Dholna

This is a clip from a Bollywood movie called "Pyar Ke Geet". The song is called "Dholna" and it is the second song that we are dancing to in our Bollywood Dance practica.

You know the drill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edKJih4Wb3I&feature=fvw

Old Delhi

It's March 27th. Today Hannah and I took the metro from Connaught Place in New Delhi to Chandi Chowk in Old Delhi. Parents: The metro is SUPER cheap (this ride cost me Rs. 10) and easy- just like reading The L map in Chicago. Old Delhi has very crowded narrow, windy roads and allies, older buildings and cool old forts and monuments. Hannah and I took turns going into a mosque because one of the guys at the entrance was afraid that we were going to take pictures, so I stayed outside and held our cameras while Hannah went in and then we switched places. There are lots of silver jewellery stores and figurine-types stores. Hannah bought a "singing bowl". It's a medium sized bronze bowl that you hit the rim of with a wooden mallet, then trace the rim with same mallet so it makes a eerie ringing sound. Like when you take water and rub the rim of a crystal glass with your finger. Except singing bowls are used in Buddhist rituals.

Meher's Got Talent

Here's a clip of my dance instructor, Meher Malik, when she was on India's Got Talent. You all can Youtube her name for more clips. Again, I don't know how to embed videos so just cope and paste this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84JTOfF6Rdw

Jiya Jale

At S.I.T. we all had to sign up for a "practica". We could choose between Sitar. Tabla, Madhubani painting, North Indian cooking, yoga or Bollywood Dance. I choose the Bollywood Dance, of course! Once a week we go practice at a dance studio in Malviya Nagar with our AWESOME dance instructor! Her name is Meher and she's a professional belly dancer; apparently she was on the show "India's Got Talent" for belly dancing. I love her. I want her to be my best friend. Next Tuesday she's going to take us out dancing because she says that Tuesday is salsa night!

We are dancing our first dance to this song, "Jiya Jale", from a VERY FAMOUS Bollywood movie called "Dil Se" (starring Shah Rukh Khan!!! AAAAHHH!!!). Here's the clip from the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0KS6NuK0YI

I don't know how to embed videos, so you guys are just going to have to copy and paste the link into a separate window.

PS: Parents, I really like Malviya Nagar. I would recommend going there because there are two really good big bakeries there. If you tell the rickshaw driver "Malviya Nager, central market" he'll take you to the street that the bakeries are on. Good coconut ladoos, among other good looking puddings.

Going Solo in Delhi: March 12-15th

Sidenote: My hair is still slightly purple. Although Holi was on the 1st of March (it's March 13th now), I have pink water come out of my hair when I shower and there are certain parts of my hair that are purplish in good lighting.

Sidenote 2: I just realized through facebook that my homestay brother's name is Amrit. For the first couple of weeks I thought it was Ambik, then I realized I made an error and have been calling him Ambrit for the last three weeks.

This weekend is our second free weekend so far, however while the other free weekend was a "study weekend", this free weekend is a "travel weekend". This means that we were given a three day weekend (no school on Monday!) for independent travel. I'm really sick of feeling like I need to follow where ever the group wants to go so I decided to go somewhere by myself. This past week was fucking hell (Hindi written mid-term, Hindi oral mid-term, Orchha/Khujuraho presentation, ISP draft, ISP budget, ISP schedule and ISP Literature Review and 2 more Hindi assignments) and I didn't get my act together to travel outside of Delhi. I was going to go to a specactular old fort that was converted into a hotel called the Neemarana Fort (the fist of its kind, according to Guy-ji) in Manowar, which is said to be a cool place to go and it's only two hours outside Delhi (according to Dheeraj-ji). Because of this, I decided to stay in a New Delhi so explore it ON MY OWN, which I've been wanting to do since I got here! Although it would have been cool to go to Manowar, I'm still really happy that I'm staying in New Dehli because there is still SO much here that I haven't seen.

