Pictures? Hopefully?

So the first series of pictures I have is themed around the Indian religious landscape (Kaitlyn, eat your heart out). It's definitely something which, at least in my experience, is much less common in America than in India. Here, it seems like nearly everywhere we go there's some kind of religious imagery going on. It started off at the Taj Palace Hotel, the 5-star international hotel we stayed at for the first few nights in Delhi. Right there in the lobby, I found this waiting for me:

Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. By far the most common deity I have seen in Jaipur and Delhi, Ganesha is depicted in a different way in nearly every representation. A particularly old statue stands outside our school:

To continue along the representations-of-Ganesha line, there is a pretty large Ganesha temple on the way to school. I didn't try to take a picture of it (it might be considered disrespectful to take pictures inside the actual shrine), but the main idol in there is a huge orange statue - probably about 7 feet tall, 3-4 feet across, and bright orange. It was crazy.


But Ganesh is far from the only religious figure I've encountered while being here. Here are a few other statues seen at various locations (read: mostly outside people's houses. These were major creeping jobs):









Now, part of the reason religious landscape was so interesting to me was definitely the omnipresence of religious iconography. But the other side to religious landscape is the plurality of faiths that exist side by side here. In Kerala, the interplay between Hinduism and Christianity has always struck me as the key religious coexistence. In Jaipur, however, there seem to be many more faiths that interact and often, find a way to mix together. I've seen a lot of Jainist statues, a good amount of Buddhist influence, and solid amounts of Muslim and Christian influence. I want to look into this more as the summer goes on, but here are some preliminary pictures I have:



These three statues (though all of different size, composition, and location) are all Jain (I think). The prevalence of Jainism here is definitely interesting. From my understanding, at least, Jainists were supposed to be very detached from worldly things. But here, there seems to be something of an emphasis placed on the physical representation of Jainism, which seems sort of contradictory. I don't know, maybe I just don't understand Jainism well enough (cue Kaitlyn to the rescue?)



So I'm not entirely sure what the first picture is - I thought it looked like a mosque, but a friend said he was pretty sure it was an orthodox church. Input appreciated. But the second one I'm pretty sure is a mosque. I would write something more here, but it's late and I'm tired and I have so much homework to do (still). More to come later, folks.

A rush of a post

This post will be expanded later, but I had to get something up so that Kunji chechi would have something to read over her lunch break in the adult world. She's choosing me over the NY Times, so I figure I need to keep her happy. All these points will be expanded upon in the near future (read: within the next few hours)

Expansion time! I know it ended up being about a day later, but hey. I've got work to do (and by that I mean my computer was running out of battery, I was talking to people, and we went out for dinner). But I'm getting around to it now, woohoo!

Class is simultaneously a lot of fun and slightly frustrating.

I'll start with what I find most fun about class, which is the real life application stuff. By this I mean the newspaper readings, the radio exercises, and the movie watching. It's cool being able to recognize some key words that show up a lot in headlines (stuff like "illegal," "legal system," etc.) And while these classes also make me feel terrible about how bad my Hindi is, I still kind of feel that the work I put into it is useful.
On the other hand, I'm kind of frustrated. Fustrated, to one Eliot Kim. Partially with myself, partially with the program. I'm frustrated with myself because I still don't really talk in class, which doesn't really help me. And then when I don't talk, classes are so small that the teachers just sort of assume I don't understand (which usually isn't the case, I swear) and then try to slow down/translate a lot of stuff. So then I have to reassure them that I understand and that it's not too difficult and that I'm just kind of silent. Which leads to another point in this post:

The teachers think I have no friends.(This one may or may not be true)

In one of my personal tutorials, the scary teacher asked me why I never spoke. So I told her I had issues with class participation and talking, to which she replied "Yes, but I never see you talking with any other students or spending time with any friends." From there she went on to give me a speech about how I shouldn't be afraid of people and that if I tried, I could make some friends because I am a good, nice boy.

I missed home for the first time today.

I think I realized today that I don't really click with anyone in the program on the "good friend" level. For the most part, they want to talk about academic stuff/their research. Or they want to show off how much they know about Indian tradition. Which is a whole lot of fun.
The time I'm thinking of when I say this: I went to a Ganesha temple near our flat one day just because I hadn't been to a temple in a while and it was too close for me to justifiably not go. But yeah, a kid wanted to come with me to see it, which was fine. But when we got there, he started explaining all the traditions to me. Like... he told me about what Ganesha was and why he is important to Hindu tradition. I don't know, I don't think I like when people try to show off how much they know.

Haggling with auto rickshaw drivers is still challenging - so far your tactic has proven unsuccessful, chechi.

