India is a constant challenge. That is to say, it’s been
quite an adventure so far, and there are many aspects I love about India. One
bad thing, though – unlike in the U.S., where I can easily avoid facing my
fears (cockroaches, things being dirty in general, claustrophobic/crowded
situations, etc.) in India I am presented with these challenges on a daily
basis, and there is no way to avoid them. This means that you face your fears,
make it through them okay, and come out on the other side a little less scared.
Take for example, the train. The station itself is crowded
and noisy, and once you figure out where the platform you’re looking for is –
taking into account that they aren’t marked very well – when the train arrives
everyone rushes to board. Indians don’t seem to have the same concept of lines
as we do in the U.S., people just push past each other (this is a cultural
norm, people also don’t say excuse me, it’s seen as oddly formal). I’ve been on
two overnight sleeper trains, the first from Chennai to Cochin at the beginning
of the South Indian tour, and the second from Madurai to Villupurum. When you
board a sleeper train, you are given a seat number. We rode 3 tier non-AC
sleeper trains, and once we got to our seat, which was a long bench, there were
two benches above the one we were sitting in. You pull down those benches,
secure them with a metal cable, and then people sleep that way. The train to
Chennai was overall enjoyable – I was still in the “oh wow I am in India, holy
moley!” phase, so I had a good time. The train was just as grimy and gross as I
had feared, but I did it, it was fine…though for future reference, (TMI time)
it’s really hard to use a squatting toilet on a moving train!
The train to Villupurum was pretty much hell on earth. If
you combined all the fears I mentioned and magnified them, that’s what it was.
While the first train was relatively clean (I only saw one cockroach), there were
so many cockroaches crawling all over the train compartment that after I killed
seven or so I just started swatting them away when they got too close. I’m sure
I saw at least fifty though, as well as two mice. Also, the train situation –
we accidently booked the wrong tickets and didn’t realize until we got to the
station and had to buy last minute seated tickets for our group of seven people
(worst case scenario, train edition). This meant once we boarded the train, we
didn’t have sleeper status, so we had to look around for an empty bench that we
could all sit on overnight. We got on the first train, and the ticketmaster
kicked us off right before it started moving, saying there were not seats
available. On the next train, we were so desperate that we just sat wherever we
found room – in my case, at the foot of a bed of a nice woman and her daughter.
At four a.m. after we had been on the train for about five hours, a family gave
us their sleeper seats, so Liz and I shared one for about forty-five minutes…until
we were woken up because we were reaching Villupuram. To borrow a quote from my friend Lauren's blog, for every terrible or frustrating thing that happens here, something beautiful happens. I need to keep that in perspective when I get frustrated when day to day things aren't working (we had to go to the visa office three times yesterday, the internet cuts out, etc etc). I just need to be patient because this is India, and it will work out in the end.
This semester will be…challenging, I think. Everything is
incredibly bureaucratic – from checking in our bags at the library and waiting
to be helped, to having our rooms not cleaned before our arrival even though
they were supposed to be cleaned, to miscommunication about choosing classes. I
thought we would be finalizing courses today and starting classes tomorrow
(Indian students have already started classes, we are supposed to have a ‘slow start’
to sit in on classes until we decide what we want to take), but we are choosing
classes tomorrow, meeting faculty and getting our things together for our dorm
rooms, and starting classes “on Thursday or Friday or Monday.” So like I said,
it’s a soft start – people seem to be more flexible with things here than in
the U.S., less concerned with time deadlines.
On a more exciting note – the other day, when we were in
Kumily, we went on a guided nature walk through the highlands in Kerala. There,
we saw the endangered state bird of Kerala, some crazy big spiders, and a herd
of wild elephants. I love elephants, and I was freakin’ out over the elephant
sighting. We were about 150 feet from them when our guide told us, “if they
charge, run!” which prompted Liz to ask, “What happens if we see a tiger?” to
which our guide told us, “you die.” Ahaha. Good thing we didn’t see any tigers!
Being near the wild elephants was both thrilling and scary. Also, I have
interacted with more elephants in the past few days than ever before in my
whole life. We rode elephants in Kumily, near a spice plantation, which was fun
– much more stable than riding a camel, which I’ve done once before. Then
(dreams really do come true) when we were at the largest Hindu temple in Tamil
Nadu in Madurai, an elephant blessed me for ten rupees, which involved bopping
me on the head twice with its trunk.
I just got internet yesterday, then it stopped working...and Facebook and Skype are supposedly blocked for Pondicherry University students, though I just got on FB because the internet decided to work again. Hmm. So for now, please email me! RosenLF@hendrix.edu until I figure out the FB/Skype situation :)
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