Learning Hindi-- The Reason I am Actually Here

In reading over my blog from the past week, I realized that it seems as if all I do in Mussoorie is run around and climb mountains, Julie Andrews style. Actually, I am taking an intensive Hindi class. The Landour Language School, where I am a student, has about 30 students and 12 teachers. Each student takes 3 or 4 private lessons a day with a different combination of teachers. Then in the evenings, we translate dialogs and do various grammar exercises. I feel as if I am learning a LOT of grammar. I've only taken 8 days of classes, but already I can read relatively complex stories (in Deva Nagri script- which 2 weeks ago was totally incomprehensible to me), conjugate the past tense of irregular verbs, do all sorts of complicated grammatical constructions. At the same time, however, I can't even ask anyone what time it is. This school is heavy on grammar, but light on conversation.

The hotel where I am staying, Dev Dar Woods, has connections to the language school, and is right down the road from it, so there are 5 other Hindi students staying there with me. We take all of our meals at the same time and eat at one large table together. Other guests at the hotel can order off of a menu, but since language students get a discounted rate at the hotel, we are served three set meals a day. Breakfast is invariably toast, fried eggs, and chai, lunch is rice, roti, raita, and a vegetable dish, and dinner is rice, roti, and another vegetable dish. The hotel is strictly "veg," so no meat for us. It would certainly be useful if all of us Hindi students spoke to each other in Hindi around the meal table. Unfortunately, our collective Hindi skills are so limited that the content of such conversations would consist of exchanges such as:
"My spoon is big."
"Ah. Yes. This food is hot."
"Indeed. And the milk is fresh."
"Yes."
SILENCE
"My chai is too sweet."
"Yes."
SILENCE
So our group, which consists of 4 Americans, one Brit, and one Italian, chooses to speak instead in English.

After a long week of Hindi scholarship, all of us were excited this past Friday night to go out for dinner and drinks downtown in Mussoorie. We made the 40 minute descent down the mountain to town, and had dinner at a Tibetan restaurant, The Rice Bowl. (A lot of Tibetan refugees come to this part of India, so there are many Tibetan restaurants, shops, guesthouses.) After dinner, we went to the Mussoorie Tavern for drinks.

Halfway into a frozen margarita, I remembered the cardinal rule of dining out in India: Never consume ice. Restaurants, even nice ones, may simply freeze the tap water that contains innumerable forms of bacteria, and recycle it as the ice that garnishes drinks. When this fact occurred to me, it was too late to undo the partial drinking of the margarita. "Oh dearie me," said Marco the Brit. "You might develop amoebic dysentary." Beau, an American in our group, pointed out that I'd been in India for several weeks already and that my stomach might be strong enough at this point to handle the ice, and that, in any event, I was going to be in India for a year so I might as well discover my limits. I decided to continue drinking it. In a gesture of solidarity against amoebic dysentary, as well as in exploration of their digestive capacities, the rest of the group group volunteered to sip the margarita as well.

This morning, we all felt fine and amoeba-free. However, as Marco says, it takes two or three days for the disease to set in. So check in with me then and we'll see how I'm doing.


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Diwali- Goan/Punjabi/American/Candadian/Australian/Brazilian Style

This past weekend, Diwali weekend, I was fortunate enough to have two visitors from Delhi, Dan and Rafaela. Dan is an Australian friend of mine who works on and off for the Delhi office of a Melbourne-based engineering firm. We met in India last summer. Rafaela is a friend of his who recently moved to Delhi from Brazil with her mother, who works for the Brazilian embassy there. They arrived in Mussoorie Saturday morning and since Dan had Monday off of work for Diwali, stayed until Monday evening.

Dan and Rafaela and I explored many things that I had been wanting to check out: the actual town of Mussoorie and the market there, the nearby British-run boarding school, the views from Camel Back Road and Gun Hill. To get to the boarding school, Woodstock, we walked down a steep hill that was so thick in exotic looking trees and plants, and since it was so misty that day, that we could barely see 10 feet in front of us. Gun Hill, the site of another of our explorations, is a peak perched right above the main bazaar in Mussoorie. There is a cable car that runs up there, but being fit young people, we decided to scale the peak on foot. Did I ever regret that. The peak was only about 500 meters above the town, but it was an almost completely vertical climb. Up here, the altitude really gets to you. At only 20 meters from the top, I stopped suddenly and felt my blood boiling, my head pounding, my stomach swirling, my lungs gasping for more air... fortunately I was fine in about 15 minutes. And it was pleasant on top- views of the villages and mountains on all sides, and a little cafe where we sat and drank some water.

On Saturday afternoon, we bought loads of fire crackers and Indian sweets from the bazaar, in preparation for Diwali evening. Back at our hotel, there was a small group of Americans, Canadians, and Indians who run an NGO together in Chandigarh, as well as a couple from Goa. Turns out these people had also brought firecrackers and candles. So once it got dark, we all lit our firecrackers and set them off from the hotel yard. We could also see fireworks coming up from the main town of Mussoorie below us. After dinner, we sat around and ate peanuts and candy, and talked into the night.

