A new addiction

Today is Goria's (the lady who cleans my room) son's birthday (or daughter's birthday, I am actually a little confused about if its her daughter's or son's birthday, but am too embarrassed to ask again....). In order to help in the celebration, on my way home from school, I stopped to by a stuffed animal and a box of sweets for her child. While I was there, the sweet shop wala convinced me that I absolutely needed a jalebi. I had never had a jalebi before, but I was horribly tempted by the flower-shaped, deep-fried dough that is soaked in cardamom infused sugar syrup. So I had one. It was just about the most delicious thing I have ever eaten - imagine an oilier and sweeter doughnut! yummmy!

Whirling Divas and Fancy Feet

So, in the spirit of being in Lucknow and as solace that I missed Shannon's wedding (*sob*), last evening I went to a Kathak dance performance at a cultural center in Lucknow. Kathak is one of the classical dance practices of India, and a certain type of Kathak, called Lucknow Gharana, actually was formulated in Lucknow. The dancers were accompanied by live musicians and singers.

The show started about 45 minutes late, which was about the same lateness as the play I say on Friday. (Unfortunately, I actually showed up on time for the dance - but not for the play. Or rare timeliness, however, did allow me and my friends to get pretty good seats....) After the initial round of speeches, the first part of the performance began. During this part a varying number of women (between one and six) and sometimes the one male member of the group danced on the stage. The dancing had a lot of twirling, fancy footwork, and complex hand gestures. Furthermore, the performance seemed to start slowly and then became faster and faster in tempo as the act proceeded. I believe the acts were telling stories, but I was so intent upon watching the dancers that I didn't pay enough attention to the words sung by the singers.

After the first part, there were more speeches and then a much too short intermission. I think the intermission was probably geared more for the men in the audience than the women, because the women had to wait until all the men had finished in the restroom before they could individually venture into the restroom. By the time we had our turn, the second half had started.

The second half of the performance, however, was well-worth the wait and rushed intermission. During this act, a single woman danced alone on the stage (but still accompanied by the live musicians). As opposed to the earlier focus on larger bodily movements, this woman was actually using her feet somewhat like a drum to make music and the effect was impressive. She had many bells wrapped around her ankles and she must have had something between her toes, because every time she stamped her foot, a sound like a drum beat was heard. In this way, she was able to actually create a beautiful and complex musical performance.

The dance was so beautiful and unique that as soon as I become better, I hope to learn Kathak. I can't wait to improve upon my uncoordinated and unrythmic side....

A lovely evening at the theatre

This week has been an eventful and unpleasant one and I am happy that it is over.

In order to celebrate the end of the week, I joined some of my fellow classmates for dinner and then an excursion to the cultural center in Lucknow to see a play. Dinner was lovely and I had a salad made of iceberg lettuce and sun-dried tomatoes (beggars can't be choosers, salads are harder to come by than just about anything here and very expensive) and part of a cheese-less pizza. The pizza was good and I especially enjoyed the olives (yumm, olives). The cheese-less part was a hassle, of course, but worked out in the end. I can only imagine how strange the waiters and cooks must think I am ....

The play was extremely interesting. Its title was Mirza Bagh and it was directed by Sabina Mehta Jaitly, a director from Delhi. The actors were extremely skilled and a pleasure to watch. The play was in both Hindi and English. This means sometimes the actors would speak in English, sometimes in Hindi. This switching of languages reflects how many people communicate in their daily lives. It also does wonders for the amount of the play that I actually comprehend. I think that because my brain could take a break and listen to English intermittently, it tended to grasp more of the Hindi that was being spoken. The plot revolved around a fading nawabi (royalty associated with the Mohgals) family. The children of the family had gathered at the ancestral home because their father was dying. Mostly, the plot didn't go anywhere and the play mostly reflected on the frailty of being, the flawed-ness of individuals, nostalgia and the changing world. I found it meditative and insightful on multiple levels - but a large part of this is probably because I really like stories that spend a lot of time on reflection by characters.

Also, the weather seems to have changed and it is now cooler in the evenings. Last night, after my delicious dinner and exciting entertainment, I sat on the roof of my house, enjoyed being cold, and watched the clouds float through the sky.

all roads lead somewhere, usually, even if its back to where you began

School has started again and I already feel busy with classes and shocked at how much work I have to do. Its great to be studying with the teachers again and the new students seem fantastic, but I do miss my summer friends horribly. With school, life is beginning to again fall into as normalized a routine as I have found (and really want) in India.

(This summer at school: some of the teachers and some of my summer housemates)

I've also begun taking yoga classes at a yoga center. I really enjoy these classes a lot and look forward to going there everyday. I have a personal yoga routine I work on for an hour and an instructor leads me through the process and corrects my posture/breathing. On Sundays, they have a meditation class that I went to for the first time today. It was interesting, but a little difficult to follow because the woman spoke only in Hindi. We've arranged for her to do a private meditation session in English this week. Hopefully after hearing it once in English I'll have an easier time translating and next Sunday I'll be able to understand the lesson better. I think the meditation session today was so peaceful that I dozed off for a bit - I hope I don't do that during the one-on-one session! In addition to the health and mind-clearing benefits of the yoga class, I enjoy it because I've been able to meet some women my age that live in Lucknow.

