Reflections

I believe my journey to Asia served its purpose. When I left, I wasn't clear that my trip had a purpose let alone what it was, but upon coming back and reflecting I have a clearer image.

I have to admit that most of my revelations came from spending time with my dear friend Keith. When I arrived, everything felt so familiar that I didn't approach it with the beginner's mind I approached it with last time. I fell into comfortable patterns and didn't feel the magic. However being with Keith and later others who were experiencing India for the first time, reminded me of how experience can drastically change based on the current state of mind. Keith was having a particularly difficult time, and in talking him through his difficulties it really forced me to clearly articulate and pin point what about India I love. This is what I came up with.

One thing is just that because of my parent's love for India, I was raised with bits of India all around me. From the music, to the art all over the house, the food and the bedtime stories, so there is a familiarity I have with India that is really comforting, and since I no longer live with my parents this Indian familiarity is now missing from my daily American life. Then combined with my studies of Indian dance, history and art, I feel like I understand a part of India which feels affirming when it is reinforced. Going to India at times feels like going to my "motherland," even though I am acutely aware that I am not in fact Indian. It is amazing how comforting it is to have EVERYONE pronounce my name correctly and instead of look confused when they learn my middle name to instead have their eyes open in wonder and respect. I loved seeing symbols and acts that I could figure out based on my prior knowledge of the culture. I became extremely aware of this skill as more and more people kept asking me to explain Indian things to them that I didn't immediately know. Then there was a sense of real flattery I felt when people would ask me if I was Indian. When I was dressed in my Sari, I even had a few people pull other people over to ask them in disbelief if they thought I was an Indian or a foreigner, one even took a picture on her phone to ask people! I guess what all this means is that there was a sense of belonging that came with the familiarity that was really comforting and affirming.

I noticed that while I was in India, I was a lot calmer than I am in the U.S. I realized that India puts me in somewhat of a forced meditative state. There is so much going on all the time, and so much of it is unpleasant and difficult and out of my control, that if I grasped on to any part I would spiral in a blink into "everything sucks" mode and be stuck there. However, precisely because there is so much going on, I have to just let it all wash over me and move through the insanity. Now I don't mean in any way I went to an airy fairy place where I just "went with the flow." I was still very diligent, and when things were important I had to plan and figure out how to get it done, but I guess I just didn't have the option to let the plethora of little things get to me. I didn't ignore them either, I just simply acknowledged them and moved on.

In a similar vein--India more than any other place I have been directly reflectes whatever state I am in. If I am in a crappy mood, everything around me is crappy and exacerbates my mood to shitty. However, if I can maintain my kindness I am often overwhelmed with the random kindness I receive. I had people pay for my rickshaw rides, stop mid-road to ask if I needed directions, free chai given, and more. I even admit that I approached these acts of kindness with skepticism, but then felt a little guilty for my shrewdness when the kindness proved genuine. I think it just really proved to me how a little respect, a smile and genuine "Thank You" is really appreciated and can go a long way, even in the crazy bustle of India. This aspect of India isn't very forgiving I found, it keeps you in constant check and frequently tests you as well, but I guess I responded well to it.

As the end of my India journey came, I realized I had a sense of pride. As Keith's experiences pointed out, India is a really difficult country and there are a LOT of people who hate it. However, I managed to work through India's difficulties. Granted I had some very privileged experiences that I am very grateful for, such as staying with a wonderful homestay family and having Seina's home and family as a base. I have also experienced a lot of the difficulties India has to offer, and I had my fair share of them. Despite it all, I was able to build up a workable amount of Hindi where I could understand a lot and usually get my point across, a sizable understanding of India's transit systems and culture to not only get myself around but other foreigners as well, and still love India for it's flaws and it's magic that when in the right mindset, I can see is still right in front of me.

I find myself back in the states with a calmer sense of confidence I didn't have when I left. Being able to navigate through India gives me a feeling that I can do anything. I still don't know what the future has in store for me, I need a job and to setup my "grown up" life, but I don't feel the need to freak out about it right now.

I hope I can maintain these lessons I learned, but right now I feel grateful to have relearned these lessons through these reflections. Thank you India.

The Oracle has spoken

It has been so long and so much has happened! In fact too much has happened that I will just give some brief highlights instead of a daily account.

Dharmsala

Dharmsala was really nice. It was indeed cold but not nearly as cold as everyone claimed it would be. We actually stayed in McCloud Ganj which is a little above Dharmsala. There were so many things to do and it was all so nicely posted on up to date fliers! One evening we listened to a Tibetan refugee's story of his torture and eventual escape to India. Another day I was a "teacher" and volunteered tutoring some refugees in English. Overall Dharmsala was beautiful, calm, sweet, so different from the rest of India and full of tasty food.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan was my favorite place last time, so I was excited to go back. We first went to mom's old roomate's wedding in Jodphur. It was simply a gorgeous wedding set in a palace overlooking a lake. There were often seven full tables of food, meaning waaay more than I could ever try even if I literally only had a bite of each thing. Everyone was very friendly as well. After meeting a shmoozing with a lot of people, I came across someone who actually knew Wesleyan. It just so happened that his younger brother was my favorite choreographer at Wes! Small world indeed! We ended up meeting up with Randy and his friend Ian in Udaipur the next day.

