Sublimity…

20 years ago today was a special day in our family – my brother Evan was born. Between my traveling and his busy schedule at SFU, we hadn’t talked in a long time, so I figured that a birthday was the perfect time to try to get a hold of him. I also had just found out that my phone company had dropped its international phone rates 53% as of April 1 (no joke, they don’t do April Fools here), so calling people back home has suddenly become much more viable (though still not cheap). However, with Evan living in Vancouver (GMT-7:00) and myself being here in India (GMT+5:30), a whopping 12.5 hours of time change made it a little hard to find a time to call. Thankfully, Evan’s not known for going to bed early, so I figured that my best chance to catch him would be for me to call over my lunch break. However, work was pretty slow and dull today (doing data entry of poorly completed and therefore confusing household surveys we did in our villages), so by 1:00PM I was ready for a break (lunch doesn’t usually happen until at least 1:30 if not 2:00 here) so I told Supna I needed a break to go call my brother as it was his birthday.

I walked out onto the front step of the office, pressed a couple buttons on my cell phone and suddenly was listening to the SFU Residence Automated phone system, almost exactly half way around the world. Technology is pretty amazing, our world is so small these days. However, Evan wasn’t in his room (likely still out working or having fun with his friends – midnight is still very early for university students), and unlike here in India (and Canada for that matter), I’m the only person in my family with a cell phone, so I had to settle for leaving a happy birthday message on his answering machine (something that I realized Indians don’t have/use).

I went back to work (not having gotten the break I wanted), but lunch time came soon enough so we all packed up to head back to the guesthouse. While waiting for Supna, everyone else was hanging out in the office entry room just chatting. I was tired and hot and so not completely following the (Hindi) conversations, but at one point I tuned in to hear Hiralal questioning Sunil about when his younger brothers’ birthday. Hiralal seemed to think that it was today, but Sunil was quite confused and told him that wasn’t true. After some back and forth, I realized that Hiralal must have gotten confused and so I told him (and everyone else assembled there) that it was in fact my brothers’ birthday. They all laughed at the miscommunication and passed on congratulations to Evan. Then Hiralal asked me about the birthday party… I was confused for a second, and then replied that since Evan was back in Vancouver, the party was there. They all laughed again, but then Hiralal asked, “but what about our party?” and everyone became quiet and looked at me curiously.

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I know I haven’t written in awhile, but right now I only have a little time, so sorry, the stories from Thailand are going to have to wait a little longer. However, I’m happy to say that I’ve improved my turn-around speed on photos dramatically (compared to the 1+ month delay on the Rajasthan & Gujarat photos) and so photos from Thailand are now online! As an added bonus, I’ve also posted some photos from my time working in the Himalaya with PSI, they’ll give you a sense of what life is like there and hopefully will help fill out my writings about the place (though there’s more to come there too, I’ve got another 3 months with PSI working there).

And finally, with all these nice new photos, I figured it was a good time to do an upgrade of the gallery and add some new features. First off, there is now an integrated rating system so you can let the world (and more importantly me) know what photos you like. All you have to do is put your mouse over the photo you want to rate, and after a second or two, a little box appears showing the name and details of the photo (date taken, # comments, # views etc) and then has 5 stars. As you move your mouse over the stars, they change colour, and by clicking on the appropriate star, you can “stamp” your approval rating on it. The stars show the average user rating at the start, but after you’ve rated a photo, it will remember your rating. Pretty cool eh, now all you have to do is go check it out and use it… Also, I’ve added RSS feeds to all the albums that stream new and updated photos, and have integrated this into the main website sidebar. This means that now you can easily tell from the main page whether there are new photos, rather than having to actually visit the Gallery regularly. I’m going to try to keep up this new streak of quickly posting photos, but I may not be able to or I may not write stories about all the photos I post, so this will be an easy way for you to find out what’s new here.

And just to satisfy your curiousity, Thailand was awesome (fairly different than I expected) and I’m now safe back in crazy India (which seems even more unique now that I have more perspective) and will be continuing with PSI until the end of June. Most of the time I’ll be in the mountains (so excuse the long periods of no posting and no emails), which is good becuase it’s getting hot here. Work is going – it’s still frustrating at times and though we’ve sorted some things out, there is still a lot of confusion about my project. No one knows where we’ll end up, but it’s going well enough for me to stay on.

So go enjoy the photos, and keep checking back for upcoming details about Thailand and my work in India. And for all you suckers still in school, good luck in exams – seems like such a strange concept to me here & now, but I guess that’s life.

The adventure continues, and boy what an adventure it is. I’m now in Bangkok and trying to figure out what to make of this place – it’s absolutely wild!

