The End....?

Guess where I am....back in the United States of America! It's good to be home, even if it's still cold. : ) And it was GREAT to see my family again! After almost six months, photographs, emails, and telephone calls are just not enough.

But---before begining this final post, I apologize for not putting up those pictures from my travels. After writing that initial, culturally-shocked entry in Oxford, I proceeded to spend the rest of my time in England recovering from jet lag (aka sleeping), taking snaps of geese (hey, I hadn't seen them in awhile!) watching an entire season of Friday Night Lights and getting lost in London. : )

But--before I get to that, some final thoughts on my travels. I don't feel that I've done justice to this past semester, so this is my attempt on bringing some kind of closure to what has been an indescribable experience. Literally. One of the professors that spoke to the American students during our orientation in Delhi told us, "Whatever you can say that is true of India, the opposite is also true." And it's true! My time there was amazing, and challenging, and difficult, and easy, and eye-opening, and stereotypical, and unique, and , and, and....after five months I can only say that I just barely began to learn the tiniest bit about a country and culture I was privileged to be a part of for one semester.

I'd like to say thank you with everything in my heart to the incredible family that opened their home to me. I can't imagine my semester without Aunty and Uncle, Sowmya, Bharat and Alok (see, I spelled your names right this time!!). I think you know this already, but you guys are amazing and I love you!!

Also, thank you to my own family for all of your thoughts, prayers, emails, telephone calls and the countless other ways you supported me. I definitely could not have made it through the semester without you! I love you guys, even if you didn't send me any snail mail....haha just kidding.

I'd also like everyone to know that I mailed most of you postcards from India. It was supposed to be a surprise in your mailbox, but after asking a few people if they ever got them, I am beginning to suspect that they still haven't left the desk of the post office official I handed them to in March...so, a few years from now, when you finally get that postcard, I WAS thinking of you when I was in India!! Thank YOU also for your support while I was here: emails, facebook wall messages and posts (even if it's recently turned stalker-sketchy, you must admit that it's useful for SOME things) thoughts, prayers.

And now, prepare yourself for some cheesiness--and don't say that I didn't warn you.

Even though I have left India, it still hasn't left me. And I'm not just referring to my recovering digestive system, or the parasites that might be lurking in my stomach. When my plane pulled out of the Delhi airport and into the sky the first thing I thought was--"I have to come back."

Actually, to be honest, I was crying. The very nice woman who was sitting next to me offered me tissues and mentos and pictures of her children until I stopped crying, when having to come back was the second thing I thought. I hadn't realized how much India had shaped me and changed me and how hard it would be to leave, until I left. And even now, sometimes I wake up in the morning and open my eyes expecting to see Sowmya and Brittany sleeping next to me on the floor, and the familiar landscape of Gachibowli outside my bedroom window...okay now I'm think I'm waxing a little TOO sentimental. So let me just say that I expect to, no I WILL go back. Not just because I have worlds left to learn, but also for the friendships that became so much more than friendships with everyone there. And of course, for Sowmya's wedding and our Munnar reunion in twelve years when the hills turn blue!!


First day in Munnar: we climb a mountain!













It took us about an hour and a half to get to where we're taking these photos from.

Now I'll end with the really exciting part of these posts, and probably the only part that people actually look at: pictures! I've scattered them throughout the next few paragraphs, while I explain my travels and where I went: I left on the 4th of May after my last final for Munnar, as mentioned in an earlier post. Munnar was AMAZING. I think those were some of the best days I've spent in India!! There is no way any photo can capture how beautiful it was. My time there was spent trekking up mountains, swimming in "Pandey's pool," a natural waterfall created pool discovered by Ashok Pandey himself, (group pic below) trekking in Ervikalum, a huge national park (about a twenty mile all-day trek that included stumbling upon a herd of wild elephants, making lunch plates out of leaves, and getting eaten by multitudes of leeches) and in the words of Viroop, "just chilling." But it wasn't only about what I did, it was also about who I was with: a group of (most) of the people I have come to know and love best while in India: Sowmya, Bharat, Alok, Andrew, Viroop, Shriya and Steve. And of course, new friends: Alok's brother Ashok, his wife Pinky, and her brother. It was so good to be with them, and in our words, lots of "good fun!!" I was there from the 4th to the 9th, when I left again to return to Hyderabad. Below: group pic (minus Alok taking the photo) of us before starting our epic Trek, above Andrew and Viroop look out over a valley in Ervi.