Throughout Delhi and Agra I invoked my inner tour guide. I was answering any and every question that occurred to my companions regarding anything we came across or anything about India in general. This was often joked about when I looked back with a shrug or a quizzical face, and reminded them that I didn't in fact know EVERYTHING about India, just a lot. Ian started to encourage me to just make up things and he would buy it, and my nickname of "the oracle" was born and stuck for the rest of Rajasthan.

Udaipur was just as beautiful as I remembered.

We saw a very impressive Rajasthani cultural dance show which included a dancer moving hot coals with their mouth, using cymbals placed all over the body, a woman dancing with 10 pots on her head, an impressive puppet dance and so many colors!

We took our time with the City Palace and I got hunted down to pay a camera fee I was trying to avoid. We ended up making a last minute decision to go to Pushkar with our new friends instead of heading back to Delhi. Our friends had hired a car to drive them around Rajasthan and offered us to ride with them to Pushkar. However their driver was a grumpy and slightly terrifying character, and five of us were squeezed into the car while being forced to listen to shakira and other pop artists remixed for clubs. On top of it all, I have become accustomed to the crazy driving here, it honestly doesn't phase me at all anymore, however this driver's weaving through traffic, cows and people in the dark at 170 km/hr and not stopping once really tested me. I found I had to enter a meditative state in the car to not let the variety of unpleasantries overwhelm me, and it worked. This became a general metaphor in my mind for my experience of India as a whole. There is no doubt that India is a really difficult place to travel, but I find myself often calmer here than I am even in the US. I think part of it is that I there is so much here to overwhelm the senses constantly, that I am just pushed to a state of letting it all wash over me instead of letting anything get to me. I still am totally functional and fully appreciate the wonders and beautiful things around me, but the abundance of difficult things makes the individual difficult moments lose value. I hope I can maintain this lesson back in the states.

When we finally arrived, Pushkar was lovely. Pushkar houses one of the only temples dedicated to Brahma in all of India even though he is considered one of the three major gods of India (the other two being Shiva and Vishnu). The four of us spent Christmas wandering around the streets of Pushkar and chilling at the ghats. My highlights of the day was we came across a Deaf man who showed us around a bit and then taught me some Indian Sign Language! And then

Randy let me use one of his $10,000 Leica cameras! The camera took 18.6 megapixil pictures and had beautiful prime lenses. I realized how lazy I have become having a digital camera with a zoom lens. I haven't had that much fun taking pictures in a long time, playing with exposures, f stops and depth of field in ways that I haven't done since I took pictures on film. It was great!

Mom and I were lucky enough to get on the only train that was no effected by a huge strike going on into Delhi. However we weren't lucky enough to get 2nd class seats so we were stuck in the lower class without blankets and I think the chill made the sniffle mom and I had into full blown colds.

Weddings

Kriti's wedding was extravagant, but Katherines wedding simply a lot of a fun, mostly because I knew a lot of people and I was genuinely excited to see them. There was a lot of dancing, singing and smiles. It also felt a lot more intimate. I was able to see a lot more of the ceremonies up close, and because Katherine was my roommate and the groom is part of my homestay "family" I was able to see aspects of both sides of the wedding. I think my favorite quote from the wedding happened when the priest was late, and it was raining, people kept mentioning that these were auspicious signs and then someone said "Indians think everything that is bad on a wedding day is auspicious." I really liked how the Indian side very much didn't freak out about any of the many things that went wrong, but instead turned it around into something positive and somehow the wedding all worked out. It was wonderful to see so many people from SIT and have a 2 year reunion with them, and it was amazing to see my whole homestay family again, and it was also really nice to meet so many other nice people as well.

So my journey to the east is coming to an end and I head back to the states in a few days. The past few weeks have been more than full. I realized I very much missed the holidays in the United States this year, but luckily there are many more to come!

Down South and Way up North

The day after thanksgiving, seina and I woke up before the sun was as out to catch our plane to Bangalore. As soon as we arrived in Bangalore we found the bus stand to take us to Mysore. When we checked into our very nice hotel, they provided us with neat little toiletry pouches with things like a toothbrush, comb, shampoo, and even bindis ( those dots women in India wear on their foreheads). Once settled we wandered out in search for the best south indian food Mysore had to offer. We were pleased to find out that our hotel was really close to the palace, but were kinda disappointed by the food we were directed to. However the next morning, we hired a rickshaw driver to take us to this game shop to pick up something for Seina's mom, but it wasn't open yet, so the driver took us to a nearby restaurant that was amazing! It had these fermented steamed rice cakes called idli that were like eating little clouds, and fried savory donuts called varas that were just as light and with a delicate thin fried crust. These are served with sambar, a soupy tomato dal, and coconut chutney. Even better, everything was served to usin our rickshaw, like an indian drive through! I am still craving these and would gladly go back to mysore just for these again.After the shop we went to the Mysore palace, a beautiful huge palace that resembles buckingham palace from the outside and on the inside is detailed with stained glass halls, elaborately carved doors, often inlayed with semi precious stones or ivory, and huge paintings. Sadly I was forbiddenforbidden from taking any pictures. We headed to a huge and colorful market called the devraj market, and then headed back to bangalore to catch a train to hampi
On the train to hampi we met a nice man from Spain who was thrilled to have someone to speak to in English. We actually got off the train in hospet and then took a local bus to hampi. Hampi is a city that holds the ruins of the great vijanagra empire. It is also thought to be kishkinda, the monkey kingdom in the indian epic "the Ramayana" where Rama meets Hanuman, themonkey god. I also happened to study some of the ruins in my indian art history class at Wesleyan, and so was really excited to see these sites I had written papers about in real life.

