Airplane Reflections

2009.06.16

I will be reflecting on this whole experience a lot more within my first couple of days back in the United States.  But now, as I sit on the plane in a limbo phase between India and America, I’ve already got several thoughts running through my head.  First, some random observations about India:

1.    There is no difference between the letters “V” and “W” in India.  So sometimes “the villain’s villa” comes out as “the willan’s willa” and so on.  Takes a little bit of getting used to.
2.    Kulfi is a very interesting Indian dairy dessert.  We had kulfi popsicles at the shoot for Chillar Party and they were really good, but definitely interesting, haha.  They were milky like a popsicle, but when we tried to bite into them, they were resistant and almost sponge-y.  The kulfi was fibrous, but the fibers melted somehow.  Its really hard to describe…I guess if you’re ever in India, you should give it a try.
3.    When people ask you where you’re from here, you either say “the US,” or “the States” – NEVER “America” and NEVER “USA”…it’s just not cool.
4.    There are stray dogs everywhere in India.  And I mean everywhere.  So it’s really strange to see a pet dog walking around.  You only see them once in a while, but when you do, it’s so offputting!  Because usually the dogs are a different breed than the street dogs, a lot shinier and cleaner, and WHOLE lot fatter.  All of the pet dogs I have seen here are super fat.
5.    There are these shiny little square packets that are all strung together and sold at corner stores all over the city.  When we first got here, we all thought they were condoms – LOTS of condoms…all over the city.  They are actually chewing tobacco, which is even…better?  Its disgusting, really.  We see people everywhere leaning out of the sides of their cars of rickshaws just spewing out long streams of reddish tobacco spit.  It is so foul.  I’m glad people don’t do that on a regular basis where I come from, haha.
6.    So far, I have witnessed three children squatting and taking a dump on the side of the road.  Not something you see every day – unless of course you’re in Mumbai.
7.    Marine Drive.  Marine Drive is the name of the road that goes along that area we had seen from the park called “The Queen’s Pearl Necklace.”  When we had first seen the “necklace,” it was during the day.  Then, I had just kind of figured that it was named that because the bay was shaped like a necklace.  Only later did I discover that the “necklace” nickname comes from how Marine Drive looks when it is lit up at NIGHT.  The street lights lining Marine Drive look like little pearls glowing in the shape of a necklace against the night sky.  I was fortunate enough to experience Marine Drive at night and drive around near the “pearls” a couple of times – it was gorgeous.

Something I will really miss about India is the little religious decorations everywhere.  I have been thrilled to learn time and time again that the things I originally saw as just decoration actually hold religious purposes.  The little stack of chillies strung on top of a lime dangling from every car and shop window is to bring good luck.  Representations of Ganesha on the dashboard of every car and on the side of every building, i.e. literally everywhere you go, are there to bring good fortune and help you through obstacles.  Blessing the set with a flaming coconut before a shoot, the flowers hanging from every doorway, the swastiks decorating every store, rickshaw, shopping bag, and restaurant.  Giant statues of the Dancing Shiva in the Film Institute, the Bodhitsavva on t-shirts, prayer beads on everyone’s necks.  I absolutely love it and I’m going to miss it when I get back to the US.  Sure, there are religious symbols there, but they don’t hold the same sort of meaning as the ones here do.  If you hopped in cab with a Jesus statue on the dashboard, crosses drawn all over the ceiling, and God bumper stickers covering the window, you’d probably be a little bit weirded out.  Not the case here.  I love that the religious symbols are fun.  They’re happy, they’re colorful, they’re decoration, and they’re everywhere.  They’re a part of life here in a different way than religion is a part of life in the United States.  That’s why I have tried to buy as many religious doo-dads here as possible.

Driving through the countryside the other day, I had what I guess you could call a spiritual experience.  Nothing life-changing or monumental – just a feeling of overwhelming peace that I cannot really describe.  I was looking out the window at the vast farmlands that stretched on forever, lazily taking in the scenery.  A traditional sounding Hindi song from a movie was playing overhead on the bus speakers, and for some reason at that moment, I felt like I understood the spirituality of this country.  I don’t really know how to describe it – it was almost like I could understand the connection that Indian people feel to their country.  The pride, the love, the attitude – everything.  The music fit so well with the view and how I was feeling at the time.  It all seemed to click right then, even if only for a couple of minutes.  That indescribable spiritual feeling that has swept over me numerous times during this trip is something I hope I can still feel when I return to America.

There is such a contrast between everything you see in this country.  Mumbai is such a dirty and polluted city, but it is so vibrant and colorful and full of adventure all at the same time.  It is dangerous, but it’s safe.  Situations are testy and out of control, but you always know that you’ll get through it somehow.  Nothing is organized, but things get done.  The slums are falling apart, but the families there are stronger than most.  And so on.  There is something very inspiring about the fine balance struck between efficiency and chaos in India.  I don’t know how to achieve it, so I just let it take me where it wants to and see where I end up.

You have to take every experience as a learning experience instead of a negative one.  Prof. Goenka mentioned something about people having a negative attitude about their experiences here.  I do not think that that is true.  I think that most of us have taken all of our experiences from India, good or bad, as something to learn and grow from.  I didn’t have an ideal internship, but I didn’t let it upset me or ruin my time in India.  I learned so many other things while I was not working.  I explored the great city of Mumbai, I learned how to stand up for myself.  I learned my way around a foreign country and got to explore places that I would not have been able to see if I had been working.  During the time I was working, I discovered that my interests might not actually lie in production as a career path – that I am more interested in the directional side.  I learned the beginnings of how strike a balance between a professional and personal relationship with a person of authority.  I learned how to haggle with merchants!  I learned I learned I learned!

I have grown pretty close with most of the people on this trip over the past month.  We came into the program not knowing each other at all — I could recognize the other 9 from our Bollywood class, but otherwise had no idea who anyone was.  I mean I guess its kind of the same as pledging a sorority…everyone comes in not knowing each other, and then through the good and bad experiences shared, everyone bonds and great friendships are formed.  I feel so close to this group.  We lived together, ate together, went out together, explored together…we did everything together!  They were my family for a month while I was here, and I am so grateful that this trip provided me with an opportunity to meet and become friends with all of them.  It’s amazing when you are able to see different aspects of yourself in different people.  This is definitely a crew that I would love to reunite with in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in India.  It was inspiring, adventurous, and a real growing and learning experience for me.  I feel a strange connection to the place, though I can’t place my finger on exactly what that connection is.  I’m actually okay with that.  This trip has taught me to embrace the things I don’t know or understand sometimes.

It’s strange to be back on a plane, because it is the first time in a month that I have been able to understand almost everything that is being said around me.  I don’t know what it is, either, but the flight attendants on this plane are the rudest, stupidest, most ignorant people I have encountered in a really long time.  I heard someone ask for water, and one of the women said “Hang on, I gotta get Mr, Impatient over here his water so he’ll stop screaming in my face every 2 minutes.”  Yeah.  Comments like that have been going on left and right.  Ahh, its people like that who are the reason so many people hate Americans.

Despite all that, I am excited to return to the United States.  I am really really really excited, actually.

During our last couple days in India, I compiled four lists: 15 Things I Miss About America, 20 Things I Will Miss About India, Things I Will NOT Miss About India, and The Smells of Mumbai.  Here they are!

15 Things I Miss About America:
1)    75 degree weather with tolerable humidity
2)    Clean air
3)    Clean everything in general
4)    Having the option to drive my own car
5)    Having my entire wardrobe to choose from
6)    Drinkable tap water
7)    Fast internet
8)    Being able to call and text whoever I want whenever I want
9)    Knowing the value of things that I buy
10)     My iTunes account
11)     Fabric softener
12)     My big soft bed
13)     Salad and sushi…surprisingly
14)     My family
15)     My friends

20 Things I Will Miss About India:
1)    Naturals ice cream
2)    Koyla hookah bar
3)    How ridiculously cheap everything is
4)    Alphonso mangoes with ice cream
5)    The decorated windows of Bombay taxis!
6)    Palm trees & banyan trees
7)    Colorful things amidst the dirt and smog
8)    The Indian head bob
9)    Indian radio stations
10)     Guava nectar and lychee juice
11)     Seeing Ganesha everywhere
12)     Indian food
13)     The Vodafone lady’s voice
14)     “Fro hot cho” from Moxxa
15)     The view from my window
16)     Cute Indian babies!
17)     Clubbing to Bollywood music
18)     Our fridge stocked with digestives
19)     Cold coffee and hot chai
20)     All the new friends I’ve made here

15 Things I Will NOT Miss About India:
1)    Being constantly stared at by EVERYONE
2)    Being scammed, cheated, and overcharged for everything because I’m a foreigner
3)    How awful it smells here
4)    Converting rupees into dollars
5)    The nine and a half hour time difference
6)    The language barrier
7)    The weather forecast saying “88 degrees, feels like 110, SMOKE”
8)    Mumbai traffic and driving technique in general
9)    Having to wonder whether or not it is safe to eat something
10)     Having no idea what anything on the menu means
11)     Cockroaches
12)     Sweating profusely … ALL THE TIME
13)     Whining beggar women pinching me when I don’t give them money
14)     A-Hole rickshaw drivers
15)     Dysfunctional technology

The Smells of Mumbai
•    Poop
•    Exhaust
•    Dead fish
•    Grass
•    Smoke
•    Random piles of things burning
•    Gasoline
•    Cows
•    Curry
•    Poop

Ahh, those are my random reflections from the plane.  Look out for a blog from the United States soon!

mGm

Adios, India!

