bangles and bindis

My women friends are starting to indoctrinate me into the high fashion of rural India. Yesterday they gave me glass bangles, clear with whispy black stripes. They clink and clang together like rain on a tin roof, delicate and dainty. They also have started to stop by the house in the morning and put a small jewel between my eyebrows, like they all wear. I'm fitting in as well as a fair skinned blue eyed curly blonde haired girl can in rural India.

Friends are starting to share secrets with me of love affairs, "special" friends, and people who they want to marry but are out of your caste. Perhaps this isn't as uncommon as they would have had me believe at first. In a way, we are the safest people to tell such secrets too, we are casteless, curious, and supportive.

Things that really bothered me at first are starting to feel normal to me, like high wasted loose fitting clothes. I'm getting used to being in the limelight, to standing out, to drawing a crowd. I don't mind that men won't shake my hand anymore, sometimes, I'm even glad. My body has adjusted to the food. Now when people hold back on spice because they think I can't handle it, I can tell, and am disappointed. People are getting used to me, and I am getting used to them and to this place. I'm used to the smells when driving, the intermingled waves of exhaust, feces, incense, fire, food and livestock. I'm used to people asking about Shakira. I'm also getting used to REALLY disappointing people when I tell them that WWF is fake, in fact, I almost enjoy it. It seems like more of a disappointment than when you discover that your dad eats the cookies you left out for Santa.

I think the US will feel really weird to me when I return, when Indian life has become the norm. I wonder how that adjustment will be, how long it will take.

I don't think I'll miss the bugs. The mosquitos. The no-see-ems. The centepides. The thatisthebiggestugliestbugihaveeverseenbutdontknowwhatyoucallits. Every night when I'm fighting with the internet, the bugs that don't congregate on my laptop screen are batted at me by the ceiling fan. I pulled a tick out of my skin yesterday. I hate ticks.

We're sitting in the livingroom this afternoon, sharing the internet while it rains outside. There is a fresh breeze blowing through the screenless windows. We're talking about buying a goat to eat our garbage while teaching our friend how to head bang to System of a Down. Talking about maybe going into town when the rain stops while showing him "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas.

Yesterday we went into town to my friend Sonum's house. Her aunt and cousins were in town from New Jersey. Her aunt grew up in the same house that Sonum lives in, and came back to visit for 6 weeks this summer. Her children, 11 and 9, speak English, Hindi, and can understand other languages of India, like Marahti, Gujarahti. I think its so amazing to be bilingual so young, to have such a diverse cultural background. Maybe it would be confusing and difficult at times.

Two days ago, we visited a small, small village that is maybe 100 meters away from the college campus. Our security guard is from there, and invited us the day after I gave him a raki. Everyone wanted to have us into their houses for chai. They put a bindi on my forehead, and gave me chai, sans milk. It was really great. I pet a calf, which I think they thought was funny. I saw these weird insects, they looked like a fistful of worms or centipedes that just turns over and over itself, inching along the ground in a heap.

I think I'm going to make a point to visit this village every other day. It will force me to learn Hindi faster than I am here, where everyone wants to learn English. I'm also going to start getting up for yoga at 6am. They give lessons in a building about 50 feet away from my front door. Afterwards, I'll play handball with the ladies until 8:30, shower, prepare for my classes, and teach. I'm going to learn to drive a scooter on Monday, and am thinking about buying a bicycle. This will enable me to travel more freely into town and around town.

Carpe diem!