Mysteries of an Indian Jogging Park

Before I begin, I want to offer apologize for the lack of cohesiveness in this post.  This is really just an opportunity to share a bunch of random thoughts and events from the past few weeks.  If this doesn’t tickle your fancy, or if posts with pictures float your boat, feel free to wait for the next post.

Along with several other Northfield outbounds, I recently celebrated my 19^th birthday.  Though it was sad to miss my free half Hogan Bros. sandwich, I got to celebrate with my host family.  Along with my current host family, my second family and several Rotarians joined in the birthday festivities.  We ate pav bhaji, my favorite veg Indian dish, and everyone got to smear cake on my face.  It was just a bundle of fun.

I don’t want to exaggerate, but mangoes are without a doubt the most delicious things of all time.  It’s no big deal or anything.  I have not had any whole mangoes yet as they are not in season until Spring, but nearly everything is available in mango flavor.  Standard ice cream flavors include chocolate, vanilla, and mango.  Mango juice has replaced orange juice as my fruit drink of choice (my family knows how much this one means).  I order a mango lassi or mango shake instead of looking for milkshakes.  Every time I can have some sort of mango treat I jump at the opportunity.  The best part is that mango-flavored delicacies are everywhere!  You can hardly walk 20 feet anywhere in Pune without running into a food stand selling mango ice cream, shakes, or juice.  Apart from the festivals, the widespread availability of mangoes is definitely my favorite thing about India.

I took a trip to a peacock farm a few days ago, which sounds really fun.  This led me to believe that the peacocks were contained, or at least walking around all day.  As I found out, the peacocks roam wild all over the surrounding mountains and usually come to this “peacock farm” early in the morning and late at night.  So of course it made sense to be there from 10 am to 5:30 pm, exactly when the peacocks were not around.  I was not amused, and not allowed to walk around as I was supposed to be patient and wait for the peacocks to come.  We saw only five peacocks the whole day, and the closest one was at least 100 feet away.  The best part of the day was discovering I have an artsy grayscale setting on my camera, so pardon me if I get a little carried away with really profound pictures.

I found out how lucky we are to have use of the good old USPS.  I had heard that maneuvering the Indian mail system is quite an ordeal, but I decided to suck it up and perform my civic duty of mailing my absentee ballot back to Rice County.  It took several hours, but eventually I became frustrated enough to give up.  When I went back the next day with local help, it took a mere five minutes to get my envelope set to mail.  Surprisingly, it cost me a mere Rs. 28 or about 50 cents, nowhere near the $30 Sid Beaumaster had to pay to mail her ballot.  Now if all of us Northfield outbounds can go through the arduous absentee process, all of you back home can spend 15 minutes to fill out your own ballots.  GO VOTE!

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently discovered these interesting places called “jogging parks,” whose mysteries I have only begun to unravel.  Though I was originally led astray by the name, jogging is actually not allowed at these parks.  This strange place goes by many names (jogging park, the gardens, walking track) and was surprisingly busy when I visited with my host mom last weekend.  As it turns out, the park is quite the night scene and everyone who is anyone spends their Saturday nights there (especially if you qualify for the senior discount or crayons and a kids menu at Perkins).  Basically, it is a small track where older adults go to walk a few laps as their daily exercise before sitting down on the many surrounding benches while some younger kids run around the grassy area on the inside of the track.  Though I was disappointed to lose my chance to go running every day, a brisk walk is nearly as good and takes up more of my empty time.  I have enjoyed my daily trips to the jogging park to get a little light exercise, as well as to get out of my apartment and enjoy the grass and trees surrounding the small track. 

Other than that, I have started learning Marathi with my host mother’s help.  Though I already know a few helpful phrases, I decided it would be useful to be able to read and write Marathi as well as speak it.  It is slow going, but I am starting with the alphabet.  This will certainly be a challenge, as there are 12 unique vowel sounds and around 30 consonants, some of which I cannot differentiate.  Though I could get through this year perfectly well speaking exclusively English, it would be a shame to miss out on learning my host language when every other exchange student is forced to become bilingual (or trilingual).  I have no misguided hopes of becoming fluent, but I aim to learn basic conversational skills and how to read and write. 

Without any large plans until Diwali, I don’t expect that I will have a lot to blog about so look forward to one more post later this month.  Until next time!