It's a lot harder to get the rickshaw drivers to turn on their meters when you have white people in your group. Just as a general rule. Also, I have this problem where I kind of stop caring if the price is under like... Rs. 50 or 60. Probably should, but I just keep thinking "wait... this is actually like $1.00, if that. This is wholly unimportant."

I didn't sleep well last night.

Clearly the most important aspect of this post. But the A/C in our room broke and has yet to be fixed, so our room gets pretty darn hot. Also, I might have given myself mild food poisoning. It's not bad, but we'll see how it turns out.
In case I die, I want to thank you all for reading this blog. Please reclaim my belongings somehow from India? I think my mom would really like this suitcase back. Also I want to be buried in that oversized shirt that everybody seems to hate.

Pictures!

...will not be uploaded today, as Blogger isn't letting me put them up. However, know that there will be some coming in the next post. So for this post... I guess I'll talk about the classes and how that stuff works? About as exciting, I know. For starters, I'll go over the different class types we have in the AIIS program, each of which is designed to help us build different skills and improve in different ways.

Magazine/Newspaper readings: The week before, we are given a small article from a local newspaper or magazine and a list of vocab which we might not (in my case, will not) know. For the advanced level, we read the articles at home and have to discuss their significance in class. This... may or may not be possible given the article we have this week, which talks about this kid who opened up an ice cream and juice stand (called Echo-Choco, if you're ever in Mumbai and craving either ice cream or juice). Anyway, it's pretty good to help out on my reading speed, which is one of my weaker areas.

Journal Correction: Ever week, we're expected to write 5 pages on anything in our journals and then present them to the class. I find this one of the most difficult parts of class because 1) I'm not creative enough to come up with good topics to write about, 2) my writing is ridiculously bad and simple, and 3) my teacher thinks I'm crazy. Granted, number 3 might be slightly justified. My first journal assignment was a story about a toymaker and his family. The toymaker dreams of making this perfectly lifelike doll, so realistic that you can't tell it isn't human. He spends hours upon hours working on it and finally creates the perfect toy, but before he can sell it, he drops it and its arm breaks off. So he gives it to his kids to play with, figuring it's of no use. But then the doll comes to life and, upset that the toymaker didn't try to fix him, starts terrorizing his family. So... yeah, I guess I can maybe understand why the teacher thought this was odd. In my defense, it was the only idea I had!

Hindi Literature: Similar to the newspaper class, this is designed to help us with our reading comprehension while exposing us to different sides of Hindi literary tradition. We stick to children's stories (because we can't handle anything above like... a 3rd grade level) and discuss them in class. I haven't had one of these yet, so I can't really speak to what they are like. But it should help my reading speed a good deal.

Radio/TV: One of my favorite classes because it involves almost no talking (something I'm pretty darn good at, if I do say so myself). Also, my listening comprehension is probably my most developed skill, so I can pretend like I know what I'm doing/like I belong in advanced in this. Also, we get to watch Hindi serials (which are incredibly dramatic and funny) or listen to Hindi radio (which is also really odd - they try to sound American a lot of the time, but then both their Hindi and English become unintelligible). But it's still good.

Vocabulary: A pretty standard class, in which we go over some important vocab for the week and practice using it. No big deal.

Grammar: Pretty much the same idea, just reviewing grammar concepts (or more accurately, other people review and I learn) and doing some drills to practice.

Personal tutorial: One-on-one time with one of the teachers to go over anything you have questions about. This really really intimidates me; I'm pretty much terrified of authority figures as a whole and as much as they try to sell the "We are your family!" thing, I'm still afraid to talk to them for an hour.

Word games: While I don't find this particularly useful all the time, it is pretty darn fun. A lot depends on what game we have for the week. Games like Pictionary don't really help me all that much, but stuff like Taboo is a pretty good way to get us to speak. It's always a good time, though; there is something about watching your classmate flop around of the floor trying to get you to guess "whale," only to realize you don't actually know how to say whale in Hindi.

Pronunciation: Just a lesson to go over the differences between aspirated vs. unaspirated sounds, retroflex vs. dental, etc. I'm not anticipating it to be too difficult, but we'll see when I have the first class.

Movie: Without a doubt my favorite 3 hours of the week. We watch Bollywood movies without subtitles to work on listening comprehension. Now, this is great for a number of reasons: 1) NO TALKING! This is the one class of the week where I can do absolutely no talking and still have it be acceptable. 2) It's listening comprehension, which is something I can do! So it makes me feel pretty darn good about myself. 3) ...it's watching a Bollywood movie in class.

Film discussion: This is a tricky class because the teachers know I like Bollywood movies. Thus, they expect me to have a lot to say about them and discuss their main themes and such. But... I don't really like to talk in class, so I think I might let them down. Oh well.

And I think that's about it... if I missed any, I'll add them on later.

I hate Hindi.

