Neighbor Emily and Me

Molly from Lawrence

Travel Group

Secretary Shruti

Sari Picture

Friday

was not all that great, really.

I had to go to lessons at 8:15 this morning. I told my host family yesterday morning, but they forgot, so I didn't have breakfast this morning. I rushed through a cup of tea and two pieces of buttered bread and lots of apologies that put me leaving at 8:07 instead of 8:00. It was early, so there were few rickshaw wallas out, and I couldn't be choosy. I ended up paying almost double the normal cost to get from my house to lessons. On the way there, a man got hit in the street. He was unconscious and being carried by five men to the sidewalk. Where he had been hit, there was a big pool of blood. I'm not sure he was alive.

I got to lessons two minutes late... the tabla player got there ten minutes late.

After classes today, Sucheta (director of ACM) called me into her office. Apparently, my guru is more frustrating than even I realized. I've been paying her for my lessons. ACM has also been paying her for my lessons. On the positive side, I got the $10 ACM was planning to give her for the tabla player.

Yesterday was better.

Yesterday, Sarah and I went sari shopping the fun way. After the failure with Anju, we took it upon ourselves to find what we wanted. So, we went into the sketchy, lower class part of India and looked for the working-class saris that the maids wear. It was actually a pretty cool experience.

For starters, the lower castes do not get very thorough education. India has a program that provides meals for low caste children at school as motivation to come to school. However, even then, the low castes don't really learn English. So, Sarah and I had a lot of basic conversations in Marathi. It was really good to know that after three months and six hours a week of a language, we can effectively have some sort of conversation in it.

For the most part, we just needed basic stuff. “I want a white sari.” “I am from America.” “I don't like that one.” “How much does it cost?” “We're studying Marathi...” etc. But it was nice all the same.

And, now, I have two more saris and Yemna's Christmas present. “Two?” you ask? Yes, two. I set a budget of $20 to by my white toga-sari and Yemna's present. I was a little worried that that wouldn't be enough money after the sari fiasco with Anju. We all had said we wanted sarees on the cheap end of the scale... she took us to a place where no one got a sari for under $10... most people paid closer to $40. So, I was a little bit worried about getting two sarees for $20. I should have known better than to worry. I ended up spending only $16 for the two sarees I needed... and then, I found a purple sari that I kind of fell in love with. Coincidentally, it was less than $4. And it's PRETTY!

Right now, both sarees are at the tailor's getting hemmed, getting a fall, and having a blouse made. By Monday, they will be done. Hopefully, this time, they'll fit me.

The way saris work is that you basically just buy 6 to nine yards of fabric. You take that fabric to the tailor, and he cuts off a yard or two to make a blouse for you. He hems the ends of the fabric, and then he puts a fall at the bottom. A fall is basically just a cotton strip of fabric that acts as reinforcement, so if you step on the bottom, it won't rip. Blouses aren't what we think of as blouses. First of all, they're short. They usually go to about the bottom of the rib cage, maybe not even that far. They do button up the front, but the fabric of the sari covers the front of the blouse, so that doesn't matter. They usually have short sleeves, but sometimes they come sleeveless. Since you can't really have different cuts or styles in saris, fashion trends come and go in the form of the cut of the back of the sari. For example, last year, it was trendy to have the back cut in a V-neck. This year, scoop necks are what's popular. Tailors will make all sorts of asymmetrical cuts for the back of the blouse.

The picture I posted last week was of a lady selling crabs on Paud Road near where I live. When I say “near,” I mean “four miles away, but on the walk home.” There's kind of an unsanctioned fish market where a bunch of people just line the streets selling all kinds of seafood. Live fish, flopping on the concrete. Dead fish, laid out in rows. Big fish. Small fish. Eels. Shrimp. Live crabs, trying frantically to get out. That lady was sitting with a half dozen crabs in her lap. I tried to ask permission to take the picture, but she didn't speak enough English to understand what I wanted.

However, an Indian man came up to me and, noticing my wonder at the sight, explained to me that “that is a crab. It comes from the ocean...” Yes... I know what it is. I'm just not used to seeing it crawling around someone's lap.

Saturday:

Well, I spent all day practicing. That was probably a bad choice, considering the way my arm cramped during my recital and made me almost drop my bow mid-song. However, I still performed well, and everyone enjoyed my playing.

Backstage dramas of the night: A lizard decided to hide in my violin case. It ran across the stage, through the people waiting behind the curtain, and headed directly for my violin case. Then it disappeared. I was kind of worried it would crawl out of my violin during my performance.

My recording program quit working as the show was starting, and I needed to record my music for my independent study project. After three restarts, muting the speakers, and letting my computer go into sleep mode, the program began recording again. Toshi always comes through... eventually.

As of now, I have thirty minutes of music recorded. Tomorrow, I'll burn it onto 4 CD's (one for the ACM India records, one for ACM Chicago Office, one for my evil-guru-lady to grade, and one for my host family) and then I'll be done with that part of my project. I just need to type up a conclusion and finish my works cited, and I'll be done with my 25 page project and 30 minute CD.

Sunday:

Emily and her host mom and I went to Kaka Raju's apartment for breakfast. He called yesterday to invite us to Sunday breakfast, so this morning he picked us up and we went. He got there by Indian time – he said he'd pick us up at 9:30am... but a little past 10am, he got to Ved Vihar. We brought his kids some presents and Emily's host mom made Kaka Raju's wife a necklace.

It was a little bit sad eating there with them. They made a rice dish, Pohe. They brought out their good dishes for us, but they ate on the normal stainless steel plates and bowls. We got huge servings, and they ate from tiny little bowls. And when I say huge, I mean it. I didn't think I was going to be able to finish mine. Emily's host mom barely finished hers after taking multiple breaks from it. Emily couldn't make it through her whole bowl, so I ended up eating mine and about a third of hers because I didn't want to insult them by wasting their food.

Kaka Raju and his wife got us each presents. Costume jewelry bracelets and rings. We taught his kids how to use blow-pens to make art. It was a really nice morning.

However, since Kaka Raju didn't pick us up til ten, it was probably eleven by the time we ate breakfast. I got home a little after noon, and around one, my host family had lunch. I was still full from the pohe and not eating very much, and then my Aai made the comment of “when you do not take second helpings, I think you do not like my food...” So I had seconds... and thirds. I'm dreading dinner, because I really just don't know where anything else is going to fit.

I brought a pair of white pants to India. However, everything gets dirty really quickly here because of all the dirt, rain, and pollution. So, I've only worn these pants for special occasions. They've made it these entire nearly four months without any stains or dirt splotches. Today, I wore them to Kaka Raju's. I made it through breakfast and blow pens and walking around India. Then, once I was back at Ved Vihar studying, my pen leaked all over them. Failure.

Nearly four months in India:

1 month without shaving my armpits.

1 bra completely ruined.

2 pairs of shoes with the soles worn through.

2 pairs of sunglasses... gone.

2.5 months without shaving my legs.

4 empty rolls of deodorant.

6 pairs of contacts used up... twice what I use in America in that span of time... so much pollution.

24 people to buy presents for.