India is kind of a big deal

I was so anxious (as in standing on the gallows, not like Christmas morning) Saturday night before we came into Chennai, I seriously doubted that even half of us would make it out of there alive. I was expecting to see, pressed to the port gate the desperate and hollow eyed faces of last years semester at sea voyage students, the ones who had been swallowed by India. They would only be recognizable by their tattered SAS flag t-shirts, among the swarms of beggars, cripples, dying people, starving people, criminals and rapists straining against the fence to get their claws in us and eat our brains. Something between "Night of the Living Dead" and a Bollywood Musical. Here are some of the things we were told about India, either by officials or people who've been there before.
1. India is going to smell like a Mardi Gras port-o-potty
2. Practically every animal in India has rabies
3. Things you can get from mosquitos in India that can't be treated
a. dengue fever
b. chikungunya
4. Even getting India water on your tooth brush will give you explosive diarrhea.
5. Hepatitis, Polio, Typhoid Fever, Dysentery (and other things I only thought existed on Oregon Trail), you will probably catch one of them.
6. There's worms that get in your stomach, worms that get in your feet, and worms that get in your skin
7. Traffic is as crazy as in Vietnam only the vehicles don't weave around you, they just hit you.
8. The port security will try to demand bribes to let you back on the ship
9. The ship will be filled with immigration and customs people getting drunk and causing a ruckus.
10. You can't take taxis because they'll rob you, you can't take buses because they'll crash, you can't walk because you'll get run over, and don't ride the train because you'll get robbed.
11. You won't be able to walk a block without stepping over someone literally dying on the sidewalk.

All of this was further cemented by the article "Trying really hard to like India" which everyone should read, because it's pretty funny and very well written.

I was pretty much beside myself by the time we actually got to port.

If this was the first place you went on Semester at Sea, or the first third world port. It would probably rock your world. It's chaotic, and there's a lot of really crushing poverty and injustice. I saw some upsetting things, but I saw upsetting things in China and Hong Kong and Vietnam and Burma too. The poverty here is horrible 35% below poverty line and 50% illiteracy. The fact that people are STILL getting Polio anywhere is this world is abominable. 30,000 people die from rabies from India every year. But, India is just not that scary. It's a little scary, but not zombies scary. Don't be scared by India. But definitely drink bottled water, be liberal with the Deep Woods Off, and don't touch the monkeys. This really is good advice pretty much anywhere you go though. As for the smell, I don't know what they're talking about, it just smelled normal to me. The most egregious assault on my nostrils so far was the fish market in Ensenada Mexico. People go to the bathroom out in the open, but actually it's not all that big a deal. There's trash everywhere--true, but also there's feral goats so it evens out.

I had two big trips in India. First trip: Art of Living at the DakshinaChitra Center. Our trip got special permission to leave the ship before it was cleared. I was the first one in line and the first one to set foot in India. I made it to our motor coach and pulled back the curtains waiting to see just what was in store for me once we left the port. It was just a city. Lots of hustle and bustle, lots of shops and cars and people everywhere, but nothing crazier then New York City. I really really watched on our way out of town and we drove through a lot of city, but nothing at all scandalous. It was Sunday and we drove past St. Thomas Cathedral which is suppose to house the remains of the Apostle Thomas (Doubting Thomas) there were people coming out of church and doing Sunday sorts of things, going to the beach, taking the kids somewhere.

Our first stop was Mamallapuram, which is an ancient port town brimming over with amazing stone monuments and temples, most dating back to the first century. It was oh so hot here climbing around on the ancient rocks, and I was coming down with a cold so I don't think I fully appreciated just how amazing what I was seeing actually was. There were monkeys at Mamallapuram, the first I've encountered on the trip. I tried to give them a wide berth but these monkeys were not minding their own business. They were trying to take cokes and bottles of water away from the students, and evidently they'll take your camera away from you too if you aren't careful. There were hawkers galore following us all over the place, but they were less aggressive and had a wider variety of merchandise among them than I've encountered other places. One of the more popular items was a small set of 6 or 7 naughty Kama Sutra statuettes, which was a nice change of pace from the ratty post cards most hawkers push on you. The Pancha Rathas stop was where I saw the worst of the begging, naked children pointing at their mouths, a legless man. Horrifying. Stomach churning. Inconceivable. Yet, I have seen that sort of thing before in other ports. It in no way excuses it or makes it less shocking, but it's not something exclusive to India.

