vishwanath Temple at BHU. Before we went in, though, Saloni taught Avi and me to ride her scootie…so much fun! We rode on the side of the street where there’s parking, but no cars were there. After a few minutes of that, we went into the Temple, where the Hindus prayed and Alex and I respectfully observed. Afterwards, we went upstairs in the temple and sat outside for a bit. There was a nice breeze, which felt really pleasant. We then went back downstairs, returned to the entrance, collected our shoes, and headed back to the scooties. Before we left, though, we had mango shakes from one of the vendors outside the temple. They were amazing – we watched him blend the mangos, milk, and ice (yep…I was okay though) right in front of us. I love being in Varanasi during mango season! Once Alex and Dost were situated with a rickshaw, the girls went back to the scooties and headed to Godaulia, right near Harshita’s house. She led us to a small complex with a long hallway with different shops, and we stopped at one with a bunch of men sitting on the floor. We’d come for mehendi (henna), and I realized this was where we were getting it. Avi and I sat perfectly still on the floor for what felt like the longest 30 minutes of my life. The men did an excellent job…both of my hands, and both of Avi’s, were decorated extremely intricately. We both paid 150 rupees, which was a little steep, but Harshita reminded us that it’s wedding season so this is when they can make the most money. We left, and Harshita helped us negotiate a rickshaw back to Lanka. She also helped get money out of my wallet and put it in a more accessible place because Avi and I couldn’t move our hands very much. When we got back, we had to wait a bit longer before we could eat dinner, but it was worth the wait because Rangnath had asked the cooks to make us mashed potatos! They were actually delicious…and we ate them with chutney.

On Tuesday, I finally figured out how to reconfigure my laptop with the wifi, now that it’s fixed for real. I can’t overemphasize my excitement about that. It’s really nice not to have to rely on Abhijeet for his modem, which he shared generously, but there were always five of us wanting to use it. After breakfast, Harshita and I worked on lesson plans for 1st grade for a couple of hours before going back to the teachers’ resource room to help with more organization. We had to dust off books and put them onto shelves…pretty easy, but moderately monotonous. When we were finished, we all hung out until lunch. After lunch, I facebook crept for a few minutes in the library until Mamta arrived for Hindi lessons. By now she’s taught us the whole alphabet with pronunciations, so if I refer to my notes I can read and write small words in Hindi! Speaking, at least for me, has been much more difficult. After Hindi lessons, there was a going-away gathering for Avi which Rangnath had organized. He’s been really thorough in doing his job – he’s the new café manager and is constantly asking for feedback so he can improve. For Avi’s party, we had tea, lime water, French fries (!!!), samosas, and some type of sweet. I have a really hard time identifying Indian sweets…people keep telling me things are milk-based, but I really can’t figure it out. Regardless, they taste good. After Avi’s party, I went with Avi and Dost to Sunita’s house. We had to take two rickshaws: Sunita and me, Avi and Dost. While we rode through the city, Sunita and I talked a bit, but neither of us speaks enough of each other’s language to have a real conversation. At one point, she asked me how long I’ll be here, and when I told her “until 17th August,” her face lit up and she said, “you and I, together daily.” I actually almost cried. Even though I’m homesick constantly, there are still little things that make me so happy and grateful to be here. Sunita’s response to the duration of my stay in Varanasi was consistent with some of the teachers’ responses, too. It’s nice to feel wanted here, because it is really easy to feel overwhelmingly out of place. On the way to Sunita’s home, we got stuck in a bit of traffic. Classic Banarasi traffic = bottlenecking as a result of rickshaw drivers, bicyclists, and cars not waiting their turn on narrow streets. It gets really old. When we finally got off the rickshaws, Avi stopped to buy bananas for Sunita’s family. Then Sunita led us down and around some gullies and, after a few minutes, we arrived at her house. I would have walked right by it. There was just a door in a brick wall, which, I noticed as we were leaving, they had painted a festive green. We went inside, and found ourselves in a narrow courtyard with a few mud-walled, tapestry-roofed rooms opening into it. They also had two pets chained to the wall: a dog and a monkey. Her whole family welcomed us and led us to the only room in their home with four brick walls and a real roof. We sat on a mat on the floor, and two of the children fanned us. Guilt…Everyone chatted in Hindi for about half an hour, during which time Sunil (her younger brother who also works at Nirman) went and got us tea. I’ve noticed that the best tasting tea here is the sketchy stuff from street vendors that I really shouldn’t be drinking. He initially went to pour it into plastic cups for us, but their mother insisted on serving us out of small, terra cotta bowls. At one point, the conversation turned to me, and Avi introduced me to Sunita’s father in Hindi. He beamed and started rattling off about my name. Dost told me that he was saying that my name is beautiful and relates to something about love in Hindi. He also asked how long I’ll be in Varanasi, and when I told him, he said (in Hindi) that I should visit them “many, many, many, many more times.” Indian hospitality…remarkable. Sunita even asked me yesterday to come visit them again soon.

From Sunita’s house, we took a rickshaw to Harshita’s. We spent about an hour there, and her mom fed us a meal’s worth of amazing snacks. Indian hospitality, again! Her parents sat with us, and Avi, Dost, Saloni, Harshita, and her parents all chatted extensively in Hindi. After a while, we took rickshaws back to Nirman: Avi with Dost, me with Harshita and Saloni – they sat on the edges of the seat like pros. We all hung out in the guesthouse and went to sleep around 1:30…which wasn’t good because we got up at 4:15 the next morning. I’ll elaborate in the next post…

Ps. I realize I avoided writing this post all week because trying to describe the poverty I have now seen from the inside out is extremely difficult to think about and describe. I’ll write about Wednesday-Saturday later this evening.