इस शीर्षक हिन्दी में है

Question: Since I'm American, and was born in America, do I have to wait until it's July 28th in the US to officially be 20? I should have flown back to the US tonight, so I could have had all day here as my birthday, switched time zones, and had more birthday at home. But then I would have flown right back here, because I'm not ready to leave just yet.
In addition to it being my birthday, today is exactly 1 week from when my Indian adventure will be coming to a close. With that in mind, I'm stepping up the exploring mode. Sometimes, it happens unintentionally. For example: today I was trying to get back to work after an exceptionally long interview (90 minutes, as opposed to the usual 30-40). As I was getting onto the train to head north, my parents called to say happy birthday (thanks guys! sorry the train was so loud). I can't blame the fact that I got on the wrong train on them, technically, since I got on a train on the Harbor line instead of the central line, but I might have noticed earlier if I hadn't been talking. In any case, as soon as I realized, I got off at the next stop and just started walking in the general direction of work. I wandered through a slum area for a while, then through an industrial neighborhood, and finally through a taxi ghost town, where every taxi in the city seemed to be parked, but their driver's were no where to be found. Finally, I found a taxi and got in, only to discover that I was about two blocks away from my hotel.
A more planned adventure was this weekend, when Sanjay and I went to go see a Hindi movie, Tere Bin Laden. First of all, neither of us speak Hindi, but we figured it would be entertaining anyway, and the plot wasn't too complicated. A Pakistani guy happens to find a chicken farmer who very much resembles Osama Bin Laden, so he and his merry gang trick the chicken farmer into making a fake video addressed to George Bush. Hilarity ensues. Sanjay and I got the last two seats in the theater, but they weren't together, so I had to keep all my questions and snide remarks to myself the whole time. I was disappointed to find out there was no song and dance in the movie, but it was full of enough slapstick comedy and easily translatable jokes at the USA's expense that I enjoyed it.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the birthday messages, via facebook, ecards, phone calls, etc. I look forward to celebrating my birthday at least 5 times with various groups of people, starting with dinner tonight in Colaba (fancy shmancy south bombay) with my friends from work.

Crunch Time

One of the strangest parts of being here for two months has been trying to balance the “I'm here for two whole months, I'm basically living here” feeling, and the “Holy Cow I’m in India isn’t this an awesome vacation” feeling. As I reach my final week and a half here, I’ve definitely shifted toward the vacation feeling. I’m making lists of all the things I want to do before I go, and very quickly realizing I’m not going to fit it all in. I tried to convince Effie to fly to Agra this weekend to see the Taj Mahal, but, wisely, he declined, so I’m just going to have to wait until next time to see it.

As it turns out, I have three interviews planned for Saturday, so it’s good that I didn’t leave. The frequency of my interviews has picked up considerably. I did three this week, have another three planned for this weekend, and at least three already planned for next week. I realized this week as I drew a map on my leg in pen that I know Mumbai incredibly well, due to meeting strangers in coffeeshops and offices all over the city. The only place I know better is Ithaca, but that’s not much of an accomplishment, given the relative sizes, and time spent on location.

Last Sunday, our weekly Hebrew class met in a coffee shop where we couldn’t speak any English (or Hindi, for that matter [Spanish was occasionally permitted]). It was fun, although I think the three students (Adir, Ronan and I) spent more time asking Jeanine for vocab than anything else.

Throughout the week, my project at Sanctuary has been to take the thousands of books around the office and try to make sense of them. With help from the other interns Raghav and Shonalie, I started sorting them into 13 categories, then typing up every name, and finding a place for them back on shelves. It’s taken the three of us 5 dust filled days, and we’re about half way through.

In other news, I may or may not have played hookey on Tuesday, skipped work, and went to Esselworld and WaterKingdom instead. (If anyone from Sanctuary reads this, sorry! I really did have some personal work to do for part of the day). Sanjay (from Seva Niketan) and I are basically the only two people with flexible schedules, so we went up to the largest amusement park in India and the largest waterpark in Asia. It was excellent, and a ton of fun, especially since we were practically the only ones there. That’s us in the front seat of the train, upside down on the Hoola Loop.

Finally: I GOT FISH! I’m still working on the names for them, but I think I should move fast, since I’ve been told they might not live that long. At least temporarily, they’re Padme and Parvati, named after the Indian Patil twins in Harry Potter. I figured since I get told I’m HP regularly, it was fitting. Another option has been Michael and Jeanine, after the two JDC volunteers this year, but given how upset I was when Joel died of Cholera when I would play The Oregon trail and name my wagon companions after family members, I’m leaning away from naming my fish anything too sentimental.

Weekend Update

I don’t have time, nor you the patience, I’m sure, to fill in all events of this past week, so I’ll go through the main highlights and focus on those rare moments when I remember that I have a camera.