Well, that's not entirely true. A more apt title: I hate (how much I suck at) Hindi. The first day of classes was today, and it was a roller coaster. Luckily, there was an easy start: my section was scheduled to watch a Bollywood movie today. It was an old film from the early 1980s called Masoom (a really good movie for any of you who are interested) that focused on like... family dynamics and honesty in relationships. What made the movie challenging was the fact that we watched it without using any subtitles. What made it easier was the fact I had already seen it. So there were a lot of parts where I could understand bits and pieces that I could then put into context, knowing the storyline. But yeah, it was a pretty good way to ease into class. However, immediately afterwards I had my first "personal tutorial" session with Neelam-ji, the teacher who scares me the most. She's from Nepal and tends to be serious a lot of the time. She rarely smiles and speaks really quickly and I think she knows I shouldn't be in advanced (although I should be used to this - Rakesh-ji, the program leader, keeps asking me if I'm absolutely sure that I can handle the workload and assuring me that if I ever need it, he can arrange private tutoring for me. which is kind of demeaning, but accurate. I probably will take him up on that).
So anyway, I had my hour-long one-on-one tutorial with Neelam-ji. And I had virtually nothing to talk about. Now, in my defense, this is only partially my fault - the tutorials are supposed to be times when you can approach your teacher about material covered that you feel uncomfortable with. But our only lesson thus far had been watching a Bollywood movie, discussion of which is blocked out for tomorrow afternoon; how was I supposed to come up with an hour's worth of conversation? So we ended up talking about Bollywood and each other's lives. I think my motives for taking Hindi are being revealed in the fact that most of the extended in-Hindi conversations I've had so far have revolved around Bollywood in some way. So the tutorial was... interesting. Anyway, Neelam-ji told me that my speaking/listening is at the advanced level (shout out to Bollywood once again), but that I will need to work extra hard at new vocab and grammar that the other kids may have learned in second year. Which is fine, I'm apt to be equally lazy in the face of all obstacles. Also she turned out to be kind of funny and sarcastic. I'm pretty sure a lot of it was about me. But she told me how proud she was that I knew my madrabhash (mother tongue), Malayalam, and was now learning... I forget the word she said, but it meant national language, Hindi. Score!
So after that I got to move in to the new flat. Half of the kids had moved in earlier in the day (there is a separation of the AIIS group - students under the Critical Language Scholarship [CLS] program have classes from 9 - 1, take classes in different rooms, and eat in a different cafeteria than we do. Despite the fact that we take the same classes from the same teachers and get the same food. I don't really understand the purpose of this), so the remaining 6 of us grab rickshaws to head to the place. Here came my first experience of having to bargain with an auto rickshaw driver by myself. He wanted to charge 4 of us Rs. 80 for the short, maximum 4 km ride (to give you an idea of how outrageous this is, the Delhi rickshaw rate is set at Rs. 10 for up to 1 km, with each extra km being Rs. 4.50). I've decided the bargaining process is all about looking frustrated and willing to leave, because the conversation was really simple (rough recount following):
"Rs. 80"
"80 rupees? That's too expensive. 40!"
"40? That will get you nowhere! 70"
"The fare is 20 rupees! We are giving you extra, don't push it. 60"
"...ok, 60"
So Rs. 15 a person. Not too bad? I would put that one in the "moderately successful" category. Anyway, after we arrived, the real drama began. Room allotment. First drama: there were 10 rooms and 11 people, so one double would have to be created. I volunteered (because I didn't really care and wanted the process to go by quicker), but getting a second volunteer was hard. Eventually another guy agreed to do it on the condition that we get the biggest room, which everyone consented to. So it's pretty sweet - have AC, wifi access, a working TV, and a balcony. Pictures coming tomorrow.
Second drama: room choice order. After Tareq (my roommate) and I were given our room, the time came for those left over to determine an order for choosing rooms. Now, this got very tense, with people threatening to walk out on the loft as a whole (leaving us to cover and extra person's rent). Even though numbers were drawn from a hat, people with CLS funding were unhappy about their low number draws. Their logic was that since the State Department is covering their housing, they shouldn't settle for less-than=ideal rooms, which I thought was a little bit diva-like. Anyway, it all worked out in the end and, as a celebration of our new flat family, a few of the guys went out and bought drinks and we had a celebration. Also, we met the aunty who lives downstairs and prepares food for us every day. She speaks no English, but is super sweet and actually took to me in particular - I think it's because she thought I was Punjabi for a while. About 5 minutes into our conversation, I mentioned that I was on a bhangra team at Yale and she gives me this knowing smile. "What?" I ask. "No no... I just knew you were Punjabi." "Actually, I'm not..." "Gujurati?" "No..." "Sindhi?"