I'm staying in a guest house called Jarobagh 27. It's clean, simple, homey and in a great location; right across the street from Lodhi Gardens, with walking distance from Khan Market, right next to Defence Colony (BEST restaurant selections, you guys HAVE to go to a really popular South Indian restaurant called Sagar Ratna) and not too far from Connaught Place, Sarojini Nagar and Green Park Extn.

Last night I had my first rickshaw driver ask if I was married (this has happened to many other girls in the program). I said yes, but he's back in the U.S. (he didn't ask what my husband's name was but I decided that my pseudo-husband's name is Howard). He kept on winking at me and asked if I had any children, to which I said no. Then I asked him if he had children by saying "beta aur beti?" (means son and daughter?) and he said he had ek beta (one son). Once we found Jarobagh 27, the hotel manager talked me into using their car and driver (it was dark out so it was probably a good idea anyways). I don't remember the driver's name but he was young and cool and spoke almost perfect English! So we talked a lot and I asked him to play me Indian gangster music while he drove me to Defence Colony (where he brought me to that great South Indian restaurant). He also bought a "buttermilk" for me, him and his older brother who was there too. These buttermilks are small sealed plastic bags of DELICIOUS milk drink that you can get at any Mother Dairy stand (there's at least one Mother Dairy stand in every colony, and it's where everyone gets their milk products). The buttermilk was so cold and sweet and it tasted just like a lassi. When I looked to read the label on the bag, it said "lassi" on it, but I for some reason he called them buttermilks.

Saturday morning I walked around inside of Lodhi Gardens. I decided to venture off the the paved paths, into an area with lots of cool trees but as I kept walking I realized there were about 5 couples hanging out, if you know what I mean, so I had a pang of loneliness and quickly went back to the path. When I got out of the gardens I took a rickshaw to Aryuvedic treatment center in Green Park Extn. called Kerala Ayurveda. There, I was told to change into a pair of little, sheer disposable panties and a towel. For the next hour, I laid down, wearing NOTHING but my disposable panties, on a huge wooden platform while two women drizzled hot ayurvedic oil on my body from toe to shoulder and made small talk while they rubbed the oil all over my bare breasts and stomach.

Sunday I went to a great market called Sarojini Nagar where kurtas are only 100-150 rupees (2-3 U.S. dollars). This is my new favorite market for buying kurtas, and that's where I'd recommend going if you want to buy a sari- I bought two saris there! Also, I took a richshaw to New Delhi University, but I was dropped by South Campus and it was so huge and confusing that I didn't really get to see the campus or lots of students hanging out.

I spent a lot of time walking around GK-1 N Block and M Block as well. These are more upscale and organized markets. Go here for getting pierced in clean places and buying jewellry. This is also where you go for trendy Western clothes, some modest and some not. Good jean stores that tailor them for you right when you buy them. Henna wallahs will decorate both hands and/or feet for about 200 rupees.

This weekend was a crucial weekend for me. For three weeks prior to his weekend I thought that I didn't belong in India and didn't like it here in general. But being on my own in New Delhi for the weekend and exploring made me realize that I love India, it was just the stress of the S.I.T. program. I can tell people more about these feelings when I'm home, but I don't know what spew all over the internet.

Lodhi Gardens

The first weekend after orientation week I went to Lodhi Gardens with a bunch of girls from the program. Lodhi Gardens is a huge, beautiful park in New Delhi. I want to compare it to Central Park in NYC, except Lodhi Gardens has ruins inside of it!

There were these weird convexed metal lounging chairs and people go to stretch their back on. Here's a picture of Francesca trying on out.

We picked a clear spot next to some ruins to hang out in. This random dog (it had a collar, so it wasn't one of the thousands of stray dogs) decided that he liked us so he just plopped down and napped about two inches away from me.

There was also a man selling bubble pipes! And he was advertising them by walking around and blowing tons of bubbles around and I just had to have one! He had an array from various bubble pipes, so I picked the cheapest one and bargained it down from 20 rupees to 10 (45 rupees = 1 U.S. dollar right now)! But when I assembled my bubble pipe it didn't work! Fucker! But I guess that's what I get for buying the cheapest one.