2009.06.16

Today was our last day in India.  We woke up at 4:30AM because we had to be out the door by 5:15AM to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.  We got on the bus, which took us to the entrance of a park.  Our tour guide explained that it was about a 5 minute walk to the Taj Mahal.

As we walked, we all agreed that it was like Christmas!  We knew how close we were to the famous landmark, but there were absolutely no signs of it anywhere!  The little parks we were passing on the way were filled with people who were all awake and playing games.  At first we couldn’t understand why they would be awake so early, but then figured that we’d probably want to get up early to play games too since the weather in the morning is so much cooler than the hot midday sun.  Also, we saw a ton of monkeys running around!

Finally we arrived at an entryway made of red stone.  The tour guide had already taken our money and paid the admission fee, and we were given little feet covers and complimentary bottles of water.

Even when we walked through the entryway, we could not see the Taj Mahal!  Instead, we walked out onto a giant red stone courtyard all walled in with a grand entrance on the left hand side that we hoped would lead to the Taj Mahal.  Our guide explained that the 22 domes on the top of the entryway each represent one year, because it took 22 years to build the Taj Mahal.  She also said that the suspense of not seeing the Taj right away was done on purpose.  One interesting thing about the entrance is that on the side of the door, there is an Arabic prayer that was specially designed so that when you look up at the prayer from below, the text does not get smaller and smaller as you go upwards – it was designed so that it all appears to be the same size.  Kinda cool.  We took a bunch of pictures in front of the entry way and then prepared ourselves for the Taj Mahal.

Everything about the Taj Mahal landscape is perfectly symmetrical.  When you stand outside of the main gate at the very center, all you can see on the other side is the perfectly symmetrical entrance to the white Taj Mahal.  As you walk closer to the entrance, the white area grows and grows on the other side.  Then, once you’ve finally stepped all the way outside, the Taj Mahal reveals itself completely.  It is a lovely buildup, and is so much better than just seeing it all at once.  Very dramatic.  Also, since it was only 5:30 in the morning, there were hardly any other people there.  It was quite peaceful.

The Taj Mahal was stunning.  Breathtaking.  Perfectly symmetrical, perfectly sharp and clean, and it seemed to just be floating there against the morning sky. It was actually designed to appear as if it is floating in air.  It is raised off the ground so that when you look behind it, you see nothing but blue sky – no trees, no mountains, no buildings, nothing.  Just sky.  It was created as a “heaven on earth” by a king for his beloved wife.  She bore him 14 children and died before she turned 40.  She is buried in the center of the Taj Mahal.  Our tour guide stressed the fact that absolutely everything in the Taj Mahal is perfectly symmetrical.  The only thing, she said, that is not symmetrical is the tomb of the king, which lies to the left of his love’s grave.  Pretty cool.

We could take pictures outside the Taj, but once we got inside, cameras were prohibited.  The inside of the Taj was different than I had expected it to be.  The domed celing inside was relatively very small in comparison the the outer dome.  Our guide informed us that the inside dome was smaller because it was a separate dome altogether, and that the space between the outside and inside domes is hollow.  The tombs were right in the center of the room and were surrounded by low walls made entirely of marble screening work.  The marble used to make the screens is so hard that the screen work had to be chiseled away with diamond-tipped tools.  The coolest part about all of the screen work we’ve been seeing here is that its all perfectly symmetrical and its all made from one piece of marble – no joints.  Pretty amazing.

Another really cool thing our guide showed us was the detailing done inside the Taj using precious and semi-precious stones inlaid in the marble.  The stones are in all different colors and usually depict different types of flowers.  There is one red stone used in the detailing called a “firestone,” because when you put a light to it, it glows.  SO cool!  Also, our  guide showed us how translucent the marble is in the Taj.  She held a flashlight to the wall and it glowed!  That is why you shouldn’t say that the Taj is white, because it is really made of a more translucent material.

The most intricate stone inlay work was definitely around the tombs.  There were hundreds of tiny little flowers that all consisted of about 60 or more different little pieces using all different stones.  Each petal on each flower was made using at least two little stones, etc.  Really amazing.

After we visited the tomb, we went outside to see the land behind the Taj Mahal.  On the right, there is the Agra Fort, from where people used to keep watch on the Taj.  Directly behind the Taj is a beautiful river that seems to be drying up.  After the king built the Taj, he wanted to build his own BLACK Taj on the other side of the river, perfectly symmetrical and facing the white Taj of his wife.  Unfortunaatley that plan never worked out.  I’m kind of glad it didn’t, haha.  Seeing only the blue sky behind the Taj is really unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

After the tour, we were allowed to go around and take pictures for a while.  Random symmetry note: on the left side of the Taj, there is a beautiful red stone mosque that is still in use today.  On the right side of the Taj, there is an identical building that is not used for anything at all.  Its sole purpose is to create balance and symmetry around the Taj by being an exact duplicate of the functional mosque.  Interesting!

I took a ton of pictures.  In fact, I think I took a lot of the same pictures over and over and over again.  Each time I looked up at the Taj Mahal from a different angle, it was breathtaking, and I had to make sure I captured it again and again.  Even now, looking back at my pictures, they don’t really even do the place justice.  It is definitely something that you have to see in person – everyone should – at least once in their lifetime.  Pictures just cannot capture the stunning beauty of the Taj Mahal.

We all headed down to the little platform between the Taj and the entrance to take pictures.  Even though I know I was there, the picture of me in front of the Taj doesn’t look real!  I still can’t believe I was actually there!  We also did a big group shot and got it printed out.  I was amazed to see that everyone managed to look really good!

Finally it was time to leave.  As we walked out, I felt like I could just hop on a plane and fly home right that instant.  I had just seen the Taj Mahal – what could ever top that?  It was the perfect ending to an amazing month in India.

Walking out of the Taj Mahal, we were harassed by people trying to sell us stuff.  We saw monkey, and, right before we boarded the bus, CAMELS!  About three camels were just roaming the street – it was awesome.

We got on the bus, headed back to the hotel, had a big breakfast, did a little shopping (I needed to spend my last $10 – not worth exchanging over later haha) and then hopped back on the bus and headed back to New Delhi.

We all were out COLD for the majority of the bus ride.  I have been running on almost zero sleep for the past few days, so I miraculously managed to get comfortable on the bus and sleep for the majority of the trip.  It was a long ride to Delhi…it definitely felt longer than 3 hours.

When we finally arrived in Delhi, we swung over to the Gate of India (not the Gateway of India – that’s in Bombay) and saw the Indian Parliament buildings.  It was ungodly hot outside and Prof. Goenka did not have much to say about either of the landmarks, so it wasn’t long before we were heading back on the bus to go to her parents house.

We were exhausted when we arrived at Prof. Goenka’s parents’ house.  They were very sweet.  They asked us about our trip and made us a bunch of snacks to eat before our flight.  We had a fair amount of time to kill before we had to go to the airport, so it was really nice to be able to just sit and relax in the air conditioning for a while.

At 6:30, we bid our adieus and headed to the airport.  It was about an hour long drive, which felt like nothing by that point.  We arrived, grabbed our luggage, said goodbye to Prof. Goenka and Lucien, and went to check in.

Going through all of the motions of the airport were a little bit jarring for me, but not as much as I had expected them to be.  As Nya said earlier, I think that a month is a perfect amount of time to spend in India.  At least for now.  I do not feel as if I was cut short – I feel satisfied with my experience, but I am ready to go home.

mGm

Longest Day Ever

06.15.2009

Oh my gosh what a DAY.  We had to wake up at 4:30AM to be out the door by 5:30AM.  So Andrea and I decided it would be a good idea to stay up until 3:00AM last night…don’t ask me why.  I guess we figured that if we start staying awake at night and sleeping more during the day, we might have less trouble getting over the jet lag when we get home…I’ll let you know how that turns out, haha.

After getting about an hour or so of sleep, Nya’s alarm went off and I sprung out of bed like a crazy person.  I skipped showering and was acting pretty cracked out all morning just to keep myself awake, which was fun.  We took one last look around our room, closed the door, handed over our keys, and took our luggage downstairs to the bus.

We hopped on the bus and drove down the main Mumbai highway for the very last time.  It was really neat to see the city so early in the morning.  It was so peaceful.  A lot of people were still sleeping out on the streets and there were hardly any cars. Also, Andrea witnessed a man pooping in a bush on the side of the road.  It felt strange to be back on the Whistling Woods bus instead of in the back of a rickshaw.  It seems like only yesterday we were first getting on the Whistling Woods bus to go to Emerald 2 for the first time.  I can’t believe it’s been a whole month.

We had already gotten off to a late start, so when the bus pulled up in front of the international airport instead of the domestic airport, we all started to panic a little bit.  Fortunately we got to the domestic airport with time to spare.  They scanned our checked luggage and when they got to my suitcase they stopped and asked me to identify a big dark blob on the X-Ray of my bag.  I could not for the life of me remember what I had packed in there and had a slight panic attack as I went to open my bag.  Turns out it was the other lens for my camera.  Close call!

We went through security, which was kind of sketchy.  There was a really really long “men’s line” for security and we were directed to the terribly short ladies line to check our carry on luggage.  The security was pretty ineffective…Jill got through with a juice box and a bottle of water on her carry on, and the little metal detector thingie beeped like crazy for all of us when we went through.  So much for safety!

