Renata in India: Beef, Flowers, Massage Oil, and Deeper Thoughts

This post is going to be a little different from my usual ones that just relate events, because I want to share some reflection and broader thoughts as well.

But lest the old traditions fail, I will tell you about my week first.

On Monday our bus was very late arriving back from Kerala, so Benoit and I didn't get to work until mid afternoon. I called in advance and our boss said we should still come to work, no matter how late our bus arrives, but when we did get to work we found the office empty! Some communication must have gotten lost in the accents and background noises of that phone call... So after an hour or two of waiting we just left a note and went home, having nothing to do.

Tuesday we spent working at the office (what do you know, the book isn't finished after all...) and Wednesday we accompanied Mr. Masagi to a meeting at the Bajaj family estate, where the coconut groves and a non-profit primary school are in major need of a sustainable water source. A lady representing the family, the farm's manager, a civil engineer, and the farm's agricultural specialist were present at the meeting. It was a very pleasant change to have a woman in charge. At this point I've seen my boss interact with a wide variety of clients from simple home owners, farmers, hospital managers, government officials and residential development architects all the way to large industrialists and school teachers. It is very interesting to note the dynamics of each of these interactions and if I'm observant enough, I can clearly see how each client's socioeconomic status can solicit different manners and reactions from my boss and how they relate to him in response. Or maybe it is the clients' attitudes that shape my boss's speech? Either way it is a rather entertaining form of people-watching. I'm not always a bystander however, especially when the clients do not speak Kannada well and they have a hard time understanding Mr. Masagi's explanations of his work and designs. There are no words to describe how accomplished I feel when I can facilitate the communication in any way.

Thursday was a short day at the office, spent mostly with writing descriptions and making illustrations for simple water saving methods like "bottle irrigation" that Mr. Masagi wants to add to his book. I was extremely excited for the evening, because the other interns have decided to eat at a restaurant called "The Only Place." It was Diamond's last night in India, so we decided to do something truly special: eat red meat!!! I have never been so excited for a beef burger in my entire life. The patty was delicious and the only feelings I have for that cow that had to die to make me happy are feelings of gratitude.

If there is one thing I'm going to miss from India it's the easy availability of unprocessed foods!

The last workday of the week turned into a 14 hour day for me. Upon arriving to the office, Mr. Masagi informed me that I would be traveling with him to his farm about 110 km outside of Bangalore. The ride was rough sitting in the back of a jeep, but it was doable. He is building an instructional center for farmers where they will learn about organic farming techniques and water conservation methods. I witnessed the construction of the center and participated in the "pooja" of the door installation. The door frame was installed before the house was even half the height it's supposed to be. The pooja was conducted with a coconut, various sweets, puffed rice, red and yellow powders, incense, money, a leaf, and bananas. I wish I understood more about Hindu ceremonies than just the parts where I have to eat or throw puffed rice...

While on the farm I visited a vegetable market in a village nearby. Mr. Masagi explained that in this area the villagers hold a farmers' market every day in a different village. The market wasn't all that different from a piac in Hungary, except that the vendors were sitting on the ground and that cows, goats, sheep, motorbikes, cars, and people walked around enjoying equal rights to the market street. It was interesting to see so many veggies I did not know the names of.

The ride home from the farm was miserable for me, because Mr. Masagi's granddaughter, Neha, decided that it would be a good idea for her to pee on me. So I was drenched in wet, warm urine for most of the ride home. Seriously, Indian parents need to start putting diapers on their kids.

Saturday Nadia, Benoit and I visited Lalbagh garden, the botanical garden in Bangalore. It was quite nice except for the ridiculous crowd of people swarming everywhere. To celebrate Indian Independence Day coming up on Aug. 15th, a horticultural show was on display in the garden, but because of the crowd we didn't get to see much of it. Afterwards we had McDonald's for lunch (my standards have sunk so low!!) and in the evening Nadia and I decided to get a back massage in a beauty parlor in the basement of our apartment building. This was my first massage with massage oil so I though it was quite pleasant, but the massage really wasn't that great. We both have had better massages before, so it was quite a letdown. To fix the situation, Nadia and I massaged each other when we were back in our apartment. By all means, I would take her massage over any other, any day! I can't wait to try the new massage techniques she taught me on my friends back home. (Get ready peeps. It's gonna be awesommme.)

And now for the promised thoughtful ravings.

This week I had to answer some questions about my internship for the Tucker Fellows program as my midterm checkin. The questions forced me to put my nonverbal reflections and ideas into polished phrases, which is always the hardest part about expressing myself. Also, before Diamond left, we reminisced about her time here and what she would miss and how we felt about India and back home and all that. So here are a few thoughts I wanted to share:

Being in communication with my friends back home, especially those taking classes right now, makes me wonder about how different the life I lead here is to my life back home. It is so easy to lose perspective when you just have to finish that one accursed paper or turn in that one problem set and suddenly the world seems so small and cruel and the Dartmouth bubble truly does shield you from the rest of the world. Now that I'm really experiencing city life I feel that I would be way too distracted to actually study if I had chosen an urban school to attend. When I am in an Asian city so far away from home, Dartmouth all together just seems like a tiny, tiny corner of the universe where ultimately meaningless events can take larger-than-life precedence and menacingly loom over all my thoughts and feelings. India has definitely helped me (re)gain perspective.

Unexpectedly enough, I learned a lot about self respect and dignity here. This misogynist culture taught me to place myself in my own bubble of dignity and not let anyone take it from me. Women here know something about self-appreciation that so many women I know back home lack. The way Indian women dress, the way they carry themselves, and the way they think somehow put them in an unreachable, removed heaven where they do not depend on men spiritually, even if economically and in the eyes of society they do. Or at least that is the impression that I got.

Will I miss India? I don't think so. Not the place itself at least I won't. Is that sad? Not at all in my opinion. I won't miss it, but in no way do I regret coming here. I feel that at this point in life I HAD to come here. I had to have this experience. I needed it. It set my mind straight about many things, gave me guidance in my future studies, showed me a face of humanity and the world that I never knew, and gave me a chance to meet amazing people who I never would have met otherwise. I will miss my fellow interns when I leave in two weeks and I will miss the deep and meaningful conversations that we had long into the nights. I will miss the unprocessed foods and the ease with which one can eat healthy here. Perhaps the noise of the traffic and the muezzin's 5AM calls too, though that's debatable at this point. But not the environment, the customer service, the male dominated public space, the spices, the dirt and the pollution.

Now I would mention how much I love America with all its faults and disadvantages clearly in my mind, but my thoughts on this romantic subject are still cloudy, so I'll include the whole spiel in a later blog.