Famindia

They came, they saw, they conquered, they left.

I was ecstatic to see them all when I picked them up at the airport. This was the second night in a row that I had taxi’ed myself to the airport to pick them up. Faulty information led me to believe that they were arriving the night before. After waiting for five hours I finally called my Dad to inform him that he could go ahead and start filling out the missing persons paperwork only to hear his unsympathetic response, “Lydia, I think you’re a day early.”

They of course were the last people out of the airport. And of course, it was because Grace, Niyema, and Mom’s bags never left Frankfurt. Grace wasn’t surprised. “This always happens to me.” She said.

I remained optimistic and countered in an angelic sort of way, “All that matters is that you all made it here, forget about the bags.” She shot me a glare of death and that was the end of that conversation.

We did not sleep at all that night. Although it was nice chatting, the next day was rough for everyone. Especially those who didn’t sleep AND had no clean clothes to change into.

Niyema spent the first few days in India wearing my
t-shirt as a dress because she had no clothes

The first days in India were spent at Vhistar, the place that I have stayed while being here. Everyone understood why I call it a paradise after taking a tour of the campus. Palm trees, bright pink flowers, warm weather, and to Niyema’s delight a cow.

Niyema got to milk 007 along with the girls and Rati

We took the bus to get into Bangalore the next day. Shopping is pretty similar to U.S. except that attendants dote on you and never leave you alone. Taking the bus there and back is the more interesting part. It is similar to city busses in Minneapolis except for a few minor differences

#1) There is no scheduled time that the bus comes, you just go to a bus stop and hope that the bus is on its way.

#2) Clearly marked bus stops are rare.

#3) Especially around rush hour times the busses fill up so much that there is barely standing room. This makes the conductors job a bit of an acrobatic feat. He squeezes, slithers, and tiptoes up and down the jam packed bus isle to collect the proper fair from every one who hops aboard.

(On the positive side) #4) The busses are a really economic way to travel. An hour bus ride to M.G. Road (Bangalore’s shopping central street) is a mere 8 ruppees (under 25 cents.)

One more slight difference, on the way home that night the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road and got off. We looked at the other passengers. They were as clueless as we were, but in a much more unsurprised and unconcerned sort of way. A half an hour later he emerges from a roadside Hindu temple where he had been praying and continues the route.

We quickly found that the best way to figure out the busses in India is to ask ask ask. Most Indians prove to be very helpful if not knowledgeable about where bus stops are and what bus number to take to get where you need to go.

Grace and Mom came to India with hats and mittens in their suitcases because they did not trust me when I told them they really do not need them. They also came with this phenomenal paranoia about germs and eating things that would make them sick.

Here are some Grace quotes that I particularly enjoyed:

(at a decent restaurant in Bangalore)

Lydia: “I ordered you my favorite beverage in India, sweet lassi.”

Grace: “That’s cold Lyd. You know I don’t eat anything cold!”

“Lydia! What do I do...! I just put unpurified water from the faucet on my toothbrush!!”

(There were some puppies at a place we stayed. Ni asked Grace if she could pet them.)

“Niyema, you can touch one puppy with one finger.”

And last but not least…

Grace: “Lyd, what do I do with the hair I pulled off my hairbrush?!!”

Lydia: “Ahh… the same thing that you do with it in the U.S.”

This paranoia started getting a bit tedious so in order to counter act it I decided to be living proof that you don’t get sick by doing all of these things that they had been warned not to do. I ate food off a street vendor, I drank a cup of fresh squeezed juice from a street vendor, I ate cold food, I drank lassi, and I ate ice cream. All the while they advised me not to, and all the while I kept reassuring them that I had eaten all of these things all semester long and have not gotten sick once.

Sure enough the following day we had to take a train to Chennai followed by a 4 hour bus to get to Pondicherry, I woke up at 5am throwing up. I threw up once in my room, once beside a palm tree, and once in the taxi on the way to the train station. Other than that I just had a miserable achy 8 hour ride on the train.

Serves me right I guess. It’s about time I had the sick traveler experience.

Niyema was either toted around in the "cow carrier" (this name was given because she could see cows better by being carried on someone's back and it gave her a reason to be excited to crawl into it) or she would grab onto my bag and we would roll her to our next destination.

As for our travels we first went to Pondicherry. We ate delicious French food in the French corridor, and visited the awesome or awful? Auroville community.

Behold.... Auroville

Next we bussed to Mahabalipuram and fulfilled Grace’s wish by visiting the historic Hindu temple as well as spent time on the beautiful sandy beach.