After we got situated, Kate, Allison, and I grabbed food really quick and we boarded…a bus?  We figured the plane was probably pretty far away if we had to take a bus to get there.  We died laughing when the bus literally drove us across the street to the plane.  Apparently they don’t want people crossing the traffic running between the planes and the terminal.  It was funny.

As we were boarding the plane, it started to rain!  So I guess I can officially say that I caught a glimpse of the Mumbai monsoons.  I’m actually kind of glad that we missed the rain.  I have heard that it is a wonderful time of year because the rain is so celebrated here, but the thought of riding around in a rickshaw or walking around aimlessly in a torrential downpour in this city is pretty unappealing, haha.

The plane was so interesting!  We walked on and there was mist coming out of the ceiling!  Everything was super duper clean and there was this really relaxing music playing the whole time.  We thought maybe the music would stop once we took off, but it played for the ENTIRE flight!  It was a little surreal.

The flight wasn’t bad – it took about 2 1/2 hours to get from Mumbai to New Delhi.  New Delhi was HOT.  Mumbai was kind of a more smoggy, sweaty, humid heat.  In New Delhi, we felt like we were just baking under the hot sun.  There are a lot less trees in New Delhi – it’s more desert-like and the rickshaws are green and yellow!

We met up with the bus driver who was going to take us to Agra and he led us to a parking lot where there were two buses parked.  One was huge, looked comfortable, and was definitely air-conditioned.  One was the size of a van, dumpy, and questionable.  Guess which one was ours??  Yeah.

We each had two big pieces of luggage and two carry on’s.  That makes for about 44 pieces of luggage total.  And 11 people.  In a tiny van/bus.  The driver and his little crew started loading up the tiny trunk of the bus and THEN started putting people’s suitcases on the roof!  Including mine.  I figured the suitcases would be fine if they just made sure to strap everything to the roof really well.  Indian roads are bumpy and Indian drivers are psycho.  The suitcases were secured to the roof using one piece of rope.  ONE PIECE OF ROPE!  I was convinced that everything would fall off and so was everyone else.  We stood out in the sun under open umbrellas while Prof. Goenka called the travel agent to tell her that there was no way we were all going to fit with our luggage onto the bus.  As the driver continued to “problem solve” with our luggage, we went back over to the airport to get something to eat.  When we walked back over to the bus, they had managed to fit everything, miraculously.  There were suitcases on the roof and suitcases stacked in the aisle of the bus so we had to climb over things to get to the little cubbyholes that were our seats.  Ahh, yet another adventure.  Once we were all situated, the road trip began!

I was freaking out the entire bus ride about my luggage falling off the roof.  My suitcase was on the edge and was only being held on by a piece of string that was wrapped around one corner.  The bus driver, like a true Indian, was driving like a psychopath, and we were going over some of the bumpiest roads I have experienced since I’ve been in India.  I don’t know how, but my suitcase managed to stay on the roof for the entire trip.

The trip to Agra was brutally long.  The bus had AC, but you could only feel it if you put your hand right on top of the vents on the ceiling.  So the bus basically didn’t have air conditioning.  We were all sweating profusely the entire time.  At one point, the driver stopped in the middle of the countryside and the bus was mobbed by people trying to sell us things.  It was all the same run of the mill stuff like jewelry, bags, trinkets, etc.  Until all of a sudden, a man appeared next to the bus with a GIANT monkey!  We were all really excited and jumped to the window when he suddenly kind of threw the monkey at the bus and it started climbing all over the windows.  I took a picture of it, obviously, and then he tapped on the window incessantly asking for “picture money, madam, picture money”  Chyeah right.

We stopped about half way at a restaurant where everything was horribly overpriced.  Andrea and I split some cheese naan, which I wish I had discovered earlier in the trip.  It’s the Indian version of cheesy bread!  When we got back on the bus, we saw a kid with a giant snake in a basket trying to give us a show.  That’s when we knew we definitely weren’t in Mumbai anymore.

Back on the bus, I tried to sleep, but it was just too hot.  I was running on no sleep, but I am pretty glad I didn’t zonk out the entire time because the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  The way to Agra runs through the countryside.  The land looked very dry, but it was definitely farmland – stretching out for miles and miles as far as the eye can see.  The land was flat for the most part and scattered with a few trees and a bunch of little grass huts.  The view just went on forever.  And it was especially beautiful to see the brightly colored saris of the women moving about in the fields.  There were cows EVERYWHERE – giant cows just roaming around, herds of goats, village people walking the streets with water jugs on their heads in the most beautifully colored clothing.  Truly a beautiful, rare, and breathtaking sight…I’m glad I didn’t sleep through it.

At one point, we saw signs that said we had arrived in Agra, but the bus kept going!  It felt like we had been driving for hours…and we had.  We weren’t really sure where we were going, but we knew that there was a landmark somewhere near Agra that Prof. Goenka wanted to take us to see.  All of a sudden, about an hour after passing through Agra, Prof. Goenka informed us that we’d be getting out now, and to bring nothing but money and a camera with us.  So we did.

We got off the bus and immediately started getting harassed by little kids trying to sell us postcards.  We shrugged them off and met up with our tour guide.  Prof. Goenka was very excited that our tour guide for this landmark and the Taj Mahal would be a woman.

The landmark we had arrived at was called ___________.  The tour guide gave us so much information about the fort, and I will try to remember some of it.  It was built by the Mongols in the 1500s as a “city inside the walls”  the first thing I noticed about the fort was how amazingly intact it was for having been built so many hundreds of years ago.  It was not crumbling apart at all – everything was still almost as sharp and intact as it probably had been when it was built.  It was made out of beautiful red stone and had several different levels.  The first part we visited was the “people’s court,” which was just an open grassy courtyard surrounded by a wall with a hallway and many pillars.  It was fairly simple, but very beautiful.  Looking around the low walls lining the courtyard, we couldn’t really see anything but the sky.  You would have no idea that an entire city-like infrastructure laid ahead.

We walked up a short staircase onto a gorgeous courtyard made totally of red stone.  There were squarish buildings scattered around the courtyard.  The fort was built by a king, and the idea was that the fort would include everything for the royal family – houses, kitchens, dining halls, temples, and even a school.  The king had three wives – one Muslim, one Hindu, and one Christian.  The Muslim wife got the smallest palace, but it was the most intricately decorated.  It had some of the most beautiful and intricate carved stone work I have ever seen.  The flower details in the palace used to be filled with gemstones, which have all since been removed.  The fort (and India in general, I believe) is known for its amazing, perfectly symmetrical stone “screenwork,” and that was all over the entire fort.  Really beautiful.

The tour guide showed us a beautiful water tank submerged in the courtyard with stairs going down it and little walkways coming in from all sides to a block in the middle.  I love that stuff!  She also showed us the king’s bedroom, where it was still possible to see remnants of the beautiful paintings that had once covered the entire palace.  In some places, the paintings on the stone walls were still in color!  Its amazing that the paint has lasted all these hundreds of years.

Another  building she showed us was designed by the king as a meeting place for a religion he invented that was sort of a combination of all religions.  The exact name of the religion escapes me at the moment, but I do know that it does not exist today because it was shot down pretty early on “for political reasons.”  It was very cool to learn about, though.  The king was interested in all religions, and would hold meetings in this building with leaders of all religions to learn about each different one.  The building looked like it was two stories from the outside, but on the inside, it was one room with a very high ceiling and a giant pillar in the middle that went up to where the second floor would be and had little walkways coming off of it that linked to a little walkways that lined the perimeter of the building and led to staircases.  Really cool.

Throughout the tour, our guide asked us to envision the fort as it had once been.  She described the intricate carpets that covered the ground, the golden decorations and gems, the candles burning in every corner, the beautiful curtains that were flowing from every doorway, and the people dressed in the finest fabrics roaming the palace.  That mental visual just made the place that much more spectacular.

We stopped briefly in the palaces of the other two wives, which were significantly larger than the Muslim wife’s palace, and then we went to the mosque.

The mosque was by far my favorite part of _________.  We climbed a very steep staircase to reach the entrance where we were asked to remove our shoes.  We got little foot covers and headed through the grand entrance where we were again bombarded with people trying to sell things to us.

We walked out onto a giant stone courtyard that had a gateway, mosque, or temple on every side.  One of the gateways was the largest in Asia, and they were all intricately decorated with marble designs.

We only visited the tomb _________.  Amidst the red stone buildings and courtyard, the tomb was made of all marble and stood directly across from the largest gateway.  Outside, three musicians were singing and playing traditional music, which I cannot even put into words.  It was some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.  Their voices and the harmonies were so strange and powerful – it was very spiritual.  We had to cover our heads to enter the tomb, so we were given these little plastic hats that looked like baskets to put on our heads.  The tomb was beautiful.  Inside of a very small space where the walls were totally covered in intricate decorations, the tomb stood in the center decorated entirely with Mother of Pearl.  The tomb almost looked like a bed, with a great canopy over top a “bed” covered in blankets given as offerings.  The blankets were scattered with lotus petals, and Prof. Goenka got some petals for us to sprinkle (with our right hands!) over her offering.  On each wall of the tomb there was a stone screened window that was covered entirely with little pieces of red and yellow string.  Prof. Goenka told us that when you come to ______, if you make a wish and tie a red string to the stone screen, your wish will come true.  And when it does, you are supposed to come back to the tomb and untie your string.  Pretty cool!  We all made our wishes before leaving the tomb and then it was time to get back on the bus.

