I’ll Return Soon

The other night we had our goodbye ceremony at the fancy hotel in town. We had bharatanatyam dancing, since we all refused to do a skit or our bollywood dance (India made us surprisingly shy). It was absolutely incredible and the girls were so young and so talented. Every part of their body was completely controlled and the dancing was incredible. So impressive.

Now it’s almost time to say goodbye, and I’m getting sad.  We left all of our professors and mentors at the dinner, and M.V. Kamath came and told us that you never say goodbye, rather, I’ll return soon. I really like the sentiment in that. India has shaped me in so many ways, and changed how I look at so many things. I’ve already started looking for post grad fellowships so I can come back (surprise mom and dad!) and learn Hindi and study more. So for me, I really need to look at this as I will return soon. I’m already homesick for India.

Before we started leaving (we’ve already lost 3 of the 8 of us) several of us went and got our mehendi done after checking out of the police station. You can tell I’m pitta constitution (hot blooded) because my is super dark. It’s beautiful and since we only have a day or so left, I no longer care if I look touristy.

Some fun facts about wedding mehendi: The darker the better – It translates to how much love there is within the new couple. Also, the artist will hide the groom’s name or initials in the design, and he has to find it. One of my favorites is that as long as the henna is visible, you don’t necessarily have to do housework. Apparently it was meant to give the new bride time to adjust to her new family before she begins to care for them.

Anyway, now that I’ve had to start saying so many goodbyes (or see you soon’s) I’m going to lighten things up with another list:

Things I’ll Miss:

• Candy as change
• The individual decorative interiors of rickshaws
• Cows and the big bull in Tiger Circle
• Hot chips and rice crunchies
• Street food
• Saris and all other bright clothing
• Field visits
• Fruit of all kinds
• Mehendi
• “This one”
• Being lost in translation
• Food in general
• Outdoor dining halls
• Friendly street dogs
• Palm trees
• Wild pepper
• Rice Paddies
• Travel Week 2011
• The Arabian Sea
• Temples and all religious statues and shrines
• Jasmine flowers in women’s hair
• Food
• Mango shakes
• Friends
• Honking horns
• Festivals and functions
• The little lizard in my room
• Monkeys

Things to Return to:

• The end of curfew, permission and the late book
• The end of cow grates
• Food
• My family!
• The end of being lost in translation
• The end of paparazzi
• Cooking
• Organization and plans
• Timeliness
• Friends
• Quietness and calm
• Moderate temperatures
• Domesticated animals
• The city!
• Fewer snakes and reptiles
• The end of stereotypes
• Less staring

I’ll return soon, India. It’s been real. Keep following the blog for my adventures in cooking, re-adapting to America, and my life in general. I love you all, and thank you so much for your support over the past four months. The feedback and outreach I’ve gotten has been absolutely incredible and I can promise you that during my hardest times here, I wouldn’t have made it through with out you all. Thank you for the emails, the cards, the facebook messages and the comments. You are wonderful people who I am so happy to have in my life. Thank you.
D

The Songs We Live Our Lives To

Our finals and papers are in full swing and we’re all a little cracked out with excitement to get done and spend our last few days in Mani just hanging out (I want to put it out there that I finished everything before writing here). During our study breaks and time away from research, we started coming up with songs that describe our lives here in India, completely as a joke. It actually sort of brings us full circle, as it reminds me when Jonathan, our assistant director was here (we still miss you!) and used to come up with songs for various situations. Anyway, here it is, our Manipal playlist:

1. It’s Getting Hot in Here – Nelly – Too easy right?
2. Spice Up Your Life – Spice Girls
   
3. Stop This Train – John Mayer
4. Shut Up and Drive – Rhianna – Travel Week 2011
5. Paparazzi – Lady GaGa – Seriously, though
6. The Geeks Get the Girls – American Hi Fi
7. Lights Out – Santigold
8. Little Bribes – Death Cab for Cutie
9. Beautiful Monster – Ne Yo – See previous posts regarding our deterioration
10. Easy Tiger – Depeche Mode
11. We No Speak No Americano – Yolanda Be Cool and DCup – See previous posts
    
12. Wasted Time – The Eagles
13. Everybody Knows This is No Where – Neil Young
14. Independent Woman – Beyonce
15. Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leopard
16. Dirrty – Christina Aguilera
17. Don’t Stand So Close to Me – The Police

More will be added as we can’t stop coming up with appropriate songs.