Grace was fascinated by the temple. It put Niyema and I asleep...

We packed up and headed to the city of Chennai for just long enough to visit a historic church found in St. Georges Fort and eat some of the best ice cream in India at Creamy and Spicy before catching a sleeper train to Mysore.

From Mysore we took a cab to Ooty and arrived at the Jungle. There we indulged ourselves in the inescapable beauty of the hill landscape around us. We went on a “trek.” (not quite, it was basically a simple hike up to some beautiful view points.)

We also went on an animal safari and after seeing captured elephants being bathed in a lake, we saw wild elephants walk directly in front of our jeep.

We also learned how to play carrum. A common game in India that is a mix between pool and checkers… use your imagination.

Besides all the animals of India, one of Ni's favorite things was doing laundry in a bucket

After de-stressing in the jungle for three nights, we packed up yet again and headed back to Mysore for the remainder of their stay and saw the palace and stayed for a night before heading back to Bangalore.

Overall it was an unforgettably swell trip.

"Little boy, I do not want to buy any of your stone charms, but I do want to teach you about this ancient Hindu temple built in 1700..."

Christmas Crackers and Cake

Christmas Eve:

I was welcomed into the home of Mary’s parents.

<--

There road we needed was unexpectedly closed on the way to Mary’s parents house. While driving on the bumpy dirt road detour, our car got stuck on a massive rut in the road. David found this very frustrating but I secretly thought it was just grand! It reminded me of getting stuck in a snow drift at home but it is much more comfortable because the air does not sting your nostrils and your fingers and toes don’t turn into ice cubes when you step out of the car. I quickly volunteered to get out and help push the car from the rut. With the help of Viletrout (a German woman who was welcomed to the Selvaraj household for Christmas as well) and David we successfully freed the car and were on our rocky way again. Luckily, despite the delay that stretched the car ride time to 1 hour and 15 min, we were still the first to arrive at Mary’s parents home. Apparently Mary’s sister hit the same detour and had not arrived yet either.

(Notice the widow decor. I put this up the day before when we came to decorate Mary's parents home for Christmas. One of my first comments after entering the house to Mary's Mother was an unashamed compliment of the beautiful widow decoration. : ) I pride myself in my humble spirit. ; ) )

With in 15min of being in the house I sat down to a game of chess with Mary’s father. I play chess with him every time I visit. The first time I played he check mated me in 3 moves, the second time the game was over in 7, this time the game lasted about 10 min. He chuckled when I told him, “all I want for Christmas is to win a game of chess.”

We had a grand feast of fresh tandori (similar to bbq) chicken, mashed potatoes, fried beef patties, coconut rice, lamb curry, and a delicious cheese cake made by Mary to top it off. Mary also made one of her specialty drinks, Irish Cream liquor. Although 9 times out of 10 I will decline alcoholic beverages, this one I accepted. Sure enough, it was a fantastic addition to the dinner.

After dinner I was nominated as elf and distributed gifts. I was astonished and embarrassed to realize that Vileclout and I had received more gifts than anyone else in the room.

(my beutiful and zainy new Christmas sari)

(Vileclout also tried on my sari with Mary's help)







































Christmas Day:

Woke up alone. Felt good. First things first. Opened the gift that a dear friend and fellow student on the trip for the past semester, had left me to open on Christmas since she knew I would be alone. It was a cd with my favorite bollywood song on it. There were also lots of chocolate éclairs as well. With a big grin and mouth full of candy, I poped the c.d. in my player and spent the next hour listening to Indian bollywood music and reading.

Later…
Feeling a little glum I decided to call the fam. They are all at my Gramma’s celebrating Christmas Eve. I talk with my Dad and cousin a bit then get cut off before I can wish my brother happy Christmas. This call has succeeded in making me feel worse. Enough to make a tear fall down my cheek.

I realize that I am just being foolish and decide that I better do something to keep my mind off of what ever I am thinking about that has made me so sad. I Decide to go visit the girls. I bring my stitching. The afternoon is spent stitching, dancing, and eating with the girls. Why had I not thought to do this before? They have completely brightened my day.

Vileclout and I have decide to go out for dinner. We both need food. We walk to the bus stop and wait for 30 min. At that point bus 295 (the one we’ve been waiting for) speeds by with out stopping. We stare at each other dumb founded and realize we better start walking…

We arrive at the store. A Chinese woman suggests we take a rickshaw to a place she goes to get food.

