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Jun 18, 2008 03:58

Hmm, I guess there's a lot to write, but I generally have so little time that I'm afraid of running out of time. Well, to start with, I found an answer to the shalwar kameez question. Jillian said that the shalwar kameez is associated with Pakistan, and so to wear a sari was like a nationalist statement, while to wear a shalwar was to implicitly support Pakistan, and shalwar kameezes are only starting to be worn again. I tohught that was a really interesting answer, but when I asked Indrani in class this morning she said that it wasn't that at all, and that it generally had to do with age. Younger girls, who are not married yet are the ones who wear shalwar kameezes, "Because you have to wear a sari after marriage. You know, you get SO MANY saris as wedding gifts that you have a set wardrobe for life. So many." Well, Indrani would know, but Jillian's answer sounded right too. After all, the orna is supposed to be there for modesty-it covers the chest (theoretically. This is like the sari top, which apparently was created by the British, who thought it was immodest for Indian women to be out in the fields with no real top on. You still see some old women topless, but sometimes I feel like they simply don' t have the money for a top, they're that poor).

In other news, yesterday Jillian, Travis and I drove around looking for a bank where Travis could exchange traveler's checks (I'll have to do that later, too) and a grocery store. We found the latter and it was great! Fruit is really cheap so I got three different kinds of mango and some bananas. While we were driving we went past this huge Hindu temple. There's nothing of that kind that I saw in Bangladesh. It reminded me of Angkor Watt. It's very close, so I'm very excited to go see it. I might not be allowed in, but I'll definitely take a picture of it. Religion here is something I would like to learn more about. Or rather, the religious tensions. I didn't know anything about it, but Indrani sort of touched upon it because an article I read was about Islamic religious holidays. Apparently, there are very great tensions between the Muslims and the Hindus here. Indrani was really interested in reading the Quran, but when she went to buy a copy the seller was like, "Your parents know you're buying this, right?" It's very "touchy" she says. Hindus aren't allowed into the Muslim mosques (I realize that this makes sense, but it was in response to telling her how we went to a mosque last year in Dhaka). I have seen some obvious muslims here. I've seen burkas and heavy veiling. Not so much the kind of veiling that you see in Jordan, but some of the stranger kinds. Another thing: I had been under the impression that the white conch shell bracelets and the red plastic bracelets worn under them were only a Bangladeshi thing, and that here they wore a necklace if the woman is married. That's what Santa told me. But the conch shell bracelets are everywhere here, and when I asked one of the teachers they said that it wasn't just a Bangladeshi thing. But not all the women wear them, because neither of our two female teachers wear them.

Noise is a real problem here. Our street is quiet, but here at the institute it's a constant barrage of honks and metal and people yelling. My God, the horns! People just lay on them. The driving is crazy. I don't know if we're at a busy intersection or if it's that way everywhere. I'm inclined to think that it's everywhere. The institute itself is a strange place. It's like a bungalow that they then sort of converted. But didn't convert well. The beds are just stacked on top of each other with a sheet on top of them. The one really "bungalow" room is great though--there are wicker chairs and a table that are surrounded by screens and trees so that you look out and you see green as though you are in a forest. There are fans, and a tv, and the computer, then the kitchen, and the offices. There are offices downstairs where other people work. There are no Americans here, only Indians. No Americans at the American Institute of Indian Studies? That was a mistake, to my mind. There is no accountability. If there is a corruption situation or something else, who will check it? I ask this because we were listening to an interview conducted last year of an electrician and when asked what percent of people in this area had air conditioning he said 90%. So WHY did Protima, the housing coordinator/head teacher say that it's impossible to get airconditioning, that no one has it? I had believed that she was acting generally in good faith, and this new information doesn't totally contradict that, but it's not confidence-inspiring either.

Travis was a vaishnava for 10 years. Wow. He was a hare krishna monk in the US and came three times to India on pilgrimmage. Now he's agnostic. Apparently he read the Bhagavad Gita and was inspired. I don't know what killed his faith, but that time of his life is over. I remember what the hare krishna monk told me last year in Dhaka--he spends two and a half hours a day saying the "Hare krishna, hare hare krishna..." little chant over and over again. I wonder if Travis did that. He was talking about a huge puja festival in Mirpur, where there's a huge statue that's taken out. Apparently the temple is 12 stories high, and I think he said the statue is 2 stories high or something. People commit religious suicide by throwing themselves under the wheels. We have a 4 day break in July, the 16th through the 20th. I guess we'll all go somewhere or different places or something. Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to have to take money out using my ATM card. Thank God I got that settled before I left the US.

I was speaking with Indrani today all in Bangla. It's the most amazing thing in the world when you can speak fluently, with somewhat correct of an accent, and understand the responses that people are giving. People recognize that it's hard to learn a language, but it's such a sense of accomplishment when you realize that you've reached that level where you can actually communicate with people. It's always harder than I expect. You don't just take a year of a language and suddenly you're fluent. No, it takes time and practice and you think you'll never get there. And sure, you've still got another 5 years before you can have a REAL conversation, and understand what a governmental office is saying when they call to tell you to go to register your foreign residence or a doctor's prescription to get healthy, but you do what you can.
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