Henna and Pearls

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I've had a very interesting last few days. Yesterday we spent a few hours doing pearl shopping at a lovely store which sells all kinds of beautiful jewelry. Shopping in India takes quite a bit longer than at home. First they bring out what seems like their entire selection, and it just keeps coming. It wa the same thing with the sari shop. Next you have to have a cup of chai as you deliberate on your purchases. Then the bargaining begins. Even at the pearl shop, there was a bit of debate over how much of a concession I should get because I was there with Aunty, who is a valued customer. After pearl shopping we returned home, where Vashida, a Muslim girl who does Mendhi was waiting to tattoo my hands. I now have lovely Mendhi on both hands about half way up each forearm. During the course of our half-Hindi half-English conversation, it became apparent that she thought that I had way too much hair, and she suggested that she come back the next day and give me a facial and do some hair removal. I had been wanting to try having my eyebrows threaded, so that was fine with me. After a short conversation with Aunty I discovered that hair removal might also entail waxing of arms and legs, which was a bit much for me, so we decided to stick to a facial and eyebrow threading. Threading is this interesting process where Vashida, using both hands and her mouth to twist the thread, catches a hair in a twist of thread and yanks it out. It is as painful as it sounds. Despite the pain, she did a lovely job, and the facial was wonderful (and only $3). It was a bit different from what we have back home and encluded a bit of eyeball massage. Also today, I went on a tour of Hi-Tech city with one of Uncle's employees who focuses on marketing. He took me to an outsourcing firm which turns newspapers into electronic documents and also does inventory and supply chain management for quite a few U.S. healthcare companies. Next he took me to Vertex coroporation, which is a U.S. N.R.I. (non-resident Indian) owned company with bases in Ohio and Hyderabad. They do lots of contracting with the federal government, and though the face of the company is American all of the software development and that kind of thing happens in India. As much as outsourcing has hurt the U.S. economy, it has made a positive impact in India that is five times as great. And it's not just in terms of jobs. Women are becoming more empowered because of new IT jobs. Caste structure is finally really being broken down. For years in India you could only become rich if you were born rich. Now it's not the case, and the middle class is growing exponentially in India. On a more superficial note, I picked up Dad's Jodhpuri coat and it's lovely. I think he'll really like it. I attempted to watch a cricket match yesterday on TV and got quite confused. Finally, I am all packed and ready to go on to Kerala tomorrow. I'm quite sad to be leaving Aunty and Uncle since they've been so wonderful. I'm not sure how I could ever possibly repay the kindness they've shown me while I've been here. Now I'll be moving off into the wild unkown of India, and I'm a little nervous and quite excited. I'm not sure if I already mentioned this or not, but Uncle called Vijnana Kala Vedi (the center where I'm going) to make sure they would pick me up, and Rajesh, the administrator of the center said that they have 14 students right now, which I'm quite excited about because frankly I was a bit worried it might be me and a sixty year old lady or two (I guess VKV gets a lot of retired Western ladies looking to take classes for three to six months). At any rate, my next post will be from Kerala so wish me luck. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon (Uncle's computer setup makes it a bit difficult).

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Comments

[Mom in Austin]

Chaperones are good
Jenn, we love your blogs and even though we have never met the rest of Nandy's family, we love them, too! We're so glad you are safely arrived at VKV and hope you have a wonderful time there as well. In the meantime, stay safe and watch out for people trolling for hook ups. All our love, MOM and DAD