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Am I becoming an Indian?

Each day seems so long at times, yet the time flies before I notice that it's December! I am on a return train back to the lovely and sleepy town of Thanjavur after spending a long weekend with Erin and Geoff visiting Taj Mahal and the Agra fort. During this trip with Erin and Geoff, I've noticed that I am almost like half Indian. The reasons are listed below. 

• I no longer require toilet paper.
• I can eat with my hands now. I still can't do rice with hands, though.
• Hot shower is a luxury, not a necessity
• People don't stare at me anymore, They assume I'm from Northeast of India or Nepal (not even China). 
• I don't see any problem with making 2-lane street into 6-lane street
• Traffic lights are just annoyance, you don't need them.
• Not sharing the street with the animals is just selfish. When there were no goats while I was in Delhi, I felt lonely. 
• I believe squatting for #1 and 2 have anatomical advantages.

There're many other reasons why I am only half like I can't wear Sari, I can't speak Hindi, tamil or any other Indian languages, or I can't stand cockroaches. When I spend about 2-3 more months in India, I'm sure I will become a true Indian. So this was just a thought and I will post my pictures from Taj soon.

Punjabee Wedding

Me in a Punjabi suit in a Punjabi pose

http://picasaweb.google.com/shewhodares.wins/PunjabeeWedding# Click this link for More Pictures!!!

So I finally "crashed" an Indian wedding in India! This was one of my things to do while in India. Technically, I couldn't crash since I was invited. First of word that comes to my mind is BLING-BLING. These people know how to dress up, play hard and work hard. My friend's family is one of the most hospitable people you could every meet and I still am so grateful for them to take me in and make me feel like a part of their family. It was definitely one of the most memorable weddings.

Raj in her wedding gown, so pretty

 The wedding ceremony goes on for three days, the first day was to get their hands henna done and other fun girly things that i missed. My hands were done later by one of the cousins...

My hand with Henna

 The second day starts with the bride's family all going to the groom's family. There was a Sikh service, food, then more food, then more and more food. The evening of the second day is when the women from the groom's family come to dress up the bride. The wedding is on the third day and it's BUSY and has lots lots of food. 

The newly wedded couple

The in-laws dancing and spreading money to each other

Me in another Punjabi suit

Throwing the rice backwards for prosperity before heading out...

After the wedding and reception are over, the bride and groom walk out together. The bride throws the rice backwards for prosperity for her family, then goes with the groom's family. I got sad because it felt like she was leaving her home to become a part of the new family.... Anyway, it was AWESOME!!! I plan to crash many more Indian weddings!

Nicest uncle and friend's dad!

Jalandher and Back

So it's been a while since my last entry, it is not because I don't have anything to say or do anything fun. It's because the opposite. I've been busy traveling to Punjab (it's one of the northern states in India for those who don't know India geography). I went to a friend's wedding there. The wedding needs a whole new blog page so that will be posted separately. I would like to discuss about traveling in India!!!! Before I begin, I would to emphasize that I love India! 

But traveling around sometimes is not easy. Few examples here;  My morning at the airport started with a bunch of rude ladies cutting the line in front of me for the luggage x-ray. I was so aggravated that I pushed one of them with my backpack, but she didn't even flinch. On the way to the Delhi train station, the traffic was horrendous and the taxi driver reached over, opened my door and told me to get out and start walking because he wasn't going to drive in the traffic anymore! I basically told him off in English which I doubted he cared or understood.

View of the Delhi the train station platform

But all in all, this was not a bad trip, I guess. I was not ass groped, did not miss the stop, met some nice people whose son kept singing Justin Beiber's song the whole 6hr ride, and yelled at drunk men who were making passes at me. I do, however, continue to ask, India! why? Why can't we be on time???

Madurai and its temple

Time just flies.. it's been already a little over a month since I've left home. Life is as good as it could be. I still haven't traveled much but that's coming up soon. Went to Madurai for work-related reasons but we stopped by the Sri Meenakshi Temple. Madurai is one of the oldest cities in Tamil Nadu. Tamil and Greek documents record the existence of Madurai from the 4th century BC(Lonely Planet, 2009). So here're some pictures. This post is boring but just stay tuned for my next post, it will be filled with adventure and excitement!!!! For more pictures, please click on the title and it'll take you to my facebook album.

Me vs. Indians

Sometimes I feel really dumb asking different questions. so I will list some of the examples and let you be the judge.

1. Jin: what's the point of all these metal gates if you can just put your hands thru the other side and open it.
    Indians: well.. duh! these gates are not to keep people out, they are to keep the animals from coming into your house


2. Jin: what do you guys do for Christmas if you are a Hindu?
   Indians: ummm... technically we don't celebrate christmas if we are Hindus.

3. Jin: why does everyone have Dell Computers? is it made in India?
   Indians: No, they are made in China. Not everyone has a Dell computer. Now you're just weird.

Anyone else with intesreting questions about India???
I think India and I are still in our honeymoon phase and I love everything about it. Even walking on the roads half trying to kill myself has turned into a game. It's like how close you could get to a car/bus/truck/motocycle/bicycle/rickshaw/cow/goat before either you or they have to move. Trust me, it's actually fun!

The Big Temple

I would like to introduce you to Brihadishwara Temple of Shiva in Thanjavur. This was the crowing glory of Chola temple architecture, commisioned in 1010 by the King Rajaraja. Also, Nandi, the sacred bull of Shiva is one the largest Nandi statues in India. This amazing temple was made of sandstones and the carvings on the walls are amazing. It was very humid when we were there and very packed but I quickly learned the arts of pushing and shoving sticky people.
More picutres can be found on facebook... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=217918&id=519266544&saved#!/album.php?aid=217918&id=519266544&ref=mf

a long walk to the temple, we had no idea!