Moving In

On February 7th, orientation week ended, meaning it was time for us to move into our new homestay! Most of us were paired up with somebody else from the program, and I, luckily, am one of those people. My new roommate's name is Hannah. Hannah is from rural Maine and is junior at Brown University and is great!

We live in a part of New Delhi called Nizamuddin East. I LOVE OUR COLONY (there aren't neighborhoods here, they're called colonies instead)! We live within walking distance from Humayun's Tomb; the colony is beautiful and quite "posh" as it was first described to us. It's very safe and quiet (quiet for Delhi), there are lots of small parks where kids play on swings, a small market with several grocery stores, a general store, Chemist, clothing store called Anokhi, and a cafe called Cafe Turtle. We also live very close to a mosque so we can hear people chanting "Aaaaaaaaalllllllllaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh" and it's really loving to hear at night. We also live relatively close to an upper-scale market called Khan Market which is a very popular market in Delhi.

The host family:
My host family consists of Aunty-ji, her husband Ashok (spelling?) and her son, Ambrit.

Ashok is recovering from a stroke and is not really functional. He can't really talk or move his body, so he rests in his bed with the TV on all day. I've only seen him about five times but he seems like a really cool guy. From old pictures I've seen and other impressions people have given me, it seems that he was really funny and "with-it" type of guy. He's a retired fighter pilot, so the family has lived in various big cities (they lived in Goa for five years and Mumbai for six years) for his work.

Ambrit is about 28 (?) years-old. He currently lives in Australia but he is home for this month to work and help Aunty-ji take care of Ashok. Ambrit is getting married in December (!!!!!!) to a gauri (Hindi slang for white/foreign girl; like saying "gringa") named Katherine from Ohio!! I'm still a little shakey on how they met. I know that she came to New Delhi to work on an archeological site and I think they met out at a bar one night. It would be SOOOOO COOL if I got to go to the wedding! Anyways, Ambrit is really chill and because he lives in Australia he knows all about Western culture, so it's really nice to hang out with him.

Because Ambrit has a weird work schedule, it's usually Aunty-ji, Hannah and me. Aunty-ji is very non-traditional. She doesn't wear a bindi, she has short, cropped hair which she colors about every-other week and drinks a class of whiskey on the rocks shum ko (Hindi for "in the evening"). She's from Kashmir and went to the university to play sitar! I'm fairly certain that she doesn't play sitar anymore but she still likes to show off her classical dance skills. She's really pestering about making sure people eat at all times, but above all, she just wants company and to have fun. She loves to go out (although she has surgery that she's still recovering from) with her friends and to a country club called the Gymkhana Club. She also likes Italian food and always wants Hannah and me to cook food from home so we can teach her how. Hannah and I have made her pasta with marinara sauce and mac and cheese so far. I'm thinking of baking a loaf of French or Italian bread to make homemade grilled cheese sandwiches to go with some homemade tomato soup. Hahaaaa! It was Aunty-ji's birthday a couple of days ago, so I'm going to bake her a cake too!

Ummm, other things:

Our home is a very lovely apartment. Hannah and I share a small bedroom and we have our own bathroom. We have a manual shower head (vs. a bucket) which is very nice. Our house has a balcony in front where we sit out and drink chai and eat biscuits. In India, any family who can afford a home has a maid to clean and do the cooking. So, our family has a maid named Sumitra (spelling?). Sumitra lives in a different apartment upstairs and has worked for the family since she was about 15 (now she's.....20-25?). I think she's a little afraid of Aunty-ji but she's very sweet. She hardly speak any English and since I hardly speak Hindi we don't have in-depth conversations but we still exchange talk when we can. I try to practice Hindi phrases on her by asking her how she's doing and stuff. My moment of pride was when I needed to do laundry so I asked her "sabun kaha hai?" which means "Where is the soap?"

