I've been in Jaipur for about a week now, and I'm finally starting to feel like I'm settling into Indian life. The dust and pollution bother me less, and I'm handling the heat. My palate is getting used to Indian food and I have a lot of meals that I really like now. I like pretty much everyone at school, my host family is very nice, and I am enjoying my classes. Basically, so far so good.
It's been a few days since I was last able to update my blog. Getting a wifi dongle for my room at home turned into a bit of an ordeal, but I should be connected from now on, no problem.
Since my last post, a lot has happened. I've talked to Joti a few times and found out that she is eighteen years old, one year younger than me. She's very sweet and talks to me more now that I've (attempted to) talk to her in Hindi. It's really interesting comparing my life to hers, and also to Madhulika's. Madhulika is my host sister, a university-educated 25-year-old fashion designer from a Brahmin family. We are all girls, all so close to the same age, living in the same place, and yet our lives are all so different.
Yesterday was our first regular class day at school. I'm in the advanced class (top level), and it looks like it's going to be challenging and exciting! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I know that means that my Hindi is going to improve significantly by the time I return home! Most days we have 4 class periods, but on Tuesdays the advanced class has one regular class and then we watch a Hindi film for the rest of the day. Yesterday we watched "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai," a 1998 Bollywood film. It was a cute, fun film, with all the singing, dancing, and melodrama for which Bollywood is so famous. I was able to follow along really well (without subtitles!) so I'm taking that as a good sign!
This past weekend our class took a trip to Bapu Bazaar, an old open-air market in the Pink City area (Jaipur's historic walled city). We were taught briefly how to haggle and then set free to fend for ourselves. I ended up with two pretty kurtiis and a set of painted bangles. The experience of haggling was very draining. Not only do I dislike arguing (especially with strangers), I felt incredibly cheap. Everything in the bazaar was very inexpensive, and we were expected to try to get them to sell it to us for less? Why? I could easily afford what they were selling. It felt immoral to try to haggle the salesmen out of their commissions when I knew how much I buy clothes for back home.
Also on that trip we visited the bookstore at Rajasthan University, which is just near our school and my homestay. Again, the prices were outrageously low (everything here is so cheap. American money goes a long way here). I bought Harry Potter books 4-7 in Hindi. My new goal is to purchase the first three and spend the next three years working through the books. They're supposed to be difficult translations but it will be great practice!
When we left the bookstore, though, there were two little boys running around the campus. They looked like brothers. The younger boy was maybe five years old, and he ran up to all of us with an outstretched hand, yelling "Money!" His brother kept trying to cover his mouth and drag him away, obviously annoyed. When he came up to me, he asked me for one of the Harry Potter books I had just purchased. I kept it for myself because I knew he was too young to read it and wouldn't get any use out of it, but I felt really guilty not being able to give him anything. There are homeless people and beggars everywhere in this city. I thought I was used to it in Austin, with such a large homeless population near campus, but it's on a whole different level here. I can feel them glaring at my light skin and clean clothes as I walk past on my way to school. They know I have money and I know I can't help them, not really. I've never felt as privileged in my life as I do here.
One last interesting story before I leave for school: This morning when I went downstairs for breakfast, I heard a man's voice chanting somewhere in the house. It wasn't my host dad's voice, and I couldn't understand the words he was saying. At breakfast, my host dad told me that next month is an Earth festival for the goddess Durga, and that part of the preparations involves intricate prayers to be said in the temple room in our house. Since Vandana jii (my host mother) works during the day, they had asked a Brahmin priest to come over to perform the prayers which, according to Bipin jii, take two or three hours. He showed me the small "temple," which included a wooden shrine with paintings of gods and photographs of Bipin jii's parents, among other items. I'm learning about Hinduism in small increments while I'm here, and I hope to learn more. In America I've gained a pretty solid understanding of Semitic religions, but Hinduism is still mostly a mystery to me.
Hopefully I will be updating more frequently now, though I have to make time for homework as well.
It's been a few days since I was last able to update my blog. Getting a wifi dongle for my room at home turned into a bit of an ordeal, but I should be connected from now on, no problem.
Since my last post, a lot has happened. I've talked to Joti a few times and found out that she is eighteen years old, one year younger than me. She's very sweet and talks to me more now that I've (attempted to) talk to her in Hindi. It's really interesting comparing my life to hers, and also to Madhulika's. Madhulika is my host sister, a university-educated 25-year-old fashion designer from a Brahmin family. We are all girls, all so close to the same age, living in the same place, and yet our lives are all so different.
Yesterday was our first regular class day at school. I'm in the advanced class (top level), and it looks like it's going to be challenging and exciting! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I know that means that my Hindi is going to improve significantly by the time I return home! Most days we have 4 class periods, but on Tuesdays the advanced class has one regular class and then we watch a Hindi film for the rest of the day. Yesterday we watched "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai," a 1998 Bollywood film. It was a cute, fun film, with all the singing, dancing, and melodrama for which Bollywood is so famous. I was able to follow along really well (without subtitles!) so I'm taking that as a good sign!
This past weekend our class took a trip to Bapu Bazaar, an old open-air market in the Pink City area (Jaipur's historic walled city). We were taught briefly how to haggle and then set free to fend for ourselves. I ended up with two pretty kurtiis and a set of painted bangles. The experience of haggling was very draining. Not only do I dislike arguing (especially with strangers), I felt incredibly cheap. Everything in the bazaar was very inexpensive, and we were expected to try to get them to sell it to us for less? Why? I could easily afford what they were selling. It felt immoral to try to haggle the salesmen out of their commissions when I knew how much I buy clothes for back home.
Also on that trip we visited the bookstore at Rajasthan University, which is just near our school and my homestay. Again, the prices were outrageously low (everything here is so cheap. American money goes a long way here). I bought Harry Potter books 4-7 in Hindi. My new goal is to purchase the first three and spend the next three years working through the books. They're supposed to be difficult translations but it will be great practice!
When we left the bookstore, though, there were two little boys running around the campus. They looked like brothers. The younger boy was maybe five years old, and he ran up to all of us with an outstretched hand, yelling "Money!" His brother kept trying to cover his mouth and drag him away, obviously annoyed. When he came up to me, he asked me for one of the Harry Potter books I had just purchased. I kept it for myself because I knew he was too young to read it and wouldn't get any use out of it, but I felt really guilty not being able to give him anything. There are homeless people and beggars everywhere in this city. I thought I was used to it in Austin, with such a large homeless population near campus, but it's on a whole different level here. I can feel them glaring at my light skin and clean clothes as I walk past on my way to school. They know I have money and I know I can't help them, not really. I've never felt as privileged in my life as I do here.
One last interesting story before I leave for school: This morning when I went downstairs for breakfast, I heard a man's voice chanting somewhere in the house. It wasn't my host dad's voice, and I couldn't understand the words he was saying. At breakfast, my host dad told me that next month is an Earth festival for the goddess Durga, and that part of the preparations involves intricate prayers to be said in the temple room in our house. Since Vandana jii (my host mother) works during the day, they had asked a Brahmin priest to come over to perform the prayers which, according to Bipin jii, take two or three hours. He showed me the small "temple," which included a wooden shrine with paintings of gods and photographs of Bipin jii's parents, among other items. I'm learning about Hinduism in small increments while I'm here, and I hope to learn more. In America I've gained a pretty solid understanding of Semitic religions, but Hinduism is still mostly a mystery to me.
Hopefully I will be updating more frequently now, though I have to make time for homework as well.
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