Not only is the yoga class an adventure, but the process of getting there has proven to be interesting. Today, I was late for the class because there was a traffic back-up because there were about 30 water buffalo being pulled down the street (by their mouths) by these small women. The water buffalo decided in the middle of the intersection that they did not really want to go where the women were going and this led to lots of general chaos and honking on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning.

A few days before, I was going to the yoga institute and took a wrong turn. Now, I blame the reason for the wrong turn on the fact that all the intersections look alike and that all the roads meet back up again (not on the fact that I may be a little spacey and absent-minded). Also, I've never looked at a map of Lucknow, even though one hangs in the common room at my house, because I fear it will further confuse my percarious knowledge of the city. The result is that in my imagination, all the roads in Lucknow are giant maize of overlapping circles. This is reinforced by the fact that everytime I take a bicycle rickshaw (pictured at top), they take me on a route I've never seen before and arrive at a place I regularly go. So, having turned down the wrong road, I decided to continue along the wrong road, sure that it would eventually turn into the correct path. I noticed as I rode past a mysterious intersection that there were many many police officers in the middle of the road, but as clusters of policemen are not terribly uncommon, I rode right past them. After riding past them and noticing their frantic whistles, I stopped, but, they grew tired of listening to me speak Hindi and told me to continue without explaining the reason for the road block. About half a kilometer down the road, I saw the reason: Traffic was stopped going both ways on the road by the police and everyone was waiting. People had even come out of their houses to watch. Now, I could have turned around at this point and headed back the way I came, but I wanted to see what could possibly be coming. As I sat there (for about 10 minutes) I became increasingly excited. Was it a parade? Perhaps some elephants? the possibilities were endless and I needed to stay, especially because I love elephants. Eventually, a politician drove past and traffic upon the street resumed. Slightly disappointed and still dreaming of elephants, I continued along my road. Eventually, I returned to the intersection that I had made the wrong turn in (reinforcing the circle theory) and tried another road.

Home from vacation, with pictures!

Back Home in Lucknow! Its nice to be here, although I miss Will horribly. Organized classes will start tomorrow and I am excited about getting back into the routine. I am living in the same place as I was during the summer. Sadly, my roommate is gone, but there are many other students living in the house and they all seem to be great fun, so I am sure the year will not lack for companionship. When I left Lucknow, my neighbors were working day and night building something. When I returned yesterday, I found that they had built an ashram, complete with incense and music all day and for a part of the night. As long as the celebrations are not everyday, I think it will be an interesting addition to the neighborhood. Now I can sit on the roof, listen to music, and watch the moon. Not too bad. The other wonderful new addition is the wireless internet at the house I live in. Hooray! Now I can stay up too late (like now) updating the blog.

Ok, so this is not the monkee that broke into my hotel room in the mountains. It is not the monkee that ate my vegan cookie that I had been saving for months and it is not the monkee that I am sure jumped on my bed. But she is probably related to that bad monkee. In fact, they probably are, the shify eyes tipped me off.

I am starting to think that animals like to eat weird things. Monkees go straight to precious vegan cookies and cows eat anything. This cow lives in the mountains and likes to eat cardboard. Doesn't he look content? Isn't it interesting the cardboard is eaten before all the green stuff behind him? Goats seem even less descerning in their food consumption. Around my house in Lucknow there are a lot of political posters. Almost always the bottoms of these posters are torn off. I thought people did this because they disagreed with the political messages in them, but I was waiting for a rickshaw one day and noticed that it was actually the goats eating them from the walls.

But I didn't only see animals on my vacation. Although there are a lot of animals to see. I also saw a monument or 4. All in a day or two. The best part of the monuments is that some of them are surrounded by these lovely gardens that are quite cool compared to the heat of Delhi.


Outside of the city, we walked in the mountains or laid on the beach. The beaches of Goa were amazing and I hope to return to them one day. One could walk for miles along certain stretches and not run into people. In other areas, there were fisherman and we were able to watch them pull in their nets. Such hard work, all done manually. The men got out of the boats and pulled a rope and children sitting nearby would help. It was beautiful to watch at sunset.

In heaven in the south of India

Hi! Hope everyone is well. I miss home so much!

I am STILL on vacation, although tomorrow it ends. I ended up heading to Goa, in the south of India. Unfortunately as far as adventures go, there isn't so much happening. I am enjoying the blue ocean, sandy beaches, sunny days, and gorgeous sunsets and most of my days have consisted of swimming, sleeping in the sun, and watching the sunset. Extremely relaxing and I am so happy that I am here. This must be one of the most beautiful beach places I've ever visited. An added bonus is that the beaches are relatively empty. Its the off-season, so there are very few tourists. Also, this part of India is less densely populated than Lucknow. This means I can walk for hours along the beaches and only run into the occasional cow.

I begin school again on Monday and I will try, technology permitting, to post all of my pictures from my vacations then.