some closing thoughts on India

IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA: CALCUTTA AND THE SOUTH 

*my writing below is chaotic. roll with it. it's more authentically Indian. 
- it smells like incense, curry, urine, exhaust, cow/goat, candles, grass, spices, hot milk, flowers
- it is a land of abundant mustaches
- women smell like jasmine and tinkling silver

- you get to know everybody's feet here. shoe removal is customary before entering a home, a temple, a store, etc. many walk barefoot in the street. i like it. it's a form of vulnerability i think the U.S. could have fun with. people can't get away with as much pretension when others are looking at their toes. also we wouldn't feel so strange or exposed when airport security makes us strip our footwear.

- how to greet: hands together in prayer position, touch the forehead and say "namaste/namascot" in west bengal, "vanacom" in south india

- face markings: many hindus, men and women, have the colored forehead markings from his or her daily visit to a temple. girls and women where bindis (the circle in the center of the forehead) for beauty. mothers dot their babies on the forehead and left cheek to ward off the evil eye. some mothers also adorn their babies with heavy eyeliner. some christians tattoo a cross on their forehead. married women part their hair in the center and streak it with magenta or red to communicate that they are taken. 

- jewelry: almost all females, from rich to homeless, elderly to newborn, have bangles on both wrists. most females have silver anklets. both men and women where a band around their waste everyday which varies from simple string to gold and jewels. necklaces communicate a person's religion through what kind of prayer beads. married women wear marriage toe rings while both men and women also wear marital necklaces. traditionally, a left nostril piercing means that you are Hindu and a right nostril piercing means you are Muslim. 

- a typical city block in calcutta: chickens next to a street puddling with men washing from a spicket next to goats next to chapati over hot coals next to cows next to coconuts next to rickshaws and their exhausted sweating owners next to an auto-parts shack next to another goat next to a man shaving face stubble next to a banana cart next to a bangles shop next to naked babies next to dirty mothers curled up mid-sidewalk next to flower chain weavers next to a krishna shrine next to a banyan tree. 

**also if you find yourself in the streets of calcutta, for a variety of reasons you may find yourself in need of the street-kids handshake. here she is:  start with the sign language "love" hand position, touch your right thumb to theirs, twist your wrist until your thumbs point up, then slide into a shake.**

- on a drive through tamil nadu, in one afternoon i saw rice fields, children bathing in rivers, an electrician climbing a telephone poll like a coconut tree, four political party rallies, roadside thatched hut villages, monkeys, and one mountain. 

- as a religious tradition here many hindus and christians shave their heads three times duiring their lives. 

- there are hair codes for women. the vast majority of women in south india wear flowers in their hair to honor their husband with the smell or to communicate that they are single. catholic women do not wear them during lent. all school girls wear two braids, most with blue ribbon. rarely do you see any woman with loose hair because most braid or wear it up. women in tamil nadu only wash their hair on tuesdays and fridays, where women in kerala use hair oil and wash every day. 

- indian catholicism is a breed of its own. blasting loud mass music that usually involves those prerecorded keyboard jams and beats synced/mashed together, lots and blinky twinkle lights around brightly colored statues, sequins and glitter, and saint anthony in every church (no one seems to know why). easter vigil mass was unforgettable. to celebrate Christ's resurrection during the liturgy, the cathedral built a volcano-like structure from which a meter long statue of Jesus rose with fog machines, colored lasers, tossed flowers, and bubbles trumpeting His glory. there is also a great devotion to Our Lady of Vailankanni (where Mary appeared a few hundred years ago). many Hindus believe Mary is a goddess and keep her statue next to other statues of ganesh and shiva in their rickshaws, stores, homes, etc. Some also consider Mother Theresa a goddess and pray to her often. the shopowners next to khalighat, her first home for the dying and destitute, won't open their shops without praying to her in the mornings. 

- we took a local airline called Spicejet to tamil nadu where they bug sprayed our plane and fed us curry. lovely. 

- sounds

rickshaws squeak, crazed cars cry, buses shout their dominance, and bicycles humbly tinkle. 

mosques call softly to prayer 

and remarkably loud ravens await the food scraping boiling bubbling frying splashing in the street 

next to filthy dogs guarding territory, 

hello madame hello how are you

coins shake in a quivery hand 

and twiggy hand brooms scrape scratch scrape the madness down the street.