On the 11th I left from Hyderabad for Mumbai (Bombay) to meet up with fellow travelers/co-international students Allyson and Megan to spend what we expected would be three days relaxing at a beach on the Konkan Coast (the coast of Maharashtra),

(above, Ashok fishing, below, the clouds come in over the mountains in Munnar)but what actually turned into 24 hours on the beach followed by a frantic five hour speed-trip back to Mumbai to take Allyson to the emergency room of the Breach Candy Hospital because of a serious infection in her foot. We spent the next six or seven hours in the hospital getting Allyson treated....and then the next two nights crashing on the floor in the apartment of Allyson's generous friends in Mumbai. (I know you don't read this, but THANK YOU!!!)
(above: hills, trees, and tea bushes in Munnar)
(to the right, view from the hills of Ashok's house where I stayed in Munnar)

On the 17th of May we parted ways: Allyson and Meg (Allyson mostly recovered) went north together to Varanasi and I traveled solo to Aurangabad, home to the nearby world-famous, world-heritage sights of the Ellora and Ajanta caves. My solo travels were quite exciting in both good and bad ways. The caves were amazing, but as most of you know, but while I was there Hyderabad suffered from a bomb blast in a mosque. Because I was staying in a budget hostel with no television access I found out much later than the actual event occurred, but thankfully, everyone I knew was okay.

(to the side: my host brother and me at Pandey's Pool)

As fewer of you know, I also fell quite sick. However aside from a night of hell in which I supposed myself to be suffering from every possible illness: malaria, parasites, dengue, yellow fever, etc etc I battled through it to the end and came out feeling stronger--what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

On the 21st I returned to Mumbai to spend a few days with my good friend Avanti, from Columbia. That was fun, I had more exciting adventures there of b0th the good/bad sort, and ate lots of wonderful food! By the way, Avanti has co-edited an amazing book which I think all of you should check out--proceeds go to CRY (Child Rights and You).

(to the side again: Alok and me on the Trek through Ervi)

On the 26th I arrived in Hyderabad to spend a last, few, precious days at home before I flew out to Delhi on the morning of the 28th. On the 29th I flew out of Delhi to England. And that's all of my post-semester travels! And that's also it for India. Or not...because, in the words of The Terminator: "I'll be BACK." Namaste!

Culture Shock One Oh One

Well. I've left India, and arrived in England, specifically, Oxford. The first thing that popped into my head stepping off of the plane from India and into the West was: "It's COLD." England is, to put it mildly, FREEZING. : ( When I left Delhi, it was 38 or 39 C. Hyderabad was around there, a bit warmer (40?). Here, in England, it's (ready? ready?!) THIRTEEN DEGREES. And it's strangely quiet. And no one stares at me. And everyone wears jeans. And the signs are all in only one language, and that's English. And everyone is WHITE. Basically, I'm completely disoriented, I don't know what to do or say anymore, and I miss home and people in India. The minute I sat down on the plane I wanted to run off it and jump on the nearest train back to Hyderabad. Specifically, 9 Lakshmi Enclave...

Okay, I'm done complaining. Oxford is actually a beautiful town. I'm staying with one of my close friends from Columbia, Caitlin. And it has been SO GOOD to see her again! It's been great to catch up with her. : )

But, how to update you on everything that's happened since I last wrote? I think that's kind of impossible. But some say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, I'm going to post some pictures here (next post) from my travels around south India after the semester ended. I actually only have pictures from my trip to Munnar, where I went with a lot of people from my host family (whom I feel I should refer to as just "family" because that's what they are to me). I only have pictures from Munnar because, as I wrote in an earlier post, my camera broke...so these pictures are actually pictures I've stolen from the camera of good friends : ). (Thank you Viroop, Sowmya and Andrew).