The differences between Thailand and India are infinite, but while I feel like I should really be feeling culture shock, I don’t really think I am (just tired due to lack of sleep last night – why do all international flights leave/arrive in Delhi at rediculous hours of the morning?). To give you a sense of the differences, last night I was wandering around Connaught Place in Delhi (a once impressive area that now looks decrepit from lack of proper maintenance, dust, lack of greenery, beggars, garbage, etc), waiting for the airport bus, and tonight I’m sitting in a fancy Thai bookstore (that could be easily mistaken for a Chapters/Indigo as long as you ignore the fact that all the books, magazines and newspapers are in Thai) looking out the (clean) front glass window at a 6 lane divided road (with skytrain track down the middle) that is straight, smooth and clean, and filled with cars zipping by at normal city speeds (if not more). There are high rise office buildings around (I now realize that Indian cities are extremely flat, even in Delhi nothing goes up more than about 10 stories) and the 7-Eleven around the corner (yes, the same chain) has the exact same environment as you’d see back home (though the products for sale are a little different because of Thai taste). All in all, Bangkok is a big modern metropolis, and while it is developed up to similar standards as most western cities, there are still aspects of the city (and certainly the people) that make it seem different (and more interesting) than any city I’ve seen back in North America.

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Back to the land of internet connectivity (AKA Dehradun). In case you haven’t figured it out yet, when I don’t post any updates for awhile, it means I’m out in the mountains where I can’t “get connected”. This past trip was my third one out to Mayali since I started this project back in the beginning of January (where does the time go?) and I have to say that I’m starting to get used to life out there. Coming back here to Dehradun is nice because all the services/amenities I want are available here, but otherwise I’m starting to think I’d rather spend my time out in the mountains. Basically, there are less people out there, the environment is nicer (hard to beat being in the Himalaya) and while life is still crazy and chaotic (it is India still), it’s not quite so wild and diverse as down here on the plains, and that makes it a little easier to deal with (and become accustomed to). I’ll try to elaborate on this more later…

Anyway, as the title states, the next few days mark a change in my current pattern of life. First off – weather. As I wrote in the last entry, the weather here in Dehradun was pretty gross – really hot and somewhat humid. Going back to the mountains was much nicer, but even there it got pretty warm some days down in the valleys. I brought one fleece with me, but only pulled it out once. We’ll see what the summer holds for me, I was thinking that being in the mountains would be substantially cooler than down on the plains, but current signs aren’t quite so promising as I would have hoped (though even 35 is better than the 40 or 45 I might get here). However, about a week ago something happened and the warm weather disappeared and was replaced with more comfortable, cool temperatures, and most surprisingly, water falling from the sky! It’s been a long time since I’ve had any rain, in the 5 months I’ve been here in India I could count the number of days with precipitation on one hand, and so it has been quite a change seeing water everywhere. I’m not complaining, I actually like it because it cools off the air, removes all the dust, smoke and haze as well (turning the beautiful views crystal clear, quite a treat), and wets down the ground so the roads/paths aren’t so dusty and slippery. I haven’t been caught out in it yet so there hasn’t really been a downside. However, when I arrived back here in Dehradun this evening (after 9 hours on a bus – direct from Mayali) I barely had time to grab a rickshaw before the heavens opened and I experienced a full-blow downpour/thunderstorm/hailstorm. That’s right, there was definitely hail there, so in typical Indian fashion, everything is possible here. The fact it was 30+ two weeks ago apparently doesn’t stop the hail now. I thought I had Indian weather pegged (whatever happened yesterday will happen today, 99.9% guaranteed)m but it seems I might have to re-evaluate that. I might also have to pull out my raincoat (for the first time) – though with all that water coming down even my nice new one doesn’t seem like it would keep me dry for that long. Watching the rain come down (and seeing the rivers/floods running down the roads, fields and basically everywhere) reminded me of my experiences with the Indian monsoon 10 years, and has got me started thinking about what it’s going to be like this time. Compared to most other people, I think I like rain more than most, but I have a feeling that it’s still going to be too much for me. We’ll see, and no matter what I think now, I’m sure India will surprise me when the time comes.

The other big event coming up is my trip to Thailand. I’m leaving Delhi on the 17th at the wonderful time of 12:30am – almost all international flights arrive/depart from the city at ridiculous hours of the night/morning for some unknown reason – and arrive in Bangkok to start the day. I picked up a copy of the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand and have read through most of it, and I’ve got to say that even though I was looking forward to my trip before, I’m 3000x more excited about it now. My idea of Bangkok has changed from a crazy, wild, over-commercialized megalopolis (which it is) to a fascinating example of diversity and new ideas & sights, but most importantly, my “holiday on the tropical beaches” has taken shape in the form of a 2-3 day diving trip to the Siliman Islands, a cluster of islands off the west coast of southern Thailand that are “world famous for scuba diving on coral reefs”, spending some time around Krabi province (fascinating sea cliffs, caves, world famous rock climbing, sea kayaking, mangrove swamps and basically anything you could want) and finally a stay on some small islands further south that are apparently relatively undeveloped, stereotypical “tropical paradise islands” and home to a community of sea-gypsies (I’ve read about in National Geographic). Plus, I’ve got someone to orient me and show me around Bangkok (an old friend of my dad’s, who has lived in Thailand for a long time and seems like a cool person), so it’s looking really good. I just hope I can tear myself away from the fun for long enough to make sure I get my new Indian visa – the major reason for my trip in the first place. However, I just found out that the workshop that had been scheduled for April 1st has been moved to the 4th, so I’m contemplating trying to get my return flight switched to a few days later. I’ll try to send out some updates from Thailand, but I have a feeling (and based on previous experience) that I may be too busy having fun to actually find time to sit down at a computer and write about it all… Don’t worry though, I’ll certainly take tons of photos!

