A potpourri of feelings

Sadness. Joy. Anxiety. Boredom. Pride.

Somehow it’s hard to describe what’s going on in my head here in India. Recent events have left me in quite a turbulence.

What’s really inspiring is people’s sense of loyalty here, although sometimes I feel like it’s on the verge of lunacy when speaking of Ashish. He has helped me out enormously, and I begged him to take a day off, he had been feverish and yet he went to work diligently in the morning. He wouldn’t hear of it of course. The same with Omji, coming to work every day even though he was evidently ill. It’s inspiring is all I say.

This morning I had an interview with a man working at a centre for education. After the interview was finished and I had turned off the dictaphone he turned to me and said it was his turn to ask me a few questions. I was a bit taken aback by this, but of course I said it was OK; it had been fun talking to him. I was a bit anxious since his tone was rather harsh, I wondered if I had done something wrong (never easy to know the myriad of faux pas possible in a different milieu). Anyhow, he turned to me and said: “I really hope you can change some of the things you say about my religion in your country.” I don’t know what I’m able to accomplish with my simple C thesis in Religion, but I felt pride that he considered my thesis an important one, and at the same time I felt a bit ashamed of what he thought was being said in Swedish schools. All in all, it had me thinking…

He stated that every single person in the universe is connected to each other. His God is the same as any other God, but God has given mankind the ability to divide, something he wasn’t too sure if it was a good idea or not.

And I concur. I detest the divisions, segregations, preconceptions, the labeling of people; the cultures, sub cultures, faiths, traditions, experiences merged. Cannot a man simply be a man – without all these clusters? But I digress… what I really meant to say was that language really is a barrier, not impossible to overcome, but it’s a tough hill to climb. There really is something about the tower of babel.

Sometimes I curse my sense of logic. I might be a sensitive person, but I find it hard to put my faith in a supernatural force. And logically, since my faith in technology and universal rules are there without the basis of evidence (who am I to prove theories of Einstein and Newton, who am I to argue with the likes of Aristotle, Locke, Sartre and Freud?), I should be able to support the notion of a God. But there is something in me resisting, for better or for worse. It’s depressing sometimes, to be able only to put faith in yourself and your loved ones. I might be a bitter, cynical sod sometimes, but I try to be a loving kind of guy.

My raving stops here, but please don’t misjudge, alright?

Cheers

Fuck you, Fungi

It’s been a bit moist in our room since the roof is leaking… water dripping on the fans, spreading a nice arc of wet all over the place. Not that I mind of course. That is, until I noticed that there are actual mushrooms growing in my bookshelf. And no, I don’t mean like small ones, here, take a look.

When I was transcribing yesterday’s interview (which was a hassle by the way), Ashish came running in, shouting at me to come. Since he seemed rather panicked I left all my things and ran along. What I faced down on the street was not really what I expected. On the street there was a congregation of girls (and boys, although dressed up like girls with neat make up and wigs to match) marching around with drums and banners. In the middle of it all there was a girl on horseback, holding a sword and shield. Apparently some local woman freedom fighter was born right next to Ashish café, and today they celebrated her birthday. Was fun to see lil’ boys dressed up like Brits, marching with swords in their backs, haha.

Me and the boys went to I:ba to eat today, that place is a haven from chaos. I ordered chicken momo, Thai coconut wook, sticky rice, mineral water, cabbage & carrot salad, a tiny pudding and spring rolls; for about 60 SEK… yummy much?

Back home Ashish came running yet again; this time with a packet in his fond embrace – a packet full of gunpowder. Or well, firecrackers. The guy is a complete lunatic; he tossed around explosives like a well-bred pyromania. Looking somewhat like this:

Feeling India First Hand

Couldn’t post yesterday so here goes.

