Mysore, +

Hello blogger! Yesterday was the 3 month marker on my time in India. Only a little over 1 more. It feels unreal that I've been here only 3 months. It feels like it's been much more. I'm so glad of the time I still have. And this month is going to be fun, and full of trips, to the North (to see the Ganges, the Taj Mahal, Kolkata, and the Himalayas. and MamaJ does say it right. kudos acknowledged.) Amazingly classes and projects seem to be wrapping up here, which is funny because it honestly feels like I've just started to get into what I'm learning. I still have some to go, but one of classes, for instance, isn't meeting anymore until our final at the end of April...

Many things have happened lately. Last weekend CIEE took us on another trip, all 30 of us, to Mysore and Bangalore this time. Both are places to the west of Hyderabad, and I liked them a lot, more than Hyderabad in many ways in fact. We went to a Tibetan Resettlement Community for refugees fleeing Tibet, where this man told us all about their community. Tibetans are not Indian citizens unless they officially apply for citizenship, and instead they have to reapply for visitor-settled visas each year. The community, and others like it all over India, were given a certain amount of land back when China invaded Tibet, and they have established their own schools and temples, monasteries, state and government, etc. It's so so really interesting how they have continued to have a country exist, just resettled in a totally different location, AND they are all spread out all across India. They told us how they are always thinking about going home, always seeking and reminding themselves of how they are only visiting India until they get Tibet back--that seems a weird way to put it, but literally that is the only way I can think of putting it. They are not about to "take it back, because it's all about nonviolence, so they are just waiting for China to get the hell out! it's complicated, obviously and I don't know enough about it yet. We were told that at first the fleeing Tibetans who came to India didn't want to build sturdy or good homes, or buy too much food because they thought it would go to waste since they didn't expect to be in India for too long. That was 40 years ago. And they still are waiting, just using the area given to them by the Indian government, hoping always to get to go home.

Later we went to one of their Buddhist monasteries, which is full of all Tibetan men, dressed in the traditional maroon and yellow robes, shaved heads, no shoes. Candles everywhere, temples with giant Buddha statues. It felt like a trip to a totally different country, and in a way that is what we were doing. That is the point of these resettlement communities: it is Tibet just on a different plot of land. It has the culture, the food, the religion, the people, the customs, the language, the agriculture, the buildings, all of it is Tibetan, just in India. The whole place had a wonderful feel to it, so peaceful and relaxing. Really amazing. It made me wish I had actually done thathet Buddhist monastery semester abroad in Dharmasala...but I can still do that another trip. I realized simultaneously that if I were to go live in a Buddhist monastery for 5 months I would have to change so much of the craziness in myself, and get more calm, and relaxed. And while I am sure that one day I will do that and it will be great, I'm not actually ready to give up the insanity of my mind just yet. I'm only 21. I don't need to be quiet and peaceful and one with the universe just yet. maybe later. maybe.

We also went to a temple town, saw a lot of poop on the ground, and walked around a cute, small town area in the rain. Later that day we celebrated Holi. Holi is a national holiday in India. It is not associated with any one religion, but is in fact one of the coolest spiritual festivals. During Holi all of India comes out to the streets wearing white clothes, to spray and smear each other with colored water, and to throw colors of pigment onto each other. The idea behind Holi is that by putting color on someone else you are erasing the lines of skin color that divide us. In India that is a really strong message because of the history here of so many types of people, religions, races, and groups--all living together. The belief is that if you put colors on your enemy during Holi all the past hatred between you is to be forgotten and you are to be friends from then on. I like this idea so much. It is a holiday that seems to capture what I love about how tolerant Indian culture is.

We played Holi at our hotel in the street with all us white kids, and of course locals came to "watch" but we chased them with buckets of water and some of them joined in to play with us. CIEE had organized for these traditional drummers to come and play while we played. So it was like this giant colored water fight-dance party! It was such a blast and of course, being Americans we took it probably farther than usual and starting dumping whole buckets on each other and getting the packets of color pigment and throwing the powder on each other. It was amazing.

The next day was Easter and they took us to a church in Mysore. Of course I had the wrong idea of church here. It's so ingrained in me to think of churches representing a quiet place of spirituality. WRONG. Even though I've been to a church here already, I was still shocked to find it draped in streamers, with really loud music blasting from giant speakers on the inside and outside, crazy tiny lights everywhere inside, and SO SO SO many people. and Mary wears a sari.

It was a crazy weekend of thinking about how India sees spirituality. There was the quietness of the Buddhists, a place I felt so comfortable just sitting in and thinking in quiet; there was the insanity of the Hindu temple with all the incense, flowers colored dust and pushing people with babies in their arms; and there was the equally jostling church covered in streamers, loud music blasting, and Mary in a sari. I realized how here in India religion, like everything else, is not a private affair. I think of being spiritual as this time when we can sit and think and be alone with our thoughts. But here, there are just so many people that it is unrealistic to assume that you are ever going to get a moment of quietness alone in a temple where you could 'see' GOD! that seems ridiculous actually, that such quiet contemplation could happen frequently in one of the churches or temples I've been to so far...So instead people here have at to adapt their spirituality and religion so that they are able to feel that unity with their beliefs even in 100 degree heat, with music blasting, surrounded by a hundred people all pushing to get close to the shrine.

That weekend was very auspicious. That is a favorite word in India. Everything is auspicious. But really, last weekend was a crazy combination of so many things happening at once. It was a full moon. And it was the prophet Mohammed's birthday. And it was Holi. and it was Good Friday and Easter. And it was a Jewish holiday I can't remember the name is. And it was a new year celebration in another culture I also can't remember. If that isn't auspicious, I don't know what is.

So that was the weekend. And now it's been another week, where some friends from CIEE and other university students put on the Vagina Monologues, which was amazing to watch in India. I had thought it would just be another production, but it was really remarkable to watch and hear it in the context of this country. It was the first time I've ever heard an Indian accent say the word 'vagina' which is strange in itself. It was really powerful and meant a lot that it was put on here on our campus. It had a different ring to it, femininity in the context of the VMons in INdia is like talking about something so hushed up and quiet its become habit to pretend it does not exist in any form. It was really powerful to have the topic spoken about in the open within the context of this culture.

And now it's the weekend and I did work the whole time. WHAT? Yes, homework. At coffee shops around Hyderabad, where they only serve the intense drinks--can't seem to get a simple iced coffee, and where they play techno music at full volume all day. And serve overly intense chocolate cake. India is so proud of itself when it is able to have all this stuff at once. So it does it. If you could have a coffee blended with ice and ice cream and whipped cream and chocolate syrup, WHY would you ever want a simple iced coffee???

Good question, India, good question.