First entrance to the temple




Sayani and me sweating our asses off

 



Nandi; Sacred Bull for Shiva



A line of people trying to get into the inner sanctum where Shiva is



this is a Hindu priest handing out ashes for blessings



Welcome to my neighborhood,

I have so much to write.. I have so much that I don't even know where to begin!

Rockey the Rooster, If he doesn't get quiet, I might have to eat him



water pump/well where people get their water supply. Don't worry I have running water and AC



Rocky and his girlfriend

People are always sweeping, like every 1-2hrs

stray dogs resting in a rickshaw

my street around 7am

First of all, I would like to show you guys around my house and introduce Rocky the rooster, who starts crowing around 4 and never stops. Also it's monsoon season so it freaking rains all the time.. and it will until... decemeber! And I have seen too many corpes of frogs, how did they end up dead in the middle of the street? I wonder..

My street around 2pm

I started working with this amazingly driven, dedicated, ambitious and young group of people who share the common goal of improving health care for the rural areas of Southern India. I am humbled and honored to be a part of this group for a period of time. If I had any notion of arrogance in my coming here, It is now replaced with tremendous respect for them. I will and am already learning so much more from these people than what I can give. The only thing is that these people work like 10 to 8 everyday! I can't do it. I am sticking to my 8hr/5d schedule. Call me spoiled but I ain't doing no overtime! =)

Let's do Chennai

I only added a few pictures here on my blog, you can see all my pictures of Chennai on Facebook link here, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=519266544#!/album.php?aid=208923&id=519266544&ref=mf

So Let's talk about Chennai... It's definitely NOT on your top 10 places to go in India. so when you're in India and don't make it to Chennai, don't feel bad. 
This is the 4th largest metropolitan city in India, the capital of the state Tamil Nadu. Also has the longest shore line for a city. This is also where St.Thomas preached and was killed. However, it is very hard to navigate. My short stay here ends tonight when I head out with the group of people from work to Thanjavur, where I plan to stay for the majority of time during working months.  My general impression of Chennai is that this is  a city for work, not for leisure tourism. Tamil Nadu has a very strong culture but I was not able to appreciate any of them due to being busy staying alive. The most interesting part of this city is Mylapore, one of the oldest area where the city started. The following pictures are all of Mylapore. The contrast of life in India was most visible in this part of the city. It felt most authentic as well. I can't say I will miss Chennai, and I am actually looking forward to going to a sleepy town.

Kapaleeshwarar Temple, dedicated to Shiva

So I ask you,

Since I have nothing else to do but play on the computer and be on facebook, I figure I will make some use of my time by making a list of things that's been bugging me. Maybe you guys can help me figure this out,

1. So I don't know if it's just me but I am actually quite surprised to see how chubby people are in India. Alot of them have diabetic bodies, too. You know like round belly and flabby here and there. These are petite people who actually have large behind. Isn't this also the country of yoga and vegetarianism?
2. What's up with head bobbling thing? I can't figure out if they are saying yes or no. Not everyone does it but a lot of them do. It's kinda constant bobbling when talking to you.
3. There're more men out there, where are the women? Everywhere I go, everywhere I see, there're so many more men than women, about 10:1 ratio. Where are the ladies? I wonder if they are the ones doing actual work somewhere while men are just hanging out.
4. Dogs, let's talk about dogs. I've seen people with dog as pets. there're stores where they sell royal canine dog food and other pet related things, as well as animal hospitals. I don't even feed my own dogs Royal Canine cuz they're expensive. Yet, there're so many stray dogs. I highly doubt there're any rescue groups for dogs. so where are these 'pet' dogs coming from? Do they have breeders??
5. Shopping.. wow....I'm disappointed in shopping here. I haven't seen any stores where they have gold. What am I doing wrong? or did I just have too high expectations??  

So there goes my rambling of nothingness, but it feels good to get it out. Any thoughts on any of these????

First day is... well... interesting

First of all, the flight was probably the best flight ever, had 2 seats for myself, watched about 5 movies and slpet well. The only events were being frisked by two german security ladies at the airport (She did not have to feel my butt 5 times!) and a creepy pilot kept breathing into the microphone whenever making annoucements. The fun begins here in Chennai. Walking out of the guesthouse is a suidecide attempt in itself. Cars, motorcycles, bicycles and buses just keep coming at you. I love how the lanes are just a suggestion that no one follows. I bargained hard with rickshaw drivers or at least I think I did, found the office, got a cellphone(my number is 91 99524 64239, I know the numbers are so long, they look like a fake #), and ate very very spicy but awesome shrimp marsala. I was practically crying at the restaurant and the waiters kept apologizing and gave me free mango ice cream. Now I'm so pooped out from multiple suidecide attempts or rather homicide attemtps by a mass of motor vehicles.. oh, I saw about 5 dogs that I would live to rescue. Thank godness I got rabies shot, who knows what I would do when I get confused from heat stroke






pictures do not do justice for the organized chaos on the roads



School bus is internationally yellow







These school boys saw my carmera and wanted me to take pictures of them



street corner store



Some pics from the partay! Thanks everyone!!!!

There're alot more pics but I still don't really know how to use this blog thing and it's taking too long, so some peeps are saved from embarassing pics on the web.