Make some noise for the bhawan boys

Yesterday we went to the movies with Ashish, had planned to watch an Indian horror flick, but it turned out to be too late to catch it in the cinema. The only screening was at the moment Desi Boyz, a movie about two mates joining a male escort service. Somehow I didn’t quite guess for that being a big hit in India. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0flFuZxMcc

The one thing you need to succeed in India is (and I quote Ashish); big in the body, big muscle, and dimples!

Anyway, not been up to much lately, been catching up on my reading and whatnot. Went to Open Hand Café today and the power lines started snapping a bit, suddenly there were sparks flying all over the place, quite an experience. Turns out that the big ad put up had become loose and hung down on the lines, smooth indeed. Luckily, Tom Cruise (dunno the fella’s name, but they sure look alike) climbed a steel pillar full of barbed wire, agile like a monkey, and cut the bastard thing down.

I filmed the whole adventure, and I thought I’d show you to it, but apparently movie clips is a safety hazard according to wordpress, so tough luck.

You’ll have to make do with these pups, cute eh? A beggar has made them a blanket out of a grain sack and some newspapers, and is keeping the mum fed. Even though he barely gets by each day, he still finds it in his heart to feed the street dog, now that’s something…

 

Prepostorous pots

Remember when I told you I’d keep you posted? Well, never mind. I had the shittiest night, threw up at around 3 a.m. and couldn’t really put myself up for Kabaddi this morning. I’ve mostly been hanging with Fredrik today, and doing some background research for the C paper. Just came home from a wedding reception, was not all the fanfare I believed it to be, since I thought we were going to the actual ceremony, but oh well, was fun to see. At least both the groom and bride seemed happy about it.

At the moment… I’m just bitter is all. People are apparently spreading rumours, amongst others that we smoked marijuana at Ganga Mahal? I’ve never touched any drougs in my life, not counting nicotine, caffeine or alcohol. Makes me sad that people have to go around sowing in bullshit. What’s more – it annoys the living hell out of me seeing Ashish, one of the dearest friends, and our field assistant, down here in India beeing treated like shit. He works non-stop trying to make people happy, but that’s not enough now, innit? Anthropological behaviour my ass, people treat him like a god damn servant.

People seem to have way easier judging other folks than noticing their own bloody flaws.

I’ll go to bed now, sorry for the buzz kill.

Oh, and happy first of Advent ya’ll! Miss you.

Gorge

 

Cracking hip bones, crisps and comics.

just noticed that the gothenburg film festival is kicking off the 27th of januari. STOKED!

today’s been quite lame, my body’s acting up, slept till almost 11 and woke up with a shitty stomach. At least I slept more than I’ve done the last week. Emil went off to spend some time with his mum, diminishing the amar bhawan boys to 2. I’ve just been camped up in my room for the major part of the day, but at least I’ve done something about the essay. Read Understanding Hinduism, by Frank Whaling, cover to cover, and the major part of David Kinsley’s Hindu Goddesses, so now I’m eager to start chipping away at the background chapter of my paper. Can’t find a decent book depicting the Hindu caste system, but oh well, can’t have it all, now, can we?
What else… I’m a bit confused about the whole mail system in India, and now I don’t mean the regular post, but how people react to e-mails. I’ve been sending my Hindi teacher mails, asking for him to help me with a translation but I never got a response. However, when I met him, he said “I’ve read your mail”. So… great, but what does that inclince? You helping me, or a polite way of saying ‘stop bugging me?’ Heh… hard to know. Anyhow, time to take a break from the essay and indulge in some crisps and comics, it’s Saturday after all.

Tomorrow I’ll head out for the banks of Ganga along with Steve and the staff at Open Hand. It’s time for Kabaddi ya’ll! I’ll keep you posted.

Over and out,

Gorge

Calloused fingers

It’s true, my fingers are calloused from writing. Never thought it was possible, I mean the tips are already quite battered from the bass and guitar and whatnot, but from the keyboard? Jeez.

Anyhow, I’m done with the bloody transcriptions! Finally! And what else, we found a nice shack to dig into and have some good food, neat! this calls for celebration – rice crackers and the walking dead comics… that’s hardly out of the ordinary, but it’s the means I have. And for those of you who hasn’t already, check it out. The comic I mean, not the crackers. Or them too, whatever floats your boat. Cheers!

A monkey needs to dance and so do I

My brain’s not completely on my side. I dreamt about sandwhiches and coffee, silly me. I think I derive from some nocturnal creature, no matter how tired I never feel like sleeping.
I feel like being artsy. Write some poetry, some lyrics perhaps. Finish my short story. Play the ukulele, not that I can (but it’s so much more useless than guitar, hence more art(?)). Take some photos, not that I could.

Oh well. I miss my music. And I miss making it. And most of all I miss making it mine. I’m seriously considering going down to the shop next to my house tomorrow and buy the guitar that’s hanging there, mocking my fingers. There’s a swastika on it so I’d better give it back before I head back north though…

And what’s more, I never thought I’d miss nature so much! I was browsing through old photos and was stunned by the beauty we pass each and every day without thinking about it. Truly spoiled, that is what we are. I love it here, don’t mistake my words, but god DANG Sweden is pretty. The first thing I’ll do when I get home (once the mandatory hugging is over with) is go out in the woods and scream my lungs out at the beauty of it.

