Goa Part 1: Contraband

So, this past weekend, Allison, Garrett and I travel to the beloved state of Goa, a hot, sandy, beachy tourist retreat state in south western India. We are so excited, the three of us, because we have been wanting to go to Goa for such a long time. So it begins with us boarding the train…its suppose to be a 12 hour train ride. So anyway, we get on the train, and sit down. This guy sitting across from us asks Garrett if he can stand up for a second so that he can put his luggage underneath our seat. So, Garrett stands, and the guy places his huge black suitcase underneath our seat, then sits down. A few minutes later, the guy leaves the train. The train begins to move slowly as we leave the platform. Suddenly, Allison notices that the guy isn’t on the train. We look out the window, and he is walking beside the train. “5 rupees this guy gets on” she says. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, well, of course he is going to get on. His luggage is here. We look out the window, and he is walking at the same pace while the train picks up speed. He smiles at us, but in a suspicious, sly kinda side smile that makes me uneasy. His friend walking beside him smiles too. Finally, we have left the platform, and I hear Allison say “Well, I guess I’m out 5 rupees”. We forget about it though, and talk about how much fun we are about to have, and what all we plan to do: the sunny, tropical destination of Goa awaits us shortly.

Yet, about an hour into the train ride, Garrett remembers that the luggage is still underneath us. I feel so uneasy. Maybe it’s a bomb, or explosives. I ask Allison “are there reported cases of train bombing in India?” and Allision, who hardly ever worries, says that yes, there are. We don’t know what to do at this point. Maybe the three of us are being paranoid. Yet, at the same time, I tell the others that there is a reason that this cargo is underneath us. The man didn’t leave it by accident..he didn’t forget that he put his luggage there, and all the while, the memory of him and his friend smiling at us from the platform is starting to creep me out. Another hour passes. Time is ticking, and so might be this bomb planted right beneath our seat. We finally wake up a woman sleeping next to us who was there when the guy put the luggage underneath us. She doesn’t speak any English, so Allison tries to explain in Marathi that about the man and the luggage. The woman replies “captain”. And points to a guy dressed in a suit who comes over to sit with us. We try to explain the situation to him, but he doesn’t speak English either. Then, another guy comes over to sit with us, over hearing our conversation. This man actually does speak English, and we explain the luggage situation. “Oh” he replies “You are thinking it is a bomb or something? No, no bomb. Have faith in people. People are good. Your worldview is one that people are bad. Our world view says people are good” Then he hands us a broucher and explains his religion for about 20 minutes to Allison, who feigns interest. Its funny, because we never said that we thought it was a bomb, only that a man placed luggage underneath us and then left. Yet, he knew our concern even before we could express it. Once the guy leaves, Allision declares that she is officially worried. “I wasn’t so concerned before, but now, after that guy saying everyone is good, I’m worried” Meanwhile, I feel the reverse. If we were in danger, the other people around us would worry too, wouldn’t they? I mean, a bomb would blow them up just as well as us. Yet, the lady who was sleeping eventually gets off at another stop. Leaving us as the only witnesses. I imagined Allision, Garrett and I having our legs blown off, or dying in a massive explosion. Or getting our legs blown off and then dying in a massive explosion. Despite this, we come to the conclusion that its probably just illegal contraband sitting suggly beneath our seat. What kind of contraband? I dunno. Drugs, or guns maybe. No idea to be honest. But a train is a perfect way to smuggle illegal goods. The seats are numbered, as are the cars, so a transaction can be made easily by one person telling the other exactly what train, car and seat to pick up the goods. Anywho, eventually we all go to sleep, unphased.