D

Lost in Translation

About a month or so into our trip, we coined a catch phrase that is dropped at least once a day by one of us: “Didn’t Translate”. This phrase can apply to literally any situation, but is mostly used when speaking, when either a westerner says something too colloquial (move it or lose it bucko being one of my personal favorites) or when something quintessentially Indian happens. Regardless of the situation, it guarantees that one or more parties will be left staring blankly at the other, trying desperately to figure out what was just said and/or done.

Lots of things certainly do not translate, and it is always something we (mostly) take in stride. While being misunderstood or mistranslated can be frustrating at times (buying train tickets) it is often balanced out by things that amuse us. There are certainly a lot of little things that I really think are funny and that I will miss from India. For example, when a merchant doesn’t have proper change for you, you get candy or something that leads up to the same cost. This mostly works out for me since I like little candies, but I do draw the line at anything larger than a coconut. Let’s face it, a coconut is great and all, but no one wants to trade me it for toilet paper or toothpaste.

Still, being lost in translation has its limits. Sometimes it feels as though the entire population will only believe what they’ve seen on TV (Baywatch?) and what they’ve read on the internet (all Americans love President Bush, turkey, and graphic t shirts. They are also stupid.) It has really gotten to a point where it feels impossible to break these stereotypes, even among our friends. For a while, people didn’t believe we knew the Pythagorean theorem (a^2 + b^2 = c^2) or that that Hindu was the major religion here. Its hard to feel like there is nothing you can do to change these opinions, but I think we’ve made (some) progress.

A month or so ago, two of my friends in the program did an interview in the Deccan Herald regarding foreign students in India. I want to preface this by saying that just about everything (literally) was lost in translation in this interview. My friends are not stupid, do not believe that Indian can be described as “sweets” and that this trip has been far more than “nothing special”. The world may never know if this interviewer didn’t understand them, lost her interview and made it up, or just didn’t care, but it is an excellent (and in my opinion, very comical) example of our experience of getting wrapped up in translation.

Presented for your reading pleasure: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/150672/indian-expertise-americans.html

D

On Being Loved

On the way to M.V. Kamath's

A few weeks ago, M.V. Kamath (see earlier posts) invited us to his childhood home in Udupi for a dinner and to see how he lived. He also stipulated that the dress code would be saris. This lead most of us to treat this as the Indian version of prom, and so it was really exciting when the big night rolled around.

After primping and prepping, we had  to actually get into the saris. This meant asking our very wonderful ladies at the front desk of our hostels to help us out. Luckily, they took on the challenge with all the finesse of fashion designers. It took a little while, but after a bit of fluffing and an incredible number of safety pins, I felt like a princess. The sari makes you feel so graceful and pretty, even when you ride in an auto rickshaw. It was super awkward to have to walk from the hostel to the auto stand. I sort of think most people thought we were just wearing saris and all of our bangles for fun, but actually, I have a function.

After we all finished our prom pictures and poses, and arrived at Mr. Kamath’s home, we were blown away. The house is amazing and beautiful, and the front garden was filled with fairy lights and a large decorative tent as well as a small stage under a very picturesque giant mango tree. I felt like I was in Monsoon Wedding. The house itself is 91 years old, and was bought back in the day for RS

Everyone with M.V. Kamath

10,000 ($200). When Kamath was young, 18 people lived there, and he can show you exactly where he was born. He  explained his chores (each boy had to draw water and water 6 coconut trees every day), as well as the fact that since they didn’t have a gramophone (is it sad that I’m not 100% sure on what a gramophone does?) they would have all the musical celebrities perform for everyone in their front yard.

