Weeks Spent in India: 10
Songs learned on guitar: 8
Henna Tattoos: 2
Trips to cocoberry: countless
It's been a while--but I think I have the head space where a somewhat linear progression is possible...
After settling in a bit post-McLeod Ganj/Dali Lama, I began paying retribution to the couchsurfing community (unofficially). The three Californians I met in the mountains came to stay with me for about a week (Yoshi, Denali and Gina)--had a really great time playing guitar and running around the city. They came with me to the orphanage where we did the hokey pokey, painted nails and colored on the walls. Those kids are adorable but jesus they are exhausting. It was really nice to have people there besides just myself and Heather (the Canadian woman I usually go with)--there are around 50 kids, and two people is simply not enough to orchestrate anything highly educational. Red light green light was a challenge (apparently red and green sound exactly the same). Really wonderful week--it was nice having so many people in our flat (especially since we had an extra room while looking for a third) and they were amazing guests.
Shortly after, Disha came to stay with us--a Norwegian artist who is currently living in Goa. She found Flavien, my flat mate, on couchsurfing.com and we tried to learn Hindi script together, draw ducks and talked about piercings. Very cool guest.
After Disha left, we found two new flat mates, Kelley and Taylor. They are Dartmouth alum working on a business to ensure the authenticity of pharmaceuticals in developing nations. Apparently that is an extremely large problem here and in Africa--counterfeit drugs are being sold in most seemingly legitimate chemist shops and hospitals. Yikes.
They brought an unofficial couchsurfer with them, Sophie, a Swiss medical student who stayed with us for a couple of days. She and I went to India Gate, Parliament, and Jangpath Market last weekend, which was really lovely. However, while I was waiting for her at India Gate--I caused a bit of a scene (unintentionally, of course). I was wearing a skirt of moderate length (three inches above the knee?), but the wind caused the skirt to constantly blow around, meaning I had to find a post to lean against and keep my hands at my sides. Around twenty different (not exaggerating) men came up asking to take pictures with me. One group asked if I was a prostitute. Oh, India. We ate dinner at a place called Sancho's--one of three Mexican restaurants in probably all of India. The food was good for fake Mexican--but I miss me some authentic tacos and Sonia's (oh Winder, how could I ever really speak ill of thee?).
Somewhere in there my friend Brent from McLeod Ganj came to crash for a night. He's very into new age medicine and psychology and brought his singing bowls with him. If you've never experienced this, it's pretty relaxing. It supposedly opens your chakras--very granola.
So basically, we've just been running a free hostel for a while, which I love because I'm much happier living with larger groups (i.e. watermargin).
Speaking of Watermargin--AVTAR is here! I had dinner with him the other night. He's visiting family and researching for his company--we are actually both going to be in Amritsar this weekend visiting a very important site for Sikhs: The Golden Temple. For those of you who don't know--he's coming back to do his master's next year, so he'll be at the house again : ] We talked about coding and Sikhisms and about the five k's:
Kesh (uncut hair)
Kanga (wooden comb)
Kaccha (specially designed underwear)
Kara (iron bracelet)
Kirpan (strapped sword).
A Sikh man has to have these on him at all times. Muy intersante, no? I saw a man on the metro with a large knife on his belt and I looked around with my "Oh my GOD! Do you see that?!" face, but no one else was surprised. What the hell is the point of security if that guy can bring a knife? Cultural sensitivity; Unity in Diversity!
Amritsar is near the border of Pakistan. I actually had this elaborate plan to go to Amritsar on Thursday night (we have off for Good Friday--random?), see the Golden Temple during the day on Friday, go to the border for the changing of the guards ceremony at night, then cross the border on foot and stay in Lahore, Pakistan for one night. HOWEVER--this morning, Kelley and I found out that this might be more trouble than its worth. We woke up around 7:30am to get to the High Commission of Pakistan by 8:30 when it opens. We had to wait until 9 for anyone to see us, and once they did, we found out that it would cost $120 to get the visa, and we also had to get a letter of permission from the US Embassy. So we crossed the street, deposited our cell phones, and went inside the US Embassy, where they tried to charge us $30 for a letter. Basically, screw that--$150 is more than I can afford for one day in Pakistan. (Dear family. stop. am broke. stop. please send rupees. stop. love you. stop). PS-The US Embassy didn't even have a place to eat! Psha.
I've been discussing my upcoming travels with Andy (British graphic novel editor I almost lived with) and he brought to my attention that I only have five weekends left! With this Amritsar trip, that leaves four weekends. With Varanasi and Kerala, that leaves two weekends in Delhi. Essentially, I am cramming as much as possible into the next few weeks and trying to wrap up my paper on the legal, economic and social status of women in India. I've narrowed down the anecdotes and supporting evidence--I just need to set aside a day or two and finish the connections.
In other news, I'm getting pretty good with Hindi. Very basic, but the script is only second to Arabic in terms of aesthetics.
Marlena and Dylan--you're up.
Love and peace,
E.
PS-If I sent you a letter, let me know when you get it? Mail is unpredictable and I want to make sure that the majority of my correspondence was not done in vain.
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