random thoughts...

 

From Rebecca

cooksinindia
I said a while ago that I would post some photos of Rashmi and Rebecca's Excellent Adventures in da U.P. I'm just now getting around to it. Below are a few photos from the past month. The photos of Rashmi riding the Harley, kayaking and four wheeling all happened within a one week period at the beginning of November. She never turns down an opportunity for fun. More later....

Miscellaneous Photos

Rashmi at the Yooper Tourist Trap
Riding a Harley
Kayaking
Four Wheelin'

 

Cherry Creek Elementary School- Show and Tell

Rashmi was brought in for show and tell by the daughter of a colleague.
Rashmi and Stascha
Rashmi and map
Everyone gets bindis- even the boys
Rashmi demonstrating a traditional dance

 

Halloween

Carving Pumpkins I'll get you my pretty... and your little dog, too.
Rashmi, Quinn and Charlie
Quinn, Totally.
Rashmi with students

 

Mackinac Island- October 28-29

All Aboard-Rashmi, Claire, Rebecca and Alice
East Bluff- Brrrrrrr
Grand Hotel
Arch Rock

 

Diwali- October 21

Rashmi and Rebecca
Candles for the Festival of Lights
Sparklers with the Patels
Rashmi and Navita

MSHS Homecoming- October 20

The students choose Rashmi to be the Honor Teacher
Rashmi and Grand Marshal, Deb Vezzetti in the parade
A perfect beauty queen wave

 

cooksinindia

Thoughts on the bike race...

Quite the day of sport and bonhomie. Started at 4:00 am with tea and cereal. Then a ride up to National Stadium, near India Gate, for the Hunooz Dilli Door Naist bike race. The purpose of said race was to kick off preparations for the Commonwealth games, which will be held here in Delhi in 2010. Might be worth a visit…
Anyway, we rode up to India Gate…got lost once or twice trying to find the stadium, and about fifteen kilometers later were waiting for the race to begin. The race itself was about 35 km. And the mix of participants was a feast for the eyes. There were guys riding barefoot, guys on old Indian bikes like mine, only with no seats…they sat on the rack. Guys with slick, modern bikes. Mostly Indians, but a couple of white faces here and there. And everyone was just happy to be a part of the show. Really fun. I’ve included a picture of a couple of guys I rode the second half of the race with. Somehow the dude next to me appeared larger in real life. The camera seems to have taken a bit of height off the lad, but trust me when I tell you that guy was fast. Mind you, I nipped him at the end, but it took every ounce of will and experience gleaned from years in the saddle.
After the race we visited with some acquaintances through the Fulbright program that live in Delhi. They fed us breakfast, then we sat around for an hour, and they fed us lunch. We ate all of both before riding another fifteen km home.
It is now Sunday afternoon and I need to do some chores before calling it a day. Later.

The competition...
pre-race game face
pre-race madness
tom-with his sissy bike

 

getting work done at the bike shop

I'm not sure why the captions didn't work out, but here are some shots taken at the bike shop in the village behind school (about a km back). Turns out my tire was flat when school let out, so I huffed it down to the village. And, of course, about twenty people turned out to laugh and carry on and try to talk to me. I happened to have my camera with, so I took some shots. I'm the white guy.
And what, you might ask, does it cost to have a tire fixed at the village bike shot? Rs 5. That's about eleven cents. I was feeling generous, so I gave the guy a ten rupee note (22 cents), and I had to convince him to take it. He felt it wasn't right to overcharge. Great people. I left with a spring in my step, and the whole group lined up and waved. More later. 

random thoughts...

Recently I’ve taken to working out at a sports complex called Siri Fort. It was the site of the 1984 Asian games, and is now given over to rich guys to run, swim (pool’s closed, by the way…who in their right mind swims when it’s only 90 degrees out?) run, hit a bucket of balls, play a game of badminton, or cricket. The running track is one kilometer, and at one stretch goes along the golf ball driving range. I’m doing my laps, taking in how nice the place is, and thinking, “India. What was it that ever threw me for a loop here?” I see the guys whacking away at balls, and then I see something else. Here at Siri Fort, the balls are not picked up by a special cart with a protective cage. Oh, no. There’s like eight guys walking around with rusty old dented buckets, carrying umbrellas to shield them from the rain of incoming golf balls. Depending on your point of view, this place is as much a driving range as a shooting range. What we have here could be termed target practice. But, interestingly enough, the boys under the umbrellas were smiling, cracking jokes. One guy just sat against the fence…maybe take a nap.
Every day on the way to school (and back) I’m hit with evidence of the harsh side of life in a big city in a developing country. Some dude sleeping between the gas pumps at a filling station. Kids squatting on the sidewalk to pee…young mothers squatting on a brick wall for the same reason…people feeding twigs to small fires on the sidewalk to boil their morning tea…the smell of garbage and sewage that actually burns the eyes. Buses with big jagged gashes in the sides, on the corners, belching smoke, playing cat and mouse with me. People under blankets on the street, rolled up tight against the morning moisture. Kids in clean white and blue and grey school uniforms, on the back of a scooter, or waiting for the bus monster. Temples. Mosques.
Maybe you can guess where I’m going here. Through it all I’m peddling along, and I’m, like, going through this whole range of thoughts and feelings and emotions. Someone cuts me off and I want to tear his eyes out, then someone else passes me and smiles; amused at the white dude on an Indian bicycle. Of course, when I finally reach school, it’s madness: A torrent of kids working their way around construction holes and in and out of trucks and buses, people honking and yelling, some guy selling tea. And every kid that catches my eye gives me the, “Good morning, sir!” and a big smile. Every one. In the building, the staff are lining up to sign in, and they’re all reaching out to shake my hand, to see if I remember any of the Hindi they taught me (I suck at Hindi, by the way), and asking after my health. (Earlier this week at morning assembly I was stung by a wasp and my hand swelled up like a softball with fingers. I looked like Popeye. Kids in the hall were asking about my hand. Everyone with their can’t-fail-cure.)
At some point, I’ll leave this place and go home. I miss the Hell out of Rebecca and the kids, and of course every one and every thing else that makes up my home. I’m anxious to be there with them. But I’m seeing, too, how I have been cursed with knowledge. This isn’t my home, but it’s opened itself to me in a way that has allowed me a glimpse of what it would be to live here. To be from here. I recognize there are flaws. Problems. But I see, too, a tangle of energy that is almost intoxicating. Last night, while eating dinner, Tom blurted out, “I love Delhi. It’s so real. Where else do you see a Mercedes honking at a herd of goats to get out of the way?” True dat.
OK. Time to go. It’s Saturday night. I’m going to take a nap, and maybe we’ll go out for a beer. Tomorrow is a no work day. Cheers