Started with my interviews for the C paper today, and it was quite a thrilling experience. The First fellow turned out to be of the wrong caste, the second one got up and left after 10 minutes, apparently he was in a hurry. The third interview finally got some results going. However, it’ll be hard to transcribe it since it was held on a bench in the middle of a highly trafficed road. And of Course there were some people arguing with the interviewee about the ‘korrekt’ answers.
Ashish just showed up, eyes gleaming like a child’s. He’s been off buying fireworks for dewali, a festival taking place on wednesday. I haven’t seen him that happy ever, ‘s kind of cute.
Anyway, I’m bored silly and out of good series to watch so I’ll be heading for the bed soon. Yawn. Cheerio.

Kabaddikabaddikabaddikabaddikabaddikabaddikabaddi…

…kabaddikabaddikabaddikabaddi is yet another thing I’ve missed out on due to my god awful cold. Bah. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to be tackled by Indian blokes on the banks of Ganga. For those of you with no idea what Kabaddi is about, it’s one of the biggest sports in India, along with cricket – and it looks something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ZzVeCgUVY

It’s basically a game of tag, with tackling involved, and a part of it involves shouting kabaddikabaddikabaddikabaddi and not run out of breath. Sounds like fun, no?

At 6:30 this morning Emil left for a game of Kabaddi along with some Canadians and Americans. They were meeting the staff at Open Hand Café, and I wanted to join so bad but lay home coughing instead. I’m just thankful I’m ill now so I’ll probably be healthy when the mum & missus come to visit. Most of the guys have gone to Clarks to have a swim, I’m holding out ’til I’ve got a hotel room of my own. Going to be sweet to take a break from Ganga Mahal. A rat had gnawed holes in my tooth paste tube, so when I squeezed on it I managed to get white goo all over my pants, neat.

Now I’m just waiting for Ashish to come up and continue with last day’s work, we’re currently translating textbook paragraphs from English to Hindi, and since he can’t write in Devanagari on his computer he has to do it by hand, poor bloke.

Anyhow, it’s high time for me to stop reading nonsense philosophy. I ran out of books so I had to go buy a stack from a guy down the street, managed to get a hold of a semi-fictional book by Stephen Hawkings, a book on cognition and language by Umberto Eco and some Japanese novel, Umibe no Kafuka. All in all, I miss my low-brow fantasy and other books I can plow through… Last night I dreamt I was a guy philosophizing with a cat on the roof. Albeit the dream was a rather pleasant one, I think India is messing with my brain.

I beg pardon for the lack of pictures, but I’m getting used to India and can’t be bothered to drag my phone around with me.

However, here’s something you should see. Somehow I feel that the security aspects are neglected.

Alfredo launches counter attacks, Danger, Danger

Song of choice: Danger, Danger – Sonic Boom Six.
Haven’t been able to sleep for fuck all tonight… Bloody rat infestation in my room. My cupboard, my shelf, my freaking bed. Imagine my level of distress. What’s more, I caught a cold in the midst of the shit. Now I’m sweating, freezing and snoring my way through breakfast, then I’ll go blankly stare at my screen for a while

Let’s try this out shall we?

Right, so I’m trying to type this blog entry on my phone and one thing is for sure, it’s not making my fingers cramp less.
The translation of my textbook paragraphs for the c paper is taking longer than expected, so I’m finding myself doing all sorts of other things instead of studying… Anyway, Ashish gave me various tips on how to forge some interview results in the meantime. Silly man.
I’ve booked some decent hotels now at least, Think I’ve got rid of all the planning, finally. Got the train tickets in my locker, and the Hotel confirmations on my computer, neato.
What’s more, I think I managed to piss off some poor employee at Ranthambore national park WHO were forced to answer my umpteenth mail. Last mail I sent was “one last question, it’s getting a bit much now, haha” and I got the answer “yeah, I noted the same thing.”
Anywho, food’s ready! Cheerio!

iila laget?!

