Family Ties

One month in, and I finally took a picture with Mumma and Didi!

Whirlwind Week, Pt 2

Snakes and ladders to teach good governance. Snakes include alcoholism and caste discrimination.

     This week is speeding by, with a rickshaw strike and an impending Hindi midterm, but before things get left too long, here is the rest of the pictures from my travels last week. Picking back up in Uttarkhand, we were staying at the RLEK guest house, so we met with the organization to hear more about increasing literacy in rural India. Their sister organization that focuses on increasing women's representation in local government, called panchayats, gave a really interesting look into how they teach good governance to women even when they are illiterate. Pictures, comics, and games were key!

A part of a banner the group uses to help identify what tasks women usually complete in the day.

      Moving on!
      Having fully immersed ourselves in responsible agriculture, rural education, and gender equality, we went for some lighter fun at one of the most holy landmarks in India - the Ganges. Rishikesh is also considered the yoga capital of the world, so yes, it is a weird and fascinating place.

One of the monkeys hanging out on Laxman Jhula Bridge

Me, Nadine and Kate with our feet in Mother Ganga

When my host sister saw this photo, she laughed and said "Fat fat aunties!"

Rishikesh! Colorful!

A stylish Indian looks on at the Ganges

Some women drink Ganges water poured off the foot of a priestess.

Aarti at the Ganges

Dinner at the Pyramid Cafe - reflections of our lanterns with the lights of Rishikesh in the distance

     I am trying to enjoy Jaipur this week and really sink my teeth into the city, as time seems to racing by incredibly fast. My first month sped by incredibly fast.
     Although it feels like I am still so new here, I had a small accomplishment today, when I caught a rickshaw home to take a nap: I spoke only Hindi with my rickshaw driver! There were lots of repetitions, and I am sure that I did not answer all of his questions remotely correctly, but when I got out and asked for change, my driver went to 3 different men to ask for change without making a big deal of it, and normally asking for any sort of change back is a huge ordeal ... so yeah, it paid off big time. 

Adventure is out there!

All the Small Things

Last night, the Oscars took place in California while I slept in Jaipur. I think a fun way to demonstrate the difference between the US and India could be from comparing two reactions to a beacon of international peace and cooperation: Angelina Jolie.

Here is what the LA Times had to say:
"Best dressed! Angelina Jolie's black velvet Atelier Versace gown, slit thigh-high, was as smoldering, high-drama as fashion can get on the red carpet."

Meanwhile, my internet stick over here launches Yahoo! India every time I successfully connect, so I had to click through when I saw the headline "Oscars 2012: Girl, Humiliated"... Surely no major gaffes were being covered up by the American media?

Here is what the Yahoo! India commentator had to say:
"Not a hair was out of place, the famous pillow lips were painted a Satan concubine red and the limber, zero-percent-body-fat body was encased in an asymmetric velvety black number that had a slit so high on the right that it went all the way up to Calgary mountains in Canada. To give the devil its due, the black gown did give off a somewhat quasi well-developed derriere vibe, but mother-of-6 Angelina Jolie seemed to want to show the versatility of the slit so bad, she almost ended up flashing the divine doodah that has, among other things, birthed three messiahs for the betterment of this world in the last 5 years."


Somewhat different in tone. I highly recommend the Indian take on Angie, as it is very opinionated.

Everybody's Got Something to Hide but Me and My Monkey

     On Friday morning, Nadine and I set out for Maharishi Mahesh Ashram just outside of Rishikesh proper. In 2012, the ashram is abandoned and overrun, but in 1978 it was the home of the Beatles as they learned Transcendental Meditation. And wrote a number of songs from the White Album, such as "Back in the USSR," "Blackbird," "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?," "Julia," "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da," "Rocky Racoon" and "Revolution." We didn't expect to get into the ashram, so we tried to bargain our jeep driver, Gopal, from the costly 300 rupee fee, but he wouldn't budge so we decided to bite the bullet and split the roughly $6 charge to go make our own pilgrimage - as they say, ob-la-di, life goes on (even if your pockets are three dollars lighter)!

Note the monkey sitting on the right side of the entrance!

Couldn't translate the Hindi that quickly, but there is a nice "No Entry" for English speakers.

Once we got there, Gopal turned off his jeep and wandered away. Considering we hadn't paid him yet, we figured that we might have not successfully garnered return fare, but for free we weren't complaining.

More after the jump...

Whirlwind Week, Pt. 1

Our first stop for the week was an overnight stay at Navdanya, an organic farm and seed bank started by Dr. Vandana Shiva. It was just outside of Dehradun, so we headed there straight from the Haridwar train station. We learned a little bit about the seed bank, but mostly we just had ourselves a campfire that night and did some weeding.

Next stop, rural India! We went to a rural village of the Gujjar people, a Muslim community also near Dehradun. We learned the ABCs with the kids, tried to teach them duck, duck, goose (to no avail, because a very steep language barrier) and had lunch together. It was really beautiful out in the village, but I am happy to come home to my laptop and indoor plumbing.

Uttarkhand Limited

      I have been a big Wes Anderson fan for a long time, but that fandom is limited specifically to three movies: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and the Life Aquatic.

     That list rather conspicuously lacks The Darjeeling Limited, an Anderson movie about a dysfunctional family (as are all of his films) this time set on a train in India. I saw Darjeeling Limited in theaters when it was released in 2007, and was instantly disappointed in that way that only a teenaged superfan can be of their favorite artist's new work. I haven't seen it since, having immediately disregarded it as undeserving of a repeat viewing when there are 3 very good Anderson movies I could be watching instead. Still, watching 91 minutes of my favorite director's perspective on train travel in India leaves me with a few subconscious expectations.

    One of the characteristic aspects of Anderson's movies are the stylized, color specific depictions. In the Royal Tenenbaums, the seedier cabs of New York are transformed into an fictional "Gypsy Cab Co."

This is not a real cab.

In the Life Aquatic, the whole world is seen in sky blue and pale yellow. In Darjeeling Limited, trains are the same dreamy blue and yellow color scheme, as the rest of India is saturated in color. Because all ships in the Mediterranean are not exclusively blue and yellow, I did not anticipate how actual Indian trains would match up.

A promotional drawing related to the film. Note the color scheme.

Real-life, actual train. Note the yellow guard rails.

 More thoughts after the jump...

Relaxing at the Ganga

A short scene looking out on the Ganges from the heart of Rishikesh.