We had to drive about an hour and a half back to Agra.  We were all so exhausted from the long day, but the trip back to Agra was definitely improved by the fact that we got to see TONS of peacocks out in the fields!  None of them had their tails splayed out, but they were seriously everywhere, and it was really cool to see them out in nature instead of cooped up at a zoo.  Even when they’re not displaying their feathers, the males’ tails are SO long!  The peacock is also the national bird of India – who knew!

Once we reached Agra, the sun had gone down but it was still light out enough to see the city.  Agra is a much smaller and more rural city than Mumbai.  There were several full fledged carnivals going on with ferris wheels and everything…which was a little strange.  As we drove through Agra, we strained our necks to try and see if we could get a glimpse of the Taj Mahal from anywhere.  No dice.  From the look of the city, it was hard to even believe that it held one of the world’s wonders within its walls.

Finally we arrived at the hotel.  We were thrilled to discover that it was ACTUALLY a nice hotel with comfy beds and air conditioning.  We were all so exhausted – we went straight to our rooms and it took a lot of effort to even make it downstairs for dinner.

Since the Taj Mahal gets thousands of visitors daily, there were obviously many other tourists staying at the hotel with us.  When we went down to dinner, I was shocked at how strange it felt to see other white people around.  I suppose we’ve all gotten so used to being the only white people for miles and miles, that seeing a bunch of them all of a sudden at the hotel was a little off-putting.  None of the ones we encountered were even from America!

And now I’m sitting on my bed, which isn’t that comfortable, but is SO comfortable in comparison to my bed at Emerald 2, watching a Sandra Bullock movie and miraculously recounting our longest day ever in a comprehensive fashion.  Tomorrow, we have to be out the door at 5:15AM to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.  I am so excited.

mGm

Not Feeling Reflective Quite Yet…

06.14.2009

I can’t believe that today is our last day in Mumbai! Our last day in this crazy city and I’ve spent the majority my time inside sleeping and packing. Since not much has happened today, I’ll rewind to yesterday and recap what we did, We all woke up pretty early yesterday. Everyone needed to get their last minute shopping done and needed to hit up various destinations all over the city. The only place I needed to go was Colaba, so Kate and I headed down to South Bombay around 9:30AM. We took a rickshaw to Bandra, transferred to a taxi, and got to Colaba around 11:30. We stopped really quick at a Barista for some cold drinks and muffins and we were on our way!

It was funny being at the causeway YET AGAIN, because this time I actually started recognizing certain merchants that I had seen before on previous trips. Sad, I know. Both of us didn’t have much to buy and we had all day, so we helped each other out a lot. I had a couple little things that I wanted to get and Kate was looking for jewelry. I made sure not to pay too much for anything yesterday. A guy selling scarves tried so hard to rip me off, but at the end he gave me “all of my prices” instead. I was very pleased with myself, haha. It really helps to understand the value of things when you’re shopping at the little markets. One guy tried to sell me something for 900 rupees and I didn’t even want it so I started to walk away, and by the end he was asking for only 100, so I caved to that and bought the damn thing, haha. Ohhh, the power of walking away.

On our way down the causeway, we saw a tiny little kitten. It was obviously really cute, so Kate and I got out our cameras and started taking pictures of it. A man working at a nearby shop saw us and said “excuse me, that’s my pet.” I thought maybe he was mad that we were taking pictures of it, so I kind of stood up and was about to apologize when he said, “How much?” We were floored. It was then that we realized that no, the kitten was not his pet – it was a stray cat that he was trying to sell to us because we were taking pictures of it. I think that anecdote sums up the attitude of Indian merchants.

When we reached the end of the causeway, we decided that we would just have to forget about anything that was left on our shopping lists. Kate mentioned that she had seen a cute little jewelry shop up towards the middle of the causeway, so we decided we’d poke our heads in there and see if she could find anything nice. The shop was pretty nice, so I asked them if they had any Ganesha jewelry…and they did! I got a little Ganesha pendant for my necklace and a tiiiiiny Ganesha charm for my charm bracelet. I am so happy we found that store!

At the jewelry store, we asked the guys working there if they knew where we could buy auto stickers and they directed us to a store in Churchgate called Satym. Ever since I got here, I have wanted to figure out where to buy the stickers that taxi drivers use to decorate their rear windows. They are so cool!! I have been unable to find the stickers anywhere, so I was really excited that we had finally been directed to a specific store where they apparently sold the stickers. We walked all the way to Churchgate and got pretty lost along the way but found it eventually. Despite the fact that I was sweating profusely and carrying a giant suitcase filled with goodies from the causeway, I actually enjoyed the walk. We passed a big open park that was all dirt and filled with people playing cricket. It was surrounded by palm trees and right smack in the middle on the perimeter was a giant tower that looked like Big Ben or something. The contrast was really cool – it was so Mumbai.

When we finally found the store, they definitely did not have what we were looking for. It was basically just a Mumbai gift shop. We kept trying to explain to them that we didn’t want bumper stickers, we wanted the stickers on the windows, but still to no avail. Apparently those designs are painted on. Saddest news ever! Oh well, I’m glad to know that they’re actually painted and therefore unattainable. At least I’m not still wondering where to buy the nonexistent stickers, haha.

After Satym, we went to a little restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat. The place was packed! We must have gone in right during the lunch rush. I got a fruit salad (sub-par) and pineapple juice with club soda! The juice thing was yummy. After that we got in a taxi and headed back to Goregaon. Our taxi driver seemed to understand us when we told him to take us to Goregaon East, but after a little while, Kate and I noticed that we didn’t recognize anything around us. We had walked a little ways away from Colaba when we went to Churchgate, but not so far that we wouldn’t recognize a single thing on the way back home. And we were taking only backstreets. We were a little freaked out, but he said he knew where he was going and was just trying to avoid traffic. We only half believed him, so we called a couple people who we knew would have maps and asked if we were going in the right direction. Apparently we were, so in true Indian fashion, we decided to just trust and go with the flow. At one point, I looked at the signs around us and saw that we were smack dab in the middle of Dharavi, the slum we had toured earlier in the trip – awesome! I called Liz and she said that it was right next to Bandra, so we were okay. We made it home safely, but it was a very nerve-wracking trip to say the least.

When we got home, we only had about an hour to relax before we had to turn around and head back out the door for a group dinner in Khar for our last big night out in Mumbai. We went to a place called Olives in Khar, near Bandra. It was a beautiful Italian restaurant with white rustic walls and trees inside. The food was absolutely amazing (and so were the drinks!) They also had the most gigantic pepper grinder I have ever seen in my life. It was great to be with everyone again. It’s been a while since the whole group has been together. Not to mention we were all dressed up in our new Indian duds, so everyone looked fabulous

After Olives, we took rickshaws to an airport hotel called Leela where there was a line out the door for the club inside called “Bling” (love the name). Before we got there, I assumed that Bling would be like Hawaii Shack – just a club bar thing full of people dancing. I was wrong…kind of. Bling was a REALLY high end club bar thing. We were asked to invite people we had worked with to the club, so we invited Anshuman. We met him outside of the club and he told us he asked us how Prof. Goenka was “able to pull this off,” and that it “costed a bomb to get in.” he also told us that the last time he was at Bling, it was for a private Bollywood party where SRK and other huge Bollywood celebrities were in attendance. CRAZY. Even though I was dressed up, I feared I might have been underdressed for such a fancy-schmancy place.

Apparently Prof. Goenka had some ins at the club, or had friends who did, so we didn’t have to wait in line or pay to get in (V.I.P!). It was a pretty intense club! It was in the basement of the hotel and was very dark with all different-sized disco balls crowding the ceiling. The drinks were pretty expensive, so I was glad I got my fill of wine at the restaurant. When we arrived, no one was really dancing, but it definitely picked up after about an hour or so. They started out playing a lot of hip hop music (mostly American), but further into the night, they started playing strictly Bollywood songs – all of which were remixed with some of the most awesome mind-blowing house music I have ever heard. Needless to say, I danced my face off. We all did. It was so so so so much fun. And a great workout to boot!

When we left the club after what felt like weeks of dancing, we were convinced that we had gone deaf. I couldn’t hear properly until about noon today. If that’s not proof that you had a great night, I don’t know what is, haha.

Today, I slept in until about 1:00. We went to Emerald for lunch and I got a cold coffee and some really crappy noodles, which was disappointing. Then we all realized how broke we were and went to Whistling Woods to use the ATM. Then I attacked the challenge that was packing all of my stuff into two suitcases. I must have some of my father’s expert packing genes in me, because somehow I managed to fit everything into my two relatively small suitcases. I will probably end up paying some extra money for them some time during my travels back to the US.

Once I had finished packing, I started to blog and do other random things…it’s been kind of an uneventful day and night. Anshuman swung by to give Kate, Liz, and I little parting gifts and say goodbye. Even though we didn’t get to do much work with him, it has been really great getting to know Anshuman. He’s incredibly smart and talented and someone I hope to keep in touch with once I get back to the United States.

