I have already ranted and raved about the beautiful colors here in India. Another amazing thing is their street art. There is lots of it around and I have talked to the people of Bangalore and they like it. If street art wasn’t there, people would paste flyers and posters all over the walls. There is no such thing as a clean, untarnished wall in India. So, instead of these gaudy advertisements, they paint things. I have been collecting lots of pics of street art. I am sure all of it has meaning, but I only know the stories behind a couple of the art pieces. For example, the artwork labeled water shortage was made to depict the difficulty of getting water both in Bangalore and India. Every summer there is a water shortage. There hasn’t been a year without it. Much of India is in a water shortage obviously, but it is the use of art that really captured my attention. Some pics are taken from a car so they are a bit blurry. I hope you enjoy the pics!
Gokarna is on the west coast of India and is filled with beaches and sand, and for this adventure lots of rain! I traveled with three of my good pals in India now, Chagun, Haley, and Sterling. We decided to take an overnight bus to start our journey and when we walked in we started doing the disco because the bus looked like the inside of an 80’s disco club. Haley and I shared a compartment and kinda had a blast on the bus ride. Whirling around corners and getting jammed by bumps, we kinda thought it was a fun ride. On the other hand the boys got off the bus and said “NEVER AGAIN!”.
We arrived at our homestay and decided to check out the beach nearby for the day. The old street shops were filled with religious beads and typical tourist Om shirts. “Om” is a symbol in Hinduism and when you chant it you can feel the vibrations and it feels like you are the single syllable Om. The symbol itself is amazing, the shirts on the other hadnd…too typical. There is a beach close to Gokarna that is called Om Beach, because it is in the shape of the “Om” symbol. We decided to visit it the second day and we trekked there. On the way there it was nice weather. Once we looked over the ledge on our way down to the beach we saw the “Om” shaped beach. However, as you can tell by the lack of my pictures, it started pouring making us cover for shelter and pack our cameras away. The thing is though, it would rain for like 1 hour and then it would stop. So by the time we found shelter it stopped. so we would explored further, but then got stuck in tsunami like rain storm that again made us run towards a local beach shak for tea. We ended up here for a while. We were in search of a hippy market at sundown, but never found it. We ended up adventuring around everywhere. Trying to make campfires out of wet wood so we could roast our pineapples we bought, but were unsuccessful. what we were successful at was eating coconut. I kid you not I think we ate enough coconuts this weekend to feed a village!
We visited a temple the next morning and I was so happy, I got to offer a coconut to the gods. This temple was a Shiva temple. We were not allowed inside the shrine part of the temple, because we were foreigners and did not practice Hindi. The man behind a stone took a giant knife, cracked it open, poured the juice into the bucket and then he gave me the coconut. This is a normal tradition in temples. The people get to eat the offerings after the ritual.
Another thing I noticed about Gokarna was all of the street art. I love street art in the states and this was just as awesome! Haley and I did a little adventuring by ourselves as well and we noticed there were cows everywhere!!!! I have more pictures of cows than beaches. But, for those who know me this may not be surprising:) Although we got rained on a bit I still had a great weekend.
She knew I loved Idli so she made me some to bring home wrapped in a Banana leaf
Menakshe is our lab director. She always wears really pretty Kurties and has the cutest two year old son ever. She is the one that cooked me my favorite breakfast at the Fourth of July. In the morning we all took a cab because she invited us to her house. When we got there it was a beautiful house with open air feel and amazing family atmosphere. Her mom, dad, son, husband, and sister were there. She cooked lemon rice, sambar, rasam for us. Then we got to see the top of the house which was just beautiful surrounded by coconut trees and pretty colors looking over Bangalore. While the rest of the girls slept after a big meal and a long week, Viru and I went to a temple. This was the temple of Ganish, lord Shiva’s son. The story goes that Ganish was made out of the dead skin cells of his mom. I was confused on his father but apparently one day she told Ganish to guard the door while she bathed. He guarded the door, and he wasn’t supposed to let anyone in, not even his father. Lord Shiva(his father) came in a very bad mood. He cut off Garnish head, but they didnt want to find him another human head because that means killing another human, so thus why he has an elephant head. That story was a bit jumpy and misleading, but the general point is there. I love riding on Virus bike it is so fun. I had a very good weekend.