Anyway, this is sort of a travelling blog, now isn’t it? Sure enough. I travelled the whole way to cantonment and Hotel Surya today to have a wee celebration with the Bhawan Boys, now that we’re all here again. Me, Fred and Emin had a few cold ones at the pool, but were tossed out since there was going to be a wedding. We went to the bar instead. At about 1 pm. Not the brightest idea of our lives, but it felt great at the time. My stomach doesn’t agree at the moment, and neither does my head, but it was well deserved. I think.

 

 

Quote of the day: I just met a woman. She’s a dwarf, she’s only been here for four months and she’s already got her own mushroom to live in! Now to tell me that’s wrong!

 

Made by this fine fellow

 

Gleiche um dir ecke i min Enslighet. I love the taste of words.

I tend to roll them on my tongue, savouring the taste

What is it that makes it all worth it? I hardly know… more than that you’re a part of it. Plural form.

Favourite word of the day: Oblique… Or possibly Onomatopoeia (sometimes I wonder how feelings sound like)

I think hunger sounds like feet on gravel

Anger sounds like grinding teeth

And I bet that friendship tastes like ice cream

But most of all I bet that I’m way too tired to post nonsensical gibberish on a blog.

I just broke my knuckles against the wall in an attempt to dim the light.

Somehow that makes most of it alright.

G’night

Organized Chaos? Chaotic Organization? Back at the Bhawan

Haven’t been able to update the blog for a wee bit, so bear with me.

         11^th Nov. The latest week have been spent together with the family, mum times two plus my fair lady. We’ve been through Banaras where I lead them through my favorite shops, alleys and restaurants, saying hi to dear friends along the way. We walked along the Ghats of Ganga, sidled through alleys in Goudolia and drank way too much chai tea. At the moment we’re in Agra, my least favorite part of India, but seeing the Taj is a must. We went there yesterday, the 10^th of November, and we couldn’t have picked a worse day for it. The place milled with people, guards were required to keep them in check, and I paid way too much to skip the queue. But oh well, now they’ve seen it. Today we spent some time at Agra Fort, which we skipped when I was in Agra with the group. It was quite neat, not for the buildings, but for the monkeys stealing soda cans from the tourists, teehee.

         It’s quite fun to revisit the places I’ve been to before, they are the same yet drastically different. And it’s always fun to go by train in India, not once have they gone from the right platform at the scheduled time haha, quite adventurous indeed. In total we’ll travel about 1380 kms on Indian railways, in all classes there is. The train ride from Banaras to Agra took about 13 hours and was quite alright, was the same route I’d travelled before; cozy huts with bunk beds. After Agra we’re going by train to Sawai Madhopur and from there to Ranthambore National Park. Hope we get to see a tiger. Rawr.

         18^th Nov. Home (away from home) again in Banaras. It was a weird feeling leaving the family behind at the airport once again. A part of me wished to go back to Sweden, yet I looked forward to going back to Banaras and the boys at Amar Bhawan. This time I skipped the train and took the plane, took me about an hour’s worth of travel to go back from Delhi, wopdidoo. Anyhow, I’ve already started, but let me tell you about the past few weeks.

         The train ride from Agra to Sawai Madhopur was less enjoyable. For starters the train left too early, and from the wrong platform. Our seats were full of Indian people having lunch, so we nicely waited for them to finish. After a while I tried asking them about swapping our beds around so that we could get to sleep, but linguistic barriers obstructed me from getting the message across, which instead led them to annoyingly lower the bunk beds so that we could get some sleep… of course with open windows so that we all were freezing. Anyhow, once we were in Sawai Madhopur things went smoothly, a jeep picked us up at the station and we were tucked into a hotel which was superb. Too bad we only had a day to spend there, but I think one day was plenty enough; we ate well, had a nice pool and went on a jeep safari in the national park. Never got to see a tiger, but a whole range of other creatures.

         The next day we got to Delhi, this time the train ride went just fine and the pick-up turned to shite instead. There had been some misunderstanding and to make a long story short we spent around 3 hours at the station before we found our driver and could get to the Hotel. While in Delhi we made up for our lack of tigers and went to the zoo; went on a shopping spree in Connaught Place, Dilli Haat, Underground Market and Central Cottage Industries Emporium; and lastly ate superb food at Pind Balluchi and Tao Restaurant.

         After I got home I unpacked, tidied up my room, nibbled on some thin crisps and read a book I had bought at the airport; The Ritual by Adam Nevill. Found it quite fun since it’s a psychological horror novel taking place deep down in the Swedish woods. I was all alone in the house and the book made me jitterish so I went down to Open Hand to buy meself some food and coffee. At the café they were playing the soundtrack to Aladdin, which put me in the best of moods. And to sum it all up: now, while walking back from Open Hand, I couldn’t walk straight to my door since the alley was blocked by a horde of buffalos (got to luv India ❤). Spending some time with the family soothed my mind, and now I’ll finish my coffee and catch a film. It’s all weekdays again, and somehow it’s quite welcome. Now, why don’t you enjoy some pics?

Over and out,

Gorge