Nalla Tung (good evening).
Here's a continuation of my last email: sorry it's overkill. Maybe I should follow people's complaints and just make a blog. For now, I've set my firewall on anti-peer-pressure.
Anyway, a lot has happened to me since I've gotten here. On top of the cultural adjustment charted out in my last email (which surprisingly has gone a lot smoother than planned), a combination of SITA events and my own cultural exploration have kept me busy since I landed two Wednesdays ago. Upon arriving in Chennai (that city I told you about that was north of here), we checked into a hotel for the night to regain our bearings (which we lost due to heavy turbulence and sitting in between huge muscular men on the flight... economy class for 16 hours is severely underrated... for its fucking discomfort). We took a train to Madurai the next day, which brought me back to my train rides across the north in '96. One thing that isn't underrated is the Indian countryside. The South is relatively flat, so when I looked out the window just to space out, I found myself staring at around a hundred miles (and more) of lush green fields and tropical plants that would make cole and firmage cry with joy. That was a little hyperbolic of me. Suffice it to say that it was a very beautiful ride, and despite the fact that I had completed only 5 hours of sleep during my 48 hour travel period to India, I managed to stay awake, making small talk with the crew and watching the wild Indian countryside fly by me. The Indian train, for those who have experienced it, is an... experience. When you think you're sitting in an A/C car to yourself, train attendants invade your personal space yelling "CHAI CHAI CHAIIIIIII" or "Coffee walla, coffee walla" or "vadai, vadai, vadai (fried donut)" and banging loudly as they pass. So on top of the fact that I was constantly preoccupied, the expectation to sleep at all was close to nil anyhow. The bathrooms are equally as experiential. (For those who don't know, an Indian toilet is essentially a hole in the floor that is only flushed by a bucket of ameoba/giardia filled water (slight exaggeration). On top of that, the Indian plumbing system (well not on trains, your business actually goes str8 on the tracks) cannot tolerate toilet paper or any paper product. That's right, number two included. I'll spare you the details, but it involves a cup of water and your left hand... and some rigorous soap and water soaking shortly afterwards). In the words of Blake Kast from Grinnell College in Iowa: "It was a nice little introduction to South India" (yes si, we have some discussing to do :-P).
We arrived in Tanjavore, a major center for Hinduism in the south, the same day as the ride, and spent the night shopping in the center of town. I got a greyish/black shirt for about 400 rupees and a veshti for 200 in preparation for Pongal (a new year for Tamil people celebrating the harvest). A veshti is much like a man-skirt that you tie. Actually, bad analogy. It's like a very thin cotton towel that is completely white save a lining colored in some fashion or another (yes, you tie it the same way as well). For those of you up in Maine right now, this may not be a good option for the negative temparatures that plague the hill. For us in Madurai, the veshti allows a very nice breeze in 80 degree weather, if you get my meaning.
The next day, we went to the "Big Temple" in Tanjavore devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. We went at around 5 at night, and the sun was setting as we arrived. It was probably one of the most breathtaking sights I've seen (no, I haven't been to the grand canyon yet) since being introduced to the Old City of Jerusalem just under 4 years ago (I miss it too Annie). I have some pictures attached to give you a sense of the lighting while I was there. I also have a pic of me being blessed by an elephant. Hindu mythology says its good luck to be blessed by a Yaanai (elephant in the picture). The way it works: you give the elephant a sacrifice offering (some form of fruit, usually a banana cause they love them, and bananas here are excellent), which of course he eats. Afterwards, you give him a one rupee piece, that goes into the bucket of the "yaanai master" who trains the elephant. Right after you place the rupee in his trunk, the elephant touches your head and wallah, you're blessed. After the elephant episode, we went inside and "prayed"... which is hardly a good word for it, because well, we aren't very Hindu. Hopefully I'll be able to put up a facebook album of that night, the shots I got were incredible.
K I'm gonna try and hurry to today (I'll probably fail, but stick with me... p(l)eas(e)?
After Tanjavore, we took a van ride down to Madurai through the chaos of oncoming traffic (and buses... I'm still scared of them). When we reached Madurai, me and a couple of kids on the program took a walk around. The first few minutes were intense (see email #1), but we eventually found ourselves next to the river that splits Madurai into two halves (the SITA center is on the half that isn't in the downtown area). Again, incredibly beautiful (attached picture). While walking around, kids and Indian adults came up to us to get our picture taken. The interactions I had on that first walk were like none I've ever had in my life (or I think I've ever had in my life... subject to debate...). Every person I talked to was so compelled to understand who I was. I frequently had to answer questions with "Chapel Hill, North Carolina" or "yes, I was in Benaras 10 years agoish" (the ish threw them off a lot-- I only did that number once). It was so unlike the states... and I really am trying to not make a blanket statement here. I've had a lot more penetrating first discussions with people here than I've ever had with anyone I've met in the US. It's very strange-- it's probably cause I'm a westerner, but I can't help being reminded of how the concepts of people and time could not be more different here. To a Tamil person's mind, I am a subject of study, wonder, curiosity, and information, someone to be recognized and questioned (and practiced English on in very fast and odd Tamil accents). People take the time from where they are going or what they are doing to reach out to me. I also notice that, as I said in the last email, people talk A LOT here to strangers. Despite all the banter about "protect your belongings," I almost feel like if I were to leave a piece of information on the street with my name and phone number on the street (given that it had no economic value of course), it would be returned to me... I can't really describe it well, and it also may be the thrill of seeing an obvious Westerner donning a t-shirt with the words "Rikshaw sir?" imprinted next to a space-man on the moon.