...this process went on for another few minutes until I told her I was a Malayalee. Anyway, she seems really cool and I want to talk to both her and her son more as the summer progresses. Although the thought that took up most of my head space for the day was FINALLY I HAVE A PLACE TO STAY. No more of this moving around from place to place, searching for an apartment, etc. Finally I have a bed that will stay the same for 10 weeks.
Anyway, I've got to get back to homework. Lots of stuff due tomorrow. And I have to be up early on top of that.

(Placement) Testing, (Apartment) shopping, (over)eating, oh my!

First off, I want to say: I know I've updated the blog every day since being here, but I swear I have a life. Kind of. Anyway, today was another fun day. I slept through breakfast in the morning, deciding to opt for an extra 45 minutes of sleep (a dangerous bet, given the fact that I have no alarm clock with me right now). Breakfast in the Gem Inn, where we're staying for now, isn't that great anyway - they had buttered toast, corn flakes, and bananas. So as I was running for the bus, I grabbed a slice of toast and a banana. Anyway, we took the placement test today. Ohhh, boy. That was a whole lot of fun. I was expecting something more like a school test; you know, asking some basic questions then moving on up to the more difficult stuff. But no, this test just dove right in with 3rd and 4th year grammar/vocab. It was split into two parts: listening and reading comprehension. The listening part went alright, but the reading was way over my head. There was lots of legal/political material, so I knew basically no vocab. Some topics: bribery, curfew enforcement, and war preparation. I... might have missed the days where they taught us that stuff in first year Hindi.
Anyway, after bombing the placement test, we had to figure out living situations. Apparently, only 8 host families signed up for this year's program, allotting a total of 20 rooms for AIIS kids. And given that there were 39 or so kids who wanted to stay with a host family, plus the fact that only about half of the families were ok with guys staying with them, I decided to just find a flat independently with some of the other guys. We saw maybe 4 or 5 places (each of which I thought was incredible) but in the end settled on a place in the downtown area. The owner was really young and seemed really cool. And he included a good deal of amenities: electricity, water, internet, and laundry were all included in the price of Rs. 9000 per month. Which comes out to around $200 per month. Which would be a lot of money, but thank you South Asian Studies Council! I think all in all there are going to be 12 of us staying there, which should be fun. I'll take/upload pictures of the place when we move in tomorrow. Also, I'm glad I dropped out of the host family thing - apparently it got very competitive and cutthroat and there may have been some hurt feelings. Glad I got to avoid all that.
Anyway, after the living situations were finalized, we went back to the center to get the results of out placement tests. And before the full announcement, Rakesh-ji (the leader of the program here) pulled me aside and was like "So... you've only taken one year of Hindi, right?" Apparently my score on the test put me in the advanced level class, which is going to suck. I just won't know enough to get by. But he said that if I wanted to/the workload proved to be too much, I could always switch down into the intermediate level. So... we'll see how this goes. I guess watching hours of Bollywood movies has finally proved fruitful in some aspect of my life.
Annd... other than that, and in reference to last part of this title, THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD TODAY. Like, so many of the older people whose flats we visited insisted on giving us some food. And the program had a welcome-to-the-center lunch made for us. So all in all, I ate a whole lot of food today. And as I lie here on my bed typing this post with my swollen belly almost blocking my vision of my laptop, I can't help but think it might have been a mistake.

Jaipur!

So we finally got to Jaipur today, after a roughly 7 hour bus ride. The city was really interesting to see; since we had to drive through a good chunk of it to get to the hotel we're staying at tonight before meeting/joining with host families, there was a lot to see. From deserts to mountains, marble carving shops to milk stands, Jaipur definitely has a lot of culture. But by far the most striking part of the city (in my opinion, at least) is the huge disparity between the wealthy and the poor. It hit me when we drove through a tourist district that was filled with large hotels, well-cared-for roads, and gift shops to pass through a slum. The juxtaposition of a 5 star hotel with a tin-roofed shack was jarring, to say the least.
I don't really know how to describe the slums. It was really powerful, at least to me - there were families of up to 6 people living in a space the size of an slightly-above-average bathroom in the U.S. And for a source of income, they would run tiny crafts shops out of the fronts of their lean-tos. I hope I get the chance to talk to some of those families and hear their stories at some point in the future.
Other parts of the city that were interesting: marble carving seems to be a big industry here. I think I counted at least 5 shops over the ride through jaipur which specialized in marble-working. They had some really elaborate statues (most of which seemed to be religious. Kaitlyn, you should come visit!) with very intricate details carved in. I was really impressed.
Tomorrow, we take our placement tests and meet the host families. Yes, we were supposed to meet them today, but (surprise) the program changed its schedule again because we started out from Delhi late and didn't get here till evening. So hopefully stuff goes according to the schedule tomorrow so there will finally be a routine.
Also, on a less serious note, people keep mistaking me for a native. I think the best one I have gotten so far was the 40-year-old man who thought I was a tour guide for all the white kids. It was pretty cool (and by cool I mean embarrassing).