Hampi was amazing, even the bus ride in, as you get close these ruins that are thousands of years old just start to pop up all around among the huge boulders sitting in patches of greenery. Our first stop was the main temple. The outer courtyard was a gathering place for locals, having picnics among the ruins. Afterwards Seina and I rented bicycles and had breakfast at the mango tree cafe. To get there we biked along the river where there were some ruins half sundered, and then took a beautiful one minute stroll through a banana plantation that led us to a gorgeous view of the river from terraced seats where we enjoyed lemon Ginger lassies and coconut paranthas. After breakfast we decided to bike to the vatalla temple, that supposedly was the highlight of hampi and had musical columns. However after asking about 10 people who all pointed us in the wrong direction uphill for about an hour, we turned around and decided to check out the royal center first. The royal center was amazing, packed with all kinds of ruins, underground chambers, reflection pools, caves, elephant stables and detailed carvings in and arounds temples I studied in depth. After being thoroughly sore, tired and a little sunburned, we got lunch and gave in to getting a rickshaw to the vitalla temple. There was actually a movie being shot there when we arrived, and though it was by far the best preserved temple with the most complicated carvings, we were really tired and ready to go home, plus the musical columns were off limits because they were falling apart from being hit too much.
We slept well that night and got up at 5 am to catch our train to goa.

Seina told me that I could do whatever I wanted in Hampi and she w

ould go along for the ride. I decided to return the favor in Goa and let Seina call the shots of what she wanted to do. She decided she just wanted to stick around the Calengute beach, which is the most populated/popular beach. Along the white sands are hundreds of beach shacks serving fresh seafood and various popular music. Goa is a totally unique place in India. Most people come for beaches that line the coast, but Goa is a small state that was occupied by the Portuguese among many others, and so there is a totally unique cuisine. The first day there we sc

outed out a bakery. We were told to try Bebinca, a tradional Goan desert. It had the texture of very thick crepes layered on top of each other making a cake with a thin layer of sweet nutmeg spice mixture. It was pretty amazing. Then Seina got a little adventurous and tried to order a haphazard eggs benedict, which looked terrible to me, but also ordered some Goan sausage which was rich in vinegar and spices and was also amazing. As we headed back to the hotel I decided to be a little adventurous myself. I took my first jet ski ride and then went parasailing, flying over the ocean with a billowing rainbow parachute ripping behind me and a boat peacefully pulling me forward. After my thrills for the day we spent the afternoon enjoying the ocean, sun and beach. The next day we also mostly hung around, though made it up to Arjuna to see this massive "flea market" which was more like a huge tourist market of anything you could think of, and the came back down through Maupusa to get Seina's mom some cashews and cocum, a kind of plant that has a very sour taste that is used a lot in curries. Next stop was Kerela.

On the overnight train, we shared the compartment with a nice young family and their 1.5 year old son Justin. I was planning on catching up on some reading or watching a movie, but I ended up spending the most of the 17 hour train ride playing with the toddler and talking to the father about the US film industry. We arrived in Alleppy on a muggy and cloudy evening. Our hotel was quite charming though. It was really more of a bungalow, with a nice porch and a view right on to the river, and we were told our houseboat would be at the gate right in front of our room in the morning to pick us up. We thought that was pretty awesome. Though breakfast was included, we were on our own for dinner. So we ventured into Alleppy looking for some good Kerelan food. Surprisingly we had a really hard time finding anything. I stopped at a little food stall that had some fish curry over cassava root. I decided to be a bit daring and tried it. It was actually quite tasty though cold. A light red curry and a whole fish fried, over a potato like root that was slightly sweeter. However I felt like he grossly over charged me which put me in a bit of a sour mood the rest of the night. However I surprisingly didn't feel ill at all from the cold, overpriced, fish curry, so I guess that made up for being overpriced.

In the morning as promised, our houseboat arrived right outside our door. We brought our

belongings on board our boat! It was a beautiful boat with an airconditioned room and an attached bathroom. Our bedroom had a huge window floor to ceiling window. On the deck was a dinning room table, chairs, TV and surround sound system. I spent most of my time upstairs, on a little mattress overlooking the river flying beneath me. Kerela is the "jungle book" Indi

