Faces of India

I promise: This is my last journal entry about India. I realized that I have been posting a lot of information. I showed you beautiful buildings, amazing artwork, and basically, pictures of stuff. I blogged about lots of facts, history, etc. Since being back in the states, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my experiences. The stuff is not what I think about. It's the laughter of children, the toothless grins of the elderly, the hospitality of shopkeepers, the sacrificial kindness of those who worked at the center. I did a lot of complaining in India. I will never get over being blatantly stared at, but I will always be flattered by families who want us in their family pictures. I may not ever get over the smell of India, but I do have to agree that it is "the worst good smell in the world," taken from a novel I am currently reading. Traffic may have seemed like a chaotic nightmare, but at least everyone is giving their utmost attention to the road, and not chatting away on their cell phones. Being in India did not convert me to vegetarianism, but nothing will ever taste quite as unique and flavorful as those dishes. I do not agree with treating women as second-class citizens, and India has a long way to go before women have true equality. However, India recognizes the need to fight for women's rights, and I have the utmost respect for Indian women; they are truly the hardest working, most graceful and composed, and strongest women I have ever met.
Living in India, if only for six weeks, made me realize how blessed I am. It also made me realize that in the grand scheme of humanity, we are not very different from those in India. I still cannot get over how ignored India has been in the United States. I know little about a country that is one of the largest democracies in the world, and who's survival is so linked to my own. India made me question everything I have ever thought or believed in, and I think I know more about myself because of it, even if I have just scratched the surface regarding Indian culture. I am so glad I made the decision to study abroad, and if you ever get the chance, I encourage anyone to challenge themselves by going somewhere out of their comfort zone and immersing yourself in people. It is worth the initial discomfort, and honestly, it sounds so cliche, but it will change your life.

Final Week

Friday, June 1st, was our last day in India. Having finally turned in my last paper the night before, we headed out in the morning determined to ride an elephant on the palace grounds. To our disappointment, the palace attractions hadn't started yet, but we were in for an unexpected surprise...
That's me. On an elephant. Bareback. We got to the palace before the elephant rides had started, but we met up with a group of five elephants going for a morning walk. The men with the elephants asked if we wanted to pet the elephants, and then asked if we wanted to sit on top of the elephants. We weren't exactly sure if it was a good idea, but the men were fairly confident that we were allowed. Next thing we knew, the elephants sat down to let the drivers hoist us on top of the gentle beasts. The scariest part was holding on as the elephant was getting up from a sitting position, but I loosened my grip on the driver as the walk continued. My elephant, Ruby, was very sweet; I couldn't believe how friendly the elephants were. You almost forget they are so huge!
After dismount, Tmac, Em, and I posed for a photo-op, courtesy of the ring-leader of the elephant driver posse. Of course, then we had to tip our drivers...and the elephants...and the other men working with the elephants...Oh well, the experience was worth the tipping.
After our super-cool elephant rides, we took a stroll around the palace grounds and came across the legitimate elephant ride station. Instead of climbing on top of the elephant, the tourist ride consists of you climbing up the stairs shown and then sitting on a large platform on top of the elephant. There is also a warning sign that says, "elephants can be dangerous. They are large and strong. They are not friendly to strangers so please be cautious. If you do not heed to this warning we are not liable for the injuries, etc. please be confined to the areas marked." Glad we saw the sign after breaking the rules.
It was appropriate that our last day in Mysore would be spent very similarly to our first day in Mysore, when we walked into Ibrahim's Badsha store on KR Circle, and our lives were changed forever. Never has one man been able to sell so much merchandise to us. Despite his serious expression, he was one of the nicest and funniest men in Mysore. We went back on our last shopping day to say goodbye and pick up our last remaining gifts. It was fortunate that we were leaving India the next day, because my bags wouldn't have been able to hold any more souvenirs!

Weekend in Kerala

First off, let me apologize for my extreme tardiness concerning updates...and now, an account of my BEACH weekend in India.

