A few of my favorite things

So this past week I was in Pune for some pre-testing of our condom-related activities. I can help on designing and training people in the research and help them analyze the results but I can't actually participate in the research because having a white woman around changes the answers. So I spent eight hours sitting in the hot Pune sun near our activities with nothing specific to do except contemplate India. Here's what I came up with as my favorite things:

*Elephants- one went by down the narrow brothel lane I was sitting in (see our franchise clinics, Key Clinics, advertised next to the elephant)

*Camels - two went by used as advertising for some mela coming up

*Young wanna-be gangs in bad jeans - they spent the morning playing cricket and then came back to the temple I was sitting at to chill and have Popsicles! I think they lose their cool factor when they have popsicles!

*This guy - he typifies the Indian male I spend time watching, obsessed with WWF, horrible jeans, wonderfully geeky.

*My current favorite sign is this one below in the parking lot of what I call the "white people's market" - it's not really commenting on how we're all crackers, it's referring to the fact that we shouldn't use fireworks (I don't know if that's actually a problem in this parking lot).

*Not quite a favorite thing but I did find myself wondering why it's so hard to reach out to people sometimes. I see a starving dog and my heart goes out to it and then a beggar child comes up to ask for money and I don't give it. I know my theory about that not being the most effective way of solving the problem and I also know that when you give to one kid, 12 more appear but here's this family that is clearly starving and I'm contemplating giving them my bottle of water and don't know how!

Elephants!

While I would love to write about Carolyn and Todd's visit, they've really been in and out of delhi for just a few waking hours. It's still great to see them and feel like you're touching base with your friends from time to time.

This was a long weekend, and with all the visitors I hadn't made any plans. At the last minute my friend Doug and I decided to try out this "eco-camp" thing near Rajaji National Park. Turns out it's not really a national park, it's been deemed a national park but since there are still people living in it - it doesn't count I guess. Anyways, it was very spur of the moment, didn't really have reservations. The drive was long due to typical traffic jams and the not-quite-as-typical someone killed a doctor, the police didn't arrest them, and so the community protested stopping all traffic in a small town for 2 hours. And when we finally get to the entrance to the park, it's not so much a road as a trail that's been made through a dried up river bed that occasionally means driving through small streams. Glad we weren't in my little Zen and used Doug's much bigger truck/SUV thingy. The goal was to get out of Delhi and into nature and I think we achieved it.

We got there just before sunset and so took a quick walk to see where we were but were quickly warned back because of recent panther sightings. Sadly for me, we didn't see any panthers ourselves. The park is right near Rishikesh (the area where I go rafting) and so the terrain was the same. Took a "hike" that ended up being a stroll around the area the next day and ran into monkeys and goats and people bathing their bullocks (above). I'm torn on the bullock bathing, it seems like they would be capable of it themselves, no? And since they don't jump on the couch, does it really matter how clean they are?

That evening we went for what I'll call a safari-ette. Like a mini safari. Having not been on a full blown african safari, I still don't think this quite counts. The guy who ran the camp we stayed at was a birder and so were many of the guests who joined us on the safari-ette. So every few blocks we'd stop the jeep and everyone would point out a bird of some sort. Not being a birder myself, some of them really just qualified as not-an-elephant. But even I have to admit that some of them were really beautiful. Bright teal kingfishers, peacocks. Saw lots of deer, a running wild boar and thankfully many elephants. We saw baby elephants and what they refer to here as 'tuskers' (males).

Mom's visit part 2: Fort Cochin

So I'm a bit behind on blogging or possibly just too busy to keep up. After Kovalom, Mom and I headed up to Fort Cochin. It's a small peninsula in Kerala that was the center of the trade routes of yore. So a lot of foreign influence - colonized by the portuguese but some clear african and east asian influences. Lots of spices. Chinese fishing nets (pictured). Really touristy - like backpackers. And honestly there's not much to see but it's a nice small town that you can walk around - and I was craving the ability to jog, it was perfect. Famous for its jewish settlement and oldest european church - we visited both and can't say I was overwhelmed. They were built like 2 minutes ago in comparison to the rest of this country!

Mom and I spent a lot of time playing scrabble and parcheesi. But that's our MO around the world. We also ate a lot of good food, good coffee, best apple pie I've had in India. I skipped the Ayurvedic Massage Barbecue but I must say I was intrigued. In one of my jogs I found the beach where locals swim in the morning. Or to be more specific, men swim. It was like 200 men in small unflattering swimsuits. I felt like I shouldn't be there - as if I had wondered into a men-only country club. On the way back however, I noticed two young girls were also in the water, so it must not be totally exclusive. I also enjoyed the young man roller blading - decked head to toe in unfortunate neon spandex - about 12 years old and at that severely awkward stage of life. The best part was his mom who was following him on a motor scooter!

Anyways, mom and I went one night to a Kathakali dance show. Kathakali is a traditional Keralan dance form with elaborate make up. The dancers don't speak - it's all through expressions and gestures. They have to train for like 6 years before they can perform. The story is told through songs sung by a narrator. Also, they're traditional stories that most people would know. It was really quite impressive and unique. Sorry the picture is fuzzy - we weren't allowed to use flash and they wouldn't stop dancing!! It was clearly a performance for tourists (can't say I noticed any indians in attendance) but it didn't really bother me because it meant english (and a lot of other languages) translations of the story and a demonstration of the various expressions and what they meant. Some were quite intricate - the elephant took like 3 minutes to portray.

Mom left on Saturday, after a very satisfying brunch and an unfortunate trip to the Central Cottage Emporium to pick up a special request on what we later found to be the two days a year they close for inventory before tax day. So Carolyn and her husband Todd arrived a few hours after mom left - hopefully I'll get a chance to talk about that in the next post!