May 2010
1 post
somewhere between maryland and virginia
as many of you know, after returning from india in december i crawled into a cave in beautiful north carolina and hibernated while i considered my next move. well spring is here and i’ve reemerged, a little groggy, but energized and excited about the season.
after having galloped around the world, spending time in everyone else’s capital, i decided to spend some time in my own. so...
February 2010
1 post
January 2010
4 posts
December 2009
2 posts
“नया साल मुबारक हो / Happy New Year!”
– both of me
November 2009
8 posts
reverse osmosis
a friend asked me this morning whether i’d be having tandoori turkey, masala mashed potatoes and cranberry curry for thanksgiving today. it sounded like a good idea. but since i’m in the heartland of america now, i figured i’d blend in. so i went with hardcore traditional. and loved every minute of it. thanks for the fantastic meal emily!
today was a lazy day of trying to stay...
what could have been became, and now becomes what...
there was a time when i didn’t like indian food. what are these things? cloves? in the rice? when i didn’t care for indian music. is she really even saying anything? when i didn’t know the names of the languages spoken here. wait, i thought hindi was a religion. a time when the absence of toilet paper and deodorant would have been too much for anyone to ask. actually, cancel the...
thanks mr. singh
today i had the privilege of visiting the one office i’ve avoided my entire time here in india. the FRRO - foreigners regional registration office. registration isn’t required for those on tourist visas whose stay doesn’t exceed the maximum 180 days in a single visit. so thankfully by going to the uk halfway through the year, i avoided having my own nightmare story to tell about...
ठीक ठीक मालूम नहीं
it is 3:00am. i went to bed hours ago. but the mosquitoes won’t let me sleep. and neither will my mind. the buzzing in my ears matches the buzzing in my head. i cannot rest. and i’m tired.
it was not a great day. i realized another pending visa problem due to nothing more than careless oversight on my part. i got stuck with a fake rs. 500 note, which happens with some frequency here....
Watchthis is what it really looks like outside…
October 2009
11 posts
ladies and gentlemen...
the jury is out. the deliberation over. i am returning to the united states of america the day before thanksgiving, november 25, four weeks from now, where i’ll spend the all-american holiday with friends and family in chicago. so much thought and drama has gone into this decision. and i am a bit of a wreck. i’m in the middle of slum visits for my final research project. i’m in...
Watch
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celebrating diwali in the heart of india
nagpur is the geographical center of india. north, west, east, south. they all meet here. there’s a monument that says so. and this year it was the center of my very first diwali celebration. a true festival of lights. i reached nagpur the day before diwali with punit. it was his birthday and by the end of the night we were stuffing cake down each other’s faces. a tradition here. but...
getting to nagpur
in a flurry of fever (and cough) i spent my last two days in delhi running around like a mad man. i wasn’t exactly sure what i was supposed to do for diwali. how i was to prepare. cough. what kind of gifts i was supposed to buy and for whom. so, since it is the biggest holiday of the year and many compare it to christmas, i figured i’d just treat it that way. cough. my body said no,...
reaching across the table
i’ve been having hilarious discussions recently with two friends over the cultural differences between indians and, say americans, at the dinner table or at restaurants. even out for coffee. the culture of sharing here runs deep. food is shared. space is shared. money is shared. as family and friends, what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.
in general, i’ve gotten...
in recovery
the past couple of weeks i’ve been struggling to recover. a whirlwind of visitors from the other side of the world and from here, all passing through one behind the other. i’ve been weak and exhausted, and this past week…sick. it hurts to swallow. my head feels like it weighs ten times more than the rest of my body. and every time i stop i fall asleep. i think the marathon across...
September 2009
8 posts
“i was just chased off my terrace by monkeys…
ah, life in delhi.”
– 5:00pm wednesday
8000 kilometers later
i just dropped emily at the airport and i can’t believe my sisters have now come and gone. we looked forward to this experience for nearly a year and it happened so quickly. were it not for the suitcases of jewelry, scarfs, wooden, stuffed, and stone elephants, spices, cashews, and khadi products i hauled up and down 5 flights of stairs, i may not have believed it really ever happened.
i...
rajasthani relay
pure exhaustion. that about sums up this past week. we’ve just returned home from a week on the road and we are shattered. last tuesday we left for jaisalmer on an overnight train that took 19 hours. and not just 19 hours with each other and the people on our train. but 19 hours with more cockroaches in one place than i have seen in a long time. crawling all over the seats, the walls, the...
August 2009
16 posts
मेरी बहिने आ रही हैं
six hours ago my youngest sister left charlotte for chicago. two hours ago she and my older sister left chicago for munich. they’ll reach munich in about six hours where they’ll have a tiring eight hour layover thanks to frequent flier miles. then they’ll board a flight from munich to delhi. and 24 hours from now we’ll be sitting in my flat having chai.
it wil be their...
dreaming in hindi
so here’s what’s going on in class these days. we’ve been tackling intense grammar the past two weeks, which can be difficult to understand and even more difficult to use correctly. that probably explains why no one on the street does so. and i’ve found my friends to be of absolutely no help because they themselves don’t have a clue what i’m talking about. which...
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and...”
– Winston Churchill
strike one. strike two.
i left early this morning in order to reach class on time. for once. somedays i have a hard time catching autos. either they’re occupied. they just won’t stop for me. they don’t want to go where i need them to take me. or they won’t go for a fair price. i’ve waited 30 minutes before. walking to nearby intersections to try and catch them from all directions....
mumbai memories #3, #4, #5, #6, etc...
3. dinner at mangi ferra next to imran khan.
4. eating lunch with punit and having the kid next to us ask him if he was rohit sharma.
5. laughing at the crowd gathered outside salman khan’s house, hoping for a glimpse.
6. coconut ice cream every other night from natural.
7. buying hip t-shirts from hippies in pali hill market.
8. crossing back and forth over the newly constructed...
mumbai memories #2
walking out to the ocean’s edge at low tide and realizing i was standing in a public toilet. on one of my lazy days in mumbai i decided to walk to the sea. it was only a few blocks away. i had just finished my mint chocolate chip ice cream from baskin robbins when i reached the shore and it was low tide, so i decided i’d walk out to the edge.
this particular area is rocky. mixed with...
mumbai memories #1
packing into one of mumbai’s unbelievably crowded local trains at churchgate and having a gang of commuters welcome me into their pack. its no game when it comes to local trains. people push and pull and fight their way on and off these trains and i being the naive delhiite jumped on not knowing exactly where to go. i asked the guy next to me if the train went to bandra and he said,...