I'm home in nine days. New York, here I come....for better or for worse : )

Post Scriptum

PS. to yesterday:

After writing that entry I went home, and on the way out to the edge of campus to catch a bus home (Andrew came with me to pick up his bike) we spontaneously decided to climb the water tower!! The water tower on campus is an old structure which it is quite exciting, and by exciting I mean dangerous, to climb. The steps are inside but they are just a skeleton of a stair case that goes straight up the inside of the the tower, with no sides (there's empty air on both sides of you as you climb) and only one small rusty railing to cling to on the left side. Then, when you've climbed this (it's pretty high at the top so it's difficult to not feel dizzy even if you're not scared of heights), there's another, even scarier ladder that goes all the way up to the top that's inside the place where the water is itself...so this ladder is swaying and threatening to come loose and the air is humid and dank from the water, but then....when you finally get to the top....BREATHTAKING VIEWS. It's incredible. One of the best spots on campus. : ) A scenery worth dying for : )

Amazing.

In the spirit of scenery, here's a great snap taken
from the CIEE excursion to Bangalore. I'm on the far right, in the white t-shirt. We had just climbed up a HUGE flight of stairs to reach the top where an enormous statue of a deity whose name I no longer remember awaited us. But this view was better, and the picture doesn't do it justice.

These Days and Nights

Today was quite the day. Among other things, I went to Google India for lunch, was reported to the police, and met the director of an orphanage in Kerala. So Google first, Kerala last : )

My host sister Sowmya works for the AdWords project for Google India. Basically Adwords controls and reviews the ads that show up on your browser when you're searching for something with Google. It's pretty interesting, but actual work aside, their food is AMAZING. Let me explain: Google lunch is famous throughout Hyderabad. There's something called the "Google 15" which is the fifteen kilos you're required (it's not optional) to gain when you first join Google. This is why: Google lunch consists of regular Hyderabadi food, AND all the juice you can drink, all the ice cream you can take, REAL lettuce, and UNCOOKED vegetables, hard boiled eggs, a stand where Subway makes you any sand which you want, a "breakout room" where you can go for snacks all day with free chocolate, drinks, FRUIT, biscuits, chips, etc. Okay, maybe that doesn't look so amazing to your American (or Western) eyes, but that's only because you don't understand how amazing fresh vegetables and free fruit juice and unlimited ice cream and fresh fruit are here. YUM : )

Okay, enough with food, haha. Maybe you're wondering how/why I was reported to the police? Well, let me enlighten you! On the way to the Google office (in Silicon Towers) I caught an auto-rickshaw from campus with Gabriel and Leslie, two awesome people in the SIP program. When we got into the auto, we asked him how much to HiTech City (Silicon Towers is right before HiTech City) and he didn't respond, so we just climbed in and went. Once we got there, I handed him Rs 40, which is what I've usually paid to get to Google from campus. He complained as some auto drivers do when they want to get more money from us, but we kept walking to the main gate where I proceeded to sign us in for Google. While we were signing in, the auto driver came up to us and gave the money back to Gabriel, explaining in Telagu/English that he wanted more money. When we said no, and tried to give the money back, he wouldn't take it. After trying three or four times, Gabriel just took the money and we went inside the building.

We were there for lunch at least an hour if not more, when we came out, the guards signaled to us to come over and told us the driver had reported us to the police for not paying him Rs 60. While we were explaining to the guard what had actually happened, the auto driver came back even angrier and madder (thank God Gabriel was with us, haha) and demanding his money. We explained to the guards that we had only come from Gachibowli, and upon hearing that they agreed with us that Rs 60 was quite excessive and that Rs 40 was more reasonable (and even at that rate, he was still making money). They called the police and told them not to come, and then tried to help us talk with the driver. We ended up having to pay him Rs 50 because he wouldn't leave. Just when you think you've seen everything in an auto, something new happens that proves you haven't : )