I’ve still been feeling so hectic that I haven’t had a chance to really reflect on my whole experience in Mumbai yet. I guess its because I know that the trip isn’t actually over yet. Tomorrow we’re waking up at the crack of dawn (before that actually) to fly to Delhi and then drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The next two days are going to be jam-packed with traveling and sight-seeing. Its going to be so exhausting and so awesome. I know that sitting on a bus staring out the window will be the perfect time to let this whole experience really sink in. More on that later!

mGm

Pune & Irish Music

06.12.2009

Talk about a long day. I woke up at 5:30AM to shower and get ready to hop on a bus to Pune at 6:30AM. Allison and I sat at the back of the bus (cool kids!) and listened to stand up comedy for the entirety of the 3 1/2 hour drive. We listened to a bunch of my favorites and some of Allison’s too. Turns out I really enjoy Lewis Black and Tommy Teirnan – hooray!

I didn’t sleep on the bus at all because the ride was so damn bumpy. It was definitely beautiful, though. The drive to Pune winds through the hills and plains of the Indian countryside. The air is hazy. The ground is desert-esque but still pretty green and the hills are low and layered behind one another. I think the coolest part of the scenery was definitely the temples. Amidst the generally flat earth tones of the countryside, there are wildly colorful temples scattered in the brownish villages. I’m talking hot pink, electric yellow, bright orange temples. It’s that Indian contrast! I love it. I also saw a giant bright red Ganesha statue built on the top of one of the hills – it was so awesome.

We got to Pune and got lost trying to find the National Film Archives. We got there eventually and headed to the Barista across the street to freshen up before our tour. I went to use the bathroom at the Barista, and was amused to see that the bathroom door had a sign on it with a picture of a fire hydrant that said “loo.” Soooo clever.

The National Film Archives were kind of cool. The building was relatively old and not nearly big enough to hold all of India’s cinema. For a country that produces more films yearly than Hollywood, they were definitely not as organized as they should have been. Our tour guide took us down to the basement where there was a room filled with film cans. Many of them were stored properly in big movable shelves, but most of them looked like they had been thrown carelessly into unorganized piles. In one of the piles, we found Bride and Prejudice and Devdas! Blasphemy! There was also some sort of chemical in the air down there and many of us thought we might pass out from it. On another part of the tour, we saw someone doing a “routine checkup” on a film using a flatbed to evaluate its condition. That was kind of cool. Overall, the general consensus is that India needs to do a better job preserving its films. The current system is pretty embarrassing.

After the film bit, we were shown the library and photo archiving rooms. I swear everything looked like it was right out of the 70s. I couldn’t believe it – things were not in good shape. I can understand Prof. Goenka’s concern with the way film is currently being archived and preserved by the Indian government.

After the tour, we went into the auditorium where we watched a silent film about D.G. Phalke’s early work. D.G. Phalke is known as the “father of Indian cinema,” and we watched a compilation of some early footage and his first film. It was surprisingly interesting. Cinema has obviously come a long way since 1914, but it is still important to understand and appreciate the films that shaped it from the beginning.

When the movie ended, we headed over to Kobe Sizzlers (again, I know) for lunch. I really did not enjoy Kobe Sizzlers that last time we were there, and I enjoyed it equally as much this time around. The idea of sizzlers is just so unappealing to me … I don’t understand why we need to have our food come out of the kitchen scorching hot on a scorching hot plate that blows scorching hot steam into our face for ten minutes before we can even THINK about trying to eat any of it. And by then, everything is burned and will probably still kill all your taste buds anyway. Ugh. I just hate it. Andrea and I split something and I did not enjoy it. The only good parts were the onions and the fries. And the cake we got for dessert. Chocolate truffle mousse – mmmm.

After we finished our cake, we went to the Film and Television Institute of India. It was a really cool place. Pune in general is a lot less crowded, cleaner, and nicer-smelling than Mumbai, so those factors definitely enhanced our experience too, haha. FTII is very green with tons of trees, plants, and little buildings all around. It definitely felt more comfortable and welcoming than Whistling Woods by a long shot. Our first stop was a conference room, where we sat around a big table, drank chai, and introduced ourselves to several of the schools’ staff members and vice versa. The people here were so much friendlier than most of the staff members we had met at Whistling Woods. They were so excited to have us, and even gave us all little roses! It was cute.

After the meeting, we took a tour of the school. Their facilities were pretty impressive. Since it’s strictly a film school, students shoot only on film and major in very specific streams of filmmaking whether it be directing, cinematography, acting, etc. The studios for TV, film, & sound were very impressive, as was the brief description we were given of the four year curriculum. It kind of made me wish I had graduated from college with a more specific degree…Too late, haha.

We went up to a little museum area sponsored by the school where there were really old props and other items on display. My favorite things there were these two painted wooden deer heads with giant antlers that were mounted on the wall. They were cool.

Our last stop was the “pond.” It was a little bit of a hike to get there, but it was totally worth it. The pond was not really a pond at all – it was a dried up pool-esque thing that was used for “watering hole” types of scenes. My favorite kinds of trees lined the entire perimeter of the pond. My favorite kind of tree in India is the banyan tree – it’s really thick with vine-like branches hanging down all over it. Its hard to describe…its like a tree made out of smaller trees or something. Look out for pictures .

After the pond, we took a group picture under the “Wisdom Tree,” where famous filmmakers had apparently received inspiration at one time or another. Then we hopped back on the bus again. Before we left, the ladies went to the washroom and Madeline experienced her first Indian toilet! I opened the door to see a toilet bowl submerged in the floor like a hole in the ground. I figured hey, I’m in India, I’ve got to squat at least once! …So I did. Eh, it wasn’t so bad.

On the bus ride home, Allison introduced me to the new love of my life – IRISH MUSIC. I am completely and totally obsessed, and I need to get as much Irish music as I can when I get home. I was smiling from ear to ear the entire time we were listening. After the Irish festival on the bus, we started listening to Disney songs and showtunes, and were also stuck in traffic, so we became very rowdy and started singing like crazy people. It was fun.

We got home, ordered pizza and I wrote this blog. Tomorrow, we are going to Colaba to do all of our last minute shopping. I have touched the ATM for the last time, and am making sure to haggle as much as possible and spend as little as possible while I’m in Colaba tomorrow. Ahhh, I can’t believe this is our last weekend.

mGm

Monkeys? (And Various Other Wildlife)

06.11.2009

Today was great (I feel like I start every entry that way). I slept in really late until about noon, then I took a shower and went online. There was a lizard in our bathroom today! He was so tiny and cute, I didn’t even care if he was hanging out in there. Honestly, anything but a cockroach in the bathroom is totally cool with me.

Around 2:00, Nya, Liz, Jill, Kate, and I headed to the Sanjay Ghandi National Park. We had read about the park in Liz’s guidebook and were excited to discover that we’re basically living in it! Yes, that is how far away from “downtown” Bombay we are. Before I delve into our park experience, here are some excerpts about the park from Liz’s Time Out: Mumbai guide book:

“The park’s forest contains a great diversity of wildlife, including tigers, leopards, lions, pythons, cobras, spotted deer, black-naped hares, barking deer, porcupines, and about 5,000 different kinds of insects. In recent years, the park has been encroached by numerous slum dwellings, which is not only bad for the park but also for the slum dwellers – leopards have been known to mistake children for prey. There are also crocodiles in Tulsi Lake. Swimming is not encouraged.”

So we were super excited to go check it out! We especially wanted to make sure we went on the lion and tiger safari – here’s an excerpt about that:

“A rickety green forest department bus takes visitors into two fenced compounds of tigers and lions. The lions tend to look a little bored (or might be asleep), but they do occasionally leap into action, with mornings being the best time to see some activity. Some years ago, before grated windows were put on the buses, one visitor opened a window and cheekily waved the edge of her sari at them; one of the lions duly jumped onto the roof and ripped off her scalp”

I’m not kidding, it’s in the book. So we HAD to do it! But first, Nya and I needed to get some food and money from Whistling Woods. So we took a rickshaw there and decided we’d just meet the other three at the park. We both got equally disgusting sandwiches from the WWI cafeteria, sucked down some fruit juice, hit the ATM, and were on our way.

The park was pretty close, but not as close as we thought it was going to be. When we got there, I was really amused to see that the entranceway had two big murals on either side depicting characters from The Jungle Book. I asked a guide why they were there and he said they were mostly there just because children knew the story and those kinds of animals are in the park. We paid the entrance fee (20 Rs.) and took a bus to meet the other girls, who had just been on the lion and tiger safari. They showed us their pictures from the tour and said that it was basically just like being at the zoo. I was bummed out to hear that… The word “safari” usually implies that the animals are not in cages, but in the pictures, the animals were all caged up and just lying around. Not to mention, the tour was only about 10 minutes long and cost 30 Rs. They asked if we still wanted to go. We decided against it. I can go to the Philadelphia Zoo to see a lion in a cage.

So our next stop was the Kanheri Caves! It was 400 Rs. for someone to drive us there (ridiculous if you ask me) and 100 Rs. for the entrance fee (which I thought we had already paid?). actually, the entrance fee for Indians was only 5 Rs., but for foreigners, they upped it to 100 Rs. … AKA 20 times the cost. Lame.

Fortunately, the caves ended up being worth the expensive entrance fee. They were REALLY cool. The guidebook said that the history of the caves was still pretty incomplete, but that they were obviously very important to Buddhists. Some of the carvings in the caves date back to the sixth century AD. I can’t really do the caves justice with a verbal description, but I’ll do my best. The caves are more like caverns carved into a hill. There are little squarish nooks everywhere with carvings of Buddha and Boddhisattvas inside them. Rickety stairs wind all around the mountain, and the view of the park from up there is absolutely stunning. Also, it was ungodly hot, so the only downside was that it felt pretty terrible to be hiking up a mountain in the sun, haha.