At 2 in the morning, I’m awaken by the sound of someone making a noise by my bed. I open my eyes slightly. The compartment is dark, because its night time and people are sleeping. I can’t see very well either because my glasses are off. But I make out a man who is fumbling with something. He starts talking to the man sleeping below me. Then he pulls out a mat and rests on it. I keep tossing and turning, not even trying to appear asleep, because at the time I just thought he was a normal passenger. Yet, he keeps casting glances my way. That’s when I lay still and open my eyes just enough to see what’s happening. The man takes some luggage into the hallway and out of site. Then he comes back, and reaches below the mattress one below me, where we were sitting. He slids from underneath it the large black suitcase that had us all worried for hours. Then, exits the train. I’m so relieved that the luggage is off. I’m also happy to have witnessed a smuggling act of illegal contraband. You might ask how I know it is illegal. Well, maybe it wasn’t. But, not even a minute after the man exits the train, a police enters the compartment and stops by our mattresses. He has an old school riffle slung over his shoulder, and a huge, powerful, oversized flashlight which he shines in our direction. These smugglers were pros, narrowly escaping the police by a matter of seconds. And I’m wondering all the while what tip the police got to come to our compartment at the exact time he did. The police shines his flashlight underneath the mattress below me. And, if he had shone it on me, he would have seen a huge, joyful, I-Just-witness-the-coolest-underground-transaction grin that was on my face right then.

Stay tuned for the rest of Trip Goa! Coming up in the next blog entry…

First of all...a huge sorry for not updating until now! I'll get better at updating ;)I feel I should take time out to tell a little about my host family!

So...I live with the best family ever! I have a younger sister who is 17 named Saylee who is studying engineering. She is the typical 17 year old...she goes out and likes western music and fashion (she is indeed very fashionable!)She is also very intelligent, and I love hearing her speak English because she has a very classy/ cute accent! Anyway, I have a brother, Sanket, who is 14 and hands down the most social 14 year old I have ever met. He has like 1,200,547 friends, and they come over often. Also, there are two girls Poonam, who is 20 and Geetha, who is 23. Both are paying guests and stay in a room off of our flat.

There are always people over. My host mother (I call her Ai, which is "mom" in Marathi) is the most social butterfly! She goes out during the day to friend's homes, and if not, then her friends are over at our house. My baba works in Mumbai during the day, so he's usually out. I love that there are always people over (and I'm very lucky in this sense because most of the other ACM students live with just host parents, and no siblings). Actually, there are only 2 ACM students living with more than 2 other people, and I'm one of them!...;)

I keep realizing more and more just how BIG Pune really is. It's has about 3 million people, and I guess it's because there are not towering sykscrapers or 5 laned streets, and its streets have exotic trees that its easy to forget just how gigantic of a metropolis it is. Pune is spread out rather than up, and the farther out you go, the more you realize that it is pretty sizable.

Yesterday ended the 10-day long festival for the goddess Chatishringi. On Saturday I and 3 others went to her temple and it was KHOOP crowded! The line going to her shrine was miles long I swear! We wanted to go to the top, but we would have waited all day to reach it. Yesterday, to celebrate the goddesses' birthday, my ai cooked this really nice meal and we had lots of company over! Most of them were girls my age, so naturally we had a great time messing around!

Well, I hope this update doesn't disappoint anyone. I'm sorry I've been so sucky. A few weeks ago, we visited the Ellora and Ajanta caves, which are these ancient Jain, Buddhist and Hindu caves that have been carved out of rock with just a hammer and chisel! Pretty amazing. Our hotel was nice too...get this (it was outdoors!) and it had this serene garden where you could eat your breakfast and look out at the waterfalls and caves in the distance! Pretty neat! Well, that's it for now! Until then!

Nothing could compare to what happened yesterday. Yesterday was the biggest celebration of the 10-day long festival for Ganesh (you know, the elephantine god). He's a pretty big deal here in Maharashtra, and yesterday was apparently his birthday.

There was a huge celebration on Laxmi road, and all of us ACM students gathered at Allison's house to celebrate (since she lives off Laxmi). Music is blaring in the streets, and titanic floats of Ganesh cruse down them, followed by masses of people. So yesterday afternoon, we venture out into the parade. One guy stops us and says "hey, I recognize you from the paper!" We were in the local newspaper the otherday...this lady interviewed us on what we wanted to experience at this festival. He points to Nate and me and says "I recognize you guys...you all are celebrities of India!" Pretty cool, but that isn't the half of it.

People took notice of us during the parade. Some people who were a part of the parade ushered us into the center of the crowd, and before long hundreds of people are encircling us, watching just the few of us dance. Cameras flash and people smile. I must admit I was a bit shy. Some girls joined us...they grabed our hands and would churn some dance move and expect us to imitate. We were all really into it.

