Easing my way in

I’m going to try and post twice a week but it looks like I’m easing my way into blogging. I still don’t know how people make it a daily habit! This week has gone by pretty fast and I can’t believe I’ve been here for two weeks already. I’m working on 3 articles right now: a film review (Pirates of the Caribbean), an article on the popularity of “yoga vacations,” and an article on animal rights. It’s hard to schedule interviews because of the language barrier, but I’m learning to speak slowly and repeat myself. Hopefully I’ll get to travel sometime next week—I really want to visit a yoga ashram in Madurai. It’s become quite popular (especially for rich women in the US) to take “yoga vacations.” These consist of two to three week holidays in Asia (especially India) where they practice yoga with a master and other students. There’s been quite an uproar in many of the Indian papers lately because the US is trying to patent many yoga positions. Despite the fact that yoga is over 6,000 years old, many commercial studios in America want rights to the art form (an article in the Hindu said it best with the title, “Can you patent wisdom?”) Indians are baffled by America’s attempt to commercialize such a sacred part of Indian culture. Many studios in the US (most notably Bikram Choudhury...aka, "hot yoga") ignore the meditation/spiritual aspects and just focus on the asanas (physical). I think it’s such an intriguing example of globalization (in my opinion, the negative aspects of our "flattening world"). 

Last weekend a group of us went to the backwaters of Kerala and spent time on a houseboat for one night. It was a great way to relax and I even got to see an elephant! We took a sleeper train with no air conditioning. The bathrooms were overflowing with sewage and I don’t think I’ve ever smelled something so putrid. A group of us are leaving for Mamallapurum (by the beach in Tamil Nadu) tonight and we are taking a sleeper bus (we’ll see how this differs from the sleeper train!) We were originally supposed to go to a beach in Kerala this weekend but there has been a chicken flu outbreak so the police are protecting the border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. If I can get some more interviews next week, I may get to travel even more.

Mamallapurum was amazing last weekend. We spent most of our time by the sea and then we rented mopeds and drove around (no, for those of you who know me well, I did not drive, I was a passenger). It actually reminded me of a hippie California beach town—tons of artsy shops, quaint cafes, and a relaxing atmosphere. On Sunday we went to Pondicherry (now Puducherry)—a former French colony and now a union territory of India. I wish our school system (and others around the world as well) would focus on colonization and emphasize its enormous impact. I’ve really enjoyed my politics classes at USC (especially geopolitics) because we focused on the continuing effects of colonizing a country. While shopping in Pondicherrry, the shop owner (from Pakistan) gave our group a “little history lesson” about the British control of India. I was honestly kind of surprised that most of the British students didn’t seem to care or know much about their government’s role/impact in Asia. Ironically, the three Americans knew the most. I’m not trying to insult the British, but I’m beginning to realize that it’s not just the Americans who are “ignorant” or isolated. 

I can’t believe I’ve only been here for 3 weeks! Indian time is probably 100 times slower than Missouri time (which makes it a million times slower than L.A. time!) To me, my three weeks here have been more equivalent to three months. I have an interview with a veterinarian next week in Madurai and then I’m spending a day at a yoga ashram to interview people for my article on “yoga vacations”(this should happen the first week of July). I’m hoping to have five articles by the time I leave. It’s more difficult than it seems because scheduling interviews on “Indian time” is extremely difficult and at times very very frustrating. I usually have to go to the director three or four times to remind him that I need to set up an interview (going back to the States and setting things up is going to be much easier now!) The language barrier has been the hardest aspect but I’m actually learning to study facial expressions and body language more closely and this has helped immensely. 

Although my host family doesn’t speak much English, I’m learning to communicate with them as well (I’m even learning a few words in Tamil!) Today I’m off to Bangalore by sleeper train—a huge group of us travel together on the weekends. According to one of the translators in the office, “it’s the best city in India for shopping.” Sorry Mom.