Orientation? More like BORE-ientation! – Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 5:30 P.M.

…shut up, I know it was stupid title. But I didn’t have anything fun to title this one. But you got the point! Today was orientation. We got up at 6 A.M. (we would have such an early wake-up time the night I finally get over jetlag [oh, in other news, I got over jetlag!]), had breakfast at the hotel (an odd combination of Western and Indian dishes; think idli with scrambled eggs, dosa with toast and jam, and my personal favorite: chutney omelets ) , and then got on our (clearly designated) tourist bus to go to AIIS headquarters for orientation.
As the title suggests, orientation was not the most exciting part of my day. The first few talks given were really basic (and definitely designed for people who had never been to India), so it was a lot of stuff like “India has many different religions… and many different languages. Here are some!” But there was a cool presentation on public health which was actually very informative. We learned the tricks for finding oafe places to get food on the street, the best brands of bottled water to buy, and the most effective ways of repelling mosquitoes. Then we had a 20-minute tea break before going back to hear a few more speakers. By this point, I had doodled over most of the papers we had been given and a good chunk of the folder in which they were held. I don’t really know what the second set of presentations was about. I think one guy was talking about the need for enthusiasm in learning or something.
Anyway, then we had lunch in the defense (defence, for Leah – I like to try to help her with her language skills in her foreign country) colony. I’m really impressed with and grateful for how much work goes into preparing this food for us. The chef is so nice to us and he makes such good food every day. I hope he comes to Jaipur with us. So after lunch, we had three choices: go back to the hotel, go to the National Museum, or go to the Museum of Arts and Crafts. I opted for the National Museum, but a surprisingly large number of students just wanted to go back to the hotel. And I TOTALLY would have taken pictures at the museum, but we would have had to pay extra.
The museum was really cool. Well, to be fair, our tour started off fairly terribly – we were taken into the auditorium, where the curators intended to show us a few brief documentaries about Harappa/Mohenjo Daro and Maurya-era Buddhism. Now, I’m no film expert, but I’m pretty sure the Watagatpitusberry video (if you haven’t seen in, I highly recommend it) 1) had a higher budget, 2) looked more legitimate, and 3) was ultimately more effective. So after a torturous half hour, we finally got to leave (even our tour guide was like “Yeah… do you guys find this interesting? No? Let’s leave…”) and look around. The museum has a great range of artifacts from many of India’s different cities/kingdoms/empires from all different time periods. It was altogether a pretty impressive museum. If you ever go, don’t let the appearance of the main hall fool you; it’s still pretty cool.
I just got back from the museum now. Tomorrow, we head off to Jaipur! I’m pretty excited to actually reach the city in which I will be staying for the next 10 weeks. It seems like a pretty busy day – we drive the 5 hours to Jaipur and then we meet our potential host families. I say potential because today we learned how the assignment process will work: there are a limited number of host families, so we will meet/visit them all tomorrow. Students who want to live with a host family get to choose which one, while students who don’t (or overflow from the host family process) will either stay in an inn by the school or rent flats from families in the area. And then the day after tomorrow, we move in to our respective places and take our placement tests. Going to be a fun time.
Also, and I’ll leave this as a closing comment – on the way back from dinner, conversation between a 7ish-year-old kid and his 9ish sister:
"So many white people!"
"Why are they here?"
"I don’t know..."

Little kid, I don’t quite know either.

Pictures from the first few days

Air India has really improved flight quality since I last flew on it - here were the entertainment systems, which offered about 30 movies, 20 TV shows, and many other things.


Along the same lines, the food quality was much better as well - this snack was sandwiches, tea, fruit, and yogurt.


I was trying to get a picture of the actual seating to show the new design and everything, but I had to stay seated and this was the best I could do.


This was our flight attendant, who was actually awesome. He spoke 6 languages, I think - Hindi, Punjabi, Gujurati, English, French, and something else I'm forgetting.

...and yes, when I have a camera in my hands, the creeper pictures just start happening.


This was the inn I stayed in my first night at Delhi. It reminded me a lot of an older house, which was kind of cool.


And this is the 5 star hotel we've been staying at for the last 2 nights. Livin' the high life, oh yeah



Also, fun thing I found out while posting this - the Blogger code has a method called "x.deselectBloggerImageGracefully"

I am awkward in every language – Saturday, June 12, 2010 10:30 P.M.

