Rahul in town

9.27.09

So I was talking to Vishal at Garba the night before, and he mentioned Rahul, one of my friends here from before. He's working in Delhi now and apparently travels a lot for his work. He's one of the few bachelors left from his class, and they say he is enjoying every minute of it. He has all these pictures on facebook of him going whitewater rafting and traveling around the country. Vishal was saying he has recently taken up photography and goes around Delhi in the early morning taking pics.

These guys are so funny together though. You can tell they just enjoy each other's company so much. So Vishal apparently told Rahul I wanted to see him, and the next morning I get a call saying he is in town because he had just been to Baroda, a nearby city. He was only in town for a few hours before his plane left, but it was so fun to see him. He's another one of this class that's so nice and friendly and jolly. They were telling all these great stories from their days at CEPT and how even know, when one of the has a day off and is sleeping in, they will call him at 6 am to wake them up.

In the picture from left to right: Dharmesh, Kunal, Aparna, Vishal, me, and Rahul.
And the other is one of my salwar kameez I hadn't taken pics of yet.

Old city heritage walk

Nihal has been in Hyderabad with Utpal for the past few days, and Gaurab is getting ready to go back to Nepal, so I decided the night before that today would be good to go on the Ahmedabad Heritage Walk tour. It started at 8 at Swaminarayan temple in Kalupur in the old city. Mom, Dad, and Sam called right as I woke up, so I was a little late, but still made the walk. I haven’t gotten up that early here, but it was a lot cooler and not bad to be walking around outside. The old city is on the east side of the river and used to be walled in, but it’s really dense and the roads are all narrow and crooked. There are these big houses called “Pols” which is like a group of houses around this little courtyard. They could be gated for protection and usually had a little back secret way out. When they built the place back in the 1500s I think, they cut down all the trees so they have all these big birdhouses for the birds they displaced from then. The architecture is really unique with all these ornate carvings. On the tour you stop through all these hindu and Jain temples and mosques as well. There’s a square called Manek Chowk where they trade gold and silver. We even saw a few elephants.

We wanted some coffee after that so they suggested we go to House of MG, this very nice, very colonial looking hotel and restaurant next to Sidi Saiyad Mosque. The interior was really nice, it reminded me of Kandalama hotel and hotel Citadel in Sri Lanka, and the bathrooms were really nice and even had toilet paper! There’s a nice outdoor eating area, too. It was expensive though, even for just cold coffee it was Rs. 90. But we all had a nice chat for awhile; I’m going to miss having them here when they go to Singapore!

So from there Karuna and I were going to this Shreyas Museum that Shwaran had suggested, but it was impossible to get this autowalla to where we wanted to go. We even called Shrawan and he talked to him, but still he couldn’t find. By the time we got there they were closed for another hour, so we decided to go to U.S. Pizza for lunch. This time we had the lunch buffet and didn’t order massive amounts of garlic bread like Caryn and I did before. Karuna was going to take me to this clothes store, Seasons, but it was closed, so I took her to Kapasi, a really nice government emporium that I happened upon near Income Tax place. We didn’t buy anything but there are definitely a lot of things I want to go back for. Beautiful handicraft pieces, boxes – carved, enamel, wood, brass. Mughal-style paintings, hanging lanterns, statues of all the gods, shawls, so many great things!

In the US when you go into a store, you just want the people to leave you alone while you shop, and we are so used to that. Gaurab was saying in India you have to have everyone else do things for you; there’s always a middle man, and you just have to let go. And I do already like this difference when shopping. It’s nice, everything is a social interaction. When buying new glasses, they were helping me pick which ones looked the best. Shopping for clothes is the best. I’ve gone the complete opposite; now I expect to be helped right away. I want them to start pulling out the dress material and showing me; it’s so fun. Even trying to find a place involved asking multiple people where to go. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve realized I don’t like FabIndia. It’s this clothing chain that’s quite famous here. It’s nice quality, but it’s also expensive. But they don’t pull out all the clothes for you like other places, and it’s all stacked up so it’s hard to find something. Mainly though I’m finding that the clothes are just dull by comparison to other clothes you can get here.

