weekend update!

this weekend was kind of a random one.

first, we stayed with a couple who were friends with my roommate niranjani's parents when they lived in hyderabad for a short time. they were a really adorable couple. as usual, the wife forced food upon us. for dinner that friday night when we arrived, she got paradise chicken biryani. i'm normally veg, but for paradise biryani (a restaurant NATIONALLY known for its fabulous biryani), i'll break the diet for a day. that saturday, we drove to see the golkonda forts and tombs.

the tombs house the remains of the qutb shahi dynasti (if you recall, muhammad quli qutb shah was the same person who built charminar, so there are a lot of architectural similarities since they were all persian). the tombs were gorgeous. one of the more important ones was built at such an angle that you could hear the call to prayer: the door faced east, so when the singer faced the western wall (mecca) and recited the adhan, the echo would bounce off of the wall and it could be heard a great distance. our little impromptu guide was impressed when i could read the arabic that was written on the shawl that covered the tomb.

this tomb reminds me of the taj mahal...it's that persian architecture

our adorable guide who showed us around a couple of tombs 

the underground tomb of one of the shahs (i think it was muhammad quli qutb?)

we also saw golkonda fort which was built by an ancestor of the qutb shahis. this was to protect the city from invading mughal emperors (you're welcome for the history lesson). as with every historical site, there were tour guides offering their services for a nominal fee (150-300 rupees depending on who asked you). we said no to two of them, and the latter said "without guide, it's just rocks!" in reference to the fort. he was kind of right, honestly. but they were super cool, except for the huge number of bats that lived in the dark, humid corners :(

hahahahah we're in the bottom right corner. it's like the indian version of "where's waldo?"

after that, ON THE SAME DAY, mind you, we went to chowmahalla palace, which was the seat of the asaf jahi empire during that dynasty. the palace was absolutely beautiful, and was created with the same persian influence as the other sites we visited.

us in the reception hall of one of the palaces. check out those chandeliers...

the next day, we went with another family friend of niranjani's to the temple because it was saraswati puja (she was the goddess of arts, education, and music; so i'm hoping she can bring me blessings and luck for the next school year). we drove past MediCiti hospital to get to the temple (it was a little upwards of an HOUR AND A HALF), and it was unbelievably hot. i wanted to cry.

extreme close-up of us at the temple

the goddess, herself

later that day, we went to that auntie's house (we got back to the city after 5:00, mind you). we sat around awhile, and later we met two of her sons, one of which was a weekend salsa instructor. the other told us about a telangana festival (signifying the beginning of planting season). now THAT was a good time. we found some bacchanalian activities after driving around a bit, even at 10 in the evening. there were drunk people, dancing people, observers like us. although i did a bit of dancing with some kids we ran into. it was a lot of fun. indian people know how to get down :)

no words.

i got into that celebratory spirit :)

my new friends :D

writing it all out, this weekend was a bit of a doozy. hopefully, this weekend in delhi will be just as eventful. i know it will be :)

the big dogs (7/19/2011)

dr. p.s. reddy, the chairperson of mediciti hospital, arrived in medical yesterday (or the day before yesterday, i don't remember). it's really amusing to see people scrambling about in anticipation of his arrival. people who literally did nothing in the months he was absent are suddenly forced to play catch-up so they aren't left with egg in their faces when he asks about their progress.

tushar came into the office in a great mood yesterday because in a few hours, dr. reddy seemed to have solved the majority of the problems that have been plaguing the study for some weeks now. today, while i was doing observations of one of the exams, i saw a team of doctors and important looking people with dr. reddy and tushar at the helm: it was a proverbial "who's who" of mediciti hospital staff. tushar was showing them each of the examination rooms, and as promised, he was going to show them the bathroom after my less-than-pleasant experience yesterday.  

side-note for bathroom story: there is no water in the tank about the toilet. so after you use it, you have to fill this little plastic trashbin full of water and then dump the water into the reservoir in order to make it flush. well the floor of the toilet is nasty so it's difficult to carry a bin of water and empty it by the brim. AND, the bin had a big hole in the bottom so the bucket was really on ¾ full by the time i reached the toilet. that whole process is gross, AND THEN it just smells unpleasant. that's why i have to calculate the amount of water i can drink to stave off a dehydration headache, but then just little enough that i don't have to use the bathroom. it's difficult.

