Jet-lagging from India

What an absolutely amazing experience I have had in India. I am not sure my thoughts and experiences will make any kind of sense, considering it's almost midnight here but 9:30am India time. (The photo above is by a blogger referenced below. Amazing-est photos!)

I was very pleasantly overwhelmed with India. I have to admit to a bit of nervousness--Jessica, Becca I, and Elsa had all told me that India was...hard. Heat, abject poverty, traffic, always being on edge, etc. Well I definitely found it to be hot. We were faced with 110 weather for the whole trip. I complained for a while, but once I followed a colleague's advice (to try to equalize my body and just let it flow), I felt much better. The humidity was intense, too, though.

The traffic was hard to cope with. No sidewalks, or a few chunks of sidewalks, to be briefly cut off by a wall, or just suddenly discontinued, forcing you onto the dangerous streets. And they drive on the left--another suprise for me--so I was always dodging screetching rickshaws and swerving cabs. The honking was hard to handle and really did hurt my ears. They honk preventatively, like "I'm here, honk honk, don't turn, honk honk, dont walk in front of me person, honk honk honk HONK HONK."

The abject poverty part. While I was in Chennai for a few days and got around quite a bit, and saw Pondy and Mahabalipuram, I never did see anything like the slums I've heard about in Colcata, Mumbai, Delhi. . . I know it exists, but I didn't see it. I did see several child laborers, which was hard to see, in the brick kilns and rice mills, but it was all positively set against the backdrop of one NGO that works with those children to get them into schools.

And the ever strong presence of the feeling of "UNSAFE" (as in UNCOMFORTABLE and ON EDGE, as I have felt so often in Eastern Europe) I was so overjoyed to feel genuinely safe. Always. That whole feeling of being on edge was significantly reduced. People were so humble and friendly and helpful. And then there's the whole Tamil nod. I won't go into it, but it's a head wobble thing that can mean yes, or maybe, or just ok. I love it!

Now mind you I was only in Tamil Nadu--a southern state--and very different from other states. [interlude: now, that's one of the amazing things about India, like Brazil, it has hugely varried landscapes, from the Rajasthani dessert, to the lowland hills and water areas of Kerala, to the sprawling urban dense masses, to a bazillion other things. And, did you know that there are over 30 languages spoken in India? I dont mean some random dialects, I mean primary languages. In TN, they speak Tamil. And they write Tamil. And it is NOTHING like Hindi, nor is the alphabet. People from Delhi can't communicate with people from Chennai, unless in English. !!]

Searching on the web for some photos--India is best captured in photos--I found this wonderful webpage. Geez! So incredible.

My favorite thing about India was how women wear jasmine in their hair. Maybe not my 100% most favorite thing, but almighty--the strong smell of jasmine permeates the air so sweetly. After arriving home a few hours ago, I kept thinking I smelled it--but a deep inhilation revealed it was another flower, or the Jasmine scented perfume I overzealously spritzed on myself at Heathrow, before attacking the Mac station somewhere else (hey, a girl can get desperate sometimes with layovers!).

And probably one of the nicest experiences I had in India was one night when my colleagues left me, I was exploring the market alone in Mahabalipuram. M markets were terrible--trinkets more expensive than in the US and no variety. I was disappointed--where would I buy stuff?!

All of a sudden I saw a somewhat familiar face. Perhaps I had seen dude before, because he jumped up and started furiously shaking my hand. I think he may have even said "Katy" but I don't remember. [By the way, "Key-dee" (the way we pronounce my name in Englihs) means villian in Tamil. Perfect!] To be polite, I pretened I remembered him. He started shouting at the people around him in Tamil, and apparently said SCRAM to the boy seated next to him, who immediately stood up and offered me the chair. I refused about 5 times and then sat down. Soon, I was being handed a warm cup of chai (milky black tea) which I refused 5 times. I never drank it, trying to keep up my lucky streak of no illness. We talked in his broken English and he told me about his wrok at the tourist spot between school sessions. "Why are you here in May, the hottest month of the year," he asked increduously. We chatted back and forth, and then he took me to his home, a few stalls away, where his family lived. That usual travelers edge (or straight up fear) was totally not there, somewhat amazingly, and so I followed him to the house and went inside, where I was kindly greeted by his whole family. His sisters and mothers brushed my hair and braided it, and then put the sweetest smelling jasmine strands of flowers in my hair. I loved it--and they bobbed around like long ponytails for hours til I had to remove them to sleep. The family also adorned me with a bindi, crowning me as a true Indian.

I have many other stories and many other delightful experiences. I love the blogger's photos, I will include some here. India is a real dream for photographers!!

Not once did I feel even a pang of indigestion. While I'll save a post on South Indian food (mmm!!!!!) for later, it was a real blessing to never experience that traditionally "part of the experience" food experience.