Where I Live and What I Live For

India is sweeeeeet.  Here's an update.

I'm half done with my time in Delhi before I go off for a month to study bird sanctuaries in Southern India in November.  Here's a run through of my life in the city.  My homestay is quiet and peaceful—a massive relief to the chaos of the city.  Instead of the large and loud Indian family I expected, I am living just with one other girl from my program and an older woman, Sonita.  I've come to seriously appreciate the quiet and privacy at home, 'cause as soon as I step out of our sleepy neighborhood the pace of life increases by gazillions.  Our house is in a more spacious and lush area of the city, and the window above my bed looks out over a little park with beautiful trees!     

A normal day for me: Hindi, art history, and anthropology class from 9-1, feast at the program center from 1-2, study (mostly nap or goof around) from 2-3, then free time in the city until dinner at home at 8.  A couple days a week I am taking a painting class in the Madhubani folk style.  My teacher has painted the walls around the stairs over her apartment, and every wall of every room is covered in her artwork.  The porch looks over a huge tree who is home to many hundreds of green parrots.  Spending hours learning the forms of the art and experimenting with the color is the most relaxing thing in the entire world.  Also, she plays a Bollywood radio station almost non-stop and so I am being thoroughly educated in the ways of Indian pop music (awesome).   

Last weekend I got out of Delhi for the first time since flying in on the plane.  It was amazing to get out of the city and experience a slower, cleaner, and more laid back town vibe.  We traveled the 8 hours by train to Amritsar in NW India on the Pakistan border.  Amritsar is the home of the Golden Temple, the number one Sikh pilgrimage site in the world--so people were generally very happy, generous, and in good spirits.  We met lots of people who were genuinely curious about why we were in India, and we spent some good time practicing our Hindi with them.

Then... to Pakistan!  We decided to go to the changing of the guard on the India/Pakistan border, which is famous for its pep rally-like atmosphere and ceremonious guard "dances."  This is a safe and peaceful area of Pakistan, but we still felt like crazy people being so close to that particular country.  We could have literally stuck our arms through the border fence and touched Pakistani soil, but decided that would have been a negative life decision.  Observe! The intricacy of the guard dancing and the event's similarities with a college basketball game:

      

Hindustan and Pakistan pride.

 Amritsar is a beautiful place, and the Golden Temple exudes an intense aura of peacefulness.  Our first night there, we slept on site at the temple.  Even though we got in after midnight, there were people everywhere--praying, sleeping on the floor, bathing in the waters, and watching the stars.  We slept in our own room just off of a large square full of sleeping Sikh families, and I slept very peacefully in the presence of all the pilgrims.  We woke up early in the morning to participate in sunrise prayers, and the whole complex was incredibly beautiful in the early light.  Once again, people were everywhere even at 5am.  

I'm about to leave for about three weeks on excursion throughout central India, so I'll try to stay in touch as much as I can but it will most likely be sparse.  One last thing--(in case you want to know what is going on in India at the moment that is directly impacting my life) if you don't know the Ayodhya decision by the Indian Supreme Court and want to immerse yourself in world news--read up on it.  I am currently not allowed to be out on the streets because the threat of rioting.  (I promise I'm safe!)  

Who's cow is that?

Namaste everybody! 

Been here two weeks, and the best thing I can say is that Delhi is a whirlwind! 

A paradoxical mix of drastically unfamiliar and surprisingly familiar, peacefully lush and squalidly crowded!  I haven’t had much time to process it all, but here’s what I’ve got so far…

Delhi is split into public and private space, and the contrast between the two is immense.  The streets are dirty, smelly, and crowded.  Piles of dirt line the roads, and are home to digging stray dog packs, napping camels and cows, and tons of garbage.  The roads themselves are insanity.  The only rule of the road is to not hit or get hit—and that’s about it.  Lanes are arbitrary, and instead of slowing down for a smaller vehicle it is customary to speed up, honk, and hope they get out of the way (exception to this rule is given to Our Holy Mother the Cow).  It’s seriously chaotic, but somehow it works.  Cars, trucks, buses, bikes, scooters, rickshaws, cows, donkeys, goats, and people—all moving in a methodical madness through the city.  My form of transportation is mainly the auto-rickshaw.  The only way I can describe my twenty-minute commute to school is with this profound description: MarioKart with bovine obstacles, minus the throwing of banana peels.  Getting anywhere in a rickshaw is as fantastic as classic Nintendo64. 

With a long monsoon this year, we are still getting downpours of rain every other day.  And with the rains come the floods!  Lakes gather in the streets 30 meters long and up to 3 feet deep.  Today, for instance, I slogged the ¼ mile from school to the main road in slimy garbage-water up to my shins.  On a worse day this would have been disgusting and annoying, but today I just found it hilarious and ironic.  Usually I love walking through water on a hot, muggy day and I’ve been dreaming about cold PNW beaches on the most humid days here.  Now my dreaming has sent me brown water that picks up everything in its path, including the friendly neighborhood garbage heaps.  Reading back over this, it sounds awful—but I love it.  The public, external Delhi is wild, exhilarating, amusing, and (most of the time) not as terrible and trying as it sounds.    

Sadly, I haven’t photographed any of this wonderful insanity!  I’ve only really had my camera out two or three times so far, and only at lush and peaceful places around the city (of which there are many, some famous and some hidden).  But the pictures I have taken show the reason why such hectic streets don’t hasten the end of my sanity—because Delhi has a side that is quite beautiful and breathtaking, and braving the streets is worth it!  The following pictures are from Humayun’s Tomb—a building pre-dating the Taj Mahal and one of the most famous historical sites in Delhi—and the Lodi Gardens, Delhi’s largest park and home to crumbling ruins, cute stray dogs, and lots of birds.

More to come on everything else here that is crazy: homestay life, my classes, heroic rickshaw adventures, excursions to other parts of India etc., etc., etc.  For now, this is enough reflection.  Too much and I forget to soak in this new and crazy world!  Plus, I need to sleep early because tomorrow I have my first early morning yoga class!  Yoggggaaaaa, hurray!  This last picture is because I really do miss home, and am constantly reminded of why I love it so much.  

For all Passages people—I taught my group “My Roots Go Down” and we sing it (3-part harmony) on spontaneous mornings, which makes me the happiest little bird.  And I sing it to myself or play it on my harmonica in bad bouts of homesickness.  To everyone, I love and miss you so much, and I just hope that my SIT group doesn’t get tired of hearing about you guys any time soon.  I’m not getting on facebook much, so if you want to contact me use email (tedra.ellen@gmail.com or thamel@pugetsound.edu).  OR send me a letter! (My Delhi address is in my facebook blurb section).  Oh, and send me your addresses cause I’ll definitely be sending beautiful Indian stationary your way, even if it takes a century (the Indian post office runs on India Flexible Time, I’ve been told).  

Ggggg!

Teddi