Mike in India

cooksinindia
Hi, this is Rebecca...
I just spoke with Mike on the phone. I try to talk to him every three or four days. Phone service can be a little sketchy. I bought an international calling card that charges me about 7 cents a minute to Delhi. I have to dial 40 numbers to get through to him and then sometimes I get an annoying buzzing noise or a pleasant British accented voice telling me that my call cannot be completed. If I am lucky the phone rings and I get Mike's voice. If I am even luckier we can talk without being disconnected. It usually only takes a few tries to get through. There is a slight delay but after a few minutes we fall into a rhythm and can have a good conversation. I call him between 7am and noon our time to catch him in the evening IST. His mother was having a little trouble comprehending the time change and called him very early a couple of times including at 4am on his birthday- I think she has figured it out now.

Mike said to send apologies for not updating the blog but said he will try on Sunday. The fact is he's very busy. In India, school is held 6 days a week. Sunday is reserved for running around catching up on errands, schoolwork, emails... The internet service in his flat is also pretty hit and miss and when it is working it is very slow. I will let him fill you in on the details of his daily routine when he updates.

At any rate, Mike is fine except for a swollen hand from a bee sting he got at school. He said the swelling is much better but was half way up his arm previously. He is looking forward to his day of rest and if the internet is working we should hear from him.

On the home front, things are going fairly well. Kids are struggling a little to catch up in school but are happy to be home. Charlie enjoyed more than his fair share of the Halloween candy- wrappers and all- it is all working through his system and hasn't seemed to slow him down any. He is the same old "spring loaded Charlie"- he got that name from one of our dog park friends.

Rashmi and I have enjoyed some American cultural experiences over the week. The first was the Haunted Bog Walk- a benefit for our local nature center- we screamed our heads off. After we had a good old Yooper Friday fish fry. She is pretty familiar with fish and chips because of the British influence in India- only difference is she eats it with mustard. I prefer malt vinegar, I think most Yoopers like tartar sauce.

On Saturday morning, Rashmi and I went to Mackinac Island with our friends, Claire and Alice. We left Marquette in a sleeting rain and drove to the bridge where we boarded a ferry for a very scary ride across. Rashmi was delighted by the rolling waves- you would have thought it was a roller coaster ride. Weeeeee.... Claire and I were not so delighted but we made it in one piece.

When we got to the island we checked into our B&B. It was raining a little but it soon stopped and remained cold and blustery for the rest of the day. I dragged the gals up the hills on bikes and we toured the East Bluff to the West Bluff and stopped by the Grand for tea. It was the Somewhere inTime weekend so there were many women and a few men in period dress. We are planning on having a showing of the movie soon on Claire's huge TV. After, we did some shopping downtown. It was the last weekend and most of the businesses are closing for the season so it was very quiet. We then headed back up the hill to my friend Laura's house- in the pitch black through the puddles- for dinner. We had a lovely dinner and after we went downtown to see the Halloween costumes at Horn's Bar. People on Mackinac Island take their Halloween celebration very seriously. Great costumes- Our friend Matt Myers won first place with a very creative alien mask made of foam spray. It was fun to catch up with some old friends.

The next morning I asked the women if they wanted to ride bikes around the island and Rashmi confessed she had not been on a bike in over 25 years so she was a little sore. She did all of that riding the day before without a single complaint and kept up with no problem. We ended up walking up the hill and touring Arch Rock, Sugarloaf, Fort Holmes, Anne's Tablet. After that it was time to buy some fudge and head to the mainland on another scary crossing. We finished our tour with a pasty and piece of pie at a great diner on US2. This was Rashmi's first pasty- she doesn't eat beef inIndia but figures the cow is only sacred there so she has tried everything here. I think she enjoyed it. It was a great trip.

This was also Rashmi's first experience with Halloween. We carved pumpkins and roasted the seeds (Rashmi seasoned them with Indian spices- cayenne and mango powder- very spicy and yummy.) On Halloween she wore my witch wig and hat to school and handed out treats to her students. In the evening she went trick or treating with Kris O'Connors boys, Sean- age 5 and Rory age- 7. It was very cold but those boys have endless energy and so does Rashmi. We finished the evening at Richard and Sarah Anderson's with some beer and pizza. I'll put some photos up on the blog soon.