The coolest part of the caves, for me anyway, was the giant temple that was carved out of rock. Most of the little caves are really tiny – they’re almost like little cubbyholes where Buddhist monks probably sat to meditate and pray in solitude. This temple was a total contrast to the cubbyholes. It had a grand entrance leading up to it with stairs with giant 20 foot statues of Buddha carved into the walls on either side. You walk in through a high doorway into a deep dark high ceiling-ed temple with a giant dome shaped…thing at the back with columns on either side. It was so simple. And quiet. And dark. And creepy, haha. It felt really cool to stand inside, though. The temple was thousands of years old, and for some reason it just screamed history. I felt like I was in a movie or something, with the dark stone temple all around me. I could feel its history – the people who had been there, the services that had been held, its grandeur when it was actually in use. That’s the only way I can think of to describe how I felt. The pictures do not do it justice.

After the temple, we made our way up the stairs to a peak on the hill. The view was so astonishing and definitely very spiritual. We all just stood there in silence taking it all in.

We had to catch the bus back to the entrance at 4:30, so we headed back down the hill. When we got to the bottom, we saw a monkey! We all got excited and took lots of pictures. As we continued walking down, however, we encountered something much more exciting. We were walking down, and I looked up to the hill and saw a little tail moving at the very top. I pointed and said, “look guys, another monkey!” Everyone turned, and all of a sudden, three monkeys jumped off of the hill and into some nearby trees. They started jumping back and forth (they were huge, by the way) and more and more monkeys kept coming out of nowhere, running around, and jumping into the trees too! It was so cool to see, but they were also RIGHT above our heads, so it was also a little scary. At one point, they started grunting and then one of them jumped into a tree right near us, the branch it had grabbed onto broke, and then it rolled down the hill in our direction. Mind you, there were about six other monkeys flying around in the trees at the same time this was happening. We all panicked and ran for the entrance. It was a little nerve-wracking at the time, but looking back, it was pretty hilarious and awesome.

We headed back down the hill, and on the way, we saw so many more monkeys! One walked right past me (literally a foot away from me) and stole a bag of chips from a little kid, the others just kept appearing in the trees around us, and then we saw an entire family (including a mommy and a really tiny baby!) on a tree branch mere inches above our heads. It was really cool, but again, really off-putting to be so close to a ton of wild monkeys.

We got back on the bus and took rickshaws back to Whistling Woods. Nya and I went to the computer lab and then met everyone downstairs for some cold coffee before heading upstairs for our meeting with Tula. She needed to run a debriefing session where she asks us what went right and wrong on the trip so she can improve it for next time. We were all on the same page for most of that.

After the debriefing, it was time to meet Subhash Ghai. Mr. Ghai is the founder of Whistling Woods and a pretty well known film director, who has actually worked with Anshuman on several films. He was a really cool guy who obviously knew a ton about the industry and had a couple of really interesting things to say. I think my favorite thing he said was that movies are like people. You can’t generalize and say that they are all the same, and you’re not going to like them all. He also stressed the importance of being open minded when watching a film. He said that we must understand where every film comes from, whether it’s a person or a culture or both. There is a reason films are made the way they are – because they reflect the person making them. It was a great way to look at international films, or just films in general. The last great thing he talked about was the importance of characters. He said people don’t care about your great editing or camera angles – they care about the characters. People want to see other people and connect with them. Talent is your own skill, knowledge is from college, and wisdom comes through connectivity. What great words! I really enjoyed his “lecture.”

Kate, Lucien and I went back to Emerald 2 and hopped on the elevator. Something was wrong with the light in the elevator, and it was flickering on and off the entire time we were on there. We decided it looked a lot like a strobe light, so Kate and I began raving and Lucien took pictures of us. Then the elevator got stuck on the 19th floor, so we got off and took the stairs up one flight. We opened the door to the 20th floor and there was a BAT flying around in the hallway! Ohhhh my god. I freaked out. Kate and Lucien ran into their room and I stayed in the staircase screaming like a baby. I absolutely hate things that fly, and there was a BAT flapping around right outside my apartment door. I was having a heart attack. Finally I ran into Kate’s room and collapsed on the couch, exhausted from my panic attack. Some other people were coming back from Whistling Woods right behind us, so we waited in the room to hear their reactions when they saw the bat. It was pretty funny.

We ordered a pizza, ate it, and I think that’s going to be the extent of my evening. We have to wake up at 5:30AM tomorrow for our field trip to Pune. Can’t wait?

mGm

Colors, Mehendi, & Beggars

06.10.2009

Today was a terribly long day, but definitely awesome. Kate, Liz, and I (big surprise!) left Emerald 2 at 9:30 to meet Anshuman in Bandra for breakfast. Anshuman had tried to take us to a little restaurant called Candies last week, but he tried to take us on a Monday and they are closed on Mondays. Fortunately, today was Wednesday so it was open. Our rickshaw driver got lost on the way there (another big surprise!) but we found it eventually. On the way, we were stopped at a red light, and about six different people came up to us selling the same bouncy balls. I don’t know why, but I got a huge kick out of that.

Candies was a cool little place. I was expecting a restaurant, but instead it was more like a cafeteria. There was a little display case with all kinds of sandwiches and things of that nature, and there was a salad bar. For the record, “salad” in India is NOT the same as salad in America. When people in India talk about salad, they mean things like chicken salad and potato salad, aka things with mayonnaise. There are no greens involved. Anshuman had told us that Candies had REALLY good salad, and I was super excited about that. We have not been able to eat salad (the kind with lettuce in it) since we’ve been here because the lettuce is probably washed in tap water. Boo. When we got there and the salad bar was filled with potato salad-y looking things, I was disappointed, but not devastated. The Hawaii Chicken salad was pretty freakin’ awesome. Candies apparently has 5 different levels, so we took our food upstairs and ate on a little porch that had mosaic tile decorations everywhere. It was really pretty. We ate our food and Anshuman showed me how to use the manual settings on my camera, which was SO awesome. Now my pictures finally look SUPER cool! Yaaay.

After we ate, Anshuman dropped us off at a little shopping area in Bandra. Our goals for the day were to go to Candies, get taxi decals, and to get REAL henna (or “mehendi”) done, and he told us that we could find autostickers in the little shopping area. We didn’t find stickers, but we DID find this really awesome little store called Mela. This store had the absolute coolest clothes I have seen since I’ve been here. Everything was made with Indian prints in the brightest colors I have ever seen. We were in there for a good two hours looking around, and we all ended up getting something. I got a really cute dress in a really fun print — something to remind me of India! Hooray! I asked the shopkeeper if I could PLEASE take pictures of the store, and she said yes, sooo look out for those. The colorful-ness will blow your mind, haha.

After that, we took a rickshaw to another part of Bandra to search for stickers and henna. We didn’t find either, but we found a really cool area filled with markets and we hung out there for a good while. We went to a little place selling jewelry, and I got my FINAL sets of Indian bangles – one set of gold and one set of silver. Now I am officially all done with Indian jewelry, haha. It was really really hot out, so we headed into a department store that had AC and a cafe on the 4th floor. The cafe smelled really funky, but we needed the AC so desperately that it didn’t even phase us. We sat and reviewed our goals for the remainder of the trip. I really really hope we can accomplish everything. Some of the goals we listed were to buy coconuts and Bourneville chocolate bars. Bourneville chocolates are advertised all over this city, and we decided we needed to see if they’re actually as amazing as they claim to be. So we decided to hit up a grocery store.

On our way out of the cafe/department store, there was someone outside doing mehendi!! We stopped, of course. But we were a little skeptical because the person doing appeared to be twelve years old. But he had a pretty legitimate business card and the security guard at the department store came out and told us to sit down. So we did. The kid had a big book full of pictures of mehendi that we looked through before choosing which design we wanted. From the wrist up, it was only 60 rupees! Awesome. I went first, but when I sat down the kid didn’t even look at the picture I had pointed to. I was a little worried, but decided to just trust him anyway. Mehendi is done using a little cone filled with a sort of henna paste — it kind of looks like the thing you use to ice a cake. The kid started putting the design on my hand and I was totally blown away by how talented he was! The design goes from my wrist and covers my entire hand and its so beautiful. I love it.

Since mehendi is done with a thick (and obviously wet) paste, we couldn’t really touch anything for about an hour or so. So that made things a little challenging for the rest of the day. Even when everything was all dried up, it still kind of sticks to your hand – I actually really had to scrub to get everything off. It’s funny – I was expecting the henna to look a lot browner on my hand, but after taking off the dried paste, it was really orange! Same with Kate’s and Liz’s. Hmmm.

After we got henna, we decided that we weren’t going to find auto stickers today so we would just go to the mall instead. But before we caught a rickshaw, we stopped in a bookstore and I bought a CD of Indian clubbing music – I am obsessed with it. I want to find clubs that play it in the United States and go to them all the time. Then Liz remembered that she had to get a soccer jersey at the Nike store so we headed in that direction. On the way, we stopped at Natural and got some fresh mango with malai (what else is new?).

We started walking to the Nike store and a little boy and a tiny naked baby girl started following us begging for money. The naked baby latched onto us and was touching our legs and pockets while the little boy followed closely behind. It was amazing – the little boy would say something and then the baby would repeat it. It was like beggar training…that sounds degrading, but I can’t think of any other way to describe it. THEN the two kids met up with an older girl and all three of them started bugging us (by now this is the longest a beggar has ever followed us). We went into a store, hoping they would leave us alone, but instead they waited for us outside! When we came out, they kept following us, but the boy and the baby eventually fell behind. The girl was really persistent. She walked with us and tried to hold Kate’s hand, then was grabbing onto my upper arm and kind of like, pinching me, and then tapping Liz on the back incessantly. Finally, we got to the Nike store and she gave up. Crazy.