I’ve got cramping fingers from writing on my thesis in various weird positions, ever heard of chairs..? And what’s more, I’m starting to get calloused hands from tabla playing.
It’s frustrating to be bored and stressed out at the same time, Ashish is apparently going to be our field assistant – that’s for 12 people, all conducting interviews. And everyone wants to do it simultaneously, I pity him. But as he told me before – gilla läget! (well, actually he said iila laget!) That’s one useful phrase I taught him.
One simple question might take a day or two to get answered, I know Marc does his best but it’s stressing nevertheless. And I’m waiting for my train tickets. And I’m waiting to get the textbook translation made in Hindi Devanagari script. Sense the theme here? It’s called waiting – India’s favourite passtime.

Enough whining!
Yesterday we met an Indian guy who claimed he had a sister in Åmål. Fucking Åmål was his favourite film as well, jolly good fun that! Made my day.
Now it’s time for some Vatica Apple pie! Yum!

Welcome to the jungle

Or… forest? Nah, rather India’s countryside – albeit neat I wouldn’t call it a jungle. Felt more like a steppe actually, with the occasional tree and waterfall.

It was a great day though, felt like we could have just as easily been in Greece, or Africa. The landscape was changing quite a bit, shifty bastard. Was a long bumpy ride around India but it was worth it by far, had the chance to take a shower in a waterfall.

Way too lazy to jot down whatever I’ve been up to this weekend, so stay tuned, here’s a picture to keep you happy.

Monkey Melêe

Today started with getting up at 4.40 a.m. With legs like spaghetti we ascended the steps down to Ganga and took a boat ride to watch the sun rise, and it was great. It was so tranquil when you’re used to Banaras busy street life. The boat took us down stream and we got to watch the city from an entirely different angle. Took a moment to visit some temples where morning prayers were being held before heading back home. I instantly crashed back into bed, and managed to catch a few hours’ sleep. When I woke for the second time in one day it was time for the mother of all breakfasts, we went to Open Hand Café and ordered chicken sausages, salami, eggs, coffee, toast, tomatoes and roasted onions. I hadn’t seen that much protein on one plate in ages. On our way home we took a moment to buy some post cards, books and whatnot.

I also received a mixture of bad and good news; I got a mail from Ranthambore National Park saying that they only had two available dates for the entire tourist season (nov-jan), fortunately that was when my family would come visit. On the other hand, what I thought was already booked and finished turned out not to be. Ajye regretfully told me that while Hotel Surya had told him they had vacant rooms they had mistaken the dates, so now he’s on a lookout for vacant rooms again. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some good news. And oh, I finally got a new SIM-card that worked, though I need to charge it with money in order to know what my number is, fancy that.

Lastly, today’s biggest adventure was comprised of a large, snarling, hissing ape, one big stick, and Emil on the roof top. That was one big bastard ape.

 

Feeling the blues & Back alleys

I’ve been a bit in the blue today, having slept badly and been trying to book several hotels via the internet and nothing worked, my SIM-card still isn’t ready and the yoga class was cancelled. Furthermore, I just spent about 2½ hours in the Varanasi Cantonment, trying to book a hotel for my loved ones, something that turned out to be a cul-de-sac… if it wouldn’t be for Ashish.

After a nightmarish motorcycle ride through the rush hour traffic and an hours begging for rooms at different hotels I emerged from the latest hotel with a sour face. I told Ashish that every single hotel in Varanasi were fully booked during the whole tourist season (nov-jan), to which he cheerfully responded “no worries, I call friend!” And indeed he did, about half an hour later I was meeting with a complete stranger at a suspicious-looking café. The fellow was called Ajye, and was a travel bureau manager, and, of course, a friend of Ashish. A couple of phone calls and some angry shouting later I found myself shaking hands with him, he had booked two rooms for me at the hotel I wanted to stay in, and thus, he made my day.

The guys and I were going to go to Iba, a Japanese restaurant, to eat, but since I had taken so long in cantonment I figured they had already left when I got back. Then I opened the door to my room and found a note, which made my day even more, haha.