a. Rich jungle, water everywhere, a small villages that are based on agriculture line the water ways. We wandered around the backwaters, an endless maze of various sized rivers that form more of an aquatic road system. Some rivers were more congested with boats and, in typical Indian fashion, the boat relentlessly honked at each other. There were even gas stations along the rivers and green signs stating how many kilometers it was to various locations. This houseboat was also quite possibly the best food I had on the trip. For lunch we had whole deep fried fish, green beans sauteed with chunks of coconut and mustard seeds, a slightly sweet curry with shredded carrots and coconut milk, a sambar full of various veggies, a whole stack of papadum, rice and a whole fresh pineapple for dessert. Afterwards Seina and I chilled on the roof of the boat and saw that there were some ripe coconuts right above our heads. I climbed up and got down two coconuts for us to have some fresh coconut water. When I brought them down to the people working on the houseboat to open for us, they looked extremely concerned. The thing was they only spoke the local language and didn't understand English or Hindi. They looked around cautiously and eventually took the coconuts. The best I could decipher from body language was that they could get in trouble because we took coconuts that weren't ours. It just never occurred to us that all the thousands of coconut trees that lined the backwaters belonged to specific people, though it makes sense when almost all food contains coconut that even though they grow everywhere they are still a very valuable crop. The rest of the afternoon was lazy, just enjoying the boat ride. We eventually stopped at a little shop where fresh seafood was sold. We bought a single Tiger Prawn that was a Kilogram and seriously as big as a lobster. I was under the impression that this boat ride included a trip to see the local village life which included seeing coir making, boat building, local fishing practices, and toddy (palm beer) tapping. However it started to get dark and we still hadn't stopped at a village. This was when the lack of communication became an issue. We tried calling people, but in the end I just had to accept that it wasn't happening. I was actually pretty upset about it because the only reason I agreed to doing the pre-packaged house boat instead of bargaining for one when we arrived in Alleppy was because if we combined the boat ride and the village tour it cut out a day of traveling to another location, and Seina didn't feel confident that we could find a house boat that did all of that in the short time frame we had. Though I was upset, I settled down, journaled a lot and really enjoyed the second round of food for dinner.

In the morning we had breakfast and dropped off. After wandering around aimlessly before in Alleppy, we decided there wasn't much reason to stick around, so we found the bus stand and high tailed it to Cohin. We found our hotel and then went to go wander off. Cohin is made up of a bunch of little islands. We took the local ferry for 2.5 rupees each to get from the mainland to Fort Cohin. We made our first stop to be the palace. It wasn't really much of a palace and even the belongings inside weren't that spectacular, but there were a series of really exceptionally beautiful and well preserved paintings of the Ramayana. There was also a lot of interesting history in there as well. Afterwards we made a pilgrimage to "Jew Town." Hanukkah started on December 1st while we were in Goa. I couldn't find any Hanukah candles so I settled with lighting two normal candles at sunset, on the beach and said the prayers for the first night. After that I had a hard time finding even candles, I thought surely in Jew Town I could find some Hanukah candles. Seina and I wandered around for a few hours, we saw the outside of the synagogue, and a ton of antique stores with truly amazing pieces, including entire carved doors, archways and a whole really old boat. Even after talking to a sweet Jewish lady named Sarah who was observing the sabbath, I still couldn't find any candles.

We got back on the ferry to go to the northern tip of Fort Cochin that holds the unofficial emblem of Kerela which is a long stretch of Chinese fishing nets.

We found some men fishing by simply throwing a line with some bait into the river. Seina decided to try her hand at it, and was pretty terrible, but in fairness it was her first time fishing and the guy was very kind about her using up all his bait and breaking his line without catching anything. We wandered around and eventually decided to see a cultural show. I really wanted to see the classic Kerelan dance called Kathakali. It is a very theatrical classical Indian dance that puts a lot of emphasis on story telling through facial expressions, make up and costume. We opted to see a cultural show which had a variety of things, including getting to watch the make-up process, a Kathakali performance, a Kerelan acrobatic martial art show, a Bharatnatyam piece, and about three other different classical Indian styles. During the make-up process I befriended a rickshaw driver to take me to the fishing nets so I could take a picture and get back quickly without missing much of the make-up process. Throughout the trip Seina and I had been saying we were from Delhi, usually in an effort to avoid being ripped off. At times when trying to get into places for the much cheaper Indian price, we would pretend I was deaf to not give us away with my american accent when speaking Hindi. The rickshaw driver offered to take us to the ferry for free if we stopped by a shop and "pretended" we were americans, we were strictly instructed not to speak Hindi and only English. We actually did this a few times throughout the trip, making deals with the rickshaw drivers to look around shops that gave them deals on tires or gas in exchange for bringing them customers. Many drivers suggested we say we were from Italy, but we usually convinced them that saying we were from America was better because we spoke English. Usually the drivers explicitly told us not to buy anything because it was all overpriced. I have experienced this "scam" many times throughout Asia, but I really found it quite fun when I was "in" on it and not misled. After looking at some stores, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night, reorganizing our stuff in preparation for our way back home to Delhi the next day.

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So we arrived in Delhi at about midnight on the 5th and I decided to leave as early as I could on the 7th to meet Abe and Keith in Rishikesh, making the 6th a particularly hectic day. So as not to bore you with logistical details and get to the interesting (food) part of my day, I will just say in short that I had a lot of things to do including finding warm clothes I didn't bring to India because where I was going next was projected to be highs of 40 and lows below freezing. Furthermore, a close friend of Seina's family was coming to visit that day, and the agenda was to eat amazing food and take her Sari shopping. I got everything I needed to get done, and in-between had some phenomenal meals.

The first place we went to for lunch was a restaurant called Darsan in a 5 star hotel. Funny enough it was South Indian food. The entire South Indian trip, I was honestly really pleased with the majority of the food that we ate, but Seina (with a few exceptions) was rather disappointed by most of the food. When we went to this restaurant I understood why. We all got thalis which is like a set meal. Thus far my experience of a Thali has been usually rice, dal, and a vegetable or two with perhaps some yogurt. This seafood thali had at least 12 dishes, all served in little bowls around the rim of a larger plate. There was a whole bowl of rasam (like a thinner sambar), a plate of crispy papadums with tamarind chutney, tomato chutney, coriander chutney, and coconut chutney, and these were the best chutneys I had ever had. The main plate then came with tamarind rice, yogurt rice, kerelan fish curry, prawns in a masala sauteed in coconut oil, lobster in a red thick curry paste, a light coconut milk curry, and about five others I am forgetting. It was an overwhelming tasting menu, I couldn't finish any of it and then they came around offering if I wanted refills on anything.