anyways, dr. reedy saw the bathroom, and apparently, he was infuriated by it. he commented along the lines of "the whole hospital looks nice and is clean, but there are corners of the building like this one that are just disgusting!" so since he came a couple of hours ago, they've been working on the toilets. and by working on, i'm pretty sure they're reconstructing them because i just saw pieces of porcelain on the floor in the little hallway by the two bathrooms. lieutenant general rao (the principal/dean of the hospital) came as well. with his baritone voice and strong military presence (and he's tall), he just commands authority. so when he was cross and disgusted at the state of the bathroom along with dr. reddy, even i was getting a little scared. i can't even imagine how the cleaning people were feeling.

it's nice to have people in high places in your corner :)

yield

this past weekend, i stayed at the guesthouse (this is the flat of someone who's associated with SHARE India, but allows us to stay there during the weekends it isn't in use). i took one of the MediCiti buses into hyderabad, and on this bus ride, i learned something about indian traffic laws.

in india, vehicles yield for:

• pedestrians (for the most part);
• oncoming traffic that's in the wrong lane (they're overtaking someone in their own lane on a two-lane road);
• cows, goats, dogs, etc.;
• and cobras.

oh, and they'll stop for a five-lane traffic jam on a two-lane road.

niqab

last sunday, i went into the city with an american friend. on the bus from one part of secunderabad to charminar, i sat next to this muslim girl who was wearing a niqab. i smiled at her, and i was surprised that she smiled back. i could tell she was smiling because of the way her ears moved.

it's the small things in life that keep us moving forward.

lemme update'cha

it's been ages (well, actually, only a week) since i've last blogged. it's been a bit slow, meaning, it's been relatively uneventful. i've been working and all that, but it's just been pretty low-key. my roles have changed a little bit and a few amusing things have happened.

so i've switched from working in the SHARE India office to working in the hospital. my boss (who i'll get to momentarily) thought that since i had knowledge about the physical examinations, i could help the study investigators practice and i could give them criticism about their mistakes. it's going well so far. i've been there for about a week. they investigators are very friendly, and they're receptive to suggestions and instruction. one of them is so cute: she's very young, and she has such an adorable little baby face that i can't imagine her being married (even though her husband came to the clinic to pick something up from her). for the rest of the week, i'll be observing three of the participants conducting each exam and helping to correct their mistakes. unfortunately, because of some obstacles we've had to overcome, the actual field work probably won't begin until after i leave india. i'm a bit bummed about that, but since it's a 5-year longitudinal study, that leaves room for me to come back to medchal and work on the study in the future.

about my boss. i had really mixed feelings initially (i'm sure i've mentioned him before). it was especially conflicting because he's so much like my dad in the sense that he's pretty friendly and easy-going outside of work, but he wants business to be conducted in a very particular way. he's pretty demanding, but not unreasonably so. i've been doing minutes for meetings, and it's been a bit of a struggle because of my inability to pay attention to meetings. but i did the minutes for this conference call between the indian investigators and pittsburgh coordinators, and he said it was "very good." i was so happy that i didn't have to go through and edit them again. i'm really enjoying this work :)

all clear(?)

from what i'm gathering from twitter and the news, there seems to be a bit of a tenuous calm for the time being. we'll see how long this lasts since the bandh lasts until the end of the day tomorrow.

news clip

"Two legislators (rebel) of TDP, Nagam Janardhan Reddy and Harishwar Reddy who had submitted their resignations to the Andhra Pradesh Legislature speaker yesterday were arrested, at the NCC gate of Osmania University by the police. This happened when they were entering the campus to visit theTSJAC and OUJAC students sitting on a hunger strike.

This triggered a sudden riot and the students charging towards the administrative building, and the police force using their batons and some in mufti throwing brickbats at the charged up students."

news clip and image from: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/9583837/content/61034706-the-clashes-erupted-as-thousands-of-people-gathered-at-osmania-university-in-hyderabad

telangana update

so. as of right now, police are reportedly firing tear gas cannisters and rubber bullets at protestors outside of osmania university in hyderabad. there seems to be a bit of a stand-off between pro-telangana supporters and the 13,000 police and paramilitary forces stationed around the city. and as usual, the civilians are the ones who will lose.

and since this morning, more MPs still have turned in their resignation letters. the situation seems to be unraveling at a fair pace. updates to come.

telangana protests

SO. basically, what's going on is that, once again, the telangana people are pissed off...again (well, still, actually).

