Ok, it’s really not that hard to grock.

over the last two months here i’ve had a lot of time to think about indian society and culture and how different (or similar) it is from the west. i guess i’ve gotten used to the cows and pigs that wander the streets, holy men who live in caves and watching houses be built by barefoot construction workers.

the thing that stands out most to me tho are indian marriage customs. a few days ago i was talking with my sanskrit teacher about divorce and i asked him if he knew any divorced people. he responded that he did, but when i pressed him he said “well i’ve heard of people getting divorced but i’ve never actually met anyone who has been”. he’s indian, 27 years old and has lived in indian all his life and none of his friends or his parent’s friends have ever been divorced.

he went on to explain how his marriage will eventually work. once he finishes his studies, he’ll let his parents know that he’s ready to get married and they will put the word out among their friends. if anyone has a girl he feels is suitable, he will send over her horoscope to my teacher’s parents for review. assuming the parents feel that her horoscope is compatible with my teacher’s, they will go to her house and observe her and her family. if the parent’s visit to the girl goes well, they will introduce her to my teacher and a marriage will likely follow. he did say tho that his parents will allow him to meet a girl on his own and marry her if he wants. of course this girl must be of the same caste (brahmin). when i asked if he could marry a western girl, he picked his jaw up off the floor and told me that his parents would never speak to him again if he did that.

the latest from the local paper

• geoge bush admitted to smoking pot
• the thai government is offering to adopt all unwanted indian babies. they are setting up a 24 hour hotline for anyone considering infanticide or abortion
• george bush insists on calling vladimir putin by his first name only
• the thai government is using rap to lure youth to buddhism. they are putting on a concert of “dharma rap” which will have bands performing hip hop songs with a buddhist message

i read in the paper yesterday that india has 1% of the world’s autos but has 6% of the world’s auto accidents, the highest amount of any country. the majority of the fatalities belong to pedestrians and riders of two wheel vehicles. somehow this doesn’t seem to surprise anyone here.

in other news i really am glad to be 1/2 a globe away from washington. anyone want to join me over here for another 3.5 years?

i’ve been asked a bunch lately what all i’ve been up to and why i haven’t been updating this blog. i have been on a few fun field trips and will eventually post info about them and some pics … but for the most part my schedule is pretty much the same every day. i get up around 4am, practice from 5-7, shower, have breakfast, study sanskrit, grab a late lunch and three days a week i have sanskrit class from 5-6. i’m starting a thai massage course tomorrow which will likely suck away most of my free time.

sanskrit is one of the 22 official languages of india, most of which have their own alphabet. it’s not really spoken anywhere any more, although it is possible to get news on tv and radio in sanskrit each evening. studying the language has been pretty interesting, i’ve learned a new alphabet and am beginning to understand some of the words and grammar but i’m sure that it will be years before i can read much without a dictionary.

the yoga sutras are one of the first writings on yoga and they were written originally in sanskrit and since then have been translated into pretty much any language imaginable. even just comparing the english translations tho, each one is very different. there seems to be a lot of room for interpretation when translating material from sanskrit into english.

i know that i’ve written a few times about the problems with garbage in this country, and with trash removal made up of cows and random burning it does really stand out as a problem. what i haven’t commented much on is that they generate much less trash here than we do in the states. plastic bags and bottles are reused until they fall apart, produce is generally delivered each morning by people who push carts or carry it on their heads (no grocery bags), old newspaper is reused to serve food or clean, stores don’t automatically give bags when you purchase a few items, restaurants either have no paper napkins or give you them one at a time, etc …..

so i guess it’s a right of passage that all who come to this country must follow …. today i got to spend most of the day 20 paces or less from my toilet. i seem to be keeping stuff down now, i had some rice and curry earlier and that’s staying right where it should ….. thanks to caroline for some mysterious japanese herbal remedy that seems to be working.

it has been pointed out to me that i haven’t been adding much to this blog lately. part of that is because not much has happened, but i have also been kinda busy. i guess i haven’t been doing a huge amount of stuff (yoga, studying sanskrit, reading), but in india things always take much longer than you expect. i do have some great pics from the temples that i’ve been visiting but the only internet cafe where i can get them off my camera plays really loud music that makes me crazy.

i have been saving up a list of random observations tho … stuff that sticks out in this odd country.

• forget anything you think you know about how a queue should operate. the could be fifteen people waiting in line to buy a rail ticket and six inches of space between the first person and the counter. this is PLENTY of room for anyone to walk right up and make himself next in line
• public washrooms never have any soap. this wouldn’t be the end of the world, were one not required to use his left hand a bucket of water to “clean up” after having a bowel movement. i guess this is why people always eat only with the right hand.
• moustaches of all shapes and sizes are very much the style in india. if you go to the barber for a shave, make sure to tell him you don’t want yours
• while places in the states require the wearing of footwear, the opposite is true in india. i visited a temple the other day where we were required to walk up 600 steps barefoot, pilgrims travel the country (even on airplanes) barefoot visiting temple after temple.
• anyone who has been near me after i ate ice cream and didn’t have any lactaid will be quite surprised to know that i have no trouble digesting the milk here.