They had brought in incredible classical singers to perform for us (for those interested, they sang Hindustani as well as Rajastani songs, and some in English) and Kamath said it was the first time in 80 years anyone had performed at the home. After a delicious dinner catered by my namesake restaurant, Kamath gave a short speech before we left.

He spoke of how he invited us there to feel loved, and to know that we were loved and welcomed in India. He wanted us to go home to the states knowing that we had been invited to an Indian home and they had loved us. It was a charming and touching speech, and it changed my ideas on how to welcome a person in the states. Kamath, in previous conversations, explained to me that while he spent time abroad, he always just wanted to be invited to a person’s home. Everyone wanted to take him to a nice restaurant, but he said that the only way to know that you were loved was to take someone for a home cooked meal and show them how you live. It was a sweet and memorable gesture, and one that will certainly stick with me.

D

I don’t have everyone’s pictures yet, so I’ll update when they come.

Tea and Snakes

After some academic and personal turmoil (see previous post) it was great to get out of Manipal for the day to go on our last field visit. It was a little sad for me actually, knowing that the next time I will travel so far outside of Manipal, I’ll be heading home. Passing all the little shops and towns reminded me of everything I love about India, and how sad I’m going to be to leave.

We headed back inland again, through the Ghats, to visit an Ayurvedic college,  tea and coffee plantation, and a rain forest research station. We’ve been study the environment and the economy lately, as well as my usual ayurveda classes, so this was really cool for me. Also, it was cooler temperature wise inland, so that was a delight as always.

The Ayurvedic college was our first stop, where we toured their huge herb/plant garden. We saw all the trees and things that we’ve been studying in class, and it was nice that I could recognize the names of plants or think of treatments they might be used for. We also visited their pharmacy and saw how they make the drugs and how they handle quality control which was really cool. Its so interesting to hear different professionals takes on Ayurveda, as some people are all about pushing the science forward and looking to new aspects of the text, while others wish to be more traditional with their usages. It sometimes gets a little confusing, but its certainly an interesting debate.

After the Ayurvedic college, we headed out to the plantation. We first stopped at the actual tea producing factory and got a tour. It was actually really cool, like being in an episode of How Its Made. The tea leaves are first put in a giant bin that dried them out slightly. Then, they are brought to a man who puts them all in a little hole that leads to a shredder that cuts up the green leaves into smaller pieces. From there, they are put through a series of rollers that are treated with little water misters to keep everything damp. The tea gets finer and finer and darker and darker. From here, its dried and the particles are sorted by their fineness. Very cool process, plus is smelled delicious the whole time.

After, we had a tour of the plantations with the manager of the factory, who was incredibly articulate and very interesting to talk to. He covered environmental economic and labor issues as he showed us rubber trees (who knew that’s how rubber works!) tea, coffee, cocoa, pepper, cashew and palm trees.

We then headed back to the college for lunch, then it was off to the Agumbe Rain Forest Research Station. This is a super cool place set in the middle of the Ghats, where they research various animals and the environment. Of course upon our arrival they had just found a snake, luckily it was very very small and I didn’t freak out. Each team member has a different project they’re working on, everything from population of scorpions to the effects of cattle grazing in the forests. Their main project is watching Indian King Cobras (they grow to be 16 ft long. That is more than three of me) which they track every day. I’m not a snake girl, but it was really cool to tour their facilities and use the trackers they use on the snakes. The people reminded me of the hut cru in the Appalachian Mountain trail huts, so it sort of felt like being at home again. It was definitely a very cool, very busy day.

D

Thoughts on Helplessness

A few weeks ago, as part of my public health classes, we went into the surrounding towns and took water samples and interviews (with a translator) of the local people at their homes. We looked to the family situation (who lived with whom) and where they got their water, what they used it for, their cooking situation, etc.

The woman I interviewed was an older widow who was living with her sister, her niece and her grand-nephew. Her sister owned a small restaurant and that’s how they supported themselves, in addition to the niece’s income. Her home was what is called “mixed” meaning that the walls were cement but the roof was made of tiles and thatch that wasn’t entirely water proof. Her fire pit was out back, so ventilation didn’t matter, although they had windows and electric lighting. They also had a uncovered well and a tap both outdoors that provided their water. The water from the tap is provided by the panchayat and is treated water from the river.