Vishal, one of my friends from CEPT before, and his wife Richa invited me over to their flat for dinner. It was so much fun; they are so sweet. They’ve only been married since December. Richa’s dad is a professor so her family lived in Turkey for awhile and went to the American school there, so we spent a good while talking about different American movies we liked. They’ve decorated their flat so nice though; the curtains and furniture are so pretty and colorful. Their families are both from around Banaras and Allahbad, so she made paratha, bindi (okra), and paneer curry for dinner which was very nice. Vishal ended up giving me a brief history of the colonial settlement of India, but I think we spent the most time laughing at funny stories from his school days at CEPT, mostly about Harpreet causing trouble and then getting pranks pulled on him. We were laughing a lot! It was a very nice evening! And a very nice day as well!

Again I keep thinking about the difference between me moving to St. Louis for work and my moving here. I moved to St. Louis for work, in my own country, speaking my own language, and everything, and I know hardly anyone even after 2 years of trying and trying to meet people. No one ever has time for you there. It’s a rather sad reflection that I come back to a place where I was here for only a month four years ago, and feel so much more welcomed and already know more people here than I ever did in St. Louis. But it’s not just knowing people, most people here are just so sincere and welcoming. Even after not talking to some of the friends much at all for four years, they are still welcoming me. Harpreet has been so sweet and helping with everything or calling other people to get them to help me. They invite you to dinner and really mean it, and really don’t seem to mind helping you out at all. And this has always been the very best part of India for me. Despite all the frustrations that have been happening, I need to keep this in mind: that I won’t have to be lonely.

Navratri at CEPT again

Karuna invited me over to dinner tonight. Gaurab is staying there while he is here in Ahmedabad; he bought a mattress and is staying in the living room. She cooks her food earlier in the morning when it’s cooler. They live way out off of Judges Bungalow Char Rasta just near SG highway, so I had trouble telling the auto driver where to go. I ended up just walking there because I remembered the way from Hyderabadi Biriyani. They found a place to buy chicken, so she made that, some fried rice, daal, cucumber salad, and fruit. We watched the Navratri dancers out the balcony for awhile, and a cricket match was on. It seems like such this esoteric sport! If I though football was confusing, it is nothing to cricket.

Then I went over to CEPT for garba. Richa was all dressed up with Vishal, and Anushrav and his wife Moksha, Dharmesh and Rina, and Vivek and his wife, Shivani. All of them except Richa and Vishal were from Gujarat, where this festival is the biggest, and you practically can’t get them to stop dancing! It’s soo cute. It was soooo hot and humid though, after dancing I was pretty much soaked with sweat and disgusting, but so was everyone else. They have a break at around 12, and I think I got back home around 1:30. It’s kind of an 8 step dance where you tap your foot out to the side, sort of like a conga, but you tap yourself around in a circle, and the last step you spin around and start over.

Vibrant Gujarat Navratri Celebration

Arpita and I were going to go see this presentation at 7:30 but we got there and must have had the wrong address! So we were near Law Garden and decided to eat at the place called Swati Snacks. We decided to go on the the Vibrant Gujarat Navratri celebration then; it was in the big empty fairgrounds near Helmet char rasta across from where we lived here before, and it was huge! When we first go there it wasn’t very crowded, so we went and saw a display sent up by the Gujarat Tourism department with all the pictures from places all over the state. There were all these big huge models of like the hill stations in Gujarat with water falls and things. They also had all these booths set up selling handicrafts of Gujarat. I found these cool threadwork earrings like Arpita had, so bought a pair for me and Carly. They also had some cool little enamel boxes, so I bought one for a gift for someone.

Arpita had been there a few days before and had some chocolate cake, and so wanted to get another piece. I had some sugar free ice cream that wasn’t so great. After that it started to get crowded. We made our way over to the dancing area which was enourmous, maybe a few football fields. Some people had started dancing; we didn’t stay too long after that because it was so crowded, and I was feeling uncomfortable with that many people around. Even trying to get out of there in a rickshaw took forever to get down the road because there was so much traffic!

Navratri at CEPT

Here are some pictures of the Navratri decorations at CEPT

I wish I could post the videos of the dancing, but the internet just can't handle it. Even small videos take forever and with the internet losing connectivity then I have to start over.