After Mamallapuram we went to the DakshinaChitra Center for our program. We received a very friendly welcome and red smear on the forehead and some tasty snacks. Our rooms were pretty basic, but had a western style toilet and a shower (mine had AC but some didn't). The DakshinaChitra is the Colonial Wiliamsburg of Southern India, authentic traditional homes from around the south were dismantled, restored and reassembled here. You can see pottery making demonstrations, basket weaving, glass blowing, etc. They have a little avenue where craftsman make and sell traditional crafts (more kama sutra here), a restaurant and a gift shop and facilities for programs like the one we were there for, Art of Living. Basically we joined a cult for a few days. A lot of the students were expecting 8 hours a day of power yoga, but it was a tiny bit of easy yoga in the mornings and meditation pretty much all the rest of the day. The guru is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, but I don't think he's THE Ravi Shankar. Though to these people he's definitely THE Ravi Shankar. He has adherents all over the world, and it was a pretty trippy experience. Half the students left after our first meditation session. The essential component to the Art of Living is this meditation where by following a rhythm on a cassette you repeatedly hyper ventilate yourself. I hallucinated a bit, had all kinds of weird memories surface, some people cried. Very weird. The second day some additional followers came and led us in some songs and dances and talked glassy eyed about the amazing loving presence of the guru. They served excellent vegetarian Indian food. Excellent. The staff was amazing, so friendly and helpful. We stayed two nights and got back to the ship pretty late the third day.

I had been feeling kind of worried about trip number two: Dalit Village Overnight. I had to be there ready to leave at 7:30AM the very next day after my transcendental experience. I was sick with a cold (Oh yeah, I was sick with a cold the whole time I was in India), exhausted, somewhat dreading the whole thing. So, for those who don't know Dalits are those formerly know as "untouchables," considered so foul by the social and religious hierarchy of India that they were considered outside the caste system all together. While, the caste system has been outlawed, officially, and discrimination based on caste in suppose to be illegal, in practice it is still a part of daily Indian life. The caste system is part of the Hindu religion, so it's very difficult considering most Indians are Hindus to essentially ban a part of the main religion that's been practiced for thousands of years. Our visit was sponsored by a program called the Bridge Educational Service Trust which is an NGO working to improve the conditions of the Dalit people. It's hard to get your head around the plight of these people as it's quite different than the racial and social discrimination we're familiar with. The Dalit people are encouraged to believe that they are in fact lowly and impure because of their unfortunate reincarnation as Dalit. Dalit's are attacked, raped, villages are burned and they believe they must accept this fate as part of their lot in life. The Bridge program works on job training and education but more than that it's aim is to improve the way the Dalit's think of themselves. To help them resist discrimination and feel they are worthy of basic human rights. Our first stop of this trip was at the Delta Training Center, a campus that primarily teaches a three year nursing curriculum to Dalit women. We were welcomed with flowers and singing and dancing and were given a brief talk about the purpose of the center and the plight of the Dalits, Though I would say it raised more questions than it really answered. One of the other programs at the center was a catering school, so our lunch was provided by the catering students. It was delicious and wonderful and included spaghetti and flan as well as many indian dishes served buffet style. After lunch we got to talk to the students who spoke enough English they could get their point across, and then we played throwball with the students. I didn't play because I was too occupied blowing my nose, but it's a game that looks exactly like volleyball except you catch the ball and throw it over the net. It was a great day, and would have been a swell experience in and of itself. But after that they loaded us up and drove us way the heck out into the country for an overnight stay in a village.