they were promised a state by the indian government awhile ago, but the government's been wishy-washy in following through, so once again, the movement is picking up pace. congress has been basically shut down; schools and shops all over andhra pradesh are closed; buses and railways are shut down. and what's more, members of parliament are slowly resigning, bringing it to a total of about 86 or so in the past few months. before we came, it was pretty bad: there was a lot of violence and street protests, but it had since cooled off. like i said before, they staged a protest where they prepared food on the roadside, which was a big inconvenience as it made us late for the wedding. but that was just a sign of the movement picking up momentum.

what it is today is a bandh protest. "bandh" is a hindi word which means "closed," and this form of protest involves a political party of community declaring a strike. and this bandh is statewide. i've been reading about it on twitter, and while i was really considering getting rid of it, it's been really interesting to see the tweets of young people in the area reacting to these politics.

i'll definitely be sure to update you all with this stuff. this is too interesting!

respect your elders

it's funny: since i've come here, i've noticed myself becoming so much more deferent than i was in the united states. initially, it was a bit of a struggle for me to not toss out witty retorts to people since i'm so used to being able to say what i feel to my elders. now, i so easily slip into the role of sort of bowing to elders (i did that when i was meeting much older strangers at the wedding i went to a few weeks ago) and i've shed a lot of my argumentativeness. i'm turning into the elder-fearing african child i should've been. hah! kidding. but i'm just immersed in a culture where honoring elders is actually practiced rather than just suggested like it is in the US.

it's interesting the things you pick up when you go abroad...

my big fat indian wedding - 6/19/2011

i went to a wedding this morning!! one of the ones being wed was the child of a friend of mahendar and laxmi.

on the way over, we saw streamers of pink flags and people milling about on the side of the road. laxmi explained that these were protesters. a poorer group of people called the telangana people wished to separate from the wealthier andhra people (the ones who make up andhra pradesh state) and form their own state so they might get money from the federal government in order to form their own ministries and state governmentt. they had had some more disruptive protests in the past, but they were taking a different approach this time: they were cooking on the side of the road and [presumably] feeding supporters who came out to join them. that was certainly a different approach...

anyways, this wedding. we arrived an hour or so after it had started. when we got there, a priest was chanting mantras and the bride and groom were taking turns standing and sprinkling rice and water onto one another's heads. the way i describe it minimizes the importance of the practice: i'm sure that whatever they were doing was important, i just don't know what it was. mahendar encouraged me to go up and take pictures, so i stood and took some from the side. then while at the stage, a little boy told me to go ON STAGE and take some. i couldn't bring myself to do it, so he took some for me (he turned out to be the son of an important local pediatrician who also happens to be a friend of the people i'm staying with). after the mantras were over, the bride and groom sat on this little bridal throne for two (with red velvety pillows and all!) and people came by and sprinkled rice on them for luck. i participated :) the bride looked so beautiful in her ornate wedding sari with the mehendi on her hands, her beautiful jewelry, and the flowers in her hair. she looked so happy, too. 

the bride and groom took turns putting rice onto one another's heads. although it definitely bears some significance, i have no idea what it means.

the priest (with purple shawl thing) and the groom

a picture of the wedding altar...and this is a "simple" wedding!

the newlyweds on the wedding seat :)

i met the pediatrician, his wife, and some other friends of theirs. i practiced my deference and gave a little namaste bow and smile to all of them (my face was squeezed by the doctor's wife in response). there's a time and a place for brash, assertive zoe: india is very obviously not that place. immediately after the wedding, people gathered in a little outside area for what was basically an all-you-can-eat buffet of biryani, paneer, dhal, chickpea and veggie dishes, roti, curd, all of that. i could not eat more than a couple of bites. i don't think i'll actually be hungry again until tomorrow morning, i've been so stuffed full of food this weekend. but i had some paneer (which was amazing), some chickpeas (which were amazing), a gulab jammu (which was eh), and some roti. this on top of the dosas, pickle, and chutney i had only like an hour and a half earlier at breakfast. and we were all standing to eat. the women looked so gorgeous in their fancy saris, and the younger girls beautiful in their salwar kameezes. i felt a little underdressed, but my favorite blue kurta and yellow salwar bottoms at least didn't make me look out of place, at least not more so than i normally do.

after we left the wedding, we went to the local market so they could buy vegetables for the week. they got some onions, tomatoes, coriander, mangoes, pomegranates, etc. there were all kinds of produce, chicken, fish & prawns (which smelled kind of foul -- i'm curious as to its safety because there were flies buzzing all on it, and it was sitting out in the hot air), and paan (every time i see it, i think of that song from "don 2" -- khaike paan banaarasawala!)