Vishalla restaurant

Nihal, Karuna, and Gaurab called at the last minute to go to Sarkej Roza, but it was so last minute and since I’d been already, I didn’t go. I did go after to this restaurant with them called Vishalla. http://vishalla.com/ This traditional Gujarati place for special occasions. They had music and dancers, and a Rajasthani puppet show. They had these big planks of wood for tables and you sat on the floor for dinner. It was a thali, so men keep coming around with the different food to give you more. First they brought out all these small dishes filled with different spices, tomatoes, onion, bean sprouts, beans, and such. The “thali” (plate) was made out of these big leaves stitched together.

Then they brought out the food and put in on the leaf plates – there was aloo (potato), bindi (okra), and a few other stewed vegetables. There was raita – a thin yougurt dish, jelabhi – a bright yellow sweet that kind of looks like an onion ring, kichidi – a rice dish, and some other things. So we ate all this and then went to watch the dancing again for awhile. And after that there was still ice cream so we went to have ice cream and talked for awhile. It was a very nice dinner! But pretty expensive for Rs. 400!

Oh, and Father Atilla, my mom says you are reading! You should figure out your password and post comments!

Art Book Center

Sept 19
I decided to go to the Art Book Center today; Caryn had told me about this shop that had some good architecture books, and there was a really unique one on Chandigarh I wanted to get. She told me it was easy to find, just before you get to the big intersection before Ellis bridge, near a Jain temple. Well, the auto driver didn’t take the road that we’ve always taken to Ellis bridge, so no one knew where this place was when we asked around. I finally just got out, asked where the bridge was, and started walking in that direction. After walking around back and forth down the street I finally found it. It was set a ways back from the street, so no wonder I couldn’t find it, but it was, as Caryn had said, very colorful! It was in an older structure and area that was more like the old city.

It was this tiny, old shop whose walls were completely packed with books. Even in this small space, there were three guys working in there, and it wasn’t really the type of shop you could browse in. They asked what I was interested in and found books related to that. After a few minutes they asked me to move to another seat because a big group was coming in. Well, it turned out to be this group of 10 or so women from California who were interested in textiles and touring India to look at the textiles here. Which would have been no problem, however, the three guys dropped everything to help all these women, and then when I asked for something they were like, you’re not in a hurry are you? You can wait, right? Which pissed me off because I was there first! And short-sighted of them, they had no idea – I’m gonna be here for nine months, these ladies won’t be coming back! Whatever, I told you I was in a bad mood! However I did end up finding a really great book on Chadigarh. I guess apparently it’s pretty rare, too; the men said that people come in all the time and buy 8 copies for friends. I was lucky, they had only one left. It’s great though because it has essays written by some of the original people who worked with Corbusier on the plan.

Oh and there's this big holiday called Navratri - 'Nine nights" It's especially big in Gujarat, they say people here really love to dance. So they start dancing at 10pm and it goes until 2 am or later. There are a couple particular dances they do, one with these sticks called Dandiya and the other called Garba, but they dress up in these traditional outfits and dance in a circle.

Hyderabadi Biryiani

Sept. 17

Gaurab, our friend from Nepal, just came to Ahmedabad, so Nihal, Karuna, and I all went out to dinner. We went to this restaurant, Hyderabadi Biriyani, that Nihal keeps talking about. It was really nice with fancy chandeliers. All the local people coming in were really dressed up, and we all were pretty sloppy though! The food was really good – I had some meat again- mutton and chicken. However, I still just don’t like the Hyderabadi biryani that much. It’s kind of like fried rice with chicken and all these spices – whole cloves and whole cardamom pods. There was some dessert there that Nihal kept talking about, so we asked for the dessert menu. The server said no! Even Gaurab, who speaks Hindi, couldn’t figure it out. Finally he got him to bring out a tiny little dish of this dessert. It was like bread with a bright pink, sugar syrup with nuts on it. It was really good, and really sweet, so we thought the one small dish was enough for all of us. Well, ten minutes later he brings out this enormous platter piled high with it!

