As my first week in India comes to a close, I find myself
worn from sun, smog, dirt, and dust, but eager for more exciting experiences
and new flavors. The previous days have been packed full of adventures. I have
never felt more like Indiana Jones.
I began my first morning at 4:30 am thanks to jetlag, roamed
around our hotel lawn to find the peacocks (there were two!), and spent until
7:30 following Becca’s excellent yoga routine. It was already 85º F, now I
understand where they came up with hot yoga. Our breakfast, much like it was
for this entire week and will most likely be in the future, was spicy
cauliflower curry and chipate (a type of tortilla bread). Today however, my host parents kindly
decided to serve me spaghetti for breakfast, although spicy marinara and pasta
is normally not what I prefer to eat at 8 am, I could not resist their
thoughtfulness. Aunti Sharan Kala and Uncle Ashok Kala have been incredible
hosts to me so far, but more on these two later.
We caught our final flight to Udaipur and were greeted by
our FSD representatives, Giulia and Diya. Giulia is from Italy and Diya is a
native Udaipur(ian?). After settling into our hotel, Romaji takes us to Laxmi
Handcrafts, a little store, crammed in between hundreds of little stores in a
grimy side street. We enter apprehensively and are suddenly surrounded by walls
filled with beautiful fabrics. Each of us buys new work clothes, the women pick
out several salwar kameezes for work. After a late dinner we return back to a
peaceful hotel balcony overlooking the palace and lake pichola. Steph, Nat,
Jess and I listen to the Arab call to prayer being echoed off the mountains and
reflect on our first day.
The last day of orientation began by a bird trying to break
through a hole in steph and my bathroom, fortunately I hit its disgusting demon
claw before it squeezed its way inside our room to attack. All afternoon are
information sessions; 1 about the panchayati raj village governance system, 1
from a girl who has moved here from loyala to study farming, and 1 from romaji
to learn some safety tips. Our first outside exhibition on foot is to the ATM,
looking back on it now, its funny how scared I was to walk down the block from
our hotel. Now I have ridden a crowded and rickety tempo (a small taxi) with 15
people crammed into it, by myself, and successfully navigated from my work to
the Big Bazaar, while about 10 indian men yell “hey baby” at me. The big bazaar
is a grocery store that is surprisingly similar to target, being there makes me
a bit homesick. For dinner we go and celebrate Romaji’s birthday! We meet other
FSD interns from San Francisco and NYU and share our experiences thus far, 2 of
the NYU interns are sick… I hope that is not me in a few days. One had to go to
the hospital yesterday because he was so dehydrated. There, they tried to
convince him that a headache and a fever were the same this. This makes me
really want to improve my hindi.
The next day we met our host families. Everyone was nervous
at breakfast. We saw each other being chosen, one by one, to be introduced and
taken home by their new parents. It felt like waiting for an interview or being
picked in gym class. Around 11:30, Ashokji Kala and his granddaughter greeted
me and took my bag down to their car. Thankfully the small talk was brief and
his granddaughter spoke excellent English to smooth the transition. The Kalas
have two children, one is married and studying in London with his wife. The
other is married and living in Udaipur with her two kids. On my first night
with the Kalas, the grandchildren came over to visit and chat. Their family is
lively and friendly, and I can tell that the Kala’s love their grandchildren.
Mihir and her mom leave but Dhananjay stays to keep us company at dinner. We
talk about American TV, and I can’t belive how much they watch, -how I met your
mother, jailbreak, vampire diaries (which we had a lengthy conversation about
Elena, Stefan, and Damon drama). Even my host dad was excited to tell me about
the 300 channels he has on his TV, the first show he mentioned to me was… “sex
and the city.” I almost died laughing when he grinned and told me he really
liked to watch it on HBO.
Ashok (uncleji is the term of endearment I now use) speaks
some English, but it is limited. we had the afternoon to ourselves in their apartment,
and chatted awkwardly about his
government job that he retired from, (he seems to really enjoy retirement…
playing his favorite music throughout the apartment, taking his wife (aunti ji)
to and from her job as a professor, taking his morning bath at 9:30 every day,
and performing the puja, a prayer ceremony). The Kalas are a Brahmin family,
which means they are the highest cast. Brahmins are traditionally the priests
of the community and the Kalas definitely continue the traditions. Their walls
are covered in pictures of Krishna and Ganesh, Auntiji told me about praying to
the god of nature today as she was lighting candles in their small temple next
to the kitchen. Tonight I was also lucky to be able to join them at their
Guruji center to honor their Guru through chant and meditation. The service was
an hour of sitting cross legged on the cement floor, responding to the call of
the lead singer as Indian drums and symbols chimed along (I wish I knew the
names of the instruments). Afterward, Aunti introduced me to some of her
friends and the lead singer; they tell me that she is a very kind and faithful,
and I feel lucky to be in such a rich culture and kind home.