This title refers mostly to the fact that a significant number of my interactions so far with native Hindi speakers have been incredibly awkward; the general format goes something like this:
Me: Question in Hindi
Native speaker: Assumption that I am also a native speaker because I am Indian, and thus a complicated response
Me: Umm…
Native speaker: Oh…
--Minute-long pause--
Me: So… do you speak English? (in Hindi, at least)

So yeah, a good deal of my interactions here have been kind of awkward, at least at the outset. I think my Hindi/pronunciation is just good enough to convince people that I speak it when I first ask a question (sometimes, my Hindi is even good enough to make it to a second line of conversation!), but not even close to good enough to follow into an actual conversation or effectively communicate my point. It’s making my desire to learn Hindi even stronger, actually – seeing how far I have to go is definitely motivating rather than depressing me, which is different from last summer. With Japanese, I almost felt like seeing how far from fluency I was made part of me want to give up, or at the very least doubt myself. Here, on the other hand, there isn’t really a part of me that wants to quit.
So day 2 in Delhi: it started (not so) bright and early as a pleasant result of the jetlag. I went to bed at 7 P.M. last night and woke up at 2 A.M. I tossed around for another 2 hours trying to go back to sleep, but around 4 I decided to just give up and accept my fate. So I got up, showered, repacked my suitcase, and ate some snacks I had left over from the flight. Luckily it started to get light a little before 5, so I considered going out for a walk, both to see Delhi and to find the coveted STD phone (so remember how in my last post I went looking for it? After an hour of fruitless searching and jumbled directions [I don’t think anyone actually knew where I could find one, because everyone I asked told me to go in an entirely different direction], I just gave up and vowed to find the phone today). However, when I got downstairs to the lobby, I saw that one of the hotel workers had fallen asleep in such a way that he effectively blocked the doorway; there was no way I could get past him without waking him up. So I decided to just go back to my room for a bit and read The Drawing of the Three, the second work in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
Side note: for any of you who have any interest in sci-fi, westerns, epics, or really any sort of fiction, I would highly recommend the series. Although, let me warn you, it is an addiction – so far both books have been so engrossing that I finished them in one straight 5-hour read and one 4-hour, 3-hour read.
Anyway, I read for 4 hours, till around 9, when, having realized I had no idea when I was supposed to check out by or go to the AIIS center by, I went back down to the lobby. Several broken Hindi conversations and a few awkward phone calls later, I found out the actual plan: leave by noon to get lunch at the AIIS guest house. From there we would be taken to today’s hotel, the Taj Palace.
Now I figured I had another 2 hours before noon, enough time to read more Stephen King! But alas, around 10:30 jetlag started to catch up with me and by 11, I was out. Woke up at 12:15, almost too late to get the ride to the guest house. So I frantically grabbed my suitcase and ran down to the center, getting my luggage on just in time. But then I remembered I still had to check out of the hotel, so I get to the counter at 12:25 or so, where the guy tells me the fare is Rs. 2900 (about $70 – also totally outrageous for the quality of place we were staying). As fate would have it, I only had Rs. 2000 on hand and the place would not accept traveler’s checks. So I run down to the nearest bank and get there (no exaggeration) at 12:31, where I ask the teller to cash my check for me. He glances at the clock and says “Sorry, sir – that service ends at 12:30.” I pleaded with him a little bit, but he wouldn’t crack. So I returned to the hotel defeated and unsure of what to do. Lucky for me, the program director settles in with the inn and tells me I can just pay him back when I cash a check in Jaipur or something. Nice guy.
So then came the first joint lunch, where I got to meet some of the other students doing AIIS. A lot of them seem really cool, a lot seem very negative, but nearly all of them are much, much older than me. Honestly, I think I’m one of… 5 undergrads in this program (not just Hindi – all of AIIS). So many of them are already married, man. I didn’t know what to do. Anyway, at the center I got internet access for the first time since being here, which was excellent. I sent out a few emails (most noteworthy of which was to my parents, assuring them that I was alive) and updated my blog (which I know all you loyal followers of this blog must have noticed…). But more importantly, I got to check the score to last night’s playoff game/watch a highlights reel. KG is the best.
Anyway, from there we went to the hotel in groups of 5. We were welcomed in “traditional Indian style,” which basically meant a woman in a sari put kumkumum powder (not entirely sure 1) what it’s called in other languages and 2) how to transliterate it) on our foreheads. Also, we got moist towels! Fun fact: I think moist towels are my favorite hotel perk, for all of you looking to get into the hotel business.
My roommate at the hotel seems really nice; he just graduated from Harvard undergrad and has taken one year of Hindi. He’s also from Switzerland! So he has a lot of chocolate with him. We talked for a little bit, and then I started reading and he started skyping (presumably) his girlfriend. Around 4 we got a call to meet in the lobby at 7 for dinner. Another three hours of reading (skyping for him), and then it was off to dinner at this great vegetarian buffet place. Free. I could get used to life like this. I think I’m coming up with a new standard: I will from now on measure my success by the number of meals/plane tickets/etc. that people buy for me in any given year. Help me feel successful!
During dinner, me and this one kid (Jack, I think?) watched the Argentina/Nigeria game. Argentina is looking really really good right now – I didn’t get to watch the last 20 minutes, but what I saw looked really nice. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel, with news that tomorrow’s wake-up call will be at 6 A.M., with plans to ship out to our respective sites by 2. I’m really excited to see Jaipur and take lots of pictures. When I next get internet, I’ll post both this entry as well as the pictures I have taken of Delhi so far. It’s only about 15 or so, mostly because I haven’t had the time to go out that much. But there will be many pictures of Jaipur (also, at that point I will probably/hopefully feel less awkward taking pictures of my program-mates), I promise!

