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Venturing Out
Tonight, we chose a restaurant from an attractive ad in the hotel room's city magazine. During the drive back, we passed through a neighborhood that was reminiscent of Mulberry Street in Little Italy in New York City in its wealth of lights strung over the streets.
The resemblance ended there. Suddenly, it was like being on a northeastern U.S. ski slope in the '70s, when a number of them pumped music through loudspeakers on the slopes.
The music would follow me down the whole run. Here, though, the music was liturgical chanting in Hindi by a single male voice. And it followed us for blocks and blocks and blocks. Both of us figured that our friend and colleague Dorothy would have loved it.
Pat found it soothing whereas after the 10th block or so, I found it the stuff of nightmares. I wanted to be more open to new experiences than I felt tonight. Beyond the 10th block, I felt menaced, like the voice would follow us all the way home. It didn't.
Now, I'm drowning it out in my head with Indian MTV, which is twice as thrilling visually as the American version. Before we left for Bangalore, a new, American friend who had lived in Mumbai for a year said, "In India, you'll learn more about yourself than you will about India."
3 comments:
Hey Little Sister,
I know you must know the song. I bet you even know the lyrics. All I remember is a line that went something like "Who do you think you are?" Well, from what your friend said about learning more about yourself than India, I imagine you'll know even better than ever at the end of your stint.
I tried leaving a comment the other day, three times, before I went to work, to no avail. I hope this will go through.
I need to learn a bit more about public blogging etiquette. Is it gauche to use this forum in a kind of emaily way, to leave a comment and also catch you up on my news? Or do I need to email you separately?
In the interest of time today, I will plow through, and do what comes naturally. You can advise me later if I have overstepped bounds.
I am loving your blog. I love your turns of phrase, your weaving back and forth between present and past experiences and your bringing in your unique perspective as a Jewish lesbian to create a textured and layered documentary of your life, which both reverberates and challenges me to shift perspective. Thanks for letting me/us in. I also love when you post Pat's photos. She has a terrific eye for political, economic and witty social commentary. Selfishly, I really enjoy seeing the pictures of the two of you, too, because it allows me a glimpse into your lives.
So, are you going to send a hard copy of your blog to Mom occasionally? You know how resistant to technology she is. (Blogger faux pas, here?)
I am completely trashed after my parallel first week of work, followed up by a party last night which (happily) kept us from being home until 2 a.m. I think I am learning more about myself than the job this week. Nothing like a new job, and in your case, a new country, too, to bring up the best and worst in a soul. I am dealing heavily with coaching myself to take it easy, appear confident and relaxed, to listen and think really deeply before I speak and to not expect myself to know and be able to do absolutely everything perfectly. As much as I imagine this is intensified for you by the experience of living in a new culture, I wonder, referring back to your musings about remembering to take each person's humanity in mind, whether it takes leaving the comfort of one's own country to remind us to do so.
Missing and loving you,
Big Sister, K
Your first comment did go through, and I responded to it on the blog on July 4th, but let me put it here for easy access:
I don't know of any special commenting etiquette. Personally, I prefer hearing how people relate to what I've written and so I welcome people's accounts of experiences that my entries reminded them of.
Thanks for the kind feedback on the blogs and for being a fantastic sister. Yes, you and Zach are welcome to try to help Mom partake of the blogosphere, if not produce a chunk of it herself. Love, Sarah
Here's a further comment, in response to the rest of yours:
I'm sure I should be thinking very deeply before I speak here, too, but I haven't been -- well, I'd like to think that I've been thinking very deeply as I speak, but....If I've alienated any Indian colleagues, they've been generous so far and not let it show.
One of my colleagues is Bengali and on Friday, I told her about the dance that Bengali and Mexican students did for the International Festival some years ago at the high school, where you were the principal. I told her about the festival's magic and it reminded me of all the good you did as the leader of that institution. I can only imagine the amazing good you'll do now that you're in the new job!
For about 6-8 months I used to print a hard copy of my (daily) blog at the end of each month and mail it to my parents and my favorite aunt and uncle. They looked forward to receiving that bulky manilla envelope each month, since neither had/has Internet access. :-)
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