i'm so tired. i'm not a big napper, but being out and about during the day really wears me out..i feel like a little child who needs to rest in the day. but the heat really takes the life out of you, so i'm sure it's not just me.

i had a great day, and it's not even 3PM :)

buy puffy pants - 6/18/2011

today, i met the rest of the family living upstairs. shivi's uncle's younger brother and his family (wife, father, and two children) live there. they interrogated me a little about my life as we waited for the daughter trupti (spelling?) to finish her shower so she could tell us about good places to shop. they were all very friendly.

shivi's uncle, mahendar, and i went around and did some shopping. we first went to general bazaar which was a little alley of shops that stocked just about everything you'd need like clothes (saris, kurtas, scarves, accessories, children's clothes, all of it!), furniture, some electronics, fruits, everything. it was crowded, but people still managed to ride their motorbikes through the throngs wandering through the shops. there was even an old man and his cow!

then we went to a couple of other stores and then some for chaat (a snack) at this place. i forget what it was called, but they had sandwiches and curry puffs (which i'll get to momentarily) and cakes. we had an egg puff, which was basically filo dough and a hard boiled egg in the middle. it sounds really odd, but it was quite good. mahendar kept trying to have me eat, but the puri and potato from breakfast has actually held me over for the entire day (plus, i don't think i've completely digested last night's dinner). we went to GVK mall in hyderabad afterwards. it was enormous and beautiful. we were stopped by this promotional station thing, and he sang a hindi song (quite beautifully, actually) and we were rewarded with little chocolate bars. i didn't sing...i got a little shy to sing a random song IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COUNTRY. in the mall, there was an aldo (thank god i didn't have a credit card), mango, tommy hilfiger, esprit, all kinds of western brands. but i didn't come here to buy stuff i could buy back home. i had a mission: to buy puffy pants (salwar). there was a store called fab india, and i bought three gorgeous cotton pairs in yellow, sage green-ish, and navy blue for only 1300 rupees, which is actually a great bargain since it's only about $30USD. 

after shopping, he wanted to buy me lunch which i declined again (see?! i told you they're trying to pudge me up!). but we did have some ice cream: i had mango and it was divine. and we had a nice little talk about weddings, philosophy, religion, all of that. he's a really friendly guy. i guess i didn't know how worn out i was until the car ride, because i kept on falling asleep. i swear, the heat sucks all the life out of you: the reason they eat so much is so they can stay energized.

we got back a little before five, and we had some chai and biscuits. so he's insisting i rest (which i actually could use) and then we'll go to the krishna temple after i've woken up and washed my face in an hour. [we did not go to temple because i didn't wake up from my nap hahah!]

secundrabad, pt. II - 6/17/2011

this weekend, shivani's aunt and uncle were gracious enough to have me stay at their home. i think this is her paternal aunt because i remember her dad looking like her, and i can definitely see the resemblance between shivi and her grandmother. they're very sweet: they asked questions about my studies (obviously), my research trip, what kind of food i liked (they were happy to learn i'll eat basically all south indian food), and of course, they asked me about shivi.

they all came to fetch me at around 7:00, then we went to paradise hotel (the one we were supposed to go to last weekend) for dinner. it was amazing. from the chicken 65 (a starter), to the other chicken dish with butter naan, to the actual main course (i know, right?!) which is the restaurant's specialty, the chicken biryani. i told her uncle that i was a vegetarian, but he told me i could be a vegetarian on sunday because i absolutely had to try the biryani. i did NOT regret it, it was amazing. and in typical indian fashion, they insisted upon trying to make me eat more than my stomach could honestly hold. her grandmother kept trying to have me put more lemon onto my food (which i'll actually do from now on: the sourness actually activated the flavor in the food), and her aunt & uncle kept trying to dish food onto my plate (that's that indian hospitality i wrote about earlier), and her uncle asked if i wanted ice cream after. i would've said yes if my stomach hadn't been ready to pop.

tomorrow, her aunt laxmi is working, so her uncle is going to squire me about the town and we'll go sight-seeing. i might snag some bottoms, i want some of those poofy ones: i'm tired of suffocating my calves. oh! and at dinner, her uncle told me that they'll be taking me to a wedding on sunday morning!!!! i'm so excited!! HOWEVER, i don't have wedding appropriate clothes with me, although her aunt assured me that i'll be fine. luckