India Travel Summer 2017

I don't know why I expected to be seen by someone I know here. That sensation of anticipation - a mixture of excitement and fear - flooded my senses when a woman's body loomed over me. Ultimately she was just pointing at a booth in the distance. After Plan B met a dead end (aka follow an Auntie around to learn the ropes of bargaining) due to an uninspired role model, I returned to the idealistic movements that I was too hot and tired to carry out moments prior. Sometimes it takes a middle-aged woman to wake me out of my stupor. I tried to get the wooden, snake-biting-your-finger box for my new friend, but the boy selling it said that it was 100rs and the Styrofoam letters with their pastel colors seemed to dance as they taunted of the "fixed price" so I smiled and walked off. Thus, quest for the journal was back on. Not quite sure how much I'd like to pay for it, but remember that at Sapna it was something like 150. I stop at a stall just befor

I woke up from an evening of time to rest by myself, having set an intention to go check out a yoga studio and then a museum. I took my time with breakfast, lazing around with Zorro - my new best friend // 13-year old Dachshund - so didn't really start moving until far after the ideal time to scoot. Scrolling through dozens of events for the evening to find one suitable, getting irritated with the internet, then listening to an amalgamation of inspirational songs to get up out of the house, I made for the Lotus Temple around noon, with plans for a detour at Nehru Place to get a phone charger. Lotus Temple Determined footsteps took me near to the destination, but my wandering soul took some side steps through a neighborhood on the way. I thought about gates and parks (of which there was arguably a disproportionate amount given the population density and context), and about a Malcolm Gladwell podcast I'd recently listened outlaying the demons of golf. Essentially a marker

On the recommendation of a women's studies professor at the University of Mysore, I've been watching the Netflix series "Stories of Rabindranath Tagore" and there was recently one episode where a married man has an affair with the lead of a play. He is a wealthy landlord who constantly acts and speaks with ownership and entitlement. It got me thinking about power dynamics in relationships, efficacy and agency. A shot from "Stories of Rabindranath Tagore" I had my first day at the internship today and visited one of the centers to record the girls working in the apparel design class. They had just completed the assignment of designing and manufacturing a burka - looking at the current trends, sketching, buying material and sewing. Before we went, Gayatri (the head of this particular program) was briefing me on the program's mission, and this batch of young women. She reiterated the impact of the course as providing healing for them, as the creat

The final concert was about 3 hours long. In typical SVYM fashion, there was tea and snacks 30 minutes before the event started. The vocalists, having learned they were going first, ended up waiting in the room after a few minutes of nervous mingling, followed shortly by everyone else in our group gathing there, chatting and giggling. The students from Cornell and Iowa University joined us for the whole event, so the relatively tiny classroom was packed. Everyone waited patiently for the gurus to roll in, and the SVYM greetings and welcoming began the event. Everyone had about 15 minutes to perform, save Anu's dance piece at the end. It was incredible to see the work that everyone had put in over the 4 weeks. It had the energy of a beginner's piano recital, but the kind where everyone is an adult and this is like their second or third instrument so they're nervous but also do a great job. The show started with the vocalists, and we sang in unison all but one so

Today felt a little rocky. Not in the torrential sort of way, but more in the way that spring feels when it's almost summer and the flowers have bloomed but it keeps growing warmer. In the way that it feels to recognize time folding in on itself. I haven't really mentioned schedules, and that's in part because I don't want to, nor can I speak for everyone - a lot of us have different flows. But there are crews, unofficial "posses" that have formed around the slots for lessons, and desires to travel around town. This morning we had our last Monday of yoga, and the first day back from the weekend full of rest and reflection, as well as adventure and life's playful upsets. Friday felt like a load lifted from our routine, and most of us went out to eat at the Royal Inn down the street. There were high aspirations to keep the ball rolling and have another involved henna party, but that lasted less than an hour and everyone was in bed by 10:30. Saturday s

I wanted to wait until we had seen the all of the scheduled renditions to write a post about the Ramayana performances. First of all, by the time we arrived to India, all of us were encouraged to have familiarized ourselves with the story. To ensure this knowledge was set, the beginning of the second week we had a pre-dinner "Ramayana Party," with a plethora of deliciously appetite-spoiling snacks, in which we all squeezed in to one of the single rooms and attempted to collectively recount the tale from beginning to end. Turns out that is difficult to do in one hour! With everyone having read or taken in different translations, it was really cool to put all the wide pieces together. I read a beautiful copy by Ranchor Prime, the Wikipedia summary and a couple of us had watched a children's animated movie. Anu had heard the story since she was little, so she had a lot of different parts to add, and there was also a graphic novel, feminist interpretation called "Sita&