First of all, last Sunday’s football tournament was intense. We got there at 10 AM and played until around 5 PM. I can’t say I carried to team to victory, or anything glamorous like that, especially given that Lavanah, a girl on our team, is currently trying out for the national team. But when I was on the field mud, I successfully avoided any own-goals, headed the ball in the right direction a few times, and most importantly, kids, I had fun! My team, the Jewish Spartans, came in 2^nd to the Mojo Express, although the final was marred by fight, after which several of our players refused to play. Please observe the photo of both teams together in harmony after the match.

That night, to watch the final of the World Cup, I went over to Effie’s apartment. Since the game didn’t start until midnight here, and went on forever, I ended up staying over. Effie was a great host, and I enjoyed a strawberry milkshake, breakfast in the morning, and a packed lunch (courtesy of his aunt).

Research wise, I had a decent week as well. I got a few more contacts, and did three interviews. I’m not entirely sure where this all leads me, which is going to be a problem, but in the meantime, it feels good to be talking to the people I meant to talk to, and having the conversations I wanted to have. I need to pick up the frequency of interviews though, since I only have about 16 days left here.

The interviews are interesting for a bunch of different reasons. Some people have unique ideas and perspectives on the issue, such as one person who believes that we shouldn’t act on environmental issues, because they are simply nature’s way of killing off enough humans to keep our population in check. Some people I meet at interesting moments in their lives, like one interviewee who had just quit his/her job that day, and could barely focus long enough to answer questions before going out and celebrating. And sometimes, the mechanical parts of the interview go awry, such as when we did the interview in a coffee shop, and my voice recorder only heard Miley Cyrus on the radio for an hour, instead of the actual discussion.

On Thursday night, Sanctuary Asia magazine hosted a discussion with an American environmental lobbyist about international environmental negotiations post-Copenhagen, which was really cool. A fair bit went over my head, lost in a code of acronyms, but I was still filled with this sudden realization that some of my classes have actually been relevant to my life, and are applicable to the field I hope to go into! After the event, most of us in the office went out for dinner and drinks at Café Mondegar. It’s very cool to be working in an office with fun, enthusiastic people, and even more fun to hang out with them when they aren’t stressed about getting a publication ready for print. (Right: Vidya and I. I'm pretending to be a tiger.)

Finally, I’ve been meaning to show you a picture of my new hotel room. It’s much cleaner than this, now, since the front desk specifically asked me to take all my things off the floor so they could sweep it better. I appreciate that they clean my room daily, but I think I value the privilege to dirty my own space even more. We’ll just have to see what they say about my fish!

A Quiet Week

Hello again! It’s been a fairly uneventful week, but I know I’ll get angry owls (howlers, even) if I don’t update my blog frequently. Plus, I’ve been realizing that even though it feels to some extent like I’ve fallen into a routine, I’m in friggin India, and that’s still pretty cool.

I moved in to Seva Niketan on Monday, and proceeded to sit in my room most of the day. There was a nation-wide shut down, basically, due to a strike by a political party to protest rising gas prices. All the shops, businesses and taxis were basically intimidated into not working, so no one goes to work and I get to sleep a bit, and sit at my new desk reading articles for research. The new place is basically a youth hostel, and it’s about as luxurious as youth hostels are supposed to be. The bed’s a bit lumpy and hard, and there’s construction work two floors below me in the morning, and there’s no cell phone service except by the window- but that’s all pretty minor. It’s clean, there’s a canteen downstairs for meals, and I have an outlet for my computer (which only singles have), so I’m happy.

Vipin, a guy I’d met once or twice before, is staying across the hall, so we’ve been out to dinner a few times, which has been nice. In a true sign of friendship, he also has let me transfer a bunch of movies off his hard drive, which has pretty effectively killed my productivity the past few days. So far, I’ve watched the entire Bourne trilogy, and several Harry Potter movies (thus the own reference, earlier).

In terms of research progress, I had my first interview with a non-environmental expert yesterday! This means I’ve actually gotten started on the substance of what I’m here to do, which feels good. The interview itself went pretty well, although I have to get better at directing the conversation where I want.

The other event this week was that Michael, one of the JDC volunteers, left for a month long trip to the Saravash camp in Hungary. We spent the night at his apartment (before his plane at 3:30 AM), hanging out and playing taboo. Right before he had to go, we all went up to the roof, then those among us who were both brave and had proper footwear climbed the rickety old ladder to the upper-roof, and were rewarded with the most incredible view of Mumbai at night. The new bridge across Mahim Bay on one side and a few towering apartment buildings on another. It was pretty spectacular. Then it started monsooning.

Tomorrow is the big JYP Football (soccer) tournament. Being the aggressive athlete you all know me to be, I’ve joined a team, and I look forward to trying desperately not to look like a fool. I’ll let you all know how that turns out.

Email From My Parents

Gabe,

Mom and I want to see a video of YOU doing the Benny Lava and Tunak Tunak Tun J. (I was going to put this note in a comment on your blog, then figured I’m supposed to have learned not to embarrass you in public.)

Love, Dad

_________________________________________

Dear Mom and Dad,

A) That's a wonderful idea! Maybe someday.... B) I think it's a bad sign for my political career that parental comments no longer register on the "public embarrassment" scale. Thanks for the sentiment though.