I'm turning into a 50-year-old Indian uncle

I’m writing this post just ten minutes or so after leaving the Delhi airport because I don’t know when I will next have internet access to actually post this entry. This not only means my thoughts are fresh in my head, but that I am extremely jetlagged, groggy, and incoherent. But I’ll try to write them anyway.
So my flight left JFK at 5:00 P.M. on Thursday, arriving here in Delhi at 5:00 P.M. Friday. I took one of the new Air India 777 lines (I think that’s the number), flying the direct 13.5 hour route. While waiting for check-in at the airport, I saw none other than Alark Saxena, the TA for our Hindi class, standing in the same line: we were flight buddies! So we killed the hour-long delay by talking with each other. He’s a really funny/smart guy (he simultaneously called me a 5 year old and talked about the effects of tourism on ecosystems). Anyway, we were both traveling the direct Air India flight to Delhi.
Now, my past experiences with Air India have all been fairly memorable (note: memorable, not good) – I remember the service being terrible, the food even worse, and on one particularly lucky trip, watching the crew fumigate and spray disinfect the plane with all passengers on board. Yeah, so I’m a little biased against the entire airline as a whole. But this time, they had the cheapest flights and my dad assured me that their recent improvements were in effect. I had suggested a first class trip via Emirates or Qatar Airways, two lines that have been highly reviewed by family friends, but I guess saving money is good too.
Anyway, the flight was surprisingly good; not only does the new airline simply look cleaner and more professional, but the quality of the trip was greatly improved. Full entertainment stations (with TV shows, movies, songs, and games in English, German, French, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Malayalam), excellent service, and pretty delicious food redeemed Air India in my mind.
So here was my rough plan for how to pass time on the flight: given the time difference, my first priority was to minimize the effects of jetlag. So the strategy was sleep the first 2-3 hours of the flight, stay awake for the last 10/11. This plan was… largely unsuccessful, mostly because the old couple next to me kept wanting to get up for various reason (bathroom, coffee, soft drinks, napkins, stretching legs, etc.). So I spent the first few hours mostly just figuring out a comfortable position. By then, it was far too late to sleep, so I figured I’d start out be reviewing my Hindi. By this I mean watch 3 Bollywood movies back to back: Aladin, Wake Up Sid, and London Dreams. Here’s my Ebert & Roeper on all three:
Aladin: a really really cool concept; it sort of reworks the classic Aladdin story to focus on more the dark side of the magic, which was really interesting. Plus, the main villain and his gang were like… straight out of Tim Burton’s head or something. They were a gang of assassins dressed as circus performers – I thought it was brilliant. However, the movie itself was not great. None of the actors were particularly good (maybe Amitabh Bacchan did alright), none of the songs were really catchy, the story had a lot of holes, and the two halves of the story seem almost unconnected. Also, the main character, Aladin, gave the same exact speech (about how everyone he loved left him) about 4 times, if I remember it correctly. So this movie gets… probably 2.5-3 stars out of 5 in my books. This being said, I still liked the movie.
Wake Up Sid: a very standard coming-of-age story that focuses on the struggles of the son of a wealthy businessman to find his own identity and grow more responsible. He meets a girl who has just moved to Mumbai from Calcutta to pursue her own dreams and be more independent; while she teaches him something about maturity, he teaches her about enjoying life and being carefree. I’ll start with the positives, first of which is the really good soundtrack. “Iktaara” has been stuck in my head ever since I watched this movie. Also, the movie contains a lot of beautiful shots of the city itself. And while the plot is fairly generic, it doesn’t get boring. The one main negative I would have to cite would be the acting: Konkona is not a great actress, but when she’s acting alongside Ranbir she looks like the next Aishwarya. It’s actually kind of upsetting how bad Ranbir is in this movie (and how many shots of him in just his underwear they include). So… all in all, this one gets 3.5 stars from me.
London Dreams: the story of Arjun, a man with a lifelong passion for music and a hunger for fame. His family does not support his dream of becoming a pop star, so he runs away and moves to London, where he makes a sort of pick-up band that Bollywood/pop/rock sensation in a few months. However, everything changes when he decides to give his slacker/serial womanizer/vocally gifted friend a part in his band. Fans start to ignore Arjun almost entirely, cheering only for Manu, the friend, and being unsatisfied with performances featuring Arjun by himself. The story follows Arjun’s increasingly dangerous attempts to sabotage his once-dear friend to achieve his own fame. Pros: actually fairly decent acting by Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan, who play Arjun and Manu, respectively. Also, a clever little allegory to Arjuna’s focus and drive with the naming of Devgan’s character. Cons: bad music. And for me, this is kind of a dealbreaker. Also, the movie sets up a lot of conflicts that somehow magically resolve themselves. All in all, this one also hovers at around 2.5 stars.
…anyway. I also watched a Malayalam movie (Sulthan) for kicks. And then I watched music videos for “the top songs in America now.” Audience participation time! What songs does this make you think of? Hmm? Have a few in mind? I bet none of you thought of the TWILIGHT SOUNDTRACK. Yes, I watched half an hour of music videos from the Twilight movie.
In between some of the movies/Twilight, three meals came out (or more appropriately, two meals and a snack). Dinner was rice, malai kofta, and okra. The okra was a little iffy, but the rice and malai kofta were really good. The snack was two sandwiches (one was toast with butter and the other was cheese and tomato), while breakfast was uthappam, a cutlet, and some channa masala with roti. Now, I’ll take a break here to explain the title of this entry: I think my own impending old age never seemed clearer as it did when I was sipping my cup of tea, munching on a piece of toast/roti (depending on the meal), and watching Bollywood movies. Also, a little kid started talking to me and kept calling me uncle. It was awful. He thought I was over 25. In his defense, I think he was about 5, but still. It stung.
So that was the trip. And now I’m here in Delhi. I had actually forgotten how much I like the city. It’s got such a distinct character to it. There are parts with upscale apartments and abundant greenery, parts that are extremely destitute, and everything in between. Also, the way traffic works in India as a whole seems to be exaggerated here. In Trivandrum, people definitely use horns as a way of signaling any action, but I think it’s even more extreme here in Delhi. So that was fun. Also, my inn for the night is relatively sketchy. It’s in a back alley – oh dear, I just heard a girl screaming – that still somehow has a good amount of traffic. Bugs everywhere, which is kind of neat. They don’t look like that stinging/biting sort… just the scurrying kind. Also, I don’t really know how I’m going to meet up with program representatives tomorrow. They just kind of left me here. Soo... yeah. I’ve also got to go find a phone with which to call my parents and a friend we have in Jaipur. It’s going to be a fun evening! I’m going to try to go out for a little bit to see the city and all, but I might just fall asleep.