Today I bought a brown coconut, but I had no idea how to break it open so I went over to my friend Chandan, Chagaun, Shuba, and Abis department and we peeled the cococnut then broke it over a stone ledge and had fresh coconut together. We chatted about life a bit and mixed the coocnut with fresh pineapple and cherries. Then we made a milk, banana, jaggery porridge. Good fun with good friends!
After a long weekend of traveling I was back to work in the lab. However, I kept telling everyone that the fourth of July was coming up and that this was Americans independence day. I didn’t think that anyone would be interested in my countries holiday, but boy was I wrong! I was treated so well and I had such a good fourth of July. I organized a cricket/baseball game and made my friend VIru bring his cricket bat. We played cricket and I showed them how to hold the bat like a baseball bat. We played with Viru, Richa, Pj, Kavita, Alishan, Komal, Chandan, Shubah, and Abi! Then Richa and Pj told me they would make me dinner.
I was so happy about this dinner because Richa and Pj have been by my side ever since I arrived and I am so grateful for these two laddies! They told me to come to their room after the cricket game so I did and I walked in when they told me to and they had a banner that said happy fourth of July and american flags and I was honestly overjoyed! I could not believe the kindness they showed!!! And guess what, they cooked me one of the best meals I have had in India, in a dorm room! With only a pressure cooker and induction cooktop!!!!! They made the american flags out of inoculation spreaders, lol! These girls are amazing. Along with the rest of my lab who consistently wished me happy fourth of July thorough the day. I made them a treat and they took a picture and posted it as our groups profile picture. On the mooring of the fifth of July, the lab director Menakshe cooked me my favorite breakfast! IDLI!!!! I could not believe how they respected our independence day more than some Americans. This was all a surprise and it was all so so kind of them!
On the second day I arose to peek out of my balcony and saw a beautiful view of the Ocean and the sunrise coming up. I was the only one up and the boys were having a hard time getting up. So I went to get tea for us all. I ran down the steps so I wouldn’t miss too much of the sunrise and we all watched it with tea and snacks. There were wild peacocks on the rooftops next to us. The boys then went back to bed and I had some alone time on the roof and finished my book and sat and meditated a bit. There were people meditating around me as well, all facing the direction of the sunrise. After they napped we went to the Kynakumari temple itself. It was all stone, and each pillar had religious carvings. Once I walked in a man put a tillage on my forehead(which is like bindi) with kumkuma powder. I was able to walk around the temple and observe religious practices such as walking around a stand of candles exactly 3 times.
We then decided that we wanted to walk the beech and swim. The sun was very hot this day so I felt like I was getting fried like the fish the fishermen layed out to dry(see pic). On our way to the beech we decided to walk a long way, to be away from the tourist. As we walked away from the tourist area a lovely colorful pink, green, and blue colored village opened up. The colors blew my mind, and I realized this was not a Hindu or Buhddist village like where the tourists were. This was a Christian village, because there was a Christian church in the center. We came across a corner side shop to buy some water and we noticed an awesome smell. Chagun asked in the native Tamal Nadu language what the lady inside the house was cooking. She said fish curry and then I asked how you make it and she proceeded to tell me and then, I kid you not, she bought out a bag of the spice mix she used and gave it to me. She said after we swam that we should come back to her house and she would cook dinner for us before we got on the train. The feeling from this family was amazing, so we said that was too nice of her but she insisted and we said we would come back later in the day before our train left.