Yes, The One With The Elephant Head

Here we go with catch-up part two.  To recap, I left you all after my return from Kolhapur and my first day with the other exchange students going to the Pune Festival inaugural ceremony.  The next two days we woke up bright and early to beat the traffic out of Pune on day trips.  Though Pune was our town, the places we visited were as new to us as to the students from Aurangabad.  We visited several hill stations, went boating on a lake, and spent countless hours bonding on the bus.  These two days were some of the most fun that I had experienced in India; traveling outside my known city with eight other kids my age who can all relate to the crazy things I have experienced in my two months here.  We all enjoyed discussing cultural differences and bonding over some of the more humorous experiences we have encountered.

There were many beautiful sights and cool temples and hill stations, but I will forever remember this trip for the company.  Well, that and the bus.  We rode in a short bus that could carry around 20 people, and it was not in the best condition.  In fact, on the journey home on day two, we were all alarmed to hear (and feel) a small explosion as the rear wheel popped.  Luckily, we stopped right next to some store located 20 minutes from the nearest town, which at least provided us with shade in which to sit while our driver installed the spare.  In 45 minutes we were back on the bus and driving toward home again.  However, a mere two hours later there was a large bang as we punctured yet another tire.  As we exited the bus for a second time, we noticed that not only had we completely shredded another tire, but the spare was also leaking air.  Three tires destroyed in as many hours, and our confidence in this bus was lost.

After a quick drink at the store nearby, we were packed into two vans (eight people in what should have been a five-seat car) and carried 20 minutes to the bus station, where we traveled another 15 minutes into town.  It was more excitement that we had hoped for after a long day, and we were all tired.  We decided to extend the stay of the exchange students through the end of the Ganpati celebrations on the 29^th, which was fine by us.  The more exchange students, the merrier!

The next day we met for breakfast to discuss the plan for our remaining days together.  Trent’s host mother graciously offered us her family’s bungalow in Mahableshwar, a city a few hours from Pune with fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, and we decided to take her up on it.  The morning of the 26^th, we took the long bus ride from Pune to Mahableshwar, passing the time listening to music and catching up on sleep.  When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find a gorgeous, well-furnished home with plenty of bedrooms to fit the 10 of us and Pee Kay, the accompanying Rotarian.  This house was one of the highlights of the two and a half day trip and we had a lot of fun dancing along to American music videos and playing some rather intense hide and seek.

During the days, we crammed inside several taxis which rushed us to all the best local areas for taking touristy photos.  I got a few (hundred) pictures of the beautiful mountains and the surrounding rivers, as well as some of the wildlife and temples.  I even took one of a cliff that looks like an elephant head (above)!  In fact, everywhere I turned there was another majestic view that merited photographic record.  I may have gotten a little carried away.  On the 28^th we made the bus trip back into Pune and had a short meeting outlining the plans for the following day’s procession.  The 29^th was the last day of the Ganpati festival (you know, the one for Ganesh, the god with an elephant head), and the largest celebrations.  The city essentially shut down as roads closed and people filled the streets to watch the drum groups and processions.  As exchange students, Rotary had a special place for us in the festivities.  

Three proud Americans.  Can you pick out the German?

The 10 of us from Pune and Aurangabad were joined by the 25 exchange students from Mumbai to march in the procession.  Dressed head to toe in traditional Indian festival clothing, all 35 of us proudly carried our country’s flags, posing for thousands of pictures.   Now, I have never been outwardly patriotic, but since coming to India I have gained a new level of appreciation for my home and all the public services and standard of living we take for granted.  This procession brought out all of these feelings and as I walked with other exchange students from all over the world, I held up my flag with extreme pride showing tens of thousands of people that I am from the United States of America and I am proud of my country! 

After several hours of processing, our parade came to an end and we had a quick lunch with all of the exchange students before the Mumbaikers had to leave for home.  It was so fun to meet all of them and even though we only spent four hours together, we were sad to see them leave.  I sincerely hope we have an opportunity to see them again this year. 

Keeping up an obscene level of enthusiasm for that long really wore me out so after making an appearance at some neighborhood celebrations and posing for some pictures I went home.  It didn’t really hit me until the following morning but no time had been left in my schedule for playing with my dhol group.  So after the many hours of practice, I ended up missing the grand performance.  I was truly too exhausted to care.  As I walked back home, I realized that I had been too absorbed in enjoying the procession to take any pictures and thought of how many great pictures of me were taken that day that I would never see, belonging to any one of the thousands of people in the crowds that day.  Regardless, through the marvel of Facebook, I am able to “borrow” some of the pictures the other students took. 