Packing actually ruins lives

Okay, so maybe the title is a little melodramatic. But the packing process is taking forever - largely as a result of my lack of focus - and thus, I'm going to complain. I've got most of my clothing together (but have realized now that I don't have pants), have toiletries (also realized I have to buy shampoo), and my laptop. So I think I have most of the bases covered. Hopefully.
So on from packing to the rest of the getting ready process. Got my traveler's checks (cheques, for our readers in the U.K. - namely you, Leah) from AAA today. And given the extra money I have from the SASC fellowship, I'm going to take about Rs. 40,000 ($1000) with me. That's probably enough to rent an apartment or something. Sweet.

Even in the midst of the crazy packing, getting checks/cheques, and buying supplies, I don't really feel like I'm leaving just yet. It still feels very surreal/distant, even though my flight is on Thursday (fun fact: I thought it was on Wednesday for the longest time, but luckily my dad got me to check my ticket). Last summer I was much more aware of the fact that I was leaving home for a long time, but this time around, it hasn't felt real yet. I rationally recognize that I won't see some of my friends till Thanksgiving, but I haven't felt the same sense of urgency as last year. I think I've just accepted that I'll stay friends with them whether or not we hang out before I leave. Which is pretty comforting.

What is NOT comforting is the fact that the program still has not told me where I will be staying, where I will meet the program representative, or whether or not I am expected to cook for myself. For those of you who have not heard stories, I am a dreadful cook. If we take a count, I've given food poisoning to: my brother Anand, my good friend Ryan, myself, and a few others. And that is in the good old U.S.A., where there is far less concern about getting clean food. I can only imagine what's going to happen if I have to fend for myself in India. Also, I won't really have access to a phone unless a family friend comes through for me and can get me a cell phone. Gotta love Indian connections.

Finally, and most depressingly, it is unclear whether or not there will be internet access in my apartment/homestay family's place (I... don't actually know which is will be). Hopefully there will be internet access so I can keep my 2 followers up to date (in case you are reading this and are not already a follower, FOLLOW ME! I need to feel like I'm writing to more people than just my roommate and "biffle."