We kept walking and we took a dip in the ocean. The beech was quite dirty and I knew I needed to get out of the sun so I just wadded and then got out while Chagun and Sterling swam a little more. I went in the shade by a nearby wall and tree. An elderly lady approached me speaking broken engliihs and said it was not safe to be sitting here, I would be getting bit by too many bugs, and she offered I walk to her house nearby. Chagun came over and translated for me because I told the lady that I did not want to trouble her and I still wanted my friends to see me. Chagun told me this lady was safe and I sat with her in the cool shade finally getting relief from the sun. She offered me tea and food and water. She was so nice we started talking and I found out her name was Lilly Mary. It was very rare she spoke english, so this was honestly a lucky experience!!! She learned from her daughter who went to school. She had three daughters and no sons. Her daughters each had two children and she was so happy about this! She started preparing food for me even though I told her I did not want to trouble her. I pulled up a picture on my phone of my brothers wedding and my family to tell her about me. She exclaimed “Christian” when I showed her the wedding picture. I said “yes, but there are not many Christians, that was a Hindu temple” she then proceed to explain to me this was a little christian fishing village. We talked for a long time me her and her husband Sebastian. She called her daughter over(the one who spoke English) and we had wonderful conversations. I was really missing my family at this point and I felt the family vibe so much in this encounter. She suddenly disappeared into her house and came out with a plate of rice and ladyfinger curry. It was the best food I have tasted! The rice here is different, the grains were big and pearl like. She told me I would be full for 6 hours on this meal. I didn’t realize that I was really hungry! I started eating and she was unsatisfied with my hand eating skills(everyone here eats with their hand) and started mixing the rice and gravy together into balls and gave them to me to just eat. Chagun told me thats what his grandmother use to do. We talked in broken english a while longer Lilly Mary and I. She kept calling me her daughter and once the boys came she told us a story of this village. In 2001 there was a tsunami. It was Christmas day and there was a celebration in the church, so everyone was upland and the fishermen were not on the water that day and the women were not on the beech. All the sudden the water started receding 2km. From the distance they saw a huge wall of water coming in. They all ran further up land and escaped the wave. Although the village was ruined. She said, if it wasn’t Christmas and ceremonies were not happening in the church 10,000 fisherman would have died widowing 10,000 women and families. Instead only one person in the entire village died died. She told this story because I had to use the washroom and she kept apologizing for the lack of facilities she had because this house is not a nice one like they use to have in 2001. I had so little to offer her, yet she gave me so much love. I could not believe my amazing experience.
We headed away from lily Mary after multiple kisses on the forehead and headed twords the family that offered us dinner. We could not believe what was happening to us in this little fisherman village in Kanyakumari. We stopped by the house and just the children were there. Sheela was 13 and the boy I can’t remember his name was a sophmore in college visiting home for the summer. We stayed chatting at their house and she made the best ginger tea I have ever tasted! Then she bought out mutton and tomato curry and the big pearled rice and we all ate again with octopus curry on the side. The atmosphere was amazing!!! I taught Sheela boy advice while sterling and Chagun talked business with the elder boy.
We then returned to the train station to head home. I could not believe my amazing experience with the family feeling of this small fisher village. My eyes exploded with color and my heart filled with love. An experience that will never be forgotten.
Boarding the bus at 6:00pm the previous day, I awoke to the sound of “Chia! Chia! Chia!” ringing down the isle of the train. Indian trains are unlike any other. They have mahogany colored seats and leave the doors wide open for you to stick your whole body out if you want. We passed beautiful countryside on our way to Kanyakumari, the very southern tip of India where the three waters meet. These waters are the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea.
Once we reached Kanaykumari we sat on the beach and tired to figure out our hotel situation. Our hotel canceled on us, so we were walking back to the station to find some more info when we passed a cool looking gate and decided to investigate. We met an old woman who offered us a loge and we got a super good deal with a lodge that overlooked the water from the rooftop. We then visited the temple at the tip of the point. I wanted to fit in so I wore a Sari. I have never been more of stand out in my life however! People kept asking me why I was wearing it since I was white. It wasn’t the locals that were the problem, it was other Indian tourists. I could not stand it by the end of the day. But the temple itself was great to meditate in with the sounds of “Ohhhmmmms” in the background. I had to use the bathroom, and when I did my Sari fell all off!!! I was so fed up, but then a woman in the bathroom helped me put it back on smiling just because she was happy I was trying! This is the positive thing I intend to draw from this experience.
The temple was made for the virgin goddess Kanyakumari who protected the waters. It was said that she made a deal that if lord Shiva came to marry her by the end of the night then she would be married, otherwise she would stay unmarried forever. She stood on one foot hence the one foot print in the temple. It was said that the cock crowed unusally early that morning signaling that night was over. Lord Shiva never came to marry her and so now she stays unmarried forever.
After this we watched the sunset over the water and chatted on a nearby rock wall until late. Besides the annoying tourist it was a great, great day!
