pondicherry.

after reading my last post, you may have gotten the feeling that i was feeling a little "bleh" on my birthday. and, well...you would be correct. but here are some things that i am really happy about:

1.) my sweet birthday surprise from my host family.

2.) my mum sent me a birthday card and i received it in my office today!

3.) i got to go to pondicherry....

so. pondicherry. (i can't help but smile and think of Colin because he thought that was such a cute name for a city).

after what seemed to be an endless day in the office, i met up with the girls at Asil's apartment. Waiting for me was my second birthday treat! What wonderful friends...and how lucky am i to have met them!

after scarfing down those delicious sweets, we made our way to the bus station, knowing full well that the bus would not be on time. (in fact, even though our boarding time said 9:15, we didn't leave bangalore until around 11:00!!) the bus was a sleeper, and although it was rather dank, i couldn't help but feel a little giddy like i was stepping onto the hogwart's express or something. (this was me truly bending my imagination to look beyond the dirty beds, the fact that we had to sleep next to another person and the fact that there was no air conditioning).

(pardon the grease-ball picture of myself)

as we whipped along the curvy and bumpy roads for seven straight hours, my mind raced. i kept thinking, what if this is how i die? what if the driver takes one turn too sharp, and we fall off of a cliff? what if we get in a head on collision...and my head bashes into the partition? how awful would it be to die on my birthday? (so that is what the padded ceiling was for...which looked more like the interior of a prison van.) i know that sounds crazy and morbid, but i truly couldn't help it. it was perhaps one of the scariest rides of my life and i didn't get a wink of sleep. (unlike maria who (knowingly) popped a sleeping pill and slept soundly next to me).

so when we finally arrived to pondy, needless to say, i was simultaneously relieved, exhausted and wired. i wanted nothing more than to find a guesthouse, take a long cold shower to rinse the stink off of me, and brush my fuzzy teeth. instead, i was forced to remember that it was not only me traveling on this journey and instead, a group of eight. instead of going to a guesthouse then, we took a rickshaw to the beach, and wandered around looking for coffee. (apparently some people can't function without coffee...i am not one of those people. i am however one of those people who cannot function without a shower. grumble grumble...) we stopped in a nice little cafe and i ate my first (of many) croissant of the weekend. i didn't even realize how much i missed the soft, buttery dough melting on my tongue. (croissants are part of my staple diet at home).

then it was time to deliberate where to stay. some wanted to be near the beach, others by the city center...did i mention that the appeal (in my mind at least) of pondy is that it is a french colonial town? i imagined a charming Provencal village laced with inviting guesthouses next to the beach. white bed linens blowing in the breeze. a glass of cheap wine in hand. the perfect locale for a 25th birthday. the reality was much different. as the Lonely Planet puts it: "most of Pondy is honk-scream-screech-honk-chaos." The city is split from east to west by a partially covered sewer canal which smells...god awful. the more "french" part of town is to the east side and the more "indian" part of town to the west. unfortunately, the rickshaw drivers must not have understood our english, because we were taken to neither east nor west and wound up on a dirt path with a few run-down guesthouses in the middle of nowhere.

we chose the least awful option. the color scheme seemed to be based on liver and molding pumpkin. the walls that might once have been white had succumbed under the humidity and mold. but, at least it had a nice view of the beach, working fans to circulate the stale air, and most importantly, a proper shower (which the other options seemed to be missing).

after settling in, it was back into town to explore. here are some images of what we saw:

we also came across a nice little french bakery (where i had my second croissant...and for only 20 rupees!) with air conditioning!! at this point i was starting to sway to the rhythm of my own breath i was so hot. sweat was forming bubbles on my upper lip and i was in dire need of cold mineral water. this establishment was a welcomed surprise.

however, the highlight of the day was definintely meeting Lakshmi. she was this pretty little elephant, all dressed up in bangles and paint, standing outside of a temple in the middle of town, and for a rupee she would bless you. (i ended up giving her 3 rupees...i figured i could be blessed more than once!)

here are some more images from throughout the day...

okay, that's enough for now...i'll post photos of pondy-day 2 in a little while.

peace. love. and elephant blessings.

25.

So, I am officially 25 today, and I am (once again) in another country. I am feeling uneasy. I’m alone in this new, foreign city. And I want more than anything to be home, cuddling in bed with Colin, maybe watching a TV show Modern Family and giggling. I want to celebrate with friends over wine and lots and lots of cheese. I want to gossip with good music in the background.

I really shouldn’t complain. This morning, my host family was so sweet and bought me a cake and a nice table runner as a gift. I’m wearing a new birthday dress. Everyone in the office has been especially friendly and wished me a happy birthday. And tonight, I’m meeting up with my new friends and going on a weekend getaway to Pondicherry.

That being said, I couldn’t stop crying this morning when I was talking to Colin. What is up with that?! 25 is a big year. Everyone keeps saying that, and I’m beginning to realize how true it is. It’s always been a milestone year in my head…you know how you always say, “By the time I’m 25 I want X, Y and Z…” And I think that since (basically) none of what I’ve wanted at age 25 has come true, I’m having this nagging need to be around friends to commiserate. Damn. That’s pretty depressing.

I’ll change my attitude. I have a little something up my sleeve for my lunch break that I’ll tell you all about later…and hopefully it puts me in a better mood. For now…back to the grind.

Peace. Love. and 25.

A small sanctuary.

I found this lovely little park today near my office.

This morning, while I was busy working on a memo, my computer crashed, and I realized I hadn’t saved any of my work. Has that ever happened to you? It is quite possibly one of the most frustrating things…ever. And everyone knows that Rule #1 of computer-use is to SAVE ALL OF YOUR WORK PERIODICALLY! But alas, this time I spaced it. What makes this situation worse is when there is no auto-recovery of the document. And what makes THAT even worse is when the IT guy doesn’t understand what auto-recovery is and instead, said IT guy just looks at you and giggles. Now, I’m sure he would have understood “auto-recovery” if I was speaking in Hindi, but, I wasn’t. And so, as steam escaped from my ears and I realized that I would have to start from scratch on this document that I’d been working on for the past 4 hours, I decided to just walk away so that I didn’t ruin this poor man’s day.

I walked to the Juice Junction and ordered a veg-cheese sandwich and a bowl of fruit filled with papaya, mango, pineapple, banana, chickoo, watermelon and cantaloupe. (It is my new favorite thing…and I can use my coupons from work to purchase it, so it’s free!) Then, still steaming from the morning’s events, I walked to this park just around the corner from where I work. It’s small and noisy from the traffic, but it has charm with a winding path, a small playground and lots of trees.

This city is scattered with little parks like this, and they are a sanctuary against the busy cars that honk and zigzag on the streets. It was so relaxing to eat on that park bench today and read from my book. It was just what I needed to cool down. And guess what…when I got back to work, IT guy had FOUND MY DOCUMENT!!

Peace. Love. and Victory!

Meditation.

Yesterday I woke up early (after my hellish-tour of Mysore) to join Feline and As’il at a meditation class. Meditation is officially one of the most difficult things I’ve done since I’ve been here. We arrived at the Choe Khor Sum Ling Center and mingled with the monk. After a few minutes, he began the class with a “simple” meditation which lasted about 30 minutes, where we were to visualize the Buddha. By visualizing Buddha, you are attempting to conjure all positive aspects of a person. Similarly to a diver who visualizes executing his dive before the actual event, by visualizing positive aspects of a person, you are becoming closer to enlightenment.

You begin by sitting crisscross, hands clasped, right over left and resting in your lap. Your back is straight, but not strained. Chin is tilted down and eyes either gaze at the floor in front of you, or remain closed. The visualization has variations. You may think of a person who, in your mind, represents all positive aspects of humanity, a ball of light, or Buddha himself. The monk talked us through the description of Buddha. “Imagine a golden throne. On each corner rests a white marble lion. The chair is encapsulated in jewels: diamonds, rubies, turquoise, sapphires…Now imagine a lotus flower sitting on the chair. It has 1,000 petals. On top of the flower is a crescent moon cushion and on top of that rests a radiant and glowing orb. Buddha rests upon this orb. He sits with his right hand resting on his right knee, his left holding a bowl of nectar….” The monk then goes on to describe Buddha’s features, from the tone of his skin to the expression of his lips.

During this description, I am able to concentrate pretty well. I get into the design of the chair, and the intricacies of Buddha’s features. But then, my mind can’t help but wander. “I wonder how much a Thanka costs…I hope we go to the silk shop today after this class…no…Buddha….nectar….glowing light….I should really work-out, sitting like this is killing me….wisdom, compassion, patience….I need to practice more patience….Shit! My foot is asleep!!” Clearly, I need more practice.

After the initial meditation, the Monk taught us about Bodhicitta, or the wish to attain complete enlightenment in order to be of benefit to all conscious beings in existence who have not reached Buddhahood yet. To reach Bodhicitta is to bring happiness to others and relieve them from suffering. We read from a Buddhist prayer book, chanted a mantra slowly, 21 times, (…om mone mone maha mone…) and then went into our second meditation.

I hate to say it, but I definitely dozed of one or two times in my second meditation and when it was over, I couldn’t move my leg.

I think it is definitely something I’ll do again, but I cannot stress how difficult it was to concentrate. They say that when you first start, you should start in minute-increments, so perhaps the three hour training was a little over-zealous. But, it was a good experience. When in India, right?!

Peace. Love. Buddha.

Mysore.