Everywhere we went, we kept getting surrounded. People would ask us our names, and where we were from. Smiling girls kept taking my hand and asking for me to dance with them. "What's your name" they woulds ask.. "Sydney? ohhh...are you enjoying our country? Do you like your experience here?" The answers were always the same "Yes, I love your country, and I am having a great time!"

Before long we were at the very front of the parade leading it! The trumpet players in purple uniform were all around us, and one man asked us to wave at the camera crew. I was kind of shy having so many people crowd around us, taking pictures. The young girls loved to dance with us, and the entire atmosphere was one festive whirl. If ever I or any of the others went to the side, someone would always grab our hands and pull us to the clearing of the center of the crowd to dance. Several times I crossed hands with a smiling local and spun in the center...which was a lot of fun! It was so weird having so much attention. But We all realized that they like knowing that foreigners are getting into their festival and enjoying themselves.

At night was ever better. It was so crowded in the streets. Drums were banging loudly, techno music blaring, fist pumping. Large Ganesh floats with strobe lights lit up the streets, and occasionally fire works went off. One person would yell out into the crowd "Ganpati Bapa!" and the entire crowd would yell back "Mordia!" Literally "Hail Lord Ganesh".

At night all the streets were blocked, and Laxmi was a burst of energy, beating drums, excitment, music and energy. The crowds were SOooo intense...it reminded me of the ingauration of our President. At some points we could not even move in the streets, everyone was so pressed together. At one point I really feared I would fall in the pressing crowd and get trampled...taking Garrett with me, but thankfully that didn't happen. None of us American students can fathem how this festival is half of what it usually is (the swine flu has made this year's festival half of what it usually is, according to everyone, but I don't see how it could have been any more corwded or lively.)

No doubt, this was one of the most interesting and unforgetables nights!

Today was nothing short of a Rajasthani fairytale, and undoubtedly one of the most memorable hours of my life. We traveled to Chokhi Dani, which is the most exotic, colorful, Rajastan-esque place. Inside the Arabian-looking gates awaited an entirely different portal of an Indian dream. I saw a traditional dancer with pots 5 feet high stacked on her head, dancing to the beat of the drum. I saw the most phemonemal tight-rope walker, a fire breather who ate and breathed fire like some dragon, and a magician who performed the most mysterious tricks. One kind of creeped me out a bit. Speaking rapid, bubbly Hindi, he asked everyone in the audience to hold hands in a certain way and imagine some fragrant flower. I thought of a rose, as did others. Some thought of jasmine, others lilac. Anyway, he told us to rub hard on the person whose hands we were holding, and then to smell our hand. Freakishly, amazingly, undescribably, my hand smelled like rose petals! Everyone was so amazed that their hands smelled like lilac or jasmine or whatever flower they imagined. It wasn't an illusion, everyone smelled what ever flower they had invisioned. Strange.

I got to ride a camel today too! Riding them is uncomfortable no doubt. They don't have an even step, and they are stubborn. We stayed after night fall, and that was when this fairytale land burst alive with color and beauty. We witnessed tradtional Rajastani puppet theater, which was so hilarious and 10x better than any Western minaret. We had dinner sitting on the tiled ground, against a sand colored wall in a large square, everyone sitting cross legged before platters laden with countless dishes. Men in deep maroon dress and orange turbans served us endlessly at our request, attending us with their endless dishes. Having men put food on my plate for me (which has happened almost every time we have gone out) makes me feel superior and offends my conscience. However, one thing I will always remember - when Anju made an anouncement and declared that the men were going to show us how guests in Rajasthan were traditonally served. The men started with me first. One put a jalebi (this tiny hot sweet syrupy funnel-cake thing) in my mouth and then I didn't even have time to chew before he put another one in my mouth, and I didn't have time to chew that one either when he was about to put another one in my mouth...I would have laughed but my mouth was really full with these dessert things, and I waved my hands to signal "no more", and they moved on to the next person. That was by far the coolest thing to ever happen to me. Having these men in turbans putting these hot sweet amazingly-good dessert things in your mouth for you...because, you know, your too important, lazy, pompous to put your food in your mouth yourself. I will never forget that!