We arranged to meet our NGO with Ashotosh, but he arrived
late, so I road on the back of his motor bike and he eventually got me to Jatan.
Unfortunately we missed Dr. Keilash, our advisor, and continued on to meet the
group at an ice cream shop. First, we met some of the other workers at our NGO,
and they made us sit for a while, enjoy some chai (tea in hindi), and then
leave. By the time we met the group, we were 30 minutes late… they call this
“Indian time” here. If you set a
time, 1. try to expect it to be at least 30 minutes later and 2. try not to
expect something to happen at all… things are always changing and they see time
in a very different way here.
FSD has kind of just set us loose here in Udaipur, I am
luckily pretty good with finding my way around strange places and getting where
I want to go eventually, but plenty of people have had interesting adventures
getting lost and finding their way back. Nat was biking back home when he got
lost in our neighborhood just as it was getting dark. He eventually needed to
call his host father to come find him and bring him home. Aaron lost his phone
the first day of being here… so when he wasn’t feeling well after crashing a
random Indian wedding, tried to find his way home but got lost, he stopped and
asked for directions. He ended up being invited into this man’s home for tea, chatting
with him for 2 hours, then finally accepting a ride home from this man on the
back of his motor bike. From the cat calling men, to the crazy traffic, to the
herds of cows roaming around, to the people riding elephants down the hiway… I
would not want to get lost in this city.
In Udaipur, During the last days of June, it is wedding
season. Indian weddings are incredibly different than those in the US and I
find them fascinating. Most of them are still arranged, and almost always
within the caste system. Every night, traffic is backed up or even stopped
because of wedding processions. You can see the groom riding a horse surrounded
by lighted pillars, next is the wedding party who is dancing and marching and
singing in the line, then on the road is the wedding band which blasts its live
music (especially the ornate singing of the lead) through a loud speaker system
for the whole street to hear. This group is slowly moving down the main
highways or side roads toward the hall where the ceremony will take place and
the bride is waiting. She is most likely crying, because for women, a wedding
in India means leaving their family for a strange life with a new husband and
his family. Some of the girls in our group have already been able to go with
their host families, but unfortunately the Kalas do not have any plans to visit
any weddings this week. Kelly’s host mom runs a beauty parlor, so she has been
doing hair, henna, and makeup for brides all week. Her host brothers and
sisters have taught her how to crash an Indian wedding and I think we might try
to put their advice to use this weekend before wedding season is done. It will
also give me an excuse to purchase a sari.
Our second day at Jatan, we met Dr. Kailash, and the other
two interns, Allison and Olaf. Dr. Kailash gives us some ideas to help us
decide our main project at Jata. Jatan’s goal is to empower the youth and
children so they have many programs set up throughout Udaipur; health clinics
both maternal, sexual, and general, coop groups for work and crafts, schools
and training centers for migrant children, and various other efforts. They want
steph, nat, and me to look into expanding/creating a market and profet for
their stitching cooperative of low income and vulnerable women. Today, we met with the head of the
program and looked at the various purses, laptop cases, cell phone cases, toiletry
kits, and pot holders they stitch. The fabric and stitching is beautiful, and
it is disheartening to see this beautiful craftsmanship, but no that no one has
wanted to buy them. They have been trying to sell for several months and have
only sold a handful. UGER is the brand title and they have a website through Jatan
Sansthan. Check it out if you can.
Our second day, we also went to a school for children who
are unable to qualify for public/government school because they are from
migrant families and must miss school frequently. These bright eyed and smiling little kids were spark plugs!
We walked in and were greeted by a big unison “hello how are you???” we then
spent the afternoon learning songs, hearing the kids recite their abc’s, their
numbers, and their colors, dancing like Michael Jackson and the famous Hindi
Bollywood actor from “ek do tin.” These kids are tough too, especially the ones
that are barely 1 years old and defend themselves against the craziness of 10
year old boys. Hopefully we will be able to go back soon with Allison and Olaf.
Last night was Michelle’s birthday, so we all went out to a
restaurant to celebrate and share our adventures thus far. Michelle met us
after taking a camel ride around one of the local parks, what a birthday! Diya
was kind enough to take me home on the back of her motor bike as it was 9:30 by
the time we were leaving (which is
pretty late for Udaipur… we must be back to our host families by 10:30 at the
latest).
Today, the Kala’s were so nice to set me up with a bike, so
I can now bike to work and around the city. Streets are crazy though, so I’ve
avoided main routes until I feel a little more comfortable about driving on the
left side of the road, and weaving between children, tempos, autos, cars,
busses, trucks, cows, goats, screaming children, street food carts, and wedding
parties.
I have written all of this, and still I don’t think I can
adequately communicate how I feel or what it is like on the other side of the
world... things aren’t quite opposite, though they do drive on the left side of
the road, but they are simultaneously more different and more similar than I
was expecting. Maybe it will come to me later this weekend.