This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. I feel like it wasn’t much of a weekend at all. On Saturday I woke up at 5:00 am to catch a bus with Annabell to the city of Mysore, the second largest city in the state of Karnataka and lies about 91 miles southwest of Bangalore. The city is spread across the base of the Chamundi Hills.

We ended up taking a guided tour of the area, which is something that I definitely would not recommend doing. The day was jam packed, which made it difficult to really appreciate anything that we were seeing. Not to mention, that when traveling on an Indian guided tour, you have to adjust to “Indian Time,” which means there is a lot of waiting around…despite the feeling of being rushed. (That may be a concept that you would only get if you were here….but basically, the tour guide says that you have 30 minutes at one site, you figure in “Indian Time” and give yourself 40 minutes, and the bus doesn’t end up leaving for 50 minutes. You’re perpetually late, but you never know how late you’re going to be so you end up rushing around to accommodate the timeline.)

Our first stop was an old fort. I don’t remember the name of it, but I didn’t really care about it, so I opted out of paying the extra 100 rupees (which was only for foreigners…locals only had to pay 5) and waited outside.

The next stop was a Temple (can't remember the name of it though). That was actually very impressive. It never ceases to amaze me how intricate Hindu temples are. But again, we were told that we had 25 minutes to see the entire temple-which was impossible because there was a huge, slow-moving line because of all of praying to the Hindu shrines. Annabell and I were worried about the bus leaving without us, so we skipped the last half, only to wait around for about 30 more minutes for everyone else to trickle in. Again, annoying!

We went to breakfast and stopped at a little road-side souvenir shop, both of which were unimpressive, and the only reason I mention them is to point out how much was jam packed into this ridiculous day.

Next, we stopped at St. Philomena’s Church which was constructed in 1939 using the Neo-Gothic style inspired by the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. (Perhaps that is why Annabell was so unenthusiastic…she’s probably seen the real deal.) I personally thought the stained glass windows and tall ceilings were beautiful-but then again, I’m not one to frequent Catholic Churches, so perhaps they’re all pretty great.

After we went to the Church, we stopped at a Mysore silk shop endorsed by the tour company. Now, here is where my story gets REALLY ANNOYING. I had read in my Lonely Planet that the Government Silk Emporium is THE PLACE to buy Mysore silk. It’s cheap, no taxes, and absolutely exquisite. (Not to mention, 50% of the reason I wanted to go on this trip.) So, when we showed up at this dump, I was completely disenchanted and seriously bummed. The tour guide was obviously making a profit on every piece of silk sold, and when I didn’t want to buy any of the massively overpriced stuff, they really started to pressure me. The salesman followed me around everywhere I went…seriously, at one point I walked in a circle just to see what he’d do, and he followed me in the circle. I asked them if I could walk to the store I had originally wanted to go to, and they refused, told me I wouldn’t have time (I waited around for an hour, and most certainly would have had time), that the store was closed (on a Saturday?! I seriously doubt that), etc. Then, as I was holding back my anger, the sales-douche says to me…. “Oh come on, just buy something. You’re an American. You have lots of money.” That was his sales pitch. Not: “The silk is exquisite.” Or “This color looks beautiful on you.” No, it was some stereotype of Americans (which I certainly don’t fit) and he thought that that was going to be the thing to make me change my mind and make a purchase. Boy was he wrong. I was grasping for some witty comeback…something along the lines of “Oh, you’re Indian, so you must live in a shanty town…” but instead; I just flipped him off and walked away. Okay okay, I know I know…not my most shinning moment. In fact, it’s pretty embarrassing, and I can’t believe I just admitted to doing that. But, what can I say. I was f-ing pissed. This dude had crossed the line, and was standing in my way of some REAL shopping. (Have I mentioned that you should NEVER stand in my way of REAL shopping? Well, now you know.)

So, after that embarrassingly immature and culturally inappropriate episode, I went back to the bus and waited around for another 20 minutes for the rest of the crew to join. We had lunch at another tour company endorsed restaurant where Annabell and I tasted the single worst wine of our lives. (And that’s coming from a girl who regularly buys $3.99 bottles of wine).

Finally, we made it to the Mysore Palace…the main attraction of Mysore (and rightfully so). This place took my breath away. I was utterly speechless as I walked through the grand hallways and ceremonial rooms. It was built in the 14th century and completely burned down in the 1600s. The current palace construction was completed in 1912. It is one of the most famous tourist attractions in India after the Taj Mahal. Sadly, you are strictly prohibited from taking photographs inside of the palace. That is a serious shame because the interior is what really gets ya…it elegantly combined fine gray granite, with deep pink marble, pink and green chandeliers, turquoise domed ceilings, solid silver doors as well as intricately carved sandalwood doors, and the most impressive room (“Ambavilasa”) which is an opulent hall with ornately gilded columns, an expansive stained glass ceiling, and a mosaic floor embellished with semi-precious stones. (Can you imagine being able to say you live in a place like that?!?!)