At night Chockin Dani turned into something that resembled a cross between an Arabian neverland and an Island Loua. There were lights that reminded me of tikki torches, fires casting shadows, young men in soft organge turbans guiding us to our next destination, and bowing politely with their hands pressed together. Somewhere between riding the man-powered farris-wheel, watching a metalsmith forge cobras, a glass maker bangles, climbing the towers at the exit overlooking the Arabian-night like sky with a cresent moon,the fire breather, the dancers, the dinner, the torches...it hit me that India is all to magical.

Indiahhhh. I saw more beauty today than I think I am intelligably capable of describing. We went up to a fort outside of the city, built to protect the land from Mughal invaders some time ago. The hills were amazingggg! Green flushed the terrain everywhere, and the sky was vast and cloudy, which opened up to this steep valley carved with rice terraces and dotted with yellow tea blossoms. We were about 4,000 feet up in the air, and later on in the day the clouds passed through the mountain and left us in the wake of its cool misty presence.

The people in the villages on the mountain were very traditional. One elder dressed in traditional garb sang a song to us in Marathi about how the Mongul invaders tried to penetrate the fort. In the song he told a story of the human history of his home, his valley and people. Apparently the king once had thousands of soldiers stationed along the wall.

The villagers cooked for us. We had very traditional food. Spicy green chutneey, this one fried chickpeas and onion snack which was probably the best thing I've ever tasted, more peppery sauces...everything was khoop chaan..very good. I had some yogurt in the mountains made from buffalo milk. I actually found out today that the milk served at breakfast this morning was buffalo milk.

Anju took us to this temple looking thing and showed us how the natives of the village drink water. They cup their hands and put their lips to the base of their hands. We all took turns drinking this way. At first I was apprehensive to drink water from this rustic village temple-looking structure in the middle of this unchanged mountain village. But I did it. Like a native. And I'm so proud of myself!

I could go on and on about today and still never fully capture the beauty, majesty and splendor of all I experienced. I will remember this day for a very long time. The mountains were divine, untouched by time or outside influence. Exploring the fort, looking down on the valley and its vivid greenery, being served by the locals, breathing in misty mountain air. Its true. There really is a paradise on earth. I happened to visit there today.

Syd

So I have been in Pune three days now, and I can say that it is as amazing as I imagined. There are crowds of people, and side shops, and motorcycles that intimidate you as you cross the street. Women with rich skin, dark hair, and colorful saris stroll past. I feel a rush of girl power when I see a women in traditional garb zoom past on a motorcycle. Honking has become the soundtrack to my life ever since I have arrived. Here, people honk to communicate (get out of the way!...I'm turning...I'm backing up....I'm a few centimeters away from hitting you so look out!) Its not like back in the states where a honk is considered a rude insult. I start out by describing the streets because it is the bulk of this city, its lifeblood and charm.

A last night was alot of fun. Most of us ACM students went to a cafe as night fell. CCD (Cafe Coffee Days). Its modern and sheek. We walked in and sat upstairs on some couches with views overlooking the street. This city really comes alive at night (not that it isn't during the day). Its similar to the excitment you get when you are outside at night in New York. Its an Indian vibe, and there IS a beat to the streets...a certain rhythm, although I haven't pin pointed it yet. Anyway, it was nice looking out as we sat. The waiters handed us pretty sizable menus with delectable iced mocha, frothy chocolate, creamy dessert drinks...completely Western. CCD is basically a starbucks. Nice Bollywoood music (I learned today that the word "Bollywood" is not used in India...they say "Hindi" instead) played in the background, and a large flat screen T.V. behind us displayed black and white images of people dancing, and some sort of Indian version of race care driving. Anyway, so a couple of us get ready to order, and the waiter says that actually they are only currently serving three things on the menu due to a shortage of ingredients...snapple, and two flavors of soda! Why the menus then? But I soon realized it was probably so we could see what they served. I can't wait to go back. I can tell we will be at CCD often!

I'm really looking forward to getting to know the city. This will be my home for the next four months! India. My home. Sounds kinda nice.

Well, I will write later!