More new clothes

Here are my new clothes

Autorickshaws

Since everyone keeps asking about the autorickshaws, here are some pics. They are everywhere, so transportation is easy. For my ride one-way to CEPT from my flat, it costs around Rs. 30. When I had to go all the way to the police station for my foreign registration it cost Rs. 100 once to get home, so besides my rent, it is actually probably my biggest expense.

I have taken the bus some, and that only costs a few rupees which is awesome. But sometimes the bus is full and doesn't stop for you to get on, and sometimes I just want to get home. Oh and then I'm not sure which bus to take except for the one to CEPT. But I did take the one to Gandhinagar which was only 15 Rs. which is great.

Gujari market

I went to Gujari Market on Sunday down east of Ellis bridge. There were sooo many people, sooo many rickshaws. So many things for sale. It reminded me of “Portobello Road” from the movie “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” Lots of clothes, religious articles, silver cookware, lots and lots of found objects like remote controls, tools. So many things! It was soo hot, too! Actually my roommate went earlier to film a movie for her project and ended up fainting!  She’ll probably not appreciate me telling this…

Yay! I cooked daal for my roommates for dinner last night, all by myself! Haha I think it turned out well; I liked it anyway. This morning I went to visit a Fulbright alumni in planning here in Ahmedabad. This firm had designed the new campus for IIM and had also done these town planning schemes for the new development in Gandhinagar. It was really great to talk to her because I didn’t really understand how the planning worked, but she explained it very well and had some interesting ideas for my research.

So let me tell you about shopping about dress material because it is just so fun. I think you have to get used to it first though because in the US you are kind of left alone to find what you want. Here there are all these shops where everything is on shelves behind the counter and you have to ask for it. I think it takes up a lot less space though which would make sense in a densely populated country as this. But many times the clothes or dress material for salwar kameez, these outfits I’ve had sewn, are folded on shelves. So you go in and these guys just start pulling out different pieces for you to look at. I think from the way we are accustomed to, it’s a little daunting at first; we like to be left alone to find our own thing, but here even shopping is this social activity with all these interactions, and they try so hard to sell their wares to you. It turns out being so fun though if you just have fun with it. I wanted something teal, and they kept bringing out all these other colors, so finally I said I just wanted teal. Every once in awhile they’d bring a different color – they tried a white one, but I hate white - I think they thought it was funny that I only wanted teal. They kept saying, “very fancy” or “sombor colors” or “fancy hands” which meant the sleeves were a different material. I felt so bad for only buying one thing! But it’s so much fun seeing all the different designs and colors!

My research project

So I never really explained my research project and thought I should do so..

The idea for my Fulbright project came from the time I spent in India with CapAsia IV in 2005. Although we didn’t go to Chandigarh on the trip, in our readings we talked about Corbusier and his theories of dehistoricization and defamiliarization with regards to his plan for Chandigarh. I found it really interesting that he disregarded the culture and history of the country. From my few weeks in India, I realized how complex the culture and society are and how important they are there; it was hard for me to believe that a European would come disregarding culture and attempt a plan for a place like India!

The assignments for CapAsia really helped me to think more in depth about these topics – did Corbusier’s theories really work in practice? Was he able to change the way people used the spaces he designed? Do any of these theories hold up in practice or do people negotiate their spaces and use them to fit their own needs, as Nihal spoke about on the trip? If this were the case, perhaps it didn’t matter so much that a European architect designed an Indian city.

These questions led me to my Fulbright proposal in which I will be comparing the planning of Chandigarh and Gandhinagar and how their citizens use space in each city. These two cities served as exercises in new city planning after India gained independence. The first city, Chandigarh, has had a lot of attention and study because of Le Corbusier’s work on its plans; it has been much criticized for being designed from a western viewpoint and failing to accommodate the needs of its Indian citizens. Gandhinagar, in contrast, has been studied very little and will make an interesting comparison since its designers should theoretically have known the culture and therefore taken it into account. So I will be comparing different spaces in each city and how people use these spaces. I am very excited to be continuing with these ideas that began on CapAsia and to be able to nine months exploring India more in depth!

crazy hot day in Gandhinagar

What a crazy day! So I decided I should go to Gandhinagar today to meet Kaushik, the planner Shwaran introduced me to. I must say I’m a bit proud of myself – Mom used to get impressed when I went places by myself in St. Louis – well today I took the bus to Gandhinagar by myself. And I must say that even in the US taking a bus in daunting to figure out which one goes where you want to go, but when everything is not in your language, and not even in Hindi, but Gujarati! But really all I did was go to the bus stop and ask some women if they were going to Gandhinagar and got on the same bus. Then when I got there, I also had no clue where I was!