After the palace, we drove up Chamundi Hills for a nice view of the city. At the top of the hill is Chamundeshwari Temple. I was quite tired at this point, so I didn’t actually go inside of the temple and instead entertained myself by taking pictures of the cows and monkeys that meandered about.

The day wasn’t over just yet…our final destination was the Brindavan Gardens. Apparently, every night there is a musical fountain in which bursts of water are synchronized to the music of songs. I say apparently because our tour was late and missed this main attraction. And yes, this was after I spent extra money to bring my camera in so that I could snap photos. (Annoying, yes. Predictable, yes.) Instead, we just walked around and I had to get my moneys worth by taking photos of the vendors selling popcorn and fish.

We didn’t get home until about 1:00 in the morning. Exhausted, I rolled out of the rickshaw, shuffled up to my room, and passed out.

Peace. Love. and a Palace.

Noteworthy moments.

The work load at J.Sagar Associates has been unpredictable. On Wednesday I spent the entire day working on this really tough project regarding India’s Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with other countries. It was challenging and time consuming because I was learning everything for the first time, but that felt really good. Then, yesterday I worked on an assignment on Bilateral Investment Treaties. Also, semi-interesting, but I was done by the afternoon and haven’t had any assignments since. Perhaps it is just because everyone has that Friday-feeling. I’m trying not to take it too personally.

Speaking of….I can’t believe it’s already Friday! The past two weeks have flown by….

Here are some noteworthy experiences that I’ve had in the last week:

1.) I killed my first cockroach. Unbelievable, considering how many I’ve seen (and blogged about), but it was the first time I had the guts to kill the sucker. Hit him with a shoe (3 times, just to make sure).

2.) I made a fool of myself walking home in front of a group of men. I was avoiding their ogle when a rat (as long as my forearm) ran out in front of me and weaved its nasty way around my feet. I screamed. Threw my arms in the air like Olive Oil. Jumped up and down in panic. The men blankly stared at me like I was a wacko. My host family thinks this story is hilarious. I think it is mortifying and disgusting.

3.) Last night, I turned on the lights in my room and was pleasantly surprised to see a tiny yellow gecko on my wall. I was thrilled, knowing that he’d eat mosquitos. I named him Gordon. Then, while I was skyping, he hovered over me (on the ceiling) and took a poo. That’s right. Gecko poo. (It’s white in case you were curious…and very tiny). Needless to say, Gordon and I are no longer on speaking terms.

4.) I saw the saddest thing yet. This poor stray dog with a mangled foot was trying to hobble his way across the busy traffic. I wanted to take him home, put a cast on his leg and give him a bath and lots of love. It truly almost made me cry. (Which, in and of itself made me question my morals….why don’t I have that reaction when I see people curled up in the alleys and on sidewalks? Am I immune to it by now? And if so, how horrible is that???)

5.) We celebrated Feline's birthday on Wednesday. The night consisted of a lovely feast made by the Spaniards, a sprint through the monsoon, and an entertaining round of karaoke. One of the "traditions" here is getting a cake smashed in your face when it is your birthday. I think I'll be avoiding all people next Friday (my very own day of birth). It really doesn't look like fun at all.

6.) I finished reading Tina Fey’s, Bossypants. Brilliant. Simply Brilliant. It made me laugh out loud, numerous times. I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow I’m waking up early and going to Mysore. I will try to have an update on that little get-away by Sunday. I’m excited to explore more INDIA!

Peace. Love. Gecko Poop.

Silk is on my mind.

When you walk into Mysore Silk, you become overwhelmed with color. Magenta, turquoise, pumpkin, wine, and gold decorated with and jewels, fluer de lis, embroidery, and sequins. The first floor is devoted to high-end silk sari fabric. Women bustle around, debating between rich fabrics for their wedding dresses and special events. The workers are happy to help wrap fabric around your body so that you can get an idea of the finished product. They are knowledgeable in the various types of silk which India has the unique distinction of making: Mulberry, Tasar, Muga and Eri.

Upstairs, you are able to select silk to buy by the meter, as well as observe the craftsmanship first hand. Men sit on the floor with needle and thread and work on the delicate fabrics, every minute detail by hand.

I fell in love with a particularly “silky silk” and had the immediate idea of having a robe tailored (and perhaps a dress as well). I had trouble narrowing down my choice to two patterns. Full disclosure, I could have bought seven. The silk worker helping me threw at least 50 fabrics on the table for me to choose. I settled on one turquoise and coffee print, and one plum and emerald print. I can’t wait to step out of the shower and into this fabric. It feels like luxury.

Peace, Love, Silk.