The women explained to us that she used the treated water from the tap for domestic purposes, such as washing dishes and bathing, while the well water was for drinking. She said she didn’t like the taste or the smell of the treated water (chlorine) and that the well water was sweet and clean. She got the well water by dipping her bucket into the well and drawing it out again. This is what they used for cooking and drinking.

Not to be too public healthy here, but well water is only safe when it is properly covered, sealed with cement on the inside, away from a latrine, and pumped out from the bottom using proper methods. This woman had none of that, but closer to her home was clean, safe drinking water she wouldn’t use from the tap. Each of the 16 samples we tested came back filled with all sorts of crazy viruses and bacteria, making the water completely non potable.

If a person survives the viruses, they will become immune to them in the future, but the same doesn’t apply for bacteria, which can hit you again and again. The number two cause of death in children under five in India is diarrhea, and the over all under five mortality is 65.6 per 1000. This particular woman’s grand nephew was under five.

Our professor has said he will give the report to a higher up official than himself, but that it will probably go unnoticed. In addition, the panchayet in the area also has the same test kits we used, as well as a person trained in how to use them, yet they’ve never been opened. While this seems outrageous, I can’t help thinking that if that woman doesn’t want to drink the safe water, then does it matter who knows the water is unsafe?

As your typical idealist SIS development kid, this really affected me. This woman has clean water, right there. This kid doesn’t have to be sick or die, but right now he stands a really good chance of those things happening to him. No one wants their children to die, but they are unintentionally letting that happen.

I think the past few months of  learning about the variety of programs in place, completely free of cost, in India, has made me feel like there is something that could really work going on here. But then you visit the field and you see that people don’t want to drink the water because it tastes like chlorine, and pregnant mothers won’t take iron and folic acid tablets (which can prevent a huge number of maternal and neonatal deaths) because it gives them heart burn. Its just this overwhelming sense of helplessness that you can’t learn about in a LEED certified classroom at AU.

I spoke to my professor about this, and instead of giving me an inspiring talk about the powers of education and awareness, he merely said he felt helpless, too, and that that was the problem. I’m not sure how to fix everything that’s going on here, and I’m not sure how to deal with everything I see, but I think that this experience has changed me, and changed my outlook, on a lot of different things. I think this was a really important lesson to learn, again, one that they can’t teach in a fancy college in the states. Some days you’re going to feel really great about all the work that’s going on around you, but there are going to be other days where it just feels like there’s no point, and all you can do is hope that people will figure things out on their own.

D

P.S. I’ll post on happier things, like snakes and tea and prom, tomorrow.

Dancing It Out

With only slightly more than two weeks left here in India, I’ve been caught in the web of a giant research paper that I’m having trouble getting a good grasp on. Happily, I was freed from my struggles for an hour or so yesterday with a Bollywood dance lesson from one of our professors. Yes that’s right, Bollywood dance. After being promised multiple times we would never have to perform for anyone, all the girls agreed to have some fun and dance it out.

It was more classical dance, adapted from an old black and white film (I’ll get the name and update it with the clip we used) and we were promised that it was something we’d be capable of learning. Indian dance has a lot of little kick steps and hops that are surprisingly hard to grasp. Its like my body will never move with enough agility to make it look like I’m not failing around. The video shows this woman working these controlled moves that actually look  like something.

Despite my flailing, I had a great time. We played around with a lot of different moves and ways to set up the dance. Plus this was just fun because the old movies especially involve a lot of silly acting out of the lyrics which had us all rolling on the floor laughing at ourselves. This particular story involved a girl who’s husband had gone away for some reason and in his absence was bitten by a scorpion (of love) and was filled with the fever of love and had to dance it out until he came home to her.

It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon, particularly after working all day. We have our last field trip this weekend, and what I’m referring to as Indian Prom on Monday, so I’ll keep the updates coming once I finish this paper.
D