India, part 1

Well, I'm back. The past three weeks have been quite good. India was a lot different in many ways - things that I thought might be different weren't and things that I thought were the same had changed. It was good though. Yes, lots of good food and painful diarrhea, yes, lots of sweat and dirt, yes, lots of bargaining and horns blasting on the road compiled with near death experiences (which eventually you get used to, and eventually I could even fall asleep on the back of a small motorcycle packed with 4 people when tired enough - the equivalent of falling asleep on a rollercoaster ride), yes, lots of big hugs - India is a place of big love for family members, lots of consternation, fatigue, relaxation and overbearing love, lots of genuineness - actually, a lot more than I expected, some cute girls but too many are still inside the houses because it's still India, not as much poverty - NEARLY as much, as I expected, (when I came to Delhi airport 5 years ago I was greeted by dismembered beggars, this time there was not one) but people told me to go to Bihar and UP = mind you, India is the seventh largest country by land in the world, the second largest by population, and Punjab is a very small chunk of only 25 million (I didn't leave Punjab or Delhi this time - next time...), but poverty is a topic for a longer discussion, yes, the caste system still runs in India, just not officially, yes, Indian food is MAAAAAAAAAAAD spicy, yes, people will be in your photos, and the kids love to be in them, yes, there are lots of people, but it's just in the cities, yes, India is hot hot hot, no, there are no such things as postcards in India, I looked all over for them, yes, I did find postcards in Beijing, but I only had two yen left when it came time for mailing, yes, I did get food poisoning in Beiijing and had to vomit my "new orleans" KFC burger back up, yes, India is a senses overload, it's just intense, yes, people did try to screw me in delhi, not, people did not try to screw my in Punjab, yes, a lot of people do manage with English, but really wikipedia says only 25 million, it just shows you my cirlce of people is not the average Indian, yes, you can pick berries off the trees and eat them, yes, marijuana does grow freely in the park next to my cousins houses, people just don't notice and most probably don't even know what it is, yes, with all the dust, dirt and stess of India you wouldn't even think people notice, they still seem to be happy and live it up, and no, even though we read of all the horror stories of India, a lot of people are kind, gentle, and incredibly welcoming. Yes, I did have a tough time, but I had a great time as well.

The only thing I wish was that I had more time to spend there. I learned how to apply mehndi, some cooking, as well as how to tie a dustar (have to do a lot of practice though), as well as a lot of Hindi, and some games native to Punjab that I'm going to teach in the schools here. Because I wanted to actually learn parts of the culture that I could take back home, I spent a lot less time traveling (one of the initial goals I had in going there was to see the diversity - which I decided wasn't as important as my other goals of looking at the educational system as well as spending time with family and picking up some activities I could take back to Japan), and spent most of the time seeing my extended family. So most of my pictures are for my students, they don't know what an autorickshaw is or sugar cane juice, or juicevalas and Sikh people, so I'm afraid they might not be interesting to you guys when I put them up, They're normal pictures of culture that my students (I hope) will find really interesting.

It's good to be back, more than I thought it would be, though I kind of miss India already. I have a idfferent outlook on how I want to spend my time here, don't really know how to explain it yet. but, yes, I'm still recovering from food poisoning in Beijing, so I will explain all that in the next post, brain doesn't feel like producing any output. Pictures up soon, it's good to be writing to you guys again.

Yeh mera Indiaaaaa....(this is my Indiaaaaa...a popular song from a popular hindi film..)