I rode an Elephant and then the Monkeys stole my wallet: 09/08/12

This post will finally contain some documented evidence that I am indeed in India. But first, a perfunctory update on life among the spices.

This past week we attended an assortment of classes to determine our final schedules. I have decided on taking Beginners’ Hindi, Contemporary India, Developmental Economics and Social Justice. The latter replaced the Emerging South Asian Economies class I had set my sights on. I figured I should grasp the opportunity to delve into concept of social justice within India’s diversified context. So far, we have explore challenges in India I never before considered, such as how national unity against the British affected opposition to equal opportunity amongst persons from different castes and how relations between Muslims and Hindus were defined as much as by the ingenuity of past rulers as by their intentions.

Everyday before class, the girls at the apartment and I promptly head up at 7:15 to indulge in a cup of chai with Swapna, our host mother. She is a petit woman, measuring 4’11 with impressive jade-colored eyes and a heart shaped face. True to my past experiences, her size is far from proportional to her bustling personality (just like RB and LM!). Its hard to imagine that she and her identical twin, Priya, both were born with enough life for two. Her mother wasn’t aware she was even having twins, Swapna explained. After she gave birth, she said that it was a ‘lovely dream’ to have had them. Accordingly, she named them Priya, which means love, and Swapna, which means dream.

During the day, Swapna Tai sits by a window of her brightly colored apartment and, placing her violin squarely between her chin and left toe, plays Indian melodies. A smile confidently sweeps across her lips as she softly shifts the bow across the eager strings. Unfortunately, because of classes, we rarely have a chance to see or hear her. By the time I head back to my single room on the first floor of the complex, she has left the window and is on to one of the dozens of other projects she has taken on in addition to giving violin lessons and running a girls hostels.

Today before dinner, Swapna took us to see the 'drum groups' around Pune which are preparing for the festival in less than two weeks. The roar of the thumping, the swinging of limbs, and the acrimonious smell of sweat made the air steadily ripple with sounds, smells, and flavor as we watched them practice. Below are some pictures, but only the clip really does the event justice (sorry for the angle!). The girl dancing with the flag is my host mother's daughter.