Monthly Archives: October 2014

Daily Life, India

Fun with an old friend – and her kid?

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International friends often comment about how we just pick up where we left off whenever we get back together. We vacation in each other’s countries, crash at each other’s houses, and use each other as tour guides after years apart. The elephant in the room is this: How will our friends’ KIDS change over the years? And will we WANT them to visit?

One of my close friends in Shanghai was a New Jersey gal named Colleen (aka Col, Shiny, Shiny Pop Pow, Sheila Pot Pie and who knows what else?). Her daughter Brenna was in early elementary school at the time and had some mighty fine dance moves, not to mention prehensile toes like mine that she could spread apart or use to pick up objects. Our favorite story about Brenna continues to make its way around the world and epitomizes what it means to be a Third Culture Kid. Her grade 2 spelling test featured weather words, but instead of “typhoon,” she wrote, “Thai food.”

Of course this story surfaced last week when Shiny brought Brenna to India for their fall break last week. “I even asked two times,” she recalled. “‘Really? Thai food?’ and Ms. Nutting said, ‘Yes! Typhoon.’ But I heard, ‘Thai food.'”

I hadn’t seen Brenna since both our families left Shanghai in 2009.
Here she was in 2006.
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And here we are comparing toes back then.
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Here she is now with her mom.
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I forgot to ask about her toes or her latest dance moves, but I can say that she blew me away with her curiosity and enthusiasm, maturity and confidence, sense of humor and knowledge of India. More than once, someone would ask a question about Indian history, food or religion, and Brenna would have the answer. Amazing! I must admit my heart swelled when she badgered our tour guide with questions at the Udaipur Palace. I do believe I’ve found my Guide Hog Jr.
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Oh, I was also thrilled to see Shiny! But I knew I would be.

I wasn’t so sure how I’d feel about spending my weekend with a teenager. I adored LITTLE Brenna, but … you know, now she’s a TEENAGER. What a glorious relief to say I loved every minute of my time with her, and I can’t wait to see both of those goofy, gorgeous girls again soon.

India, Uncategorized

Devil’s Circuit – down and dirty in Delhi

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October 12, 2014

Last year, an adventurous group of AES teachers participated in a local mud run. I asked if they passed out Z-packs at the end of the race and joked that the free beer should include a shot of hepatitis vaccine. I mean, Delhi is a dirty city in the best of times. We take off our shoes when we come in the house. We rinse off our feet if we step in puddles. Do I really want to intentionally roll around in Delhi mud? Then … an email announcing this year’s event appeared in my mailbox, and this time I couldn’t control my hyperactive FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Before I knew it, I had sent a “reply all” adding my name to the list of participants.

Today was the day. The Devil’s Circuit.

With an eye on the “best costume” prize, our leader and first-grade teacher, Kate, urged us all to dress in school colors or otherwise promote the AES Tigers. She had tiger tails and hats made for us. I wore knee-length yellow and white socks (which were yellow no more within minutes), an AES “Game Day” T-shirt, my tail and tiger hat. Middle school drama teacher Beth brought the face paint and managed to decorate much of our crew despite the bumpy bus ride.

Clint got a very scary tiger mask made.
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face paint

After a very long bus ride, we arrived at Wave City, where the sign reads, “Welcome to the city that thinks for you.” Here’s the scoop from the Wave City website:

Wave City is one of India’s largest Smart Cities, which is spread across an impressive 4500 acres. It is built on the Smart City concept by IBM. World renowned AECOM is its Town planner & Landscape designer. Wave City is constructed keeping in mind contemporary design and new–age architecture. With the luxury of open spaces and modern designs, this city ensures a pampered, secure and luxurious lifestyle. It boasts of more than 750 acres of green spaces, wide roads & congestion-free BRT network for smooth traffic flow, mechanized garbage control systems, fiber optic connectivity for each resident, 24×7 security systems, healthcare provisions including hospitals, medical university, ISKCON Temple, educational institutions, local shopping centers, malls and multiplexes – among many other facilities. It is a city full of vigor and vitality, which makes it the perfect place to enjoy a comfortable, convenient and uncluttered lifestyle.

Ummm… right. We didn’t see much “vigor and vitality.” But there was tilled parched earth as far as the eye could see with an occasional little park and clusters of concrete buildings. Lots of signs promoted communities of the future, such as Greenwood Enclave. It’s hard to imagine any enclave here being green or woody. For some reason, roadblocks prevented our bus from using the marked route to the Devil’s Circuit. We actually went off road, rocking and bumping on a pitted dirt path, to reach the race.

This sign cracks me up! That “sample built-up” ain’t gonna happen.
model homes

wave city

off roading

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tails

Right off the bat, we slogged through thick slippery mud, climbing over or ducking under hurdles. I skipped quite a few of the obstacles, particularly those that predictably plopped competitors into a mud pit. However, I did conquer a few, including:
* hopping across wooden poles stuck upright in the mud,
* climbing a wall and rappelling down the back,
* scurrying up, over and down a rope spider web arch,
* pulling myself out of a deep pit with mud up to my shins,
* scooting across a beam stretched over a mud pit while holding hands with my friend Beth, who was doing the same on a parallel beam, and
* carrying a sand bag from point A to point B (I dumped out about half the sand … shhh.).