We could hear the drums and cheering well before we could see any of the commotion. When our buses got there (there were about 30 of us on three small buses) there were hundred of people playing drums and horns and dancing and cheering us. We had flowers draped around our necks and our heads anointed over and over. The buses let us off and the end of a road that went through the village and we were led by an exuberant parade through the village. Stopping every five yards to be anointed, they poured water at our feet and danced with us then we would move on. As we passed a home the women would come out and anoint our heads and the men would dance this wild exuberant dance. It took 40 minutes, at least, to get from one end of the village to the other (less than a quarter mile) where there was a stage. They had precariously wired lights along the path and the stage was brightly lit and there was a huge sound system, rented out for our visit obviously. We were given front row seats and the villagers filled in behind us. We were stopping and taking pictures, and then showing them to the villagers as we walked along. They would scream with delight when we showed them our cameras. The kids were all over us, and the women too touching our hair and grabbing our hands. This is what the experience would be like if they were going to take you up a mountain and throw you in the volcano. Kim (the library student who conned me into the trip) and I were in the back of the guest rows and the village women behind us patted us on the shoulders and touched our faces and our hair all night long. A bunch of the little boys were crawling all over us, kissing us and playing tricks on us. Every so often we would get handed a baby. The program started which was some semi-pro traditional dance and magic, lots of fire breathing and tricks with rings. Somewhere a long the way the power blew out and as we sat in the dark they got some boys to sing a song for us. While this was going on I noticed someone had climbed the electric pole and was up there in the dark rewiring things, someone came along with a giant torch and gave him a little light. He got it back on in maybe ten minutes or less, and no one was electrocuted. Then the children did dances for us which were mostly little Bollywood numbers they'd copied and rehearsed. Then they said, "ok your turn." This happens every time, and every time we get caught with our pants down and every time we bail out with the hokey pokey. Thank the lord for the hokey pokey. When your stuck in some remote village and are put on the spot to reciprocate with entertainment, bust out the hokey pokey. We did a triple encore hokey pokey, and a weak version of the Star Spangled Banner and a weaker version of Amazing Grace. I said we needed to do King of the Road (obviously, right?) but no one knew it but me.

After all this we went midway back down the village and climbed to the roof of their sort of community center. There we were led in a very pretty meditation involving little oil lamps, the point of which being, we all have a light that when joined together will light up the world. Then they said, "ok, this is where you're sleeping, good night." We unrolled our sleeping bags up on the roof and snuggled in. People were just dozing off when it started to rain, and they hustled a few of us inside, and a few went to sleep in the buses, a few stayed on the roof. I went inside and slept on the floor of the pantry with Alden, Zach Silver and the Laina (a student). I slept pretty good, actually. Probably got a pretty solid 7 hours. When we got up we marched out behind the village past the cows and goats and lined up along a little ravine with all the other villagers and had a poop and brushed our teeth. They were giving us coconut juice all night long which I think might have a bit of a laxative effect, FYI. Starting about 6:30 we had a tour of the village, we stopped at everyone's home. Mostly these were thatch roofed, dirt floor, no plumbing/electric. Some had concrete floors, a couple had power. We felt awkward and intrusive and suggested we didn't really need to go in EVERYONE'S house, but the guide said they would be offended if we went to some people's houses and not others. Kim had a polaroid and took pictures of the families in front of their homes, but ran out of film and felt horrible when people started posing for pictures. A polaroid is a great idea, but bring a TON of film. The we horsed around with the kids for awhile. More hokey pokey, london bridge's, head, shoulders, knees and toes, (by the way if anyone has any suggestions for good games like this that don't involve knowing people's names or sitting on the ground please tell me).

It suddenly started pouring rain, so we ran to the bus and were sort of unceremoniously out of there. Good thing I guess because we were all feeling heart broken to leave.

(I tried to write a little here about how that trip made me feel, but I can't seem to come up with anything that doesn't sound pukey and sentimental. This is a lack of creativity and writing skill, not a reflection on the power of the experience. I will say it was one of the most exhilarating and meaningful times of my life. I hope that you'll ask me to tell you about it when you see me in person.)

Chennai was flooding when we got back into town so I decided not to go back out. I found Mary and Kelly and Tim and Gwen Kittell and we rehashed our experiences in India. I also have talked to the Klein's and a few others. It sounds like India kicked a few asses on this trip. People who took the big trips to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Varanassi, Taj Mahal had bad bad tour guide experiences. Suppose to go to the market and end up at their buddies high end rug shop instead. Constant aggressive hawkers. 3:00AM wake ups every morning. Sweaty train rides. Certainly not everyone had that experience, but those big trip people had a time of it.

Next on the agenda is a ten day ocean stretch on our way to Egypt (it definitely looks like we're going to get to go). I'm sure I'll be chomping at the bit to get off the ship when we get there, but I'm looking forward to some routine and the comforts of my cabin for awhile.