villages, nandi hills, fights to the death...it's all here in india!

so the weeks have been passing, on and on like they always do. i realized that i have only about 2 more weeks here before i go back to the states for the first time in 8 months! i'm not sure how i feel about that...in one way i am excited to be able to unpack my clothes and my bags for a while and just be around people who i can understand in familiar surroundings..but at the same time the world is so big, the thrill of traveling is so provocative, and i have been doing it for so long that i don't know if i'll be able to stand staying in the same city for far too long. but if there is any one thing i have really come to understand on my journeys of the past months it is acceptance. things are what they are and there is nothing i can change at the moment. i was seeking this experience for a long time and i finally got to indulge in it... and even though now it will be time for me to return "home"..or at least to where i started from... i will be leaving again. hopefully it will be very soon, but for the time i think i will be ok accepting that things are changing once again..



my time in Bangalore has been going well...the friends here are great, both american and indian. we have been adding people to the group - one guy named Abhi comes to be with us often. He is a Sikh student at Christ College but reminds me a lot of my friend Juan from back in Reno. He is just a very calm, chill character and has a wonderful laugh that he lets loose often, and it always makes me smile. he is indian but he still likes being with us foreigners, and we get along very well, he has a fluid, on-the-go character and he is just so cheerful and happy always.
There is also Prashab, an indian who grew up in Germany. i can't say i'm quite as close to him at all but he is also a good guy. he is somewhat of a big-spender..he's coming from germany with money and he likes to go all-out when we go out in the evenings to dinner or elsewhere.
and there is another guy whose name I don't quite know but we met him at a Jain temple and he has come to hang out with us as well. He is quiet and shy, but very smart and has some of the happiest eyes i have ever seen. i love it. So yes, the company is good..


I have also had some time to travel over the past couple of weekends when we weren't in school. 2 weeks ago I went on a class field trip to some small villages a couple hours away from Bangalore. We played with preschool children and learned about the structure of the city and their progress towards education and greater self-sufficiency. i indulged in the sounds most of all...or rather lack of sounds. there were so few cars and motorbikes, all i could hear was wind and children running around. there was farmland and trees and a waterhole we found, and the whole thing was just very very peaceful and isolated. it felt so amazing after being in the noise of bangalore for so long...refreshing indeed.


The next day, too, a group of us took a trip to a place called Nandi Hills near Bangalore..out there as well it felt nice and isolated. We climbed on top of a hill and played with monkeys in the temples who chased us in circles wanting to take our coconuts and anything shiny we were carrying. we walked peacefully through forestlands until it started pouring the strongest monsoon rain i have experienced in India....we were caught on top of the mountain (six of us Americans) with only 2 umbrellas. but the thing is, you have to imagine the type of rain this was...umbrellas were of little help, the water was running down all around us. it came from nothing, then struck, and within seconds we were going to be soaked. we found a little entrance that serves as a passageway through the fort wall on the top of the mountain, and in a 2x3 foot area we fit about 25 people...there were us six americans, and about another 20 indians..i have never felt so indian in my life though, feeling the closeness of everyone. the whole situation just became so ironic too because we were all squished together trying to get out of the rain, and more people kept running over and joining us looking for shelter...and it all seemed like a very good idea until the rain picked up even more and (because the passageway was down a slopey area) rivers just started rushing down right into the area where we were all standing. i thought for sure it would flood all the way...there was nowhere we could move too, and we were apparently going to be soaked no matter what. i ended up taking my shoes off so they wouldn't be fully drenched....all the indians were talking in different languages and laughing loudly about the rain, one guy was trying a chant to see if the pouring would lessen. everyone was all bent over because the passageway was pretty short...it was just the funniest picture you could imagine. as soon as the rain lessened up a little bit, though, we all ran out of there barefoot and started heading down the mountain as quickly as we could. as you can imagine we were soaking wet when we arrived at the bottom, and eager to leave and get home.

but the adventure didn't stop there....as our group of friends reached the parking lot where we needed to catch the bus, we realized that the rest of our group wasn't there (about 4 of our friends had split off earlier). as we were deciding whether to wait for them or not, we saw the bus arriving.....before it was even near the top of the hill there was already a group of 35 indians holding on to the front door, shoving and elbowing and yelling to get in. some of them started throwing their bags and belongings in through the windows to reserve their seats...people were basically being dragged around and it was every man for himself. it seemed so savage. there was no mercy. we just stood there in awe and watched, realizing within seconds that there was no way we could hope to catch that bus.... which was ok anyway. but we also realized that the same thing would be happening when the next (and might i say LAST) bus came an hour later...so we had to prepare...

We went under a bus stop structure to be under some cover from the wetness of the world, and decided to try and figure out what to do to help pass the hour until our bus came. we ended up playing a bunch of different games, one of which was the "Koom-cha, koom-cha" game invented by Becca, one of the girls here. It was so loud and so random and messy that we had everyone staring at us within seconds (as if they don't always already, ha!) but the best part is that some of the indians came over and wanted to play with us. oh if i can only upload the videos i have of that day sometime...it was such a sweet time, everyone looked so genuinely happy. it was wonderful!

eventually the next bus did come and we all had to accept the very important reality that if we didn't get on this bus, we wouldn't be getting home to bangalore that night. so all 10 or so of us americans jumped in the crowd and started elbowing and fighting our way to the front door like all the indians. my leg got stuck in between the doorway and another person...i couldn't move my arms in or out, i felt like i was just being thrown around by the crowd...it was pure madness...but i am so pleased to say that we soon made it inside without any causalties. we made ourselves nice and comfortable, and headed back home for the evening hours.



[more to come about the past couple of weeks...it will be up soon, inshallah]

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