Holi

Holi has officially become my favorite Indian holiday. Although it’s much bigger up North than it is in the South, we had a fantastic time celebrating with our friends Adam and Vidya at their place in Bangalore.

Holi is supposed to celebrate the coming summer and the spirit of forgiveness. What better way to forgive people than to pelt them with colored powder and douse them in water? And that’s precisely what we did!

We showed up in the morning, sparkling clean (I chose all white so that the colors would look really cool), and didn’t even make it up to Vidya’s family’s apartment before we were colored. We took a minute to put our stuff down and immediately ran downstairs to commence the festivities.

We had a few ringleaders, mainly Xanthine, who couldn’t keep herself away from the water, Vidya, who couldn’t keep herself from sabotaging people with pans of colored water, and Chetan, who couldn’t keep himself from grabbing people and holding them down for a good team sneak attack!

Throughout the festival we managed to stop for a few photos, so you can get the full effect of our color. Afterwards we rinsed off in water, enjoyed some watermelon juice and samosas, and then used detergent to scrub off the color (ouch!). 

A few of us remained colored for days- I had some nice pink in my hair plus speckled feet, Mari had some green in her hair, and Giselle had a fantastically pink ear! We finished the day off with an INR 1500 (USD 30) all you can eat and drink sushi fest.

The weekend was filled with some other luxuries too—Genny and I stayed with Giselle’s cousin, Pascal, who has a beautiful apartment and hired a car for us for the weekend, bowling, seafood risotto, awesomely bizarre music, and a tour of the famed Infosys campus.

All in all a fantabulous weekend!

Weather: how it affects you

This is my most recent monthly blog post for Deshpande Foundation. To read what others have to say, visit the globl exhange blog

I LOVE hot weather. LOVE IT!

And I would say that after living in an Indian village for a summer season that occasionally reached 49C (a whopping 120F) that I can deal with it pretty well. Dharwad is currently 25-30F shy of that, and I know that it won’t reach the temperatures of last summer (it’s a bit cooler here).

I’m easing my way into the heat- avoiding turning the fan on when possible and keeping it on low when necessary, making sure my skin is constantly protected (otherwise I’d be a walking lobster), and slowly increasing my coconut water intake (I jumped from 1 to 2 to my current 3 per day—I think my maximum will be 4). I think I’ve already made some significant improvements- I’m not dripping sweat like last year and I don’t have heat rash that the doctor mistook for mosquito bites. I’m adapting to the Indian climate!

After a hot day, there’s nothing like spending time outside on a cool night (the nights are simply splendid) or walking to the bus stop on a cool morning (the mornings are also simply splendid). Genny and I have plans for hanging a hammock and getting a few chairs outside, and sipping some cool coconut water while reading or chatting the night away on our blissful patio. To me, that sounds pretty idyllic.

Inappropriate Times in Haveri

I recently went to Haveri, a local town, to meet with an NGO called Samraksha (perhaps I will get a chance to tell you more about the organization later). The plan when I arrived was to call the Director and have her send a car to pick me up. As life in India often goes, my phone or the network or something wasn't working, and immediately a man approached me, unable to hide his enthusiasm for meeting a foreigner.

He was kind enough to let me use his mobile phone and waited with me for fifteen minutes, talking my ear off about how he's a reporter with the Indian Express, that since he has an MBA he should be able to go to the US or the UK, and asking me which one was better. Finally the car arrived and when he shook my hand goodbye, he decided it would be a good idea to lean in to kiss me on both cheeks.

Now to most westerners a kiss on both cheeks is a fine way of greeting someone you know, but in India (much less small town Haveri) it is ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE. I could see the wide eyes and gaping mouths. Married couples don't even hold hands, so you can imagine how taboo kissing (even only on the cheek) in public is. It was so inappropriate and so shocking to me that all I could do was laugh.

I hopped into the car, happy to be done with him, when in the middle of the meeting he called the woman I was meeting with just to make sure I arrived safely. All I could do was shake my head and apologize profusely. She thinks he was either unbelievably cautious or looking for a newspaper story, but I appreciated her graciousness and understanding. She actually thought it was nice of him to check in on me!

I still have no clue what that man was thinking, but all in all, it was a hugely entertaining experience.

Home Sweet Home

After 1 ½ years I finally got the chance to go home thanks to India’s new visa regulations. Here are some of the highlights!

7. Going to the Dentist

Yes, it had been 1 ½ years, and yes, there are good dentists in India, but there’s nothing like getting your teeth cleaned in an environment that feels familiar.  