There’s one other big thing coming up – tomorrow is Holi! Holi is one of the major Hindu festivals, and since it marks the beginning of the Hindu calendar year and the coming of spring/summer, it’s a big deal. In addition to all the sweets and visiting relatives (that are typical of all Indian festivals) Holi has the additional tradition of throwing/squirting coloured dyes/water at everything/everyone around you, and so the whole country basically goes crazy for two days and everyone becomes a walking rainbow. Everything is fair game on Holi, and so it’s inadvisable to travel during the festival, hence I’ve come back to Dehradun a full 3 days before I have leave for Thailand (while the rest of my team is staying in Mayali until April). I remember Holi being one of the most fun days of the year 10 years ago – it’s a kid’s dream come true – and so I’m looking forward to the holiday, but at the same time am prepping myself for disappointment because this time I don’t really have anyone to celebrate with. I’ll likely spend time with Rupi, but she doesn’t strike me as the type who would really get into the “fun” of Holi. Oh well, I’m not going to worry about it, just let it happen and see what results – this is India after all…

Happy Holi!

It’s official, it’s too hot here. Yes I realize that it is still February and in any normal sense of the word, summer is still very far away, but when it’s 30ËšC outside and the sun beats down like a searing furnace, there are few other words that come to mind. I came to India knowing that I was going to have to come to terms with the heat at some point, but I never thought I’d have to deal with it so soon. I’m starting to wonder how I’m going to survive here in May and June, because from now until then, the weather is just going to get hotter. Walking the 5 minutes back from the office to the guest house for lunch today, I could feel myself skin burning through the layer of sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, and sitting in our little rooftop office after lunch, my head really started pounding and I just felt like flopping out on the table and taking a siesta (but instead we had to compile findings from all the MLP exercises we did at Banoli). Thankfully the nights are still cool so there is some respite, but it’s still too much.

In other news, I’ve moved again. On arriving back at the guesthouse after the last trip, we were told that there were 25 trainees coming that same evening and that there wasn’t any space for us (Debashish hadn’t told them we were coming, despite the fact we talked to him the night before), but after some frustrated phone calls by Sunil and a trip by Anil (the guesthouse manager) to visit Debashish in person, we managed to work it out. The end result was that we are still staying in the guesthouse, but I’ve had to move rooms again. All in all it’s not bad, I’ve now in a smaller room (means less likely I’ll to have to share) downstairs that in addition to a cupboard like the one I had previously, has nicer beds (solid wooden beds that are almost long enough for me and don’t have the annoying metal bars on the ends) and a table with a plug nearby (so I have a quasi desk for the first time in 2 months). The trade offs are that it was a little annoying to have to move all my things again (despite the fact that Debashish had previously promised that I wouldn’t have to move from the room upstairs) and that there’s no hot water in the bathroom (though it’s always available from the nearby kitchen, and with the temperatures the way they are now – and the direction they’re going to go), but all in all, I think my new place is better. I’ve again been promised I won’t have to move again, and this time I hope it remains true (unless it gets too hot, in which case I’m going to have to ask PSI to put me somewhere where there is air-conditioning…).

Being downstairs also means that it’s generally a little cooler, and being at the back of the building away from the sun in a small room with thick cement walls means that it actually stays a tolerable temperature during the day, so when I come back at lunch I do have a place to flop down and recover from the walk. Due to the heat I’ve been wearing my sandals the last two days, but the benefit of cool feet has been overshadowed by aching pain in my legs after walking any distance, and I suspect that it’s because the sandals don’t have any soles anymore (the fact they’ve survived 7 years of heavy use this well is very impressive). Looks like I’m going to have to go find a pair here, but given that I couldn’t find anything I liked back in Canada, I doubt I’ll find anything here in a country where the largest standard shoe size is 10 (compared to my size 13 feet) and where the dirt-cheap, blue plastic/rubber toe-thong flip-flop (chappal) accounts for at least 95% of the sandals (if not footwear) sold. To give you an idea of their pervasiveness, I’ve noticed that even most Garhwali villagers wear nothing more than these, even when climbing up and down the steep mountain slopes on switchbacking, loose dirt paths. I can’t see how they manage to keep their feet in the things walking up hill (despite the deep impressions that have been worn into – and almost completely through – the sandal base over the many years of hard use), it’s an act that seems to defy gravity let alone comfort, but here in India it’s just another demonstration of the amazing adaptations that people have made to make the most of meager resources.