After the Nike store, we took a rickshaw to InOrbit mall, where we had gone our first day in Mumbai, because we knew they had a grocery store where we could buy coconuts and chocolate. We went to Spencer’s, got our groceries, and, exhausted, went to the food court to grab some food. I had a weird sandwich and a guava nectar juice box…I am really going to miss guava nectar, haha.

After dinner, I decided to eat some of my Bourneville chocolate. Bourneville chocolate is advertised everywhere in Mumbai, and its slogan is, “you don’t buy a Bourneville, you earn it.” So after a month of being here, I decided I earned it. The wrapper of the chocolate even has INSTRUCTIONS on how to enjoy a Bourneville. Verdict: very delicious dark chocolate, melted in my mouth, but was not overwhelmingly mindblowing, haha. But I definitely earned it.

After the mall, we headed home and a couple things happened! First, we drove past an area that had a lot of auto stores, so we decided to stop and look for places that sold auto stickers. No luck. We almost went to one store that a shopkeeper had directed us to, but the street looked REALLY sketchy and we decided we’d rather live than die in a weird neighborhood trying to find some stickers.

When we caught another rickshaw, we encountered the scariest beggar we have seen this entire trip. She was really old with crazy long wildly curly hair. She came up to our rickshaw on Kate’s side and, instead of talking, began whining and crying like a dog and reaching her hand into the rickshaw, all the way to Liz, who was sitting in the middle. She kept whining and then started touching Kate’s legs and running her hand all over Kate’s face (note: the most I’ve ever been touched by a beggar is just a little tap on the knee). She was there for an uncomfortably long time, and then she finally left. We all kind of looked at each other and started reflecting on what just happened (“holy SHIT”), when all of a sudden, the woman popped up on MY side of the rickshaw and honest to God scared the living daylights out of me! I seriously think I jumped 10 feet out of my seat. The woman kept whining and was rubbing my forearm really hard back and forth and touching my purse, and then started touching my hair and my face and THEN — the icing on the cake – when I didn’t give her money and the rickshaw was driving away, she PINCHED me! Man oh man, needless to say, that was one of my most memorable experiences.

We finally got home, where I did a whole lot of relaxing. I took out my Ganesha statue and admired it, played around with my camera, took pictures of my henna, and hung out with the ladies. Andrea made her list of everything she wants to do before she leaves, and Allison ordered a strawberry milkshake from Emerald and they delivered it to her in a plastic bag. Later on, Allison, Andrea, and I farted around on Facebook for a while and listened to stand up comedy. It was really fun. I can honestly say that I enjoy the company of everyone on this trip. We came in not knowing each other at all, and will come out as a tightly knit group of friends. I’m really thankful for that part of this experience…but more on that later.

And now I’m sitting in my apartment and its 2:00 in the morning and my vision has started to blur, so I think its about time I call it a night.

mGm

Saris, Toto’s, & Brainstorming

06.09.2009

Today was aight. We got up outrageously early for a mandatory meeting with Prof. Goenka regarding the schedule for the remainder of the trip. Tomorrow, we are meeting with Subhash Ghai (AKA the Steven Speilberg of India), and Friday we are going to Pune to visit some film preservation archives. I’m not particularly interested in film preservation at all, but it will be nice to get out of the city for a day. Sunday will be our last day in Bombay, and then we go to Agra and New Delhi before flying back to the US. I can’t believe how quickly this whole trip has flown by.

After the meeting, Kate, Liz, and I went to the set of Chillar Party for their last day of shooting in Film City. The shoot was especially fun to watch today. I’m not going to disclose too many details, but lets just say that it involved poop and it was very funny. The child actors still have not ceased to amaze me. One of the littler ones, who was definitely my favorite, had the BEST facial expressions. Even though I do not speak a word of Hindi, his character came across to me perfectly. He acted so well that I did not need to understand the words he was saying. And he was hilarious. You kind of had to be there, haha.

It was just a typical day on set today. We blessed the set again with the flaming coconut (a tradition that Kate and I decided we definitely want to adopt oto our own sets if we ever have them), and I read some more of Dracula in between shots. Today, the crew had to simulate sunlight outside of the “indoor” set. There were big light-bouncing panels all around and lights hanging from the ceiling with big branches in front of them to simulate sunlight coming through trees. The coolest part of the whole process, though, was how the crew simulated the haziness of daylight. A crew member burned a shallow bowl of coal with some sort of incense in it to create smoke, which then settled in the air and created a really pretty haze that caught the rays of light as if they were coming into a dusty room from the sun outside. Definitely an interesting technique.

We got to speak some more with the director and co-director today, which was also really great. I don’t know what it is, but on every set we’ve been on, I’ve really enjoyed how the people in charge explain to us what is going on in each of the scenes. every time a person explains something to us, they seem to capture not only the action of the scene, but the motivation and overall theme as well. I feel like people in America do not explain things as articulately as the people I have met on sets here in India.

We left the set around 5:00 and headed back to Emerald 2. When we got back, I went straight to my room and passed out for about an hour. Then I got up and showered and Liz, Nya, Allison, and I all headed to Bandra to meet Jill and Aamir for dinner at Mia Cucina, the little Italian restaurant that I had gone to with Kate, Liz, and Lucien during our second week here. But before we left, the guy we had ordered saris from on Saturday called Kate and informed her that, even though he had told us there would be no delivery charge when we ordered on Saturday, that there now WAS a delivery charge on the order for no particular reason whatsoever. We got mad, because obviously he was trying to cheat us, so we called Anshuman and asked him to call the guy and yell at him in Hindi for us. 5 minutes later, the guy called us back and told us there would be no delivery charge. Damn Indians!

We got kind of lost in the rickshaw (big surprise) but found the place eventually. We were all crammed into a corner booth, but the food was delicious so it didn’t even matter. I got tortellini stuffed with chicken and gorgonzola in a creamy basil pesto sauce. Can you say “YUM”?? It was phenomenal.

After dinner, we headed to Toto’s Garage, a very well known bar in Bandra that we had been meaning to go to before we left Bombay. It was not all it was cracked up to be. It was tiny and crowded with automobile memorabilia all over the place and a VW bug hanging from the ceiling over the bar. I liked the atmosphere and the drinks were cheap, but it definitely wasn’t anything special. We met up with Aamir’s boss, Vishal, who had taken us to Zenzi earlier in the trip, and talked with him about the industry and our projected career paths. At 12, we got in rickshaws and headed home.

When I got back, our saris had arrived!! Kate and I put on our lovely saris and did a little fashion show for everyone. It was funny. My sari is so beautiful! I have no idea where or when I will ever have an occasion to wear it, but I don’t even care because it is just such a lovely thing to own. The way that saris wrap around and fall on the body of anyone that wears it is just astonishing. I’m so glad I bought one for myself.

After the fashion show, I was going to go to bed, but instead I went into Andrea and Hannah’s room to hang out with them for a bit. For their internship, they are writing and shooting a short film with some of their co-workers. When I came in, they were trying to write the script and I helped them further develop their story. It was SO fun! I absolutely love bouncing ideas back and forth with people, and Andrea and I were coming up with some really good ideas. I hope they get to finish shooting the film so I can see the final product. I think it is a very interesting concept.

Anyway, it is 3:00AM and I wanna go to bed (OAR anyone?). Tomorrow we’re spending the day in Bandra with Anshuman and I should probably rest up for that.

mGm

“dOOd!”

2009.06.08

Today was cool. We woke up really early to get to the set of Chillar Party by 8:30AM. When we got there, we were informed that the shoot actually didn’t start until 9:00AM. The director had told us they were starting at 7:00AM yesterday, so that being said, we were glad we had decided to come a little late. We sat and waited for a while and I started to read Dracula. Its good so far – the language is a little difficult to get used to, but once you get a hang of it, it’s not so bad.

After a couple minutes we were ushered over to a breakfast buffet and asked to help ourselves. Indian food is so funny just because, as an American, I never have any idea what anything is, so I just pile it all onto my plate and hope that I like it. Fortunately, I usually find everything to be delicious (and SPICY).

Some of the crew members set up chairs for us in the shade to sit and eat our breakfast. We looked around and saw that most of the other crew members were sitting out eating in the sun while we were sitting comfortably in the shade. We felt really bad because we felt like we were given special treatment and didn’t really deserve it. Overall, here is what we have noticed: interns in India and interns in America are two totally different things.

Before we left for India, we were told that we would all have internships working in various streams of Bollywood. When I hear the word “internship,” phrases like “dirty work,” “odd tasks,” “do what you’re told,” and “coffee bitch” come to mind. I came into this internship expecting to be running around constantly doing odd tasks, getting coffee for people, and just trying to learn as much as I could during the down-time. What I have experienced so far has been almost the complete opposite. As an “intern” on the sets for Palampur Express and Chillar Party, I am treated as a special guest, seated behind the director, and served food and chai all day. I am not asked to do anything but observe, ask questions (when appropriate) and learn. Which is fine by me, but just definitely not what I expected.