We pay the driver 40 ruppee after he drops us at the spot and proceed to walk around looking for a restaurant. We encouter an ATM, a place for me to fill up min on my phone and a place to buy whisky before settling at a restaurant for our Christmas dinner. They have my favorite Chow chow bath! Vileclout orders cheese dosa. After our enjoyable meal and tea, we set off for home.

Getting home is a bit more of a challenge. After 5 rickshaw drivers turn us down. We start walking toward a busier road to try and catch a bus.

It is dark.

We get there just in time to see our bus (295) pull away from the stop.

We are still in good spirits though, it is Christmas after all. We catch a rickshaw instead. The ride home is one of the smelliest, bumpiest, dustiest, rides I have experienced in my entire stay in India. We both find this hilarious and laugh most of the way home.

On our walk back to Vhistar we our called by Liola (a Vhistar staff member who lives just up the road from the Vhistar campus) to watch Christmas Crackers with her sons. As we sit down, her Mom insists we have some Christmas plum cake which we happily eat. After Christmas Crackers, cake and the preformance of a christmas song from Liola’s son Jayden, we take off and reach our rooms full, content, and happy we had each other for a wonderfully memorable and unique Christmas in Bangalore.

Pre Christmas Party with Bondavi Girls

The group has gone.

I am now on my own. It was much harder than expected. Watching the group that has become like family this past semester board the bus together with out me was emotional even for me who is not prone to shedding tears.

The following days were quiet but I kept busy packing up my things and heading to the Selvaraj household for Christmas.

The Selvaraj’s invited all 70 of the Bondavi girls over to their home for a Christmas celebration that started out with games,

Then a meal,

And last but not least ended by giving a gift to every girl. These gifts were prepared by myself and my new best friend Vilecrout, a woman from Germany that has come to volunteer her time teaching the girls some traditionally German crafts.

I consider her my new best friend because it has been really nice to have another “foreigner” with me so that I am not so alone in the constant feeling of being somewhat out of place. Not to mention making 70 gifts is a rather time consuming process and it was great to have her

next to me to chat with.

Fun with Dick and Jainism

(LATE ENTRY)

“Less is More”

“Live simply so others may simply live.”

I was surprisingly calm as the three bare naked Janes walked into the room and sat down cross-legged in front of our group. The small room smelled a mix of B.O. and nursing home. Fluorescent lights and colorful tinfoil décor overhead gave the room a cheesy, un-guruesqe feel. The head Jane seated in a simple wooden throne explained that he was late because he was meditating. He usually will not speak to groups after 6pm but since we traveled such a distance, he made an exception. The Jane began to explain (via a translator speaking broken English) that he eats only one meal a day and will not use any utensils or dishware to consume it. He also will not use scissors or any machinery. Thus rather than cutting his hair, he rips it out by hand.

That explains the unusually spotty pattern of hair growth on his scalp.

The distinguishing feature marking a Jane (other than their “sky-clad” or naked appearance) is their peacock feather duster broom they carry with them at all times. The function of the broom is to sweep any unseen insect or bug out of the way to prevent bringing harm to living creature by their tread.

The core belief of the Janism religion is non-violence in all aspects of life, food, communication (verbal abuse), and thought (negative thoughts toward others). Therefore are strict vegetarians. No meat or vegetables that grow underground ie: potatoes, onion, and garlic. Everyday the Jane will climb the 636 steps to honor the largest monolithic statue in the world, a stone representation of one of the first Janes. This particular Jane claims that he was a wealthy man, but gave up all of his possessions including his family to become a Jane.

As students start to fire questions at our Jane guru, my mind drifts off contemplating what he would do if I slapped the fly that has just perched on my elbow. I decide not to find out considering I have already made the fo-paw of stretching my legs out and allowing my feet (the dirtiest part of the body) to point at the three Janes. This, I was curtly informed by the student to my left in a harsh whisper, is NOT allowed. I tune back in to hear his response to the question that has been posed,
“What is happiness to you?” He responds simply,
“Happiness is control over ones desires.”
Hmm, I wonder what a different world we would live in if the majority of the population agreed with this sky clad man sitting cross-legged in front of me. His bold rejection of societal pressure to excessively indulge every desire in order to achieve happiness struck me as somewhat profound despite the fact that I can’t help but feel like I am in a zoo. These Janes have almost reached an animal like state. They are not fazed as the group of curious students takes their pictures and are memorized by their every movement. There was a robotic feel to their presence. As if they had become zombies somewhere in the middle of their pursuit to rid themselves of their possessions, desires, wants, and basic human needs. As a result, there bodies and minds have been numbed to strong feelings. It is like I am sitting here witnessing the de-evolution of man. So strange.
While I try to forget about my aching back and legs that have fallen asleep long ago from the time spent in the cross-legged position my skeptical mind is filled with questions. What happens if you get sick? Will you die before submitting to the hospital machines that would help you? Do you ever cheat, step on a bug when no one is looking? Who keeps you accountable? For all I know this is some big money making scheme and as soon as we leave they will all go out for king fishers and a steaming hot plate of chicken biriani.