Wow, I’m racking my brain and I can’t think of any more. I started to tackle the monkey bars, but the bars were too big and wet to grip, so I quickly gave up. I managed to stay dry from the knees up until we came to the last obstacle. There we had to lie down face-up in a muddy trench and use the chain link fence covering the opening to pull ourselves through the water to the exit. We emerged completely soaked and muddy. The finish line included a tank of icy cold water. We climbed out, shook our tails for the cameras and then claimed our participation medals. As the only group in costumes, we also won the costume contest!

Brave Tami!
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Kate and Kathryn came up with a creative way to get across the pit, so Beth and I followed suit.
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More pics.
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dancing

dancers

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The Devil’s Circuit Facebook Page featured this shot of us as their banner for a few days. Pretty hilarious!
mud run

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India

On the quest for Dussehra Demons

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Last week I joined a walking tour to see the massive effigies under construction for today’s Dussehra celebrations. However, I just realized I’ve never blogged about Dussehra! So, first things first.

The Hindu religious epic Ramayana depicts the life of Rama, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who ultimately defeats the evil Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, after a 10-day battle. Dussehra is the day to celebrate that victory.

This short video by WildFilmsIndia summarizes the epic and its relevance in India today.

All over India, village actors re-create the life of Ram in performances called Ramlila. The show culminates in an explosive spectacle when Ram’s fiery arrow ignites the towering effigies of Ravana and his son and brother. Fireworks built into the monumental bamboo frames blast from the bodies, spiraling and whistling, showering sparks and ash over the cheering audience.

Somebody has to build those effigies. But where? And how? Surekha of Delhi Metro Walks was ready to answer our questions. We met at the Patel Chowk metro station and had to change trains at Rajiv Chowk. That’s where we encountered a mob apparently attacking the glass police booth. (See the article below.) Delayed and blocked from getting to our train, we instead hopped aboard a train going the other direction, got off after one stop and switched to the other side to get going the right way.

When we finally stepped off the metro at Tagore Garden, we looked down from the platform to see the street lined with dismembered effigies.
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Unfortunately, thanks to the metro mob, we arrived just before sunset. We hurriedly dashed up one side of the street, watching men stick foil designs on what looked like massive torsos, and then crossed the street to snap photos of the giant heads. In the dwindling light, we watched workers dab paint on the faces, glue paper on bamboo frames, and load the body parts onto trucks and tuk-tuks.

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Check out my flickr album to see more photos.

Click on D’source to learn the steps in making a Ramlila effigy.

Here’s an article from the Hindustan Times about the brouhaha we encountered at the metro stop.

Daily Life, India

fruit salad for the soul

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I wrote this on Sept. 6, but in my sleep-deprived haze, I obviously forgot to publish it. So here it is… update to follow soon.

After one month back in Delhi, Tony and I both feel wrecked.

Our two cats, Khushi and Ella have spent many holidays without us, lovingly accompanied by our housekeeper Raji. However, something went wrong over the summer. We may never know what it was, but we returned to find Khushi nearly emaciated, bristling with anxiety and incontinent.

Ella seemed unscathed, other than apparent confusion over her sister’s sudden personality change, and is still as playful and affectionate as ever.
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Poor Raji swears nothing bad happened to Khushi. She says the cat just started crying a lot and peeing outside the litterbox shortly after we left for the States. In typical Indian fashion, she didn’t want to upset us by emailing the details. Instead, I got an automated email from the vet: “Dear Khushi, Thank you for your visit!” When I wrote to Raji back in July, she admitted taking Khushi to the vet but assured me all was well. It wasn’t.

In addition to the manic schedule as we geared up for the start of school (administering language assessments to applicants, helping new teachers learn the ropes, unpacking my stuff after moving classrooms, preparing for our EAL consultant’s visit, etc.), we took Khushi to the vet every evening for an antibiotic injection and a sedative. The drug wore off within a couple hours, so we took turns staying with her in the locked guest room all night, where she howled and prowled and otherwise didn’t sleep. The noise, the worry, the stress over where she would pee next kept us awake night after night.

We tried a different vet, who explained the possibility that a botched sterilization could lead to similar symptoms. If any bits of her reproductive system had been left inside when she was spayed, she could still be going into heat. We watched to see whether her behavior was cyclical. And we continued to spend our nights awake and stressed out.

For a few days, it seemed Khushi was getting better, and then she peed on Tony’s briefcase.

We called yet another vet. This one made house calls. He came over last Sunday night and gently examined Khushi. He suggested we try some anti-anxiety drugs. In the States, a month’s worth of Alprazolam costs about $100. In Delhi, we got 20 pills for 50 rupees, which is 83 cents. They only come in people form here, so I have to cut one pill into eighths, so that 83 cents bought us 160 days of treatment! On the other hand, I ordered Feliway (“a synthetic copy of the feline facial pheromone, used by cats to mark their territory as safe and secure – the secret to happy cats!”) from amazon, and my mom sent it by UPS at the cost of $145, so I guess it all balances out. At this point, we’ll pay anything for some sleep.

Khushi, waking up from a nap. Must be nice.
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I’m on the brink of tears at any given moment, and Tony paces around the house, wide-eyed and snappy. That’s why, this morning, too exhausted to contemplate making breakfast, I almost crumpled to the floor with happiness to find this.
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Raji had left a weekend’s worth of cut-up fruit: papaya, mango, apples, pears, pomegranate and oranges, plus a banana on the side. I hardly put forth any effort, short of opening the yogurt and brewing a pot of coffee. It was fruit salad for the soul.

Stay tuned. We hope to have news of a back-to-normal cat in the coming weeks.