The weekend began on Friday with a tour of the Government Ayurveda Hospital in Mysore. We saw lots of fun plants and minerals that make up the hospital's pharmacopoeia. We also saw the dissection room. Little did we know that while we chatted with the med students (shown here with Jenna), the doctors were rolling out a human corpse. Most of the flesh was gone except for the legs and it was pretty juicy. Needless to say, we weren't really prepared for this, and yet, I couldn't stop staring in shock at the complete nonchalance of the doctors and the not-so-sterile conditions in which they were dissecting a human body. Anyway, it was quite an experience. After our tour, we had to sit through an excrutiating lecture before departing for the beach.
Getting to the beach was one of the scariest adventures I've ever had. Robbie (I am pretty sure that is not how you spell his name, but that's how we pronounced it) was a great driver, but the road conditions were highly questionable. First, the rain started to pour like buckets from the sky. Next thing you know, there is a group of five to six men charging towards our van with red painted faces, shouting and chanting with musical instruments. In a state of shock, I realized we were essentially trapped in the car with no idea what they were about to do. I panicked when Robbie started to roll down his window, but then he pulled out a rupee to give the men, and they went away, chanting and dancing, just like they had come. Obvious that we were confused, Robbie just smirked and replied, "first rain." The rest of the way we saw villages celebrating the "first rain." The rain wasn't so bad as we started our trek up the mountain through the jungle, but coming down the other side was a different story. For two hours, Robbie maneuvered through mud and potholes on essentially a dirt and gravel broken narrow road. We joked it was like being on a ride at a theme park...what was happening couldn't possibly be really happening. To make matters worse, we were in the middle of the jungle and literally passed no sign of life, not even a little hut, for that 2 hours. Translation: we could have crashed and had no where to turn for help. There were several vehicles trying to make it up the mountain, but eventually the buses were forced to pull over in their failed attempts to combat the muddy mess. Luckily, as night began to fall, we reached Kerala (and a real road) and by the grace of God were safe in our hotel rooms.
The next morning we convinced Robbie to take us to the beach; apparently Indians usually go to the beach in the evening, which after the massive sunburns we acquired, we understood perfectly.
Once the town caught wind of the rumour of Westerners at the beach, small groups started forming around us. It seemed as if they were just waiting to see what we would do. Of course, we weren't too exciting. We mostly just sat on the beach reading and listening to music all morning, but the townies did get a kick of us playing in the ocean. As the only women to get in (the rest of the woman were in chudidars and sarees), we were quite a sight. We stayed until lunchtime and then used the heat of the afternoon to explore the town a bit.

On Saturday, we went back to the beach in the morning, but had to return to the hotel in the afternoon for our Ayurvedic massages. Now, knowing what we did about Ayurveda, you would think that we would have expected some pretty crazy massage methods. Nothing could have prepared me for the experience. The women and I prayed beforehand, and then throughout the massage, the masseuse sang healing mantras. She lathered me in so much oil, I had the feeling I was being marinated for the human sacrificial offering (used in the earliest times of the Veda). The massage focused not on muscle relaxation, but her sweeping and swooping motions suggested she was trying to improve the flow of some secret force within me. After sliding around on an oily massage table, the experience ended with a steam bath, and then an actual bath to get rid of the rest of the oil. I have censored the details of this truly unique experience, but let me just say, before getting an Ayurvedic massage, come talk to me and then decide whether you want to pursue such a treatment.
After Jess and I finished our "massages," we decided we definitely needed a beer at the hotel restaurant. Afterwards, Robbie drove us to India's longest drive-in beach. Cars and rickshaws can drive up and down the coast on the sand and it's a popular hangout spot. The beach is very clean and beautiful. Unfortunately, the clouds blocked most of the sunset, but our walk was fabulous. Emily and I danced and ran into and out of the remnants of the waves on the shore, while Taylor and Jess played it cool walking behind us. Robbie picked us up and drove up and down the beach in the dark, driving us into waves and watching the sand crabs scatter in the headlights. It was a perfect end to our beach weekend.
For fear of a repeat of Friday, we requested to leave early Sunday morning, even though Robbie wanted to go to the snake park (ah!). Luckily, Robbie found another route home which was absolutely beautiful. As we climbed the mountain road, we could see the lush green jungle valleys below us (definitely beats the Blue Ridge Parkway)! The trip had much better roads, although the majority of the trip was still rocky. We drove mostly through national parks, meaning small farming villages and a ton of wildlife preservation. The rural communities were of course very poor, and I wondered if they even had clean water to drink. I wish we had had the chance to go in and really see the inner-workings of such a village, but you obviously can't stroll in for observations. The jungle was filled with wildlife; we saw huge deer and bison right along the road. We also saw some elephants; the wild elephants live deep within the jungle, but the ones we saw were owned by the local communities.
After returning to Mysore, we asked how the rest of the group's trip to the wildlife reserve had been. Apparently the facilities were so poor, they left after one night (they didn't even want to stay the first night but could not travel back to Mysore in the dark). What did they see on their safari? some ducks and a few elephants. They were not happy when we told them about how much wildlife we had seen from the road, nor about our fabulous weekend at the beach.