I took a big step this weekend just going for a trek(we call it hiking in the US) alone with a bunch of strangers. No one else at work or around IISc was up for the trek so I said, to heck with it I am still going! So I went and did it, booked a hike with 20 other strangers all of which I can now call my friends, and yes all of which are Indian. I initially got on the bus to Coorg which is about 6 hours away from Bangalore at 11:00pm. Looking forward to sleeping after a long week at work, I was tired but we all had to introduce ourselves by saying what we did for a living, and why we chose to hike this weekend. Then the person that just spoke chose a stranger to come to the front of the bus and do the same. A person in the front row volunteered to go first. At this moment I didn’t notice that I was the only white person there. At work they are pretty use to foreigners so I get treated fairly normal, but as soon as she was done introducing herself she immediately pointed in my direction. I didn’t think much of it, thinking nah she isn’t pointing at me right away she is pointing at the guy next to me. However, I looked around and every single pair of eyes were on me and thus began the most interesting weekend in India thus far.
We drove through the night to trek to the Kopatty summit. We reached our homestay about 6:30am. A homestay is a hotel basically in the middle of the mountains where hikers stay after trekking. This hotel however, is in India so it consists of a squat toilet and cold water spicket for bathing. There were about 13 gals on the trip and I was thinking we would get our own rooms or double up, or something simple like that. When we arrived we were directed to a quaint building where I was looking for another ten buildings the same size. It turns out there were two, one for boys and one for girls. The one for the girls was a two story, the second story was a one room attic/loft that had one blanket covering the floor with 13 pillows laying in a row side by side and 13 blankets folded neatly opposite of the pillows. I was apprehensive at first, not knowing what to do or where to put my stuff. I stood there for a while, probably looking much confused, until someone said “Are you going to just stand there? Its okay just pick anywhere”. I stuttered and said “ Um okay” and put my bag in a generic spot as to sort of claim a bed, but not really be in anyone’s way. We all got ready to trek and I immediately noticed that for once in my life I was more prepared than anyone haha. They wore barely closed toed shoes and maybe a thin pair of non-breathable jeans.
Now it was breakfast time in the kitchen below our room(that was what the bottom floor was). A “well built” couple stood behind a rock wall sort of thing and dished out the food. BEST BREAKFAST I HAVE HAD IN INDIA! It was Idli, sambar, and coconut chutney. Idly is white rice and lentils fermented and steamed overnight in little cakes. They are meant to be eaten with sauces and as always with your hands. I went up for seconds and then thirds! The cook just smiled each time and wanted me to take more and more. And the COFFEE, ohhhhh the creamy sweet coffee!!! Coorg is known for their coffee; this was fresh picked coffee from about 30steps away from the homestay. Lots of milk and sugar, the only way the Indians know how!
Finally, we got to trekking. We had a guide that knew every little organism on this trek, and for those of you who don’t know much about tropical climates, this is a lot to know. Of the plants pointed out were pineapple, cardamom, nutmeg, tobacco, touch me not plant, lemon grass, guava, mango, jackfruit, cloves, white and black peper, turmeric, coconut, and lemons just to name a few. There were also a lot of pretty birds. We were supposed to see elephants, but they are skittish and we only saw tracks. What we did see a lot of though were leeches! They crawl all over your shoes and we had to stop multiple times along the trek to take them off. We tucked in our pants to our socks because that keeps them from biting you a bit. Once we got through the dense part of the forest the leeches subsided and a pasture like landscaped opened. This is where the summit was and I eventually reached it. The scene was breathtaking! At the top there was a blue scorpion, which was poisons and the guide enjoyed teasing itJ Anyway, the cooks packed us a lunch that we all ate once we got to the top, it was rice wrapped in banana leaf and then newspaper. So cute! After we were done it immediately rained, And I mean down poured! We tried to wait it out, but ended up just heading back down hill.
On the way back down we stopped at a farmer’s house who was selling guavas. It was the freshest fruit I have ever eaten and he was selling them for 20 rupies 1 kg! Wich is like 30 cents for 3pounds! I felt bad for the man, his fruit is worth more than that, but he didn’t have a supply chain, so to him 20 rupies is fine. I chatted with all my new friends the whole hike. I taught them about s’mores. They have never heard of them and they were so excited to learn about this American treat, once we got back to the homestay some guys went out to the nearby city to get marshmallows, gram crackers, and chocolate. Remember, none of these things are actually in India, so what they came back with was coconut flavored crackers, strange puffed mallows, and dariy milk(like Hershey here). After dinner (an amazing one again!) we started the campfire and made these s’mores! Everyone was just so excited and they kept asking me about America and s’mores.