The next place we went to for dinner and is called the Kebab factory. Kebab here basically means barbecue or grilled, and Tandoori is basically the Indian version of barbecue sauce. The appetizer course was really all I could eat. It consisted of round after round of amazing grilled foods--from a patty of spiced meat as tender as pate, chicken bursting with flavor and a singe of smokey grilled, broccoli, paneer, fish, a variety of breads, and a plethora of other amazing things. I wish I could be more specific because it was all amazing, but I was quite overwhelmed and still quite full from the awesome lunch we had earlier. After the kebabs from which I was ready to burst, there was the main course of rice with three different dals. I honestly couldn't even take a bite. Then after sitting and digesting for a little bit, they came out with no less than six deserts! I could only stretch my stomach to try two. Kulfi has always been one of my favorite Indian deserts, it is homemade saffron ice cream served in popsicle form, and this was probably the best Kulfi I had ever had. The next desert was really special. Remember when I went to Old Delhi and had that paan? That leaf that had like 90 different colorful ingredients on it rolled up in a delicious rose syrup and mouth freshening mouthful? Well this place turned that crazy concoction into an ice cream! Truly special, different and delicious.

I left Delhi very full and excited to see Abe and Keith.

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I met Abe and Keith at the place Abe and I stayed at last time we met in Rishikesh, a little guest house called "Last Chance" near the ashram where the Beatles composed most of the White Album. In general it was a relaxed couple of days, drinking chai, warming ourselves by the fire, eating apple samosas and taking a couple of mini excursions. Rishikesh is pretty much how I remembered it, laid back and touristy. It was really nice to see friends from Last Chance again and just kinda chill after all the hectic moving around.

On the third day Keith and I started our long journey to Dharmsala. This is where we are now and are very much enjoying the calm mountain life. It is totally beautiful here, and the Tibetan food is amazing. Keith and I have already found our favorite Momo lady.

Ok that was long. I am sure I will have more to say about Dharmsala when I get back to Delhi, but that is all for now.

Indian Thanksgiving

Before I get to the non-turkey day, I want to make sure I mention the Indian Trade FairApparently ever year in Delhi there is this huge fair, like on the magnitude of the Minnesota State Fair for those who get that reference. This year, like the world fair in shanghai, the theme was something like better earth better life, putting the focus on sustainable, Eco friendly living. There were about 19 huge pavilions that showcased everything from kitchen supplies, clothes, toys, and jewelry to new biochemical technologies and cars. There was a separate pavilion for each of the states, all dressed up with elaborate displays. There were also stalls from many other countries as well showing off the best they had to offer, pearls, dried fruits, clothes, lamps, glass, crystal and more from Turkey, Burma, Cambodia and basically all over asia. It was quite overwhelming and I basically just walked around and got lost for 3 hours. Of course every fair needs food. There were also food stalls from all over India, however i wasn't very hungry so I only had some momos (dumplings) and kulfi (a saffron local icecream). There were tons of interesting things, but I restrained myself to just enjoy them with my eyes.

When I first arrived Seina mentioned that we should do thanksgiving. I was really excited by the idea since it is my favorite holiday, and this will be the first one that I can remember I have missed. As the time got closer, I offered to make the thanksgiving for the family since they have been so generous and kind to me. However, I soon found that making a Thanksgiving meal in India would be c challenging. In planning the meal I found that Turkey is very hard to come by, as is canned pumpkin, cranberries, corn, and ovens...so in lieu of these basics here is the Thanksgiving menu I devised.

-cumin deviled eggs for appetizer
-mashed potatoes with garlic, shallots and Rosemary
-orange and whiskey carrots braised with cinnamon and nutmeg
-green beans with roasted almonds with lemon, thyme and butter
-savory bread pudding with celery, mushrooms, and pinenute
-leg of lamb instead of turkey
- chocolate mousse infused with orange and chai and some cardamom/whiskey whipped cream

It isn't quite the thanksgiving i am used to, but I am still excited for it. Seina was going to make an apple pie, but I think she has gotten stuck at work which is why I am writing this instead of eating right now. I have no idea how anything turned out but I am hungry.

It has been quite interesting explaining that this indeed is a huge holiday in the United States where what we do is eat, get together and at least theoretically give thanks.

I spent all of today and a bit of yesterday cooking. In someways it was the most challenging thanksgiving and in others ways one of the easiest. The lack of ingredients and working in a whole new style of kitchen was the biggest challenge. Another challenge was trying to cook 6 dishes while the maid, Lakshmi, who was also making food for the family in the same small kitchen. When she wasn't cooking, she and the other maids would be attentively looking over my shoulder to see what I was doing. Whenever I needed something like black pepper, a rather hilarious play of charades ensued. Lakshmi was amazing. Once she understood anything I was doing she was the best sous chef, prepping anything I wanted and cleaning up everything. I gotta say, cooking without cleaning anything takes out so much work. We had a fun time giggling trying to figure out what each other was doing, and I made sure she tasted everything we made. I wanted to give her a plate of food but she went home before we ate.

My one cooking disaster were the mashed potatoes, the one thing i nought wouldn't be an issue. However after cooking them and they turned all gluey. I tried to salvage them, but gave up. Fortunately with the magic power of a pressure cooker, boiling them again only took like 10 min.

Tomorrow Seina and I venture off to southern India! First we fly to Bangalore and go straight to Mysore to see the palace. Then we go to hampi to see these awesome ruins I actually studied at school. Then we will leave karnatika for goa to hit up some beaches. Then we go further south to Kerela to relax in some back water jungles. The next post will no doubt be long and full of pictures. Until then everyone have a happy and safe thanksgiving, I am so very grateful for you all.

From Platinum Potter to the Slumdog Slums

So Seina's home has been a full house recently. Recently her cousin, aunt and uncle have also occupied the house because there are in Delhi for a wedding.

On a side note, so this is wedding season in India, and weddings here are huge. Much of the year in India it is too hot to do anything, let alone dance and be merry, or raining. This is really the few months of the year when it is cool and pleasant, hence a lot of weddings that are coordinated carefully with busy astrologers to figure out the most "auspicious of days." My friend Katherine's wedding will have over 350 people attending and I have heard of weddings with as much as 1000, and I am sure some even excede that. That being said, it makes sense that a lot of people go to weddings, but seriously with the number of weddings I alone know that is going one, it is hard for me to believe there is anyone left in India who isn't married, or who has any money left for that manner. I will be attending two weddings, Seina is attending like 3 and I just saw an invitation for another this morning, my homestay family has gone to 2 since I have been here and there is another invitation I saw today! Weddings here are intense affairs as well, usually lasting until 2 am, so everyone has been kinda sleepy.

Ok so the spare bedroom in Seina's parents house was taken by the uncle and aunt and we set up a cot in Siena's apartment for her cousin. The next night another family friend came and Seina offered him our bed in the apartment, so us "kids" relocated to cots and couches spread across the houses.

After I booked my tickets to come abroad, I quickly realized I was going to miss the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have not been one to see all the films on opening night, but I did read almost all the books within a week of the books being released deeply enjoyed all the them. Therefore faithfully see all the films. However it has been a long time since the books came out, and having not read any of them since they were released, seeing the films has been a nice almost brand new experience. Luckily much of India speaks English and Harry Potter is super popular here too. Seina's cousin also wanted to go see it, so on opening day Seina got us tickets to the "Platinum Lounge" to see Harry Potter. Situated like a balcony

above the regular theater were Lay-z boy chairs and little cushions. They brought us popcorn, took our orders for drinks, and even took our orders for dinner. Dinner was served on china with real metal forks and knives. There was even a little bell button to call an attendant, like they have in airplanes. After the intermission (even if the movies don't come with intermissions they are injected into films here), refills on drinks and popcorn were served as well as desert. I must say, it was the most posh film going experience I have ever had.

The next day I did some errands. Seina was nice enough to lend me a beautiful rust Sari for the wedding so I don't have to buy a new one. It is like a dark orange with undertones of deep almost black purple. However I still need to have a blouse made. So I set off to my old neighborhood of Lajpat Nagar to find the right fabric. After going to a few stores I found a specialized "blouse" store called Varuns. Floor to ceiling fabrics stacked and color coded like a glittering and shimmering rainbow wall jammed packed with women looking at splashes of color on the counter. I joined the throng, handing a man the Sari I need the blouse to match. Within a minute of him climbing up shelves he found what looked like the exact same material as what the bulk of the blouse was made of. I bought a yard for my blouse and then felt inspired to shop a little more. I only brought 3 kurtas (long shirts) with me, and my laundry cycle has been pretty short. I ended up getting three more kurtas and some black leggings, giving me a

full week of clothes now. I couldn't help myself to five pair of earrings which were just my style and all together cost about $1, and then I topped the shopping extravaganza with some hair clips to help manage my new shorter hair.

Today I met up with Jaya (part of my Homestay family) again.

Jaya just started a NGO called Ektara (which means "one star") to educate and in general elevate the quality of living of the people living in the slums of Delhi. After Jaya saw some of my pictures last time she asked if I could come and take some pictures for her.

I said sure. We arrived at a "Raen Basera" which means a homeless shelter. Jaya, Mama and Jaya's partner covered their noses from the smell when we got out of the car. I felt a little strange already. All of us were

well dressed with designer bags, some with designer sunglasses and make up. We were brought up to a "clean" room where they starte to discuss th

ings. I asked if I should start taking pictures and did. It was clear that the people here had absolutely no idea why we were there.

I felt kinda strange snapping away at them. I later found out that Ektara was donating a bunch of food, to last the 350 people there about a month. I felt especially strange when I started to get directed as to what kind of pictures to take. "What about that woman on the ground" or "that man with all the flies." I know we were there to help and that I don't understand Hindi or even the full explanation of what was going on, but something about it felt just so impersonal. I felt concerned I was tokenizing these people as poor people from the slums and I was worried we weren't actually helping them. Jaya pointed out to me a key thing they were trying to change is education, about hygiene and health. I could see this would be key. I have full faith that Ektara will do good work. They are determined to personally attend to their projects and not just give money and walk away. Currently they are searching for projects to invest in.

