Once my churidars finally arrived from the dressmaker, I finally gave in and started wearing full Indian outfits on my own accord. You see, on this whole trip, I've only worn a salwar-kameez (tunic-type top, dupatta [shawl] and baggy pants) or churidar (same kind of top and dupatta, but with fitted pants) when Swathi does, since I felt that walking around in Indian dress while Swathi wore Western clothes would make me look like a foreigner that was trying too hard, or something. Plus, I couldn't figure out if wearing a churidar or salwar-kameez would just make me stick out more than I already do- people here stare at me or do a double take on a daily basis and I don't know if it's because I just look different or because my foreign-ness is practically written on my forehead. I wasn't sure if I'd blend in a bit better by wearing a churidar or it would just bring more attention to the fact that I'm not Indian.
Swathi doesn't wear her salwar-kameez(es?) very much though, so I figured that with 2 weeks left in India, I should just wear the Indian clothes I bought since I've been so excited about them and there would be fewer opportunities to get some wear out of them in the US, anyway. The day after my churidars finally arrived, I wore one of them and packed another for the trip to Mysore. I ended up wearing those two a lot more than I expected since the rain and mud more than dirtied the only other pair of pants that I brought, leaving only my churi pants to wear.
I felt kind of awkward the first day I wore my churidar since I wasn't used to constantly adjusting the dupatta on my small, sloping shoulders or it would get caught on something since I had yet to learn to keep tabs on it. I also felt a little self-conscious just because some people noted my change in attire, but other than that, I felt regal with a dupatta resting on my shoulders in the moments it was behaving itself.
We saw and did some cool things on our trip to the Nagarahole National Park and Mysore, but one of the highlights had to be when I actually passed for Indian, which I took as the best compliment. Back in New Zealand, an Indian someone raised my hopes when he said that I could probably pass for Tibetan, Nepalese or Northeastern due to my features and complexion and therefore, perhaps be able to blend in a bit. I've always wanted to achieve blending in and shedding my foreign-ness somewhere as it would seem to be a good indication of my immersion in another culture, so it was kind of disappointing when nearly everyone I'd met asked me if, or assumed that I was from China. I wasn't expecting anything different when we went out to see a palace in Mysore and I thought I'd be pushing my luck if we tried to buy a regular 20 rupee admission ticket for myself instead of the 100 rupee ticket for non-Indians. We decided to play it safe since if a palace employee tried to talk to me in Kannada I'd surely be outed. When we went in to redeem the tickets, the admissions person looked a bit confused and spoke in Kannada to one of my hosts. He pointed to me and moments later, Swathi explained that the ticket taker was initially confused as to who the foreign admission was for! I thought that even though I was wearing a churidar and I had a red powder bindi on my forehead from the day's earlier visit to a Hindu temple, I probably still looked like a foreigner. I admit, it probably helped that I was traveling with a group of Indian people, but nonetheless, I was quite excited that for once I flew under the radar and finally passed as Indian, even at least for a moment.
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