A pretty sunset I captured one night

The festival was still going strong when I woke up the next morning at 8, but my part in the celebration was over.  This week and a half were by far the highlight of my time here so far, and only a small taste of Indian festivals and Rotary trips.  It only makes me look forward to November more, which will bring Diwali (the Indian festival of lights, celebrated with the magnitude of an American Christmas) and my 17-day tour of South India with the nine other exchange students from Pune and Aurangabad.  Until then, I am back on my daily routine of going to school, attempting yoga, and blogging.  I am also happy to say that I discovered a jogging park near my house where I can get some much-needed exercise.  By this I do not suggest that I am putting on the exchange student pounds (well, kilograms here), I only mean that I crave some outlet for physical exertion that is a little more intense than yoga.  Additionally, it supplies me with another positive use of time which is never a bad thing.  I will do my best not to let this massive pile-up of blogging happen again, but it seems inevitable in the case of the long Rotary trips.  Bear with me!  Until next time.

New Celebrity in Kolhapur

Well it appears I have fallen behind in my blogging and the task at hand is more than a little daunting.  This and my overwhelming laziness at the moment, which I will attribute to being sick for the last few days, have kept me from attempting to recall the countless blog-worthy experiences of the last week and a half.  However, I fully realize that it must be done and that no better time will arise, so here I am. 

I left you anticipating my trip to Kolhapur to stay with my host uncle’s family for the beginning of the Ganpati festival.  I do not remember exactly where I picked up my belief that Kolhapur was in some way more rural than Pune, but this is utterly false.  It may have been the phrases “small town” and “mainly agricultural” that put this idea in my head, but in reality, Kolhapur is a city of over half a million with little more green space than Pune.  Regardless, I was lucky enough to get several hours of nature on the long drive.  When we finally arrived, it was good to see the familiar faces of my host grandparents welcoming me into my temporary home and asking how I had been. 

The Ganpati festival involves each family having their own shrine and praying at it several times each day.  This short ceremony involves a lot of chanting, clapping, and a spin.  Needless to say I could not follow the chanting (not in English) but I am an expert clapper/spinner so I rocked those parts as well as I could.  Each night, we traveled to another relative’s house to perform the ceremony. 

On the 20^th, we took a short trip to a small village outside Kolhapur to visit more relatives.  The village was surrounded by sugar cane fields the way much of Southern Minnesota is covered in corn fields.  This realization made me feel a little more at home.  After breakfast, I was given a small tour of the average house in this village.  I was surprised when, after walking out the back door, I found myself face to face with a cow.  Everyone was anxious to take my picture with the cow and I got a chance to make up for missing one of my annual Minnesota State Fair rituals.

After seeing a few more houses and some small shops, I was led to a small procession of mini dhols parading around the town.  The next moment my forehead was covered with a yellow powder and the traditional vertical red line, a drum slung around my neck, and I was enthusiastically leading the procession through the streets with a huge smile on my face.  My excitement almost matched that of the townspeople taking pictures of me. 

After a few minutes of fun, I took off the drum and headed over to a place that was serving lunch for a bunch of men.  Somebody whipped up a turban and put it on my head and then I posed for about 100 pictures of everybody handing me a coconut.  Apparently this is a great sign of respect.  Plus, everyone loves getting their photo taken by or with the foreigner, regardless of whether or not they will ever actually see the picture.  Again I was given a small drum and asked to beat a simple rhythm to death for their entertainment.  Their enthusiasm made the event very fun, and I have been told they are putting my picture on the city posters for some large event.  I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the attention.

The next day we headed home so I could participate in the Rotary program for the next several days with Pune’s exchange students and the additional four staying with us for a week.  Unfortunately, I arrived an hour too late to host one of the boys in my apartment, but it was really exciting to meet some other exchange students.  The newcomers were French and German with a boy and a girl belonging to both countries.  Upon my arrival, we were immediately herded onto a small bus and brought to the inaugural ceremony for the Pune Festival.  This festival coincides with the Ganpati celebrations, and shows off the variety of cultural activity in Pune.  We were all be-turbaned (by this I mean we wore turbans) and got special foreigner’s seating.  After several hours of waiting, the show finally began.  It consisted of several cultural dances dedicated to Ganesh followed by an obscenely long bit of speaking in Marathi recognizing a bunch of important people in attendance.  That part was boring. 

After it was over, we all went out for Chinese food and I ordered some familiar sweet and sour chicken.  This turned out to be more of a chicken and vegetable soup with a sweet-and-sour-sauce broth, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  It was good to get to know the other exchange students a little better over dinner and we had some interesting conversation about which things India and Europe have in common versus Europe and the United States.   

Though I’m still a week and a half behind and have a ton left to say, I think I’ll cut it off here.  My apologies for putting this post off for so long.  Be assured, the next one will cover more of my adventures with all the exchange students and will come much quicker than this one.  Because there is no easy break in the stories of these two posts, I will leave you with a To Be Continued…soon, I promise.