I thought finding my way around Gandhinagar would be a lot easier because it is laid out on a grid. The E/W streets are numbered and the N/S streets are letters of the Hindi alphabet. Each square of the grid formed by the streets is called a sector, and each sector is numbered. So unlike in Ahmedabad where addresses are referenced to a neighborhood, perhaps a street, but usually to a landmark, in Gandhinagar they are referenced by their sector number. Even with this easy system I had a difficult time getting the auto drivers to understand where I wanted to go. So eventually I got to the commercial sector and walked around the shops. There are so many open spaces with gardens in Gandhinagar! But so many have fences around them. I found a restaurant, Sanjan, and had Gujarati thali for lunch which was nice. I am becoming fond of the Gujarati thali…and it’s sweetness.

So then I tried walking to the Sachivala where Kaushik works – the sector with the government administration buildings and such. Gandhinagar is a bizarre experience – the sectors are enormous for a city with such a small population; it’s so not dense at all! So I was walking along the road, the length of this enormous sector, and it is soooo hot. I mean really bad. There’s this big landscape buffer with trees to my left which is so not typically Indian, and this big median with a nice garden to the right- again so not typical. And there’s almost no one walking around at all – the most atypical for India! So I’m feeling really, really conspicuous at this point. So several random people on bikes stop and ask me where I’m from and what I’m doing. One guy rides ahead, but later he’s on the other side of the street, trying to offer me some water. People here are really friendly though; they’re just curious really and don’t seem to mean any harm. That’s why it’s nice living in areas that are not touristy. People rarely seem to try to take advantage of you; they’re usually just curious.

So Kaushik’s email said he worked in the Civil Supply building, sector 10 – one of the admin. Sectors. I asked someone and they said to go into the capitol complex with the Sachivala, so I have to go through the gates and show my ID and get a note allowing me in. They said the building I wanted was block 14, so I wander around looking for it and discover it’s on the complete opposite side, and this block is enormous. I get to building 14, and Kaushik says he’s looking for me. I get to his floor and ask for him, and this man doesn’t know who he is, so I call him and they talk. So it seems this isn’t the right building, and Kaushik’s building is not so close. This man is a government official so he has his driver take me to the building, only this building is still not right. More wandering around, Kaushik calls…general confusion, but finally I find him. Poor guy, I feel so bad that he’s been standing outside waiting for me, and it’s soooo hot. I feel soo stupid, too! The whole day wandering around..

He takes me to GNA, and the person he wants me to speak with is not there, so I speak to another planning woman instead, but she doesn’t seem to speak English so well. I just wanted to leave at this point I was getting so frustrated. She just kept saying they planned it this way because the government said too. Luckily after that he took me to his planning office and had me speak with a CEPT urban design grad who spoke English very well and who understood better what I was interested in. On one level it was great, on the other, I wonder are schools here just teaching western concepts?

Anyway then we went to GUDA – gandhinagar urban development association. They are planning the new development, really the sprawl of the city toward Ahmedabad, so this is interesting. The city is already not dense and now it’s planning the sprawl..They are basically taking land from farmers and redrawing property lines to make parcels more uniform and then selling it for commercial development. All the land inside Gandhinagar city is owned by the government, so they have strictly controlled development. It’s quite interesting actually, the whole situation. Ok, so again feeling stupid, when I leave I can’t even find my way out of the building’s complex, so one of the engineers I met there is driving by and takes me to the bus station.

Ok so the bus station, again I have no clue where these buses are going because it’s all in Gujarati. And sometimes buses just roll by, so at one point guys were getting on by pulling themselves up through the windows!! So I find another girl in a group who looks like she would speak English well, and so she says to just follow them. Well even they don’t know which bus to take, but finally after awhile we find the right one.

