6.9.08
Okay, so I did make it through the night. I was so exhausted last night that once I fell asleep, I slept through the whole night, although that's happened every night I've been here since so much has been going on. Initially, it was hard to take those 3 steps across the room to shut off the light, but after I sprang back to my bed in complete darkness and untangled myself from the mosquito nets that I leapt into, the night silence was a bit calming. My ears were listening for any sounds of scurrying, but I actually just heard the trees in the wind, some crickets and a few motorcycles passing through on the road nearby.
Despite my city-girl paranoia, I do enjoy being out here in the countryside. This morning I was staring out of my bed, enclosed in mosquito net trying to savor my disbelief of waking up in a farmhouse in India. I still find this all surreal sometimes, and I try to enjoy it since these are the moments I've writing about in my journals, dreaming of when I'd get to wake up halfway around the world, in another room, in another house with the sun shining through the window. Ten, five, even two years ago, I had no idea I'd get to be here. I remember being in the third grade or so, being fascinated with India from the pictures and footage I'd seen of the Taj Mahal, old buildings and colorful markets but being a little discouraged when people would tell me that I wouldn't like India because it was a dirty place. I know I definitely would not have liked or been able to handle being in India had I gone any time before this, but I'm glad I'm here now.
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I guess I've also allowed myself to be a bit negligent with this blog just because there's been so much to tell and I don't know where to begin. As promised though, I'll tell you that the flight from Auckland to Bangalore was a bit hectic. I don't know why Swathi and I seem to have bad luck with all of our flights already, but when we showed up to the Auckland airport we found out that our flight from Hong Kong to Bangalore was cancelled because the part of the airport in Bangalore that was supposed to receive that flight was still under construction and our supposed flight wouldn't be starting up until July. We were supposed to have been notified of the changes [ahembadtravelagentahem] so we could have our airfare rebooked earlier so we ended up running from the end of the security and customs checkpoint to the gate because it took so long for everything to be rebooked. At least we didn't have to pay for any of these changes; we were originally booked for a Mumbai flight automatically when the changes happened but there were no flights from Mumbai to Bangalore so we had to stop in Delhi instead (which prolonged our travel time by half a day and is farther than Mumbai) and then fly to Bangalore.
With flights I tend to only think of the origin and the destination and I think I've kind of forgotten about the places I pass in between point A to point B. On the Auckland-Hong Kong flight I didn't realize that we'd be flying over West Papua on the way over so it was quite exciting when I saw it on the map on my seat monitor. I already had a 2-seat row to myself (it wasn't a full flight) so it was cool to have the window to myself and see the view below. It sort of felt like something out of a movie since it was sort of surreal to be able to look out the window and see West Papua below. Instead of grids of buildings and houses, all I could see was trees and a long, winding river. The Kombai and Mek live in West Papua (you know, from my favorite shows, Living With the Kombai and Living With the Mek?), so it was really amazing to fly over the country over what might have been relatively untouched land and wonder if there were people living amongst those trees.
Despite the inconveniences, it was an opportunity for me to at least get a glimpse of Delhi (from the airport, that is) that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Things were a bit hectic since the security and check-in procedures are a bit different and one of Swathi's suitcases didn't arrive since it had to be put on a later flight (probably because our rebooking forced us to check-in about an hour before our flight departed back in Auckland). I bought a cheese sandwich for 60 rupees from a guy who didn't seem to enjoy his job very much (or perhaps his bad mood was on account of it being 5 am) before we went to the gate and it was kind of bland, so I didn't finish it. Swathi had some sort of veggie puff so when we got to the gate we were quite disappointed to find that there was a McDonald's there. I normally don't care much for McDonald's and I probably eat it only a handful of times a year, but the French fries and the McChicken sandwich seemed particularly enticing after that crust-less Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich. I felt bad that I didn't finish my sandwich so I ended up not getting my McD's fix. Swathi and I just sort of stared at the menu debating back and forth if we should give in and get an order of fries until we had to board our shuttle.
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I normally don't read the newspaper back in California, unless you count Sudoku and Dear Abby, but here I've been much more interested in the current events. I've always wanted to just watch the local TV and read local newspapers in another country because I'm interested in how other people live their day-to-day lives, so I'm curious to see what they read and see from their couches. I even just like to see the different commercials and products in other countries so sure enough, I've been getting my fill here.
I'd heard there were marriage classifieds in Indian newspapers, but when I saw a classifieds section lying on the coffee table, I was doubtful I'd actually see it. Of course, I had to check it out for myself and there actually was a marriage section in the back, which was quite interesting to read. They're probably like those dating classifieds back in the US where people might put their salary if they earn a lot, height and age, although I'm can't remember if any of the listings gave any mention of personality traits. People put their professional qualifications and if they were in the US, they mentioned that too. There were different sub-sections for people based on caste and religion, like Brahmin or Christian. A lot of people had their graduate degree, and some of the ads were put by the parents to find someone for their son/daughter.
It's been interesting to just read the local stories and also the entertainment section, so I can satisfy my growing fascination with Bollywood. I've been able to recognize a few faces here and there in the paper or on TV now, but I haven't really learned any new names yet. Just like in the US, there's gossip over who's with who and the like but one of the reasons why Bollywood fascinates me is that it's a much more accepted practice for an actor to not do any vocal work for the songs in the films to the point that it's expected that the cast members did not do their own singing for a film. Perhaps it just seems like it's a more accepted practice because Bollywood films typically have songs while Hollywood films rarely have the characters breaking into song and the Bollywood soundtracks get more promotion with music videos while few films do that here in the US these days. What surprised me though, was seeing an awards ceremony on TV where the performers were actors who were lip-synching to songs. There's plenty of lip-synching that goes on in the US, but not only were these actors on stage lip-synching to songs that they didn't sing, but everyone is aware of it! That sort of thing just wouldn't fly in the US, so it was just really surprising to see it on TV...
*Keep in mind that I am no Bollywood expert; these are my own humble observations drawn from the little Bollywood exposure that I have gotten thus far.
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