Finally: about the orphanage in Kerala: I went to the humanities library to return Snow (I've raved about it in an earlier post if you're interested) and while the book was being entered back into the database, a guy sitting in the library asked me where I was from. After preliminary introductions (I'm from New York, I'm doing my BA in English at Columbia University, etc etc) I ended up getting into a conversation with him. He explained that he works for an orphanage in Kerala that is looking for any college students interested in teaching to come and volunteer for a few weeks. He's particularly looking for international students with good English skills. He gave me his card, I gave him my email ID (not CU but gmail) and he's going to send me more brochures. It looks pretty awesome. (Haha, any takers?) I'm merely relating this because I love chance encounters like these. I think that I am most definitely coming back to India, and so I'll keep this place in mind, and of course if it seems legit, recommend it to anyone who's coming as well.

Speaking of chance encounters, and this didn't happen today, but last week I met Mr. Andhra Pradesh (as in, Ms New York in the US). He's friends with one of my friends in the CIEE program, and so that's how I met him. Haha funny, right?

Last pieces of news: I'm leaving on the 5th of may to travel down to Munnar, in Kerala. Munnar is called the "Himalayas of the South." It's basically a lot hills, a lot of tea plantations, and (hopefully) a lot of fun! I am travelling with Bharat, Sowmya, Shriya, Alok, Steve, Andrew and Viroop. The first four are all from my family here, the last two are fellow international students. Alok's brother lives in Munnar on a tea plantation, and has generously offered/agreed to host all eight of us for a week. YAY!!

On typing out who is coming I realized I haven't said anything yet about Steve: Steve is the newest arrival to the Ramanans. He studied here through a study abroad program two years ago, and since then has been travelling/teaching in South Asia. So now you know who Steve is! On a side note, he's been to Cambodia. I'm not sure what that means exactly for our friendship, but it's definitely a good thing : )

My last two finals are Thursday and Friday. If I haven't replied to your email (and I'm almost 90% sure I haven't replied to any emails over the past two weeks) it's because I've been studying/running around like crazy/working around Internet problems at home & school. After Friday, I leave for Munnar, but I'll be coming back on the 10th and will get to back up email replies then!

Finally, before I end this entry, you should check out the Bengali poet Jibanananda Das. He's amazing. I picked up a slim volume of his poetry at a bookstore, and really really like it. I was going to post the poem that I've been ruminating over for the past three days, but the mood is a bit dark, and I didn't want anyone to be in a funk after reading it. So instead, here's a poem I've also enjoyed. (The title of this entry comes from another excellent poem by J. Das)

Evening Comes

It is evening. There is quiet everywhere.
Wisp of hay in its mouth, a sparrow flies quietly home;
A bullock cart winds its way down the village path
The courtyards are full of tight piles of golden hay.

All the world's doves
Are cooing among the clumps of hijal trees;
All the world's beauty
Has spread itself on the grass;
All the world's love is in our two hearts;
The sky has spread its peace out among the skies.--'Sandhya hoy', Rupasi Bangla

Mango Season. Stop. Bangalore? Stop. It's almost time to leave... *sigh*

I can only apologize for how long it's been since my last post. There are no excuses, I just got busier and lazier. Sorry!

Soooo....how to catch you up on my life over the past few weeks? I don't even know where to begin. So I'll start with food. You can never go wrong if you start with food : )

MANGO SEASON HAS BEGUN!!! About one week ago I bought my first mango in India from Shop Com (officially the "shopping complex" on campus, but everyone calls it Shop Com) and it was DELICIOUS. The mangoes on the tree outside my house are getting bigger and bigger, and will probably be ripe soon! Except for the fact that we've had a few unseasonal monsoon-esque rains recently, which have caused the untimely fall of some of the aforementioned mangoes. Their absence was sincerely mourned by all the stomachs in my house ; ).