I suppose it makes sense. If I was a director and had three American girls coming to sit in on my film shoot as “interns” for less than a week, I would not ask them to do anything either. First of all, they wouldn’t know the language. Secondly, they’d be coming in right in the middle of shooting, so they wouldn’t know much about the film. Also, it would just take more time and work for me to try to explain everything to them, or ask them to do anything because I’d already have tons of crew members (or “spot boys,” as they’re called in India) at my beckon call to do whatever I ask of them anyway. Sigh.

I’m not complaining, though. I have learned a lot during these past two days on the Chillar set. It’s cool to just sit there and observe the production going on around you. Another plus is all the chai! Today, our chai count was up to 5 before it even reached noon. It’s funny because when we are served chai, it comes in little tiny cups, so its only like a shots’ amount. So it FEELS like we’re getting a ton of chai, but overall we’re probably getting the equivalent of what a medium sized cup of coffee would be in the United States. Also, chai and coffee are often served in juice glasses, which is still very bizaare to me. Steaming hot coffee in a clear little glass…oh India.
Anyway, while we were eating breakfast, it started pouring rain. It was amazing to see how quickly people took shelter! I guess this is just another sign that the monsoons are indeed coming, even though the rain only lasted for a couple of minutes.

After breakfast, we went inside to the air conditioned studio and took our seats behind the director and co-director. Before we began rolling, one of the spot boys came over to where we were sitting holding a FLAMING COCONUT. We didn’t know what to do with it when he brought it over to us, but the director then informed us that we were “blessing the shoot.” The actual name of the procedure has escaped me, but we each had to hold our hands over the flames and then touch our face afterwards. Anshuman told us later that this happens before every film shoot to bring good fortune. Sometimes instead of lighting a coconut on fire, though, film crews will just break a coconut on the ground after the director first calls “Action!” …Pretty cool.

I observed and learned a couple of new and interesting things on set today. The first was that on every set we have been to so far, the people working there have been so kind to us, are very genuinely interested in what brings us to India, and are more than willing to answer all of our questions. It’s the total opposite of what you would expect on an American film set where everyone is running around and stressing out and no one has time for a couple of curious interns, haha.

Today I also learned the importance of storyboarding. Every time I have worked on a production, we have always kind of skipped the storyboarding step because we always figure that we’ll be able to just shoot a scene from beginning to end from several different angles and then just fix it up in post. After working on a couple of professional sets here, however, I have begun to realize the true importance of storyboarding a scene before shooting it. It’s kind of like editing before you have recorded any footage. On the Chillar set, the crew will set up a shot, run through it a couple times, do a couple of takes, and move on to the next angle. Instead of running through the entire scene every time, however, they will only run through the line with which that shot was planned and storyboarded. Then all the editor has to do is cut together the shots that had already been planned out ahead of time. If the director already has in his head what the scene will look like when it is cut together, the shoot moves much more smoothly. So note to self: next time, storyboard!

Another thing that helped the shoot move along so fluidly was how wonderfully behaved the child actors were on the set. It was unbelievable, really. All of the kids were so well behaved, and really knew how to stay in the moment, run through the scenes, say their lines, and move onto the next thing. The youngest child in the cast is four years old! I couldn’t believe that we didn’t witness any whining, tantrums, or stubbornness from any of the child actors. They all really had their head in the game. I wouldn’t even expect that kind of perfect behavior from an adult actor, haha.

AND NOW…the coolest part of our day. So we’re sitting on the set talking to the co-director about the plot of the film, which sounds really great by the way. As he’s talking, Liz turns to me and starts saying “Peter, Peter, Peter” under her breath. Confused as to what she’s talking about, I look up, only to see Rajeev Kandelwal, the “Peter” of Peter Gaya Kaam Se, walking onto the set! He plopped right down in front of us and started talking to the director. It was so cool to see such a big star sitting right in front of us! We didn’t get a chance to tell him that we were actually working on his movie with Anshuman, so hopefully we’ll be able to see him again and possibly talk to him later on if Peter Gaya Kaam Se ever starts shooting before we leave for New Delhi. Regardless, it was really cool to be so close to him! Eeee!

We left the shoot around 4:00 and headed back home. I was locked out of my apartment, so I read some more of Dracula on Liz’s couch. I hope it gets scary soon…

Once Andrea got back, I tried desperately to access my online bank account (to no avail!) and then Anshuman came to pick up Kate, Liz, and I for dinner and a movie at his apartment.

Anshuman lives “a stone’s throw away” from us, so it was a short drive over to his apartment. We got to meet his mom, and she had made us some really good home-cooked Indian food for dinner. We chowed down on that and watched Reservoir Dogs, which I had never seen before. It was a pretty great movie. Quentin Tarantino looks like my Dad (only my dad is way less scary) and he also loves big long monologues. The movie was really bloody, but addressed human instinct and motivation in pretty interesting ways. I’d watch it again. Plus, it had a great soundtrack. After the movie, we chatted for a while and then Anshuman drove us home. It was a fun evening.

Tomorrow, we’re going back to the Chillar Party set for their last day of shooting in Film City. Then HOPEFULLY we will be able to get on the shoot for Peter Gaya Kaam Se some time towards the end of the week. Fingers crossed!!!

Random side note: my favorite English word that Indian people say here is “dude” because they pronounce the “oo” for too long and really emphasize the second “d.” Ask me to do it for you sometime, its hilarious.

mGm

Phillum City and Other Interesting Tidbits

06.07.2009

Today we got up really early, which was awful for me because I had managed to stay up until 4 in the morning last night chatting it up with Andrea. Not complaining about the chat, it was nice. But waking up was rough, haha. We took a rickshaw to meet Anshuman in Film City where one of his friends was directing a movie. We met his friend and he told us to come back to the set around 2:00. Anshuman dropped us at Whistling Woods, which we soon discovered was closed because today is Sunday, so that was fun. We took a rickshaw to Moxxa and got some lunch before heading back to the shoot. I had a Mediterranean Meltdown sandwich (my favorite!) and a yummy smoothie. Then we headed back to the shoot.

The shoot we got to sit in on was for a movie called Chillar Party. It’s a kids movie about a group of kids and a street dog, so all of the actors were little kids! The set was built inside one of the studios in Film City, and it was totally contained, which I was not expecting. Usually, you’d expect a film set to have three walls tops, but this one was totally enclosed, so from the outside we couldn’t see anything at all. We sat behind the monitor again and got to see the actual shots that were being composed inside the set, which was still pretty cool. The kids would come out of the set from time to time – it was really cool to see how the director communicated with the child actors. The kids were so young! It looks like a really cute movie. We’re going back tomorrow.

Nothing else of significance has really happened to me today, but here are some random things I’ve been working on and thinking about lately:

Even if you say things as clearly as you can in English to a Hindi-speaking person, there is often a very large chance that they still will not understand you at all. Say it with an Indian accent and all of a sudden its perfectly clear! For example, tell a rickshaw driver “Film City,” and they will look at you like you have two heads. Tell a rickshaw driver “PHILLUM City,” and then they know what you’re talking about! It’s funny.

Here’s what I find insane. In the hottest country I have ever been to in my entire life, men wear long sleeved button down shirts tucked into long pants with socks and shoes, women wrap themselves up from head to toe in yards of fabric, almost all of the air conditioning is broken or non-existent, the most popular drink is steaming hot chai tea, and everyone chows down on the spiciest food ever imaginable. You have to REQUEST cold water! It’s unbelievable — you’d think in a hot country, people would be looking to cool down every once in a while. Apparently that’s not the way things go in India. Le sigh.

Another observation. Indian music doesn’t sound anything like Western music…and its not just because its all in another language. All Hindi songs contain certain notes, tones, and melodies that sound nothing like Western music. Its really hard to explain – its like there is a whole other set of scales over here that Western musicians never use. Sorry for the really vague description…just listen to a couple Hindi songs and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

I have stopped applying sunscreen. Yeah, it’s ungodly hot, but there’s so much smog and smoke covering the city that the sun never seems to reach my skin. Oh, and every time I think I’ve gotten a tan, I am always thrilled to discover that no, I am just completely covered in a thin layer of dirt. So that’s fun.

The Hindi word for “yes” is “ha.” So when people say “ha ha ha,” they are not laughing, they are just saying “yes.” I enjoy saying “ha” instead of yes, although sometimes I have a very strange urge to speak French while I’m here. The other day, the rickshaw driver asked me a question and I said “oui.” Beats me.

When a rickshaw or taxi driver overcharges you and you catch them doing it, they will immediately pretend that they do not know English, so that’s annoying.

Yesterday, I discovered how much I had been ripped off by vendors at Colaba Causeway the first time we went. One of Andrea’s friends from Whistling Woods was hanging out in our room and we were showing him all of the stuff we bought at the Causeway. When I told him how much I paid for some of the items like scarves, shoes, statues, etc., he was SHOCKED that I didn’t haggle the prices down more. For example, I had paid 700 rupees for a really nice pashmina, and I thought that that was a pretty reasonable price at the time…after all, in the USA, a nice pashmina would go for WAY more than 14 bucks. He told me that I “had to understand that none of that stuff is even remotely expensive here – it should have been 200 rupees ($4) tops.” AHH! I feel so cheated!! The vendors here really know how to fool foreigners and play with peoples’ emotions to guilt trip them into buying something for way more than its worth. Live and learn I guess.

That’s all I can think of for now. I’m hitting the hay early tonight so I’m not falling asleep at the shoot tomorrow, haha. Adios!

mGm