I started to try to talk to some of them, asking what their names were. Especially when the two girls whom I posted their pictures, started to pose for me, I told them in my broken Hindi how beautiful they were. It didn't take long for me to start to draw a crowd. The people loved to see what their pictures looked like. I started to get requests for portraits, groups and individuals, posed and candid. People were laughing and smiling. I know I wasn't really doing anything but somehow this felt better, to just interact with them instead of just objectifying them. However I was soon pulled away by my homestay family when the crowds started to touch me. I didn't mind but I could tell that Jaya and Mama were concerned.When we got home I helped Jaya spruce up her webpage which you can see at www.facebook.com/pages//Ek-Tara-Foundation/164259216920708.

It is always fascinating and often disturbing to see how far things can divide people who live right next to each other. I often have a hard time with the poverty in India. I have been told by all that it is a bad idea to give the beggers in the street money because they give it all to their slumlords, and when I try to give them food, on more than one occasion I have had the food given or thrown back at me. I know Jaya is working hard to do good, but this experience pointed out to me how hard it is to do good sometimes. It is often not just about money, but a lot of work in figuring out how exactly to utilize that money most effectively.

Akshardam pictures

Thanks to the Akshardam website here are some pictures!

The main temple:

Ceilings inside the temple


One of the many Elephants:

And the It's a Small India boat Ride where Bharatnatyam is "invented"

HoHo bus, Aksherdam and Homestay reunion.

After feeling a little down on myself for not being "productive" enough with my time in Delhi, I decided to step up my game.

So I boarded the Hoho bus, sounds perfect for me right? Hoho actually stands for "Hop On Hop Off" and hits 19 tourist sights in Delhi on a half hour rotation for a flat fare. It is also air conditioned, has a tour guide on board that gives basic information to the sights, and some brochures with info as well. Sounds great right? I thought so too. So even I thought 19 was a little ridiculous, so I chose what I thought was a modest but exciting 5 sites that I wanted to see. However, when I arrived at the starting point at 11am, I was told that the ride alone for a full circuit would be 4.5 hours if I didn't get off anywhere. One site I really wanted to go to was actually the last sight on the route, but right next to the starting point, and if I waited for the full circuit it would be closed by the time I came around to it. So I took the HoHo bus into my own hands (that sounds dirty), and went to the last stop first on my own.

This last sight I was going through so much trouble for is Jantar Mantar. It is an ancient observatory that still works! Sadly I wasn't able to calculate the current date and time even though there were instructio

ns because the day I became inspired to finally go sight seeing it started to rain...and these ancient instruments/ monuments are in different complicated ways basically sundials. This usually works very well for a sunny desert place such as Delhi. There are five huge monuments that were used to calculate the time, day, month, year, astrological signs, and houses and a bunch of other things I didn't understand.

I have always been drawn to taking pictures of a geometric nature, so I kinda went nuts here. It was just such a visually interesting place! Astrology has a major influence in India. All holidays, events, and weddings are carefully scheduled around auspicious astrological dates.

Indian monuments and ancient buildings seem to be seen by the locals as more of parks or adult size jungle gyms. Photos were taken yes, but mostly everyone climbed up the walls, made out in the corners, and ran around the pillars as fast as they could. I found similar behavior in Lodi Gardens and a few other ruins I explored last time I was here.

My dad has been trying to get me to come here for awhile and I am so glad I made the effort to check out. It was probably my favorite place in Delhi.

So I went to the bus stop to catch the Hoho bus and "begin" my HoHo journey...however after waiting for 45 min I called and asked where this bus was. They informed me that it won't come for another 20 min. So I went back, explored some more and then finally got on the bus an hour after I expected to board and be on my way.

The next stop was the Cricket stadium, some old ruins, and a mosque. Though I REALLY didn't want to spend more than 30 min there, and the bus dropped me off on the opposite side of the road. After playing frogger with my body, I made it across, but got a little lost as to where I was supposed to go. By the time I crossed a park and found the ruins I only had 10 min to make it back to the bus stop. So not really seeing much, I made back to the bus stop, and the bus was 15 minutes late.

The next stop was a big one for me, the Red Fort (Lal Quila) located in Old Delhi. Built by Shah Jahn who also built the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort served as the capital for the Mughal Empire after Agra and is probably Delhi's biggest tourist attraction. I somehow never made it to the Red Fort last time so I was pretty excited this time.

I know I keep mentioning this and I am sure it will get old soon, but since I keep getting mistaken for being Indian I tried to sneak into the Indian ticket line to only pay $0.20 instead of $4. However, halfway through the line an attendant asked if I was Indian, I got nervous and said no and was redirected to the foreigner line. While I was buying my ticket though, a man came up to me and asked if I would buy 2 more tickets! Meaning even though I was in the foreigner line, another foreigner thought I was Indian and wanted me to buy the cheaper tickets! I found this amusing, told him I am a foreigner too and went inside.




The gate led to a covered bazaar where merchants sold things from all over the country. Then it led to a large courtyard and then the public hall where Shah Jahan spoke to the public from a marble throne. Inside were some nice Mughal gardens, a bit of inlaid marble like the Taj, and a fairly interesting museum with old Mughal paintings, scriptures, clothes, jewelry, furniture, weapons and more. Yes the red fort is big, but I was actually kinda underwhelmed. However I do plan to go back at night for the sight and sound show where they light up the whole fort and do a story-telling tour around the fort.

Across the street from the Red Fort is a Jain temple that has a bird hospital. I remember trying to go last time but never making it. The temple itself was rather impressive, beautifully riveted long pink cones into the sky. I was invited inside and saw floor to ceiling cages of birds. On the left side of a narrow passageway were large cages with hundreds of pigeons, one had doves, and other had hawks or some kind of raptor.