Love,

Gabe

July 4th

I’m excited to write this post because for the first time, I’ve actually taken a decent amount of pictures the past few days, so they can go in as part of my post, instead of awkward and over captioned at the end!

It’s been a busy few days. On Thursday, first thing in the morning I took a train up to the northern suburbs, where I met Dipti from work. We went to a local elementary school (something International School), where I watched and took a few pictures as Ditpi did the standard Kids For Tigers presentation to a class of 10 year olds. (See right). I had helped make the powerpoint, and my main job at Sanctuary seems to be helping Dipti, so it was a good chance to see the whole picture of what goes on.

We also went to an older class and showed a video on tigers, after which the lame kids just left, and all the cool ones swarmed Dipti and asked her a ton of questions. Culturally, Indian kids aren’t supposed to ask to many questions, apparently, so when Dipti asked for questions after the movie, it was silent. But as soon as the presentation was over and she started packing up, they all came up to her and started chattering (see left above)

That night, some more people from work came over to Dipti’s apartment to hang out. We played with her cat, Grau (I think, although it might be Growl. I tend to have trouble hearing the last consonant of peoples’ names.) a lot, played some excellent Taboo (see Purab, Swati and Kavya in the photo) and a little bananagrams. It was a ton of fun, and good to get to know my office a bit better. I have to give a shout out to the JYP for teaching me the dance for the Indian pop song Tekh Ta Naah (that’s not ever close to right), because it scored me a lot of points with Dipti, Kavya and Swati, and they’ve asked me to do it on command regularly ever since.

Oh, also!!!! I started singing Benny Lava under my breath at one point, and Swati recognized it, and was really excited that I knew it. Apparently they also think it’s hilarious, (along with Tunak Tunak Tun), which makes me really happy. If you don’t know what I’m talking about (and you’re under 25) shame on you, and you should Youtube it immediately. If you’re older than 25, don’t worry about it.

On Saturday, I was planning on sitting alone at the hotel (still Sassoon, until Monday), doing research and sleeping. Instead, Dipti convinced me to come on a trek with her and a group that leads people on hikes. So I woke up at 4 AM, made it to Dadar Station by 5, then spent the next three or four hours on buses and trains (usually standing) on the way to the town of Roha on the Konkan coast. It was definitely worth it. The hike was gorgeous, green, and a welcome change from the noise and air in the city. The hike to Avchitgad, which means Hurry Fort, because it was made quickly, was really cool, and the view from the top was incredible. At top, most people sat down to rest for a bit, but being the athletic young man than I am, I took the opportunity to explore by myself a little. There was something really empowering about being 1000 ft up by yourself in a foreign country. Plus, I saw monkeys playing in the trees right below me on the hill, and a snake dashing through the grass, which was pretty awesome.

We didn’t get back to Mumbai until 11:00 PM, and I was completely exhausted. The end of the journey took a little longer than expected, since just as we started back down the mountain, it started to monsoon. It was only a light rain while we were hiking, but in the city it was pretty intense. As I was in the taxi on the way back to my hotel, the other side of the street was completely flooded, with water up to the top of the cars’ tires. My side happened to be fine, which was good, because I didn’t want to get out of the car to push, like the people on the other side had to. This was partially because I was only wearing boxers, since my pants had soaked through and I hadn’t brought a spare pair. I tried to get a picture of the water, but when I rolled down the window, a car passed my taxi and splashed a huge wave into the car. The taxi driver and I shared a good multi-lingual laugh, and I quickly put my camera away. You’ll have to make due with this one, which is terrible I know, but I didn’t want to use flash, and well, you’ll live.

Happy Forth of July, everyone! Go eagles, western toilets and potable tap water (unless you’re Boston in May)!

Sleepover!

Hello All,

This is going to be a quick post. I'm currently at Dipti's apartment in the northern suburbs. She works at Sanctuary, and it seems like she's the person I'll be helping out the most over the next month. She invited a bunch of people from the office over to her apartment for the night, basically just for the fun of it. So we're preparing for a night of Taboo, Bananagrams and more! It should be really fun.
In other big news, I'm moving! I met this guy David a few nights ago through some mutual friends. He's from NYC and through the American Jewish World Service is here for a year working in a drug rehabilitation center. He also happens to live in Byculla, literally three buildings down from me at the Seva Niketan guest house. It turns out that this place is cool, nice, clean, and most importantly, 25% of the price of my current lodgings. Being my overly sensitive self, I feel a little bad about leaving Sassoon house. The people who run it are really nice, and I totally own my the space there, since I had settled in for such a long term. I also liked that it was Jewishly run. But after a little internal debate, I realized it just didn't make sense to pay so much, given that it wasn't actually anything special. So starting Monday, I'll move three doors down and start my life in a single room at the new place. This means if any of you were planning on sending letters (YouJean) or considering stopping by for the weekend ( You know who you are), don't pop into the Sassoon house, or I'll be embarrassed. Thanks.