The elder hikers started going to bed. But the guides and the youngsters stayed out by the fire, and we had a blast. We pumped some Indian dance music and they started showing me how to dance Indian style. There really isn’t much of a style besides vigorous movements of whatever you feel like doing hahahah!!! It was amazing. The next morning, we set out for Dubarie elephant camp. It turns out the camp was closed and so we went on a little raft ride and then we went to a beautiful Buddhist temples.
The far most interesting part of this trek was meeting all the people. I was interested in learning about them while they were interested in learning about me. I met a lot of people that worked at IBM since Bangalore is an IT hub. I had lots of fun with Dietry who works for an IT company. She was 24 and actually enjoyed her job. Then I met Harri, who was going on a 10 day trek a week from this trek and used it as a conditioning experience. Then there was Shiva, who also worked at a tech company and just liked to go on treks for fun. I met three girls from Chennai who took a plane to get to Bangalore and hiked all day then flew back at night. These girsl names were Badu, Bindi, and Shreva. We had interesting conversations about arranged marriages. They were from families who all required them to have arranged marriages. All three were about 23 years old and waiting for their parents to marry them off. I kept insisting they had a choice to marry for love, but they kept saying it was more work to try and do that than it was to just follow along and hope for the best. They didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with it. I seemed to have more of a problem excepting that they were going to have to do an arranged marriage than they were hahaah. I also met Kathana and her friends. She is an electrical and communications engineer who really wants to work in the US, but after the Trump law passed regarding work and study visa, she will not be able to. She was so disappointed in this I was very sad to hear it myself.
Overall, trekking was a great experience and I wish to keep the positivity going thorugth the rest of my stay in India!
This is just a small post , but I thought it was a learning lesson for me. There is a phD student in my lab named Sakshe. She just got married to a medical doctor training to be a cardiologist and now they are both working long hours in the lab or hospital. It is interesting, because we were eating lunch together and she has a cook at her house that cooks meals for her and her husband. She once in a while just wants curd rice though so she orders it at the canteen and Richa eats her home cooked meal LOL! So I was being like Sakshe today and had curd rice! She is originally from New Delhi(the real New Delhi) lives about 45-60min away from the lab and has to commute. She expressed to me the importance and successful communication between her and her husband who have been in a relationship for much time. She wanted to go to school abroad, but then settle in India so the two had to work out a compromise. I don’t need to share too much info I just thought this was a valuable lesson and a fun lunch with Sakshe.
Today I also met with my boss Sir. He expressed to me the rest of my work this summer. I will be helping Somnath with the Mrx1-roGFP2 DNA molecule in which will show green flounces qualities when in a certain redox environment. If we can link this redox environment to certain antibiotic resistant strains of tuberculosis, then we can diagnose and treat patients sooner and more effectively. Although we messed up our DNA isolation today, it was overall a pretty productive day.
Friday night (6/9) I needed to get some groceries, and Komal was going home from work at the same time, so we both chilled and picked up a few items. On the way we stopped and got freshly roasted corn from a street vendor. This is not like the buttered up corn on a stick you get at the county fair. This corn is perfectly charged and spritzed with a fresh lime. It tasted so good to us, and then Komal invited me to see her place. To be honest I was just complaining about how my amenities were not good. I hardly get hot water, my toilet doesnt really flush, and I have no kitchen or place to cook. Komal was all excited to show me she had a kitchen and when I walked in I realized what a kitchen really meant. It was just a cookstove in-between her and her roommates mattress facing a refrigerator. I immedialtey was gracious of my home life and what I had. We chatted and then she took me back to the gate so I could bike home.
Saturday morning I gave my presentation. It went smooth. My coworkers had so many questions, since vascular tissues and biomechanics is not their normal cup of tea. I thought my presentation was going to be 15min long, but it ended up taking over an hour. After this Sterling, Komal, and I went to Mallashwaram market which is a street filled with traditional Indian dresses a Kurta(for men) and Kurtis(for women). The colors there are amazing and I loved seeing all of the pretty designs. While I was walking around there was a lilac stand where a lady I told her that her lilacs were pretty and then she put them in my hair:)
On Sunday I took a trip to Bangalore Palace. This palace has western influence since it was at one point taken over by the British. Again the colors and patterns were amazing. I loved the pictures all over of the gods and goddess of Hindi. There billions of gods it seems, yet every Indian seems to know them all! It was just amazing.
Where is Callie 