Speaking of stomachs, and this has nothing to do with them, last Friday was the SIP Cultural Show!! SIP stands for Study India Program, and it's the department myself and almost all of the international students on campus are registered with here at the University. Every semester towards the end of the semester, the SIP students put on this cultural show. It was a night of many, many firsts for me, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Let me explain: I was co-MC with Viroop, an awesome guy who's also in SIP, I sang the Black National Anthem with Andrew (another great guy in CIEE), I read two poems, one of which was in the previous post, I acted in a skit, and I danced bhangra with the CIEE bhangra team. I have never been MC in any capacity before, never sung on stage like that before, never read my poems for an audience which is larger than my poetry workshop classes or my sister's wedding, never acted in any sort of play, skit, or theater production, and never performed on stage....needless to say I was nervous but I had an AMAZING time and from the feedback from people in the audience I think we put on a good show if I do say so myself ; ). Haha.

What else? I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to Bangalore this weekend to learn how to cook Indian food from this chef we met on our trip to Bangalore. Pros: it's going to be really fun and as all travel experiences, I'm going to learn a lot from it and I don't mean just about food. Cons: it's my last real weekend at home with my host family + Brittany (finals start next week, go until the end of April, and then I leave), and I don't want to miss any time that I can spend with them because (and I am honestly saying this, not just because certain people have found my blog and are reading it *cough* BHARAT *cough*) I have really grown to care for them all during my time here. Seriously. The other day I made a list of things that I've felt I've learned/gained/don't want to forget from my time here in India, and everyone from my host family was on it in some capacity. : ) A good capacity, haha.

*Sigh*

Mmmm. Before I get too emotional, I'm going to move on to other things. Have I had any adventures recently? Yes. Life is an adventure!! Haha don't roll your eyes, I'm only twenty-one. : ) I also said that because for some reason I've forgotten what my adventures were, and so I'm going to have to create another post in which I write them all up. I would promise that this post-of-recent-adventures is going to happen, but finals are looming on the horizon, so I'll just say that I will try my best.

I miss all of you. I miss New York. Sarah, I'm wearing something which I've bought for you as a gift and I hope you don't mind. I just wanted to make sure that it works. So far, the verdict is yes ; )

If it's worth a dream, it's not worth a compromise

I've just returned from our weekend away at Bangalore! Which actually turned out to be a weekend at Mysore (where we stayed) with excursions into Bangalore and other cities. For those who are world conscious, we couldn't do much in Bangalore because of the water protests/riots that have been happening for the past month or two. Short briefing on the background to the riots here.

This weekend turned out to be...prepare yourself for my favorite overused word...amazing. I just tried to spell favorite with a "u" and the blogger wouldn't let me. Anyways. We had a great tour guide who was an art historian and as it turns out actually did her MPhil and PhD at Columbia!! One of her thesis reviewers was the husband of one of my profs last year, and I had read his book for class. So we had some great conversations about NYC and Morningside Heights that made me realize how much I miss Columbia and everyone there.

This weekend also turned out to be one in which I did a lot of writing. Partially because I am reading Orhan Pamuk's Snow, which just won the Nobel Prize in Literature where the main character, Ka, is a poet. In my humble, not-so-widely read opinion, his writing (Pamuk's, not Ka's) is brilliant. Let me quote the New York Times Review when I say "[Pamuk is] narrating his country into being." My roommate Brittany and I have a running joke on the NY Times book reviews. They seem to be excellent at producing these vague, grandiose statements which somehow manage to tell you nothing whatsoever about the book itself. My personal favorite, and a classic, is their review on the front of James McBride's The Color of Water "[A] triumph." I love that "A" is in brackets. They also specialize in brackets.

Anyways, so this was one quote which I found to be particularly insightful in Pamuk's novel, which I also copied into my journal:

"You're deceiving yourself! Even if you did believe in God, it would make no sense to believe alone. You'd have to believe in him the same way the poor do; you'd have to become one of them. It's only by eating what they eat, living where they live, laughing at the same jokes, and getting angry whenever they do that you can believe in their God. If you're leading an utterly different life, you can't be worshiping the same God they are. God is fair enough to know it's not a question of logic or reason but how you live your life." (Pamuk 204)

I'm not sure that I agree with it, but I'm turning it around in my mind as "food for thought." On the same note, the title of this entry is something that was painted on the side of a building we passed in our bus on the way to Mysore. Yet another thing I am turning around in my mind.