6. Driving the Car While Listening to Really Bad Pop Music

There’s just something liberating about it!

5.  Watching the Olympics

I wouldn’t have had the opportunity in India!

4. Wearing my Red Bathrobe

For years my family has made fun of this household staple to my wardrobe. I made sure it got plenty of Suzanne-love when I was home.

3. Winter

It’s been 2 years since I’ve experienced real winter. Lucky for me, there was snow on the ground and a bite in the air when I first arrived. We even had a nice snowstorm during my second week home- there’s nothing like waking up in the morning, looking out my back window, and seeing a wintery palace of snow in our woods. I even got to wear winter clothes! 

2. The Food

I arrived armed with a list of goodies I had been missing for 1 ½ years. Some of my favorites: lobster, strawberry rhubarb pie, lemon meringue pie, chocolate chip cookies, broccoli, salads, brussel sprouts, and halibut. My family was awesome enough to make sure I checked everything off my list and then some!

1.  Seeing my Family, Friends, and Eugene!

My trip home included a lot of quality time with my family, a trip down to DC to visit my friends and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom, spending a few days with my grandma, dinner with two college professors, and helping adjust Julia’s new dog, Eugene, to the family. He’s a 9 year old beagle who has never really had a home his whole life; I wish I could have packed him in a suitcase and brought him back with me! 

My New Friend

Genny and I have tried taking this new puppy under our wing. Her name is Gringa- how cute!

Reflections on Mann Deshi

Ever since I left Mann Deshi, I've thought about how I should convey my experience to others. Instead of venting for pages and pages, and discussing what I've learned from all the negativity, I leave you my friend Rama's words. He captures a majority of the experience very succinctly, and I request that you take the time to read it: http://rsivalog.blogspot.com.

The Best Things about Christmas this Year

6. Our holiday Christmas cookie ornament-decorating party
In mid-December, before the fellows parted ways for the holidays, Genny and I hosted a small party. We had Christmas cookies (gingerbread cookies that our local baker was kind enough to bake for us, stroopwafels that my parents were kind enough to send, and apple crisp), and we forced our friends to make ornaments for our tree. Lots o’ fun!

5. The movies
One of our main Christmas activities was watching Christmas movies. We watched Little Women, A Christmas Story, Love Actually, and Miracle on 34^th Street!

4. Our decorations
Genny and I labored for hours on our Christmas decorations, most of which were made out of paper. We made a wreath, snowman, fire, snowflakes, green & red and blue & white paper chains, and garland. We were lucky enough to find a Christmas tree and Santa hats in Hubli. And my parents were nice enough to send stockings, a Christmas flag, a snow globe, and a cute little penguin in a box. Our house looks amazingly tacky, but we LOVE it!

3. The food
Genny, Giselle, and I thought long and hard about what we wanted and what was practical for our three Christmas feasts (Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas brunch, and Christmas dinner). My favorite selections were apple crisp, strata, stuffing, and spinach patties (an adaptation of spinach balls).

2. The people
Genny and Giselle are just awesome people. And if I had to be away from my family and friends, I can’t imagine two better people with whom to celebrate.

1. The Christmas Eve dance party
While we were in the middle of cooking our delicious feast, the girls from down the street stopped by our house. I was really touched that girls so young (early teens) would be thoughtful enough to wish us a Merry Christmas and make us cards.

We offered them some butter cookies, and our collective excitement transformed into a Christmas dance party! We exchanged Indian and American moves, and upon the suggestion of one of the girls, had a catwalk-off. She definitely won.

For a few minutes things settled down. The girls asked to see pictures of Santa, so we obliged using the internet. When Genny asked, “Who do you want to see next?” they shouted in unison, “Jesus Christ!” followed by the most outspoken girl, Sushmita, stating, “He’s such a great guy.”

Unable to contain our laughter, we loaded a picture of Jesus. Unfortunately the first one to load was of Jesus drinking wine and smoking a cigarette. Genny’s quick save: “Oh, Jesus is having some juice!”

Eventually we moved on from the photo sharing, and Giselle, menorah in hand, taught the girls about Hanukkah. We then returned to dancing to our Christmas music before the girls had to head back to their hostel.

We were all smiles when they left. Christmas in India really couldn’t have gotten any better. It’s moments like dancing with those girls that I wish I could share with people back home-those are the moments that define my experience, make life here extra special, and make me never want to leave.

And the most endearing part of all? The cards were addressed: “Dear Johnny and Swizzy.” How can you beat that?