Dear family and friends,
I am one month into my four-month trip to India. It has been quite overwhelming, I must say… much more than I expected.
My first week was spent in Bangalore, Karnataka. My taxi ride to the place where I was staying involved a minor crash. Driving in India is hectic—there is no regard for the painted lanes or who has the right of way. You get in or you die waiting. In this minor crash, the other driver got out of his car in the middle of a roundabout and raised his hands at my driver. His response? “Relax, relax,” as he drove off. In Bangalore, I saw lots of cows roaming around the city and was tricked into paying more than I should for every rickshaw ride. Even if I asked for the meter to be turned on or confirmed a price beforehand, at the destination, a different price was haggled over. I’m told it’s because I’m a foreigner, but I can’t help thinking it’s also because I am a single woman traveling alone. In Bangalore, I bought a few kurtas (the typical Indian shirt/dress), tried the Taste of India Chicken burger at McDonald’s (very spicy), and visited a few sites (Commercial Street, Mahatma Gandhi Road). I was also given a brief course in Indian history, geography, as well as social and economic triumphs and failures by my guide, Augustine.
One week later, I was on a flight again, this time to the state of Orissa. I understood I was heading to rural India, but I didn’t quite grasp what that meant. Once I arrived in Bhubaneswar, it was a 3-hour road trip (which took 5 hours) to get to my final destination in Mohuda. I’m here sightseeing and observing the workings of an NGO called Gram Vikas. The organization does a lot of social work, providing remote areas with water access, women’s education and awareness, and operating four residential schools for hard-to-reach communities. The very next day, I began at a residential school in Kankia. The school is made up of 95% Adivasi students, the First Nations people of India. They speak four languages fluently and a small amount of English. Luckily, a few of the teachers are proficient in English, so I get a pleasant dose of social interaction every day. In the first month, I have learned a few Oriya words, taught the students some Australian songs, observed Independence Day and Rakshya celebrations, and learned some traditional Indian dancing from the students.
Other Indian highlights and lowlights are listed below:
The pros: The food (idly, vada, thali), the sweets (Kaju Katli, Mysore Pak), I bought a VPN so I can still watch shows, the incredible sunsets from my rooftop, lots of downtime to do art, yoga, and listen to podcasts, nature (flowers, butterflies, monkeys), the heavy rain, and relatively stable internet.
The cons: No hot water, the vegetable known as gourd, my international card doesn’t work for most online services, most travel apps are region-specific, I wash clothes by hand and it takes two days to dry, it’s very hot and humid, the heavy rain, and mixed mobile service.
In other non-India related updates, this month I finished Homeland (I’m finally beginning to binge spy/intelligence officer shows—there are so many). I’m back into the newest seasons of Futurama and I watched Deadpool vs. Wolverine (which I did not like). In India, they have a 20-minute intermission in the middle of movies, which was totally unexpected! Oh, and I read one book called India: Social and Economic Development, which was pretty dense but great considering.
Thanks for reading. I’ll write to you again next month ;)
May
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