Here is a picture of Aunty-ji the first night we moved in. She was going out with friends so she wore one of her gorgeous saris. Hannah and I had her pose for us so we could take her picture. Hahaaa! You can tell that she loved it!

Orientation Wrap-Up

Orientation week consisted of:
-waking up at the ashram
-breakfast is served there every morning at 7:30am, but I always decided to sleep through it
-be taken in taxis to the program center around 9ish
-health, history, class, etc. intros all day
-about three chay and snack breaks
-during these breaks everyone would scramble to their laptops to try to write e-mails or use facebook to connect to families and boyfriends
-"drop-offs". We would be different into small groups and "dropped-off" at a random market with a long list of things to buy/do in an hour. The point of these "drop-offs" was to force us to rely on ourselves in foreign places and become better at navigating.
-have dinner either our with the program (we would be taken to a market or divided into small groups and taken to a restaurant) or be returned to ashram in time for their dinner to be served (which I, also, usually decided to sleep through)
-try to sleep at the ashram but jet-lag usually prevented that

Note:
One night, everyone went to a lounge called Waves that was right next door to the ashram. They had live musicians who played classic Bollywood hits and he played the anthems, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kal Ho Naa Ho!!!
Another night, we were taken to a very popular market, Dilli Haat, for dinner. There I had my first taste of authentic chow mein (Chinese slash Indo-Chinese food here is EVERYWHERE) and some drink called "fruit beer". I'm still not sure what it's made out of but it's delicious! Dilli Haat isn't the regular busy, sprawling market. It's a very contained market (you have to go through a metal detector to get in) which lots of restaurant stand things and organized stands that sold lots of trinkets, home decor, rugs, shawls and other fun things. In the back of the market there was a stage where a folk dance recital was being performed.
Another evening, we went to a very famous and beautiful monument called Humayun's Tomb. Emperor Humayun ruled the Mughal empire and is son of Babur (the first emperor of the empire) and father of Akbar (who's absolutely fascinating).

Right before we left the ashram (on the 7th) for good, I climbed up to the roof to take some pictures.
The ashram runs on solar power, so there were these huge solar panels on the roof where laundry is also hung to dry by.
On the roof there was a skinny, wobbly metal ladder that you could climb up to get to a higher, smaller roof. I took pictures of the view of New Delhi from this roof, but Delhi's infamous smog masked the horizon line. I also took a picture of the skinny ladder so everyone can appreciate what I did to get a view from the top.

Health Update:

After 5 days of stomach pain, (vomiting on the first day) nausea and severe bad news, I finally have a diagnosis. I don't want to go into detail, but these past days have been so astonishing sick that I have to.

Here's how it started:

Saturday night Aunty-ji took Hannah and I to the prestigious Gymkhana Club, a country club here in New Delhi that Aunty-ji and her husband have been members of for a long time, for a Holi celebration.

Right when we got there my stomach started hurting really bad. I tried to wait it off, but I felt horrible. Luckily, the ladies' bathroom had this sort of lounging area with wicker beds in it. The beds looked a lot like the Freudian therapy couches, but these were made of wicker and had various elderly women resting on them. Anyways, I went to one of these empty beds, held my aching belly and sort of went in and out of sleep for the next two hours. When the show ended, Aunty-ji and Hannah were both juiced and came to get me in the bathroom. I rushed into a toilet stall and threw up a bunch, then had to quickly switch sides for the bad news, I continued to throw up in a plastic bag in the car ride back home, and I spent a sleepless night on the bathroom floor (because the floor was nice and cold) alternating between vomiting, INSANE bad news and delirious fevers.

I stayed in bed and slept all of Sunday.

Monday I felt fine, so I wore my new white embroidered kurta and white churidar to celebrate Holi! It was great at for the first 4 hours or so. I think I ingested a lot of the pigment- I kept on trying to spit it out but the stuff gets in EVERYWHERE. In the afternoon, I started feel light-headed and I had to go to bed early because I felt nauseous.