So I take the bus to Income Tax cross road or something or other, and I decide to poke around in the shops. There’s really nice government emporium with lovely paintings – a few of traditionally dressed Rajasthani women I would have loved to buy, only they were enormous..but so great…maybe I could ship them home. So I end up buying some more dress material for a salwar kameez – a nice silk one in purple with beautiful embroidery. So I splurged on this one – but my other ones were so cheap – only Rs. 250, this one was Rs. 1350. So still for a whole outfit a little over $30. But it’s so great here, I can have a whole outfit tailored for less than $10. In the US because I wear bigger sizes, there isn’t so much choice for me, so here I can have it tailored to fit, and I’ve decided I’m going to have a nice time with shopping for once!

So I take an autorickshaw home and decide I’ll try to learn the names of the crossroads, so I’ll know the city better. So I start asking the driver in Hindi the names of the crossroads, so he’s telling me all of them. Sometimes he points out the landmark, like a store, to ask for and the road name. It’s really interesting actually. I want to do a project on wayfinding here and perhaps interview auto drivers. We were driving and I was trying to take pictures as we drove, and the driver noticed and slowed down on the side so I could take them, so usually the drivers here are really nice.

So I get home and Arpita has been out in the heat all day too, so we go to Café Coffee Day down the street for some cold drinks. A busy day, right?? It was crazy! But I feel like I learned a lot!

Funny side note – I was showing my roommies pics from the US and she was like, wow where are all the people??? And where is all the dust! It’s so clean…so yes, two differences in the places…

New clothes

So I decided to really try and clean the bathroom well today…I see no difference after. Well, then I needed some stamps to mail for my prescriptions through our health plan, so I went to the post office. Everything is a learning process – I was apparently at the wrong window there, so was directed to another and got my stamps. I asked for postcard stamps, but she said no..not sure why.

I’ve just realized that my wardrobe consists almost entirely of purple T-shirts, so I was thinking I should remedy that rather than having people wondering, geez this girl is wearing the same shirt every day! So I went to Himalaya mall to this department store there. They had some very nice dress material that you buy to have a salwar kameez made. Some were pretty elaborate and pretty but were over Rs. 1000 just for the material plus it costs maybe Rs. 500 to have it tailored. I found some simpler stuff in the handloom style that was on sale for only Rs. 200 so I bought two sets and will take it to the tailor tomorrow when I pick up the one I dropped off earlier in the week.

Oh and there was a McDonalds in this mall, so I thought I should check it out just to see what it was like here. I opted for the McAloo Tikka sandwich, although now Caryn tells me the McVeggie patty is really good. I felt like such a cliché, an American going into a McDonalds in India :P I don’t know why people would want to go there actually – for a McAloo sandwich, fries, and a coke it was Rs. 100. For that you could have a decent meal at another restaurant. The McAloo was looked like a crispy chicken patty but was made with potatoes. It had a couple of sad tomatoes on top and a dab of what I guess was Tikka sauce. The french fries were just the same. They had a few snack wraps, one with chicken, one with paneer (cheese), a chicken sandwich, the McMaharaja which is chicken, a veggie pizza puff, and a few other items. I am a little curious about the McMaharaja so I might go back just to see….

So I asked Caryn to come have dinner with us, but it was getting late and I didn’t hear from Arpita, so I thought I should start to make something…There was rice, so I knew I could make that and throw some things in it. I added some onion and peanuts, turmeric, and another spice that I’m not sure what it was, but they use it all the time. Then Arpita came home and was like, umm, are you making anything with this? You can’t just have rice! Well I had no clue as to what else to make! Arpita was like, oh no, you have to fry this and that first or it will be hard. So she took over and made daal (lentils) to go with the rice. However they still seemed impressed that I had cooked something; Rashmi said she would have to tell her friends at work! Ha! And despite my not cooking it right, they said it still was good. Caryn brought some ice cream for dessert that was good! One was cashew and the other we think was prune or fig.