We have started our tour of North India.

I am in Hyderabad right now.

We have just started the third course of the semester on religon. Besides being known for pearls, Hyderabad has a high concentration of Muslims, 80%. After our study of Islam we will fly to for a touristy time visiting the Taj Majal and such. Then we head to Varinassi to study Hinduism in depth. We will be visiting Mumbai and some other cities as well as we will be finishing the last two courses on this trip, living out of our suitcases bouncing from hostel to hostel.

The majority of native Indians have not visited as many locations in India that we will have by the time the semester is done.
For that I feel SO fortunate and blessed. I can barely believe that we are over half way done with our semester.

Due to us being on the road for the next month, blogs will be updated with less frequency and more concisly, but I will try my best.

Happy Vetrans Day! (and I would like to take this time to make a very special shout out to my Mother...)









HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



Love, Lydia

bike safari

I found my bike ride home from the Selvaraj household (the home that I stayed in over our mid-term break) fantastically amusing.

It started out a bit shakily.

I had two full backpacks of stuff. One on my front and one on my back. This proved to be cumbersome. After about 3 meters of pedaling I fell off. This happened directly in front of three barefoot Indian boys on the side of the rode. They were nice enough to try and hide their laughter. I would have found it hysterical to see a foreign girl tumble off a bike on to the mud road because she was trying to carry way too bags.

My solution was to throw both backpacks on top of each other on my back. Although awkward at first, this was much more manageable.

Biking along enjoying sun, clear blue sky, and warm air, I encounter my first obstacle: A large herd of milk cows claiming the entire road. No problem.
I biked off the road and avoid collision.

Not more than a 20 yards later, I am forced to swerve off the road again. This time a herd of unhappy goats are chasing behind me.
Only slightly shaken, I continue my trek with my big lumpy backpacks on top of each other strapped to my back.

I progress about 200 meters more before out of nowhere, a monkey darts out of the brush and runs right in front of my bike tire.

I wasn't able to dig out my camera (held within one of the 2 packs somewhere) to capture an image, but thanks to googleimage.com
this actually might be the same friend that I almost squashed...

As I watch the monkey scamper off, my eyes drift down to notice an over sized gray and black spotted lady buggish sort of critter crawling up the strap of my pack.

At this point, I realize I have failed as a bio major.

Time to turn on my animal appreciation radar. The rest of the trip I use my knowledge gained in a class I took last spring, Interpreting Spring Landscapes, which honed my bird watching/appreciating abilities. : )

I'd Like to take this opportune moment to make a shout out to Jim Gilbert the guru of looking at and loving plants and everything else naturey.

If you are interested in knowing, I saw:

-Seagull like birds flying in the air
-many butterflies
-many dragonflies
-pigeons
-and a crowish type of bird

The End

Its Turmeric Time!

I have established a reputation. When ever the word "turmeric" is mentioned all eyes dart my way to see my face light up and a big dimpled smile spread from ear to ear.

I don't mean to brag but I am becoming the guru of a magical little spice called turmeric. This has become common knowledge to my fellow classmates thanks to some of the experiments I am conducting to investigate the effectiveness of the potent powder.


<-- Here I am conducting an experiment on Ben's back to test the effectiveness of turmeric as an agent used for hair removal.

Ben's willingness to participate in the study is appreciated. He often reminds me of his noble sacrifice, "I have donated my body to science."

Unfortunately this particular experiment has proven to be much too inaccurate to be used as official results.



I am working on developing a more precise way to count hairs and or measure hair growth. I welcome any suggestions or ideas...






One of the more common uses of turmeric is as a beauty product. It is said to create "radiant and glowing skin." Brides traditionally rub turmeric over their face a day or two before their wedding.

I talked with a woman who gave me a recipe for a turmeric facial which I have been testing on any willing guinea pigs.

So far so good. Everyone seems to enjoy them. After about 10 min. they start to really burn. I tell them, "thats how you know its working." he he he...



*Warning: if you would like to try this at home, it may stain your face causing a jaundiced appearance for a few days.