I leave Madurai, the place where I have lived for the last 3 months. As such, I've decided to make a list of what I would direly miss when I leave here in less than 24 hours.
The things I will miss most:
-That fucking auto driver, whoever he is, who would always run me into the curb on the way to school. (note: 'that fucking auto driver' applies to any crazy India driver who would cut me off
-Being that fucking cycle guy who would zoom past two wheelers or cut off people in order to squeeze through a one foot hole through a congested intersection.
-Racing school boys to Tamil class and/or a two wheeler with an agressive driver
-Pineapple slices everyday for lunch at a local fruit dealer
-Interacting with the internet cafe people (the one with bright orange cubicles and an insane amount of room)
-Hearing high pitched "HIIIIIIIII"s from random people, both kids and adults
-Saying vanakkam (greeting word which, if said the right way, sounds very vulgar in English) and getting a giggle and a "Tamil Teriyumahhh (He knows tamil?!)?!" in return
-Dr. Arun, my Tamil teacher, because of his great phrases, overall jubilance, and because, to put it bluntly, the man is a beast at Tamil.
-My host mother. The talks we had were incredible, and we managed to get really close to each other over the past three months. I have no idea what I would do if she wasn't my host mother. She also was an excellent cook, and her sassyness will never cease to entertain me.
-My host brother (age 13), for all his exclamations (example: ayooyooooooo *hits his face*), facial expressions, antics, fake wounds (he once tatooed a red cut by the side of his eye and convinced me, with acting involved, that he had just fallen down the stairs), hilarious phrases/one liners (Just a small sample: Why did the woman tiptoe past the medicine cabinet? So she wouldn't wake the sleeping pills. What clothes do ducks wear? Duxedoes.), and sarcasm.
-My host sister (age 8), for always being what a little 8 year old sister is: cute, hilarious, attention-seeking, always wanting a piggy back ride (regardless of the locale), smiley, laughing, jumpy, and energetic. If I was ever in a bad mood or annoyed, she would always cheer me up, regardless of what she did.
-My mother's digital camera. God rest it's soul.
-The cow that bumped me to the side when it wanted to walk where I was standing
-The gross amount of noise you confront whenever you're outside (whether it be automobile exhaust, beeping, random concert loudspeakers blaring traditional hindi/tamil music, or a political speech/rally)
-The gross amount of smells you confront whenever you're outside (including automobile exhaust, sewer smell, jasmine, tea, coffee, wet road/mud, dust, spices)
-The gross amount of color you see whenever you look around you
-Sketchy internet cafes, that almost always, under the history or pop out address bar, had at least five porn sites that had been visited within the last five hours (which made the seat you were sitting in just that more besmirched). WHen you know you are in a sketchy internet cafe: the letter 'U' and the right arrow key have been switched on the keyboard and your chair is warm.
-The immense amount of sweat (we're talking gallons) that evaporated off me because of physical exertion through 90+ degree fareinheit weather for the past four months.
-Random people trying to get me to come into their shop for free (what the hell does that even mean?)
-Meshach and Senthil, my two interpretors, because they gave me the most memorable experiences I've had since being here (one of them being my birthday).
-The SITA group. Though we didn't get along too well or make very close relationships, the friendly atmosphere was all that anyone needed to have a great time in a city like this
-All the people I talked to, regardless of the seriousness or absurdity of our discussion (this ranged from watermelons being equivalent to testicles--don't ask, I just smiled and nodded-- to why Obama is screwing over India)
-The guy who thought I could get him an appointment with the Guiness Book of World Records for having a 4-5 year old nephew that could name every country in the world in a minute and 49 seconds.
-Ashok Bhavan-- my favorite stop in lunch meal place (for, get this, 50 cents a meal)
-Random festivals or rallies in the middle of busy streets without warning or explanation
-The song that cars play when they back up (whenever a car is in reverse here, it plays the theme song of AirTel, an Indian telephone company. I'll sing it for you if you're really that curious when I get back).
-Biscuits/Milk Bikis
-Tea/Coffee/Lime Juice four times a day
-INDIAN FOOD (though right now I'm not so into it-- the whole group and a couple of Indians got food poisoning from the hotel we stayed at a few days ago in the mountain town of Kodaikanal-- it was a 4,400 rupee, like 100 dollors, a night place plus room and board, and yet they still served shitty food. I'm also taking some with me in the form of recipes)
-The Butt Gun (device that acts as toilet paper, except it uses water, and a lot of pressure)
-The fashion/clothes worn by everyone here
-The couple that ran the internet cafe across the street from the abroad center, despite the fact that the internet was about as fast as a 44 kb/sec dial-up connection.
-My cycle (bless it's soul. It was falling apart).
-Hampi.
-Pirated DVDs sold at 20 rupees, aka 40 cents, a movie
-Seeing people or talking with people that would make me realize how beautiful life really is, and how we should learn to cherish every single moment of our life, regardless of its banality or erraticness
-Coming back home at 7:30 pm, and calling it "late" (Madurai shuts down, like Chapel Hill, after 9:30 PM)
-Waking up at 6:30 AM each morning (hopefully this will continue, cause god it felt good)
-Voice lessons (so fun)
-Wearing a Veshti/Lungi (manskirt) and not have it be a cause for concern
-Not being on facebook (alas, I'm back on it)
-Being spoken to in rapid tamil and expected to respond easily/just as fast as he/she did
-Tamil TV (indescribably hilarious)
-Playing Cricket with the kids on my program and other host brothers, always with a crowd of 15 year old boys around either staring at us like we're lunatics or smiling and waving and using the three sentences of English they knew (and us responding with the three sentences of Tamil we knew; thankfully, the sentences we both knew often overlapped)
-Incense (which was in every closed space anywhere)
-The architecture/art in temples
-The mosquitoes that hovered in my room every night. Some could make the argument that they got very up in my grill (I actually stopped killing them before I went to bed each night, and I got used to them biting me. Now I only wake up with like four bites)
-The line of ants that used to go through my room to the kitchen (it disappeared because we moved, but soon came back in the new house)
-The moustaches (every guy over the age of 18 had a moustache. My translators was, by far, the most badass: it was a handlebar stache)
-Being able to throw trash/excess food on the ground and not have anyone say "pick that shit up"
-Indians and their waiting tactics (Some people make you wait with WHATEVER you try to do, just so they can do it)
I think that's all I've got for now, there may be a more extensive list when I'm about to leave on April 29th (my flight is technically on April 30th... at 2:00 AM IN THE MORNING. WTF LUFTHANSA)
Love and miss, and I'll be back soon!
Hasan
No comments:
Post a Comment