Sunday morning was the greatest surprise of all. After several days of cold, clouds, and rain, we woke up to sun and clear skies. I was working on some Hindi in my bedroom when I heard some people call me outside. I ran out to the hotel yard, where everyone was staring, transfixed, at the horizon. From this yard, you can easily see the next range of tree-covered mountains. Today, however, since it was so clear, we could see, above and behind the nearer mountains, the peaks of glaciers! Usually these glaciers are obscured by clouds, so it was a very exciting sight for all of us. Someone told me that these far-off glaciers are the Nanda-Devi mountain range, that marks the border between India and Tibet. Apparently this glacier view is the best around 6 in the morning, so one of these days I will try to get up early enough for that. Fortunately, it looks as if the clear skies are staying!

Happy Early Diwali!

Tomorrow is Diwali, the Hindi festival of light. For this reason, the language school is closed today so I have no Hindi classes. The Diwali season is somewhat comparable to Dec 15th - January 2nd in America... the whole time is filled with parties and shopping and presents and dancing and decorations. I went to a pre-Diwali party in Delhi last week, although sadly I have not been invited to any Diwali festivities here in Mussoorie!

Life in Mussoorie has been exciting and peaceful. Every day I eat breakfast, lunch and dinne at my hotel, and take Hindi classes in between (yes, I succeeded in getting a place at the school!). In the evenings and mornings I study Hindi and read for fun. There's a whole group of other Hindi students staying at my hotel, so we help each other out with our studies and explore the area together. I've never seen so many white people in one place in all of India! It's an interesting feeling.

Our hotel and school are up above the main town of Mussoorie, and so far I have not made it into Mussoorie. The other day I started walking down the road to town, and ten minutes into my walk, two monkeys appeared! Some of you may know that I am afraid of animals, especially wild ones (and yes, I am SURE they were monkeys... I may confuse cows and horses but I've got my monkeys straight). At first I tried to walk past the monkeys but then they gave me menacing looks and started to run toward me! I panicked, turned around, and walked rapidly back toward my hotel. Fortunately the monkeys did not chase me. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into Chris, a guy staying there. He told me that the monkeys don't show up very often, but when they do, you just have to throw rocks at them and they'll probably leave you alone. A braver person than me would have tried again to walk down the road toward the village, but so far I have been too intimidatd by the monkeys. I have promised myself, however, that I will go today, because I really want to check out the town, especially to buy myself one of the woolly Himalayan sweaters that everyone here is wearing.

I could definitely use another sweater, as it is getting COLD here! It's nowhere near as cold as a New England winter, but when there's no central heating, you feel any cold air that exists. It's also started raining more which is unfortunate- my first few weeks here was gorgeous sun all the time. There's lots more that I want to see this weekend- the old colonial churches and villas nearby, the fancy British boarding school that still exists, a temple that I've heard about that's not too far from here- so hopefully we will have a warm and sunny weekend in honor of Diwali!

A week and 9.5 time zones later...

...I've made it to India! First, I had a whirlwind four days in Delhi with Briar and Raj and their children- the family I stayed with. They did a great job of showing me around the city and introducing me to people who will be great contacts, both personally and for my project.

Delhi was exciting and amazing. I went to an evening, outdoor Indian classical dance performance in the Purana Qila, which is a huge park in Delhi of semi-ruined ancient forts and other monuments. Sitting in this thousand year old structure, watching a thousand year old Indian dance, with the cool night air in my face, was absolutely magical. I also went to the 700 year old Tughlakabad's Fort just outside the city centre, explored some of the markets, went running with Raj in a park near their house, and saw many of the centers of American expat life-- the Embassy Compound, the American School, etc.

Delhi, however, was only a stop on my way to the Landour Language School in Mussoorie, where I will be taking intensive Hindi for the next couple of weeks, at least. To get to Mussoorie, I took a train today from Delhi to Dehradun, then a most harrowing taxi ride up the side of a mountain. I haven't been car sick since I was about 9... but today, I thought I was going to throw up multiple times. The school is in a little area in the hills above the town of Mussoorie, with only my hotel, a couple of convenience stores, and some fancy villas. It might actually be the most beautiful place I've ever been to in my life. From the little courtyard around my hotel, you can see huge mountain peaks and gorges on all sides of you. If you look far down, you can see small villages scattered along the mountain sides.

I am off to explore more before it gets dark! This trusty little convenience store down from my hotel has reliable internet, so never fear, I will be posting often!

Departure Day

Today is the day that I have long been awaiting- The Day I Leave for India. Earlier this summer when I thought about this day, I imagined that I would be nervous, scared, and very sad to leave. As it turns out, I am excited and quite happy to be starting my adventure! It's been delayed for so long with all of the visa issues, that I guess I'm at the point where I've done all of the preparation I can do and there's nothing left but to go!

So here's the plan. From Boston at 7:10pm I fly to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to Delhi. Yay Amsterdam. I'm excited to see a new airport along the way. I arrive in Delhi at 11pm. My aunt Lucy's friend from Brooklyn, Briar, who recently moved to Delhi with her husband and children, has offered to pick me up at the airport and take me back to her house for first few nights. Yay for Briar and her family. They are my new patron saints.

Then on Friday or Saturday, I will take a train to Mussoorie which is about a 6 hour journey from Delhi. Mussoorie, "the Queen of Hill Stations," is a former British Raj summer resort at the foothills of the Himalayas. There happens to be a famous language school there, the Landour Language School, where I will be taking Hindi classes for the next few weeks. I'm not 100% sure that there is a space for me at this language school, or that I will be able to find a seat on a train for this coming weekend, so those issues are slightly worrying. But it looks as if things will work out. And if they don't, I'll find another plan, right?

Test Run

I am just making sure that this blog works. I haven't even left for India; I leave in 4 days! Better keep packing!