The other side were smaller cages, often with birds that looked like they had broken legs or wings. There were also more floor upstairs of this as well. As the birds get better they release them to the roof and more injured or sick birds are brought in. As I was leaving I was approached by a man who said he was a vet there. I nodded my head approvingly. He then held out a small brown looking pill and told me it was bird medicine. I again nodded approvingly as he pointed out to me a "black dancing pigeon." He then asked me to lick the pill. I told him no thanks. He then licked it and offered it to me again. I think he was trying prove to me it wasn't poison or that it was safe, but really this just deterred me more. He then got a little pushy, saying please just take it, now trying to get me to take the whole thing, licking it again and then offering/ pushing it in my face. I told him thank you for the talk and started to leave. He tried to follow but I got firm and hurried out.

My plan was to see where Gandhi got cremated and Purana Quila, the old for that the Pandava brother's built from the ancient epic the "Mahabaharata." However when I got back to the HoHo bus stand, the bus was again 45 min late, and I realized that there were no more buses after that. So I took the bus back home and slated my last two sights for another time. On the way though I kept seeing goats all over the place! Goats in cars, auto rickshaws, buses, bus stops, on the side walk and in the road, sometimes in flocks!


I realized it was Eid the next day, the Festival of Sacrifice celebrating when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to God. Now everyone sacrifices goats.

I came home exhausted.

The next day I went to go have lunch with my old homestay mother who makes me lovingly call her "mama." She is so sweet, and a very spirited, energetic and positive older woman. She invited her daughter, Jaya, and two grandchildren to join us as well. Mama made it clear this was my home and I should be comfortable, and though she would sometimes called me "Amber" I felt right at home. This also meant I was expected to help out as if it was my home. I actually really enjoyed this. I happily set the table, cleaned some dishes and helped get the house ready for guests. We had a lovely lunch of peas and paneer, chicken curry, rice, raita, and some saffron custard.

My hindi has been slowly coming back at best, but it was amazing how much more of my homestay's Hindi I could understand. I am not sure why, maybe just because I was around her Hindi more when I was learning the language it feels more familiar to hear her speak. Regardless, it was nice to feel like I could generally understand the conversation even though half of it was in Hindi. However it didn't take long for the subject of Katherine's wedding to come up, which quickly led to leading questions of when am I going to find a nice Indian boy to marry? They had suggestions and offers to help me find one, they promised he would be wealthy as well.

Today I went to Akshardam. I didn't really know about this place but had heard it was another tourist sight. This place blew my mind, it was incredible. Sadly I wasn't allowed to bring any cameras, batteries, cell phone and a long list other things, basically I could only bring in money and jewelry, but if I was allowed to bring in my camera they would have been the best pictures I took in India.

Ok so Akshardam is a huge Disneyland-like complex devoted to a guy a have never heard of before today, Lord Swaminarayan. His followers believe in non-violence as their basic principle. Swaminarayan mastered the vedas at like 7, left his home at 11 to do severe austerities in the forest, and did a bunch of apparently awesome stuff. He also gets reincarnated, like the Dali Lama. The walkway in glistened with sheets of water coming out of beautifully stone fountains.

The major temple had hundreds of elephants carved out of pink sandstone at the base. Many of the carvings depicted fables and stories from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, life of Buddha and more. Other just values like about strength in numbers and caring families, and being playful but not caring about winning. These carvings were amazing. So detailed and full of motion, even the wrinkles in the elephant's skin could be seen.

Inside the temple was mostly marble with a huge golden statue of Swaminarayan. The walls and columns were all intricately carved, and the ceilings were mind-blowing stone mandalas. The detail rivaled or surpassed Khajuraho and Jaisalmer. If this place was a thousand years old it would be a wonder of the world, however it is all pretty new so instead it felt like what a Maharaja must feel like when moving into to his recently completed palace. Everything was clean, the fountains were all running, and all the art was just stunning.

I don't say "Disneyland" like lightly. The second part of this place was a whole tour/ride of Swaminarayan's life. It was a lot like "It's a Small World Ride," complete with state of the art animatronics that depicted vignettes of his life that were constructed by the same people who did Disney Land. Moving from room to room we saw different phases and stories acted out by the robots, complete with subtle hand gestures and facial expressions, and accentuated by lights and music.

The second part was a rather well produced IMAX movie of his life, where I got to wear snazzy Bose wireless headphones that translated it for me into English. The Third part actually was a lot like the "It's a Small World Ride," complete with a boat ride that showed the wonders of Indian ancient culture. Things like how the Indians' invented the zero, astro physics, universities, hospitals, and even airplanes, I got dubious when it mentioned someone who "invented" Bharatnatyam and airplanes.

Regardless, it was still amusing, state of the art and thoroughly entertaining. I wish I could show you all this, but I encourage anyone coming to Delhi to check it out. The Animatronic part cost about $3.20 and the rest was free! It sucks that I couldn't take any pictures or video. I would LOVE to shoot a film here someday, but in a way it was actually kinda freeing to not have anything on me at all while walking around, just a few rupees. The security was quite reassuring as well. They stored your belongings for free, made you fill out a form that catalogued your valuables, took a picture of you when you deposited it, and then quizzed you on your name, address and cell phone number when you picked it up.

An exciting few days and more to come!