Unfortunately I’ve misplaced the cord to download my pictures, so unless I find it, I’ll have to go hunt for another before I can add some pictures. Sorry!

More Ganesh festivities

So yesterday I went to SEWA – an NGO – self employed women’s association. Fulbright encourages us to volunteer and give back while we are here, so I emailed them and they called me right away. I wasn’t there very long – the woman just wanted to know when I was available and what my experience was in be able to best utilize me. I was there maybe 15 minutes… she said she’d call me back when they found something, so we’ll see. My roommate Arpita has some other suggestions for NGOs I could help with, so we’ll see.

Let me just say that among the great things I’ve experienced already, CEPT is a huge frustration right now. They have wi-fi, but it is so hard to do anything because you are constantly losing connection. Caryn and I have gotten really frustrated with this, especially because the wireless at IIM was so superb. Even Nihal, who is generally unflappable, was aggrevated today. Perhaps even more aggravating is the library. I know in a different country you just have to adapt and not question things sometimes, but with the library it’s really difficult. I had been waiting for about a week for my library card, and so finally got it. Now, you can’t take any bags in the library at all which is a bit inconvenient, but ok, not a huge deal, right? Ok, well instead I take in a 3-ring binder where I write my notes. The first time, the librarian followed me and had to look at it to check and see if it was ok to bring in, but she let me. Then later I came back in, and they saw that I had some copies from books back home. Well apparently you can’t bring in any copied material…what am I going to do with?? Really? Seriously? I just don’t get it, it seems such an odd thing to get worried about. Ok, and then I’m searching their database online, and unfortunately it seems like almost the only things related to my research are thesis projects. Oh, and did I mention the thesis books are all kept locked up in cabinets? Yeah, so anytime you want to see them, you have to give them your library card, sign out for them, and they have to go unlock them for you. You can’t check them out at all. What are they so worried that people will do with them?? I have no clue, and the librarian barely speaks English, so I can’t ask her..which seems odd since most of the books are in English…It’s so hard to understand; if they are worried about people stealing books, why would people steal theses instead of published books? It’s really baffling and sooo frustrating, but anyway, enough with my library ranting. Back to positive things.

So today was the last day of the Ganesh festival, and so they take all these Ganesh statues to the river and put them in. There were all these processions of people with drums and in trucks with these statues. Ellis bridge was actually closed so that they could use it for the processions. There were tons of people in the river with the statue and on the banks dancing as well. Caryn and I went up on the bridge to best see everything. There were several cranes because some of the statues were so big that they picked them up with cranes and lowered them to the river. Camels were pulling these big trucks with statues maybe even 10 feet tall. Two guys went down with it to push it in. There were so many people, and we, the two white girls, were quite the spectacle. It got pretty overwhelming actually. Girls came up wanting to take their picture with us, and all these people wanted to shake our hands. Many people were throwing these colored powders, and they took great pleasure it covering us with it as well. Throwing it at us was fine, but then guys started rubbing it on our faces. At one point we were surrounded by all these young guys wanting to know where we were from and all that, wanting to shake hands. It was too much so we left. One guy in particular kind of kept following us, so we hopped in a rickshaw and got out of there. My face, chest, and hair were covered in the powder. The blue especially – I don’t know if it will come out of my shirt!

We went to dinner at this Mirch Masala place that was pretty cute. There was kind of a courtyard before you went in with this big fake tree in the middle. The inside kind of looked like a Mexican restaurant actually, but with all these Bollywood actors painted on the wall. The fact that many of them had these pencil-thin mustaches just added to the Mexican feel…but the food was still Indian. In the courtyard outside, there was a cake shop, Upper Crust, so we had a desert of chocolate cake there. We decided to go to Law Garden after that. It’s all these little street vendors selling really traditional clothes with elaborate embroidery and lots of mirrors. They say it’s a good place to get dresses for the upcoming Navratri festival. The vendors are shouting at you from all sides, and you have to bargain down with them. On the other side of the park were these little make-shift restaurants. There seemed to be a lot of Punjabi-Chinese carts but then there were all these tables, too so they were actually sit-down restaurants. It was pretty cool to see all these different people eating there at night and taking their walks at night in the garden.