eUtiypm
>r’s India notebook
Smith
I had a lamb-burger. It was
the best fast food I’ve ever eaten
and it was only 60 rupees. (About
$1.50)
January 12,1998
Ashraya International, Bangalore
I’ve escaped!
I’m not longer in India! Or,
at least, that’s how it seems. To
night, Chuck, Jon and I decided
to flee India and spend a
night...umm...researching west
ernization?
We started with a quick trip
to the Cybercafe, where I checked
my SAPC e-mail account and e-
mailed some friends at home.
Then, we went to Wimpy’s again,
and then to a bar. It was sort of an
American evening. The e-mail and
the fast food went fine, but the
bar had live singers who sung in
the high voices Indian music is fa
mous for.
I’ve learned a lot about the
sort of hold culture has on one.
When I saw CNN American Edi
tion this afternoon, I almost cried.
I really like India, but somehow
i
hearing about the snowstorms at
home was interesting.
January 16, 1998
Hotel Ritz, Mysore
Went to a movie called Dil
tu pagal hai. (Hindi for “love is
stupid”). It was three hours long
and included a lot of dancing. The
movie was almost entirely in
Hindi, although it wasn’t that hard
to follow as the plot made the av
erage American movie look like
James Joyce. It was approximately
on the level of “George of the
Jungle,” which was the movie on
the plane to Amsterdam.
Still it was entertaining fcii
a while, although I really had to
fight to keep myself from walking
out the last half hour.
January 18,1998
Chandra Towers, Madras
A cool surprise awaited
Kristi Reifenrath and me when we
got to our hotel. We’d been given
the “Queen Elizabeth suite,” one
of the four nicest rooms in the
hotel. We had a little living room
and a really nice refrigerator. We
invited the group to come and
hang out for a while. We ordered
room service milkshakes and
talked until midnight.
January 22,1998
Shore Temple Beach Resort,
Mamallapuram
Every day, a guy marches a large
herd of cows along the beach.
Today I went out with my camera
and took a bunch of pictures of
them. The cows were still deco
rated from Pongel, a holiday when
Hindus paint the cows to thank
them.
January 26,1998
West End Hotel, Bombay
I’ve been sick to my stomach
three mornings in a row. Jon and
Neil are making jokes about the
immaculate conception. I haven’t
been sick in India that much and
I’ve eaten in some restaurants with
conditions that I wouldn’t stand
for at home. A few people have
gotten really sick, but it hasn’t
been as bad as I expected at all.
When I have gotten sick. I’ve
noticed that the biggest symptom
is homesickness. Somehow, be
ing sick makes me long for home.
Even now, I don’t miss hot
water, consistent electricity or
hamburgers. I miss my family and
my friends. It’s kind of ironic that
one must have to travel interna
tionally to learn what makes a
homeland.
January 28,1998
West End Hotel, Bombay
My last night in India. Neal
had named our group “My rick
shaw driver told me tours,” a joke
On our trusting nature. A bunch
of people, led by Eriko Fujisaka,
had gone out and bought a rick
shaw horn and had it engraved for
Neal. He loved it.
Neal took us for a walk out to
the beach and we watched the sun
set over the Arabian sea. I took
almost a whole roll of film. 1 guess
I just wanted one more chance to
see India, to grab the experience
and take it home with me.
January 29, 1998
Somewhere over the Atlantic
We had an eight-hour layover
in Amsterdam. I went to a coffee
shop with Larisa Blair and Andi.
Then Andi and I went to Madame
Tussaud’s Wax Museum. 1 nearly
jumped out of my skin a few times.
Something about the wax statues
really creeped me out. Still, I got a
lot of neat pictures on my last roll
of film. The very last picture I will
take on this trip was of a glass case
full of wax body parts in the Ma
dame Toussad’s gift shop.
January 31,1998
McLean, Virginia
Coming back to America has
been a shock. It seems very clean
and quiet, but somehow, I miss
India’s noise just a bit; My high
school was having a one-act
festival and a friend of mine di
rected one of the plays, so I went
to see it. After the show, I went
backstage to give her some flow
ers and I saw all the actors run
ning around, many of them hug
ging each other and crying. Ev
erything was so important to them.
It was then that the India trip
snapped into focus. Two years
ago. I’d been one of those hug
ging, crying actors. Now, that all
seemed so far away. 1 felt so mel
low. In some ways, I guess that’s
what the India trip is all about.
India really has mellowed me
out and calmed me down. I’ve had
a lot of people comment on it, par
ticularly since I’m not usually a
mellow person at all.
I
guess after you’ve walked down
the street and had to step around
piles of cow dung, been assaulted
by 20children begging for choco
late and pens, and gone for weeks
without hot water, the little dra
mas of life don’t seem that seri
ous anymore.
Special thanks to Eliese
Baker, Larisa Blair. Ruth
Cook, Jon Cox, Andi Giorgi,
Jill Kappus, Chuck Marshall,
Kristi Reifenrath, Rachel
Trautner, Whaley Phillips,
Grace Gibson, Jason Rich,
and, of course, Neal Bushoven