I think I'll have to post about what I actually saw in Bangalore in a later entry. I still have writing on the mind. And speaking of writing, I have decided to post the first poem I've written in India, about India. Not that I wrote other poems outside of India about India, but this is the first one that I wrote here about here....okay you get the idea. It's still in revision mode, but it's been sent to the CIEE newsletter, the Hyd Times for publishing. The editor has lavish cutting and slashing rights, of course, but only because he's a friend of my friend. ; ) It's centered/inspired both on the concept of circular (as opposed to linear) time that exists in India, as well as many of the visual/sensory experiences I've had here thus far. Here goes:

Familiar

I never travelled here,

I was reborn the moment my feet

touched dusty earth,

stamping the beat of an unknown drum

to unknown steps.

Nothing, everything’s new

under this Indian sun,

deja-vu in the best

and the worst sense:

Time flows with the sweat that rolls

down so many different skins,

speaks through the tongues that curl

around a thousand different scripts,

hangs with the human smells that tang

burning summer air.

Night skies reveal stars I’ve seen before,

but the streets that shimmer

beneath their light are unfamiliar.

Still, somehow I find my way home.

Copyright Anna Hunt 2007

Hoo! Ha! India!! HOO HAA INDIA!!!!

The title to this post is from the cheer that is now in 95% of the commericals on television, because the ICC World Cup has just started. The ICC World Cup is the world cup for cricket. It just started this past week, and the games have dominated our television at home ever since. Although I must say, it's pretty interesting to watch, in fact, I might be turning into a cricket fan/addict For the uninitiated, the ICC is being hosted in the West Indies this year, which means that even though I'm in India, 85% of me is rooting for the WI team. (Jamaica, anyone?) Don't tell my host family, though. ; )

Sooo....I'm going to blame my lack of blog postage on the horrible internet that's been happening for the past two weeks. Actually they had to replace the internet box (that's what I'm going to call it because I don't know the real name) and it just started working again yesterday. Apologies for the many backed up emails I haven't replied to yet, I'll be getting to them soon.

Coming up, in the Times of Anna (knock-off of a newspaper here called the Times of India) is a trip to Bangalore this weekend. Actually, it's Bangalore, Mysore, Shravanabelagola, Melukote, Somnathpure, and Sriangapattana. Don't ask me what all those places are, I don't know, hopefully I will by Tuesday, which is when we return. One of the best parts about this trip, or rather, our tranportation there, is that CIEE has decided to fly us!! Hurrah!! Unfortunately, that also means we're leaving at 4 am Saturday, which is in 4 hours. So much for sleep!

Previously, in the Times of Anna, last weekend was the festival of Holi. Holi is an Indian holiday that involves eating sweets and ambushing your friends by yelling while dumping coloured paint and powder on them. (With the occasional raw egg thrown in for variety). It is great fun!! Included is a photo, thanks to a fellow CIEE-er, of the aftermath of Holi. L-R me, my host sister Sowmya, my host-brother's girlfriend Shriya, and my roommate/fellow CIEE-er/dost(friend in Hindi)/sister Brittany Jordan. I think Brittany is pretty awesome, in case you couldn't tell.

The snap at the top of this entry is a picture of me from my last trip at Hampi (thanks to Britt), or as I like to call it, me falling in love with India.

I should probably go now, because even though I have only four hours to sleep, I should probably take advantage of those four hours. Last bits of updates are that I am now travelling for three weeks in India, then flying to London, visiting a friend there for ten days, and then coming home. Travel plans will be elaborated on in my next blog. But one of the best parts (again, involving transportation) is that in moving my special student ticket with a fee of only $25 for a date change--yes, I realize how amazing that is--I was bumped up to middle class for an additional fee of only $50!!! WHOO-HOO!!! Buisiness class from Delhi to London should be BEAUTIFUL. I might not sleep just so I can order special food and watch special movies and stretch my legs in all of the extra leg room I shall have. Okay. I'm off to get 3 hours and 45 minutes of sleep now.