BEING WHITE IN RURAL SOUTH INDIA

- parents point and stare while whispering in their children's ears.

- children may look puzzled and with a disturbed wince begin wailing and weeping bitter tears of confusion. some just run from you screaming.

- bold parents ask you to hold their baby for a few snapshots. bold teens take videos of you with their cellphones. 

- many will practice their English, which often isn't English but Indian-English. The staples are "coming from, auntie?" and "what is your good name?"

SOME MISSING STORIES OF THE DAY- The joke did take location in her memory.

-tonight we had our friend anand over to introduce us to his wife.  after angelle shared some bloody duck hunting pictures with the two vegetarian hindus she moved on to a video of me doing a birthday dance for my ashley friend which made the wife visibly uncomfortable. anand then apologized for bailing on us the previous week and explained that his grandfather had passed away. the convo went something like this:

ariel: we're so sorry for your loss anand.

anand: it's okay. we just had to do burial ceremonies.

angelle: oh. what does that involve?

anand: we decorated him. 

ariel: with what?

anand: um you know capatis? 

ariel: chapatis? 

anand: no no cah patis. you know from the cow? 

angelle: COW PATTIES?

anand: yes yes yes cow patties. you know they make good fire. so we cover the body with the patties, and we watch him (gestures fire, makes explosive noise). 

angelle and ariel: aaah. 

anand: and then we take the bones, yeah, and we throw them into the sea. 

angelle: bay of bengal, anand? 

anand: yes yes bay of bengal.

ariel: ah, the bay of bengal, as in where we swam yesterday? 

anand: yes yes thats the one. 

ariel and angelle: aaah. 

- today while volunteering in calcutta I went looking for the bathroom and found a dead body chilling in an open coffin in a backroom. what?

- today we found ourselves involved in an arranged marriage. indeed, arranged marriages are common and normal here and whoever your family is has the duty to arrange them. a few young women live and work at Nirmala Shishu Bhavan here in Pondy, one of them named Pretty, who is mute. someone informed the nuns, Pretty's 6 mothers, about a mute man who is also hardworking and honest from a nearby village. so, as new members but members nonetheless of the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan family, we were loaded into the ambulance, clueless as to where we were going. we stopped at a thatched hut and were ushered inside where we watched six blue and white sareed nuns passionately converse with this mute man's family. when fingers or voice volume rose, we asked a sister what was up and they would fill us in. one nun was concerned he was working on a sunday. another wanted assurance that he didn't drink too much. regardless of our cluelessness, during that 10 minute exchange we stood as the family of a mute Indian girl, our beloved Pretty, in a cultural tradition we had only associated with myths or ancient history. 

- today our driver told us he voted twice in the state election. after a good confused laugh, we realized he was absolutely serious as explained how he beat the system. with strong chemicals he removed the dye stain on his finger that the government uses mark who voted. india.

VOLUNTEERING WITH THE MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY 

For anyone who is interested in volunteering with the crazy cool women, DO IT. And if you're in India GO TO PONDICHERRY. They always need help and volunteering even for a few hours makes a tremendous difference. Also, feel free to email me with any questions (amb0505@gmail.com). 

Our experience was this: 

We spent our first and last week in Calcutta and volunteered at the Motherhouse, where Mother Theresa lived and worked. They have several sites in the city involving different kinds of work. I worked at Prim Dan, a home for the destitute and dying. I also worked at Shishu Bhavan, a home and school for disabled children. 

We spent our 7 weeks in between in Pondicherry, India, volunteering each day with 6 Sisters of Charity there. We worked at Shishu Bhavan Nirmala ( literally translated, purity children's home), which is divided into two rooms. Children from a few weeks to seven years old live on one side and the bigger kids live on the other. Our days mostly consisted of feeding them, changing them, praying with them, playing with them, singing to them, meditation time, physical exercises, and laundry. Occasionally we left Shishu Bhavan and accompanied two of the nuns on a dispensary run. On those days we visited several villages and distributed medicine and food. 

Every day was trying and magical and the nuns are more hardcore than I will ever be. Pure woman.

If you want more info, please contact me. I would love to share.