Anyways, you're probably wondering what I've been up to in Madurai. Well, we've gone to the following places as a group: Meenakshi Temple (a huge huge temple with like 8 huge towers around it... unfortunately they're thatched up because they are "undergoing a paint job"... which happens once every 12 years... what's awesome, is that the "unveiling" of the repainted pires occur the day after we leave Madurai. Brilliant), Jain Hill (essentially a large 1000 foot hill made of rocks-- don't think this is small you white mountain/rocky mountain snobs-- because the world is essentially flat down here, you can see quite a bit from just 1000 feet), and celebrated Pongal (which was a great experience-- can only be described in pics... facebook will help me on this one... or perhaps my future blog?). All of these places were incredible, and I fully enjoyed the experiences I had there... Although Meenakshi is quite big, I much preferred Tanjavore's.
Today me and two other people from my group took a trip to a surrounding village around Madurai as part of my socio-political issues class. I think this might have been the first time that I've felt uncomfortable as a foreigner here (elaboration below). Madurai is increasing its size rapidly, and within 20 years, these more traditionally run village will be associated into the city. When we arrived, I encountered a very homely and cohesive town. It reminded me of a sort of African township that I had seen in movies during my Ethnographies of Africa class my sophomore fall year. We saw a temple in the open air, and I took a lot of pictures. While we were in the village, however, the air metaphorically started to take on a subtly darker color. We learned from our teacher that the political system in the town had completely been decimated by government reforms in an effort to globalize India. The town before the invasion of Multi-national Corporations was a self-sufficient town that traded with Madurai for goods (often farmers would go in and sell their goods for a profit as well). The political system in place: a headman would settle village disputes. The headman was chosen on a hereditary basis, and served as the political head of the village. Contrary to US politics, this did not mean that this headman was wealthy in any respect. The caste system is very much a reality for these villages, with the village we visited being made up of 4 castes. That being said, the people there get along well despite the oppressive tenets set by the caste system. After some government changes, however, things have begun to change. WIth a law that empowers an economic hierarchy over a caste system, the headman position has completely disappeared. While the hereditary headman was habitually poor each year, figures in the villages who had accumulated wealth began to speak out against the headmen economically, displacing a once solid and rooted power. As a result, people have started to fight for power in the area, and because the headman himself is supposed to settle disputes between the village people, this dispute is yet to be resolved. During the headman dispute, all disputes are thus put on the backburner (the dispute has been ongoing for the last 30 years... which means all village disputes have not been mediated). On top of this, government allowances to MNC's have forced many village owners to sell their land to these MNC's and lose their once self-subsistent living pattern. Because the village people are for the most part illiterate and uneducated and the MNC primarily operates through machinery and employs highly specialized workers, this results in a job vacuum in the area, leaving the villagers to find other methods of income.
As I sat there absorbing the above information with my camera and waterbottle in hand (there's a lot more to tell, but I think you guys don't really enjoy anthropological essays... I can tell you that I can become quite bored by some of them as well), I suddenly felt out of place ethically. All we were doing in that space was learning about their suffering, extracting this information in order to understand larger issues at stake... when all three of us knew that we probably wouldn't even help this community regain their traditional bearings in the slightest. Every picture I took felt like piracy-- Who was I to extract this information and leave this community high and dry, while I come away with an extra experience to add to my ever-growing Study Abroad resume. It just seemed so unfair to extract and not give back. We met so many people today, but I don't know any of their names (I feel really guilty about this), only their faces through those lovely pictures I took that will make other people on this program want to visit as well... On top of that, how could a local and national government only supplement this economic and political reform as the only solution? A lot more must be done, and yet there's no one arising to the task. My host dad says that politics here are corrupt, and my experience today was proof in a sense (indirectly). I dunno, I acknowledge that we must experience to learn about our lives and eventually fix them, but I was particularly bothered by that today, because I just couldn't help them out. Perhaps I'll do my Independent Study on that village... or some like it to give back for what they provided me (which was a "good time" and a "new way of looking at things", two things that a study abroad student often strives for in their experience).
I don't mean to be over-critical or satirical... I guess I just never really fully faced the North-South divide occuring in front of my face before. I read all these articles about the anthropological debate surrounding anthropological extraction just for the anthropologist's research grant (aka, just to the betterment of the anthropologist, leaving the community to be helped by someone who ends up reading the report, which often ends up being not too many people) and other ones about North-South production/consumption things... but god it felt so shitty to sit there with my camera and take mental notes of my experience when these people were struggling to survive.
Anyway, I've pretty much taken you through the highlights so far. Of course I've been taking classes (enrolled in Environmental Issues, Socio-political Issues, Tamil language, and Ethnographic methods) and mulling around on my own just to get more and more familiar with the area (and I relearned how to play cricket last weekend with a bunch of guys my age and from my program-- Abajan's lessons earlier in my life served me well, because I ended up being one of the best players out there :-)). I'm also continuing to satisfy myself with daily bucket showers (shower heads waste too much water in the Indian mind). The first one is always painful because it is so cold, but after the first few waterfalls, you begin to gain back sensitivity again. Other than that, I've been writing and reading a lot in my spare time, on top of bonding with my host family. They really are great. I could probably write a whole email about how appreciative I am of them (especially cause I hear horror stories about other host families from other people on my program... force-feeding, force-dressing and force-hairdos have come through the grape-vine quite often...).
That's all for now. Shit, it's 7:30 pm (after dark). I need to get back to my host family. Enjoy the pics, and I'll be sure to write during the following weeks (maybe about a blog?)
Love and miss you all so much, and keep updating me with how you're doing-- the emails I've received so far have been really rewarding to read and I thank those of you who have sent them :-)
Pooh yete vaaren
Love,
Hasan
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