Monday night I hardly slept because the stomach pains returned and I felt really queasy. Thus, being the reason I couldn't go to Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday morning. Instead, Guy-ji took me and another girl from the program to the East and West Medical Center (apparenly, it's a very reputable clinic and the prime minister goes to a doctor there). The doctor asked me questions and instructed that I give them a urine sample and stool sample for proper diagnosis.

Wednesday I felt queasy and have BAD NEWS ALL DAY. Gave samples to the clinic. About two hours ago my results came back: I have a stomach infection. They gave me the name of an antibiotic and a second drug that will counter the side-effects from the antibiotic I will buy from the Chemist (in India, Chemist is the name for pharmacy) tomorrow.

Let's Start With the Ashram

Way back when to orientation week (February 1st-7th), we arrived late Sunday night. Everyone in the program was supposed to meet in the Indira Gandhi International Airport on the 1st between 7pm-11pm but since our plane had some sort of mechanical troubles we arrived around 1am. Still, in the wee hours we were all brought to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in New Delhi. I believe the ashram is in a part of New Delhi called Lado Sarai, if it's not technically in Lado Sarai, then it's at least very close. Since ashrams are spiritual places, no cigarettes, drugs, alcohol or meat is allowed inside. One is not supposed to speak loudly inside the ashram either, I know this because we were scolded by a woman at breakfast the following morning.

Most of us were assigned roommates from the program. My roommate's name was Ayshea, who is a junior at Ithaca College. When first got into our room, we each had a "snack box" that had three shortbread cookies, a crustless, half-sandwich with American cheese and mayo/sour cream/cream cheese/pata naheen (means "I don't know" in Hindi) on whitebread, one apple juicebox and one packet of ketchup.

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram was beautiful and quiet. It is there where I experienced my first shower in India. 1) You step into a large open tiled showering area, 2) you take the showering bucket and the showering large plastic measuring cup, 3) Fill the bucket with hot water and 4) use the large plastic measuring cup to pour the hot water from the bucket over your body. It sounds like a hassle, but it feels so good to have the hot water gush over your head!

I also had my first toilet with toilet paper experience! The ashram had Western-style toilets instead of Indian-style toilets. An Indian-style toilet is a porcelin covered hole in the ground that you squat over, aka: a latrine). Regardless whether you are using a Western toilet or a latrine, you do not have toilet paper. Instead there is either a small faucet and toileting large plastic measuring cup or, the much preferred, spray thing (it's exactly like the spray things that are attached to Western kitchen sinks). When you are finished going to the bathroom, you either use your faucet or your spray thing, clean yourself with your left hand and blot your front with a hanky (you keep it in your purse) if you're a lady.

For any foreigner who wants to travel in India I highly recommend staying in ashrams. It's safe, undisturbed, not the whole glitzy, touristy hotel deal and you get to experience an interesting mix of travelers, spiritual travelers and spiritual Indians.

I'm still in New Delhi

Sorry that I have been absent for the first month, but the program keeps us very busy here. The only reason I have time now is because Saturday night I became violently ill (I'll describe more later) and am still recovering, hence I have had to stay behind in Delhi instead of going on a week-long excursion to Madhya Pradesh with the rest of the program. For those who do not know, Madhya Pradesh is one of 28 states of India, and we were specifically going to a village called Orchha from Tuesday to Wednesday, Khajuraho from Wednesday to Friday and the Bandhavgarh Tiger Sanctuary from Friday to Sunday. I am really disappointed that I am not going to Orchha because the Betwa River runs through it where locals (slash Kenzie) swim in everyday and MORE DISAPPOINTED THAT I AM NOT GOING TO KHAJURAHO BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE EROTIC TANTRIC CARVINGS ARE AND STORM-JI (Dr. Mary Storm, the academic director and our main professor) IS GIVING A LECTURE ON TANTRISM!

Guy-ji (Storm-ji's husband and our health/medical advisor) said that there is a small change that I might be able to join up with the rest of the program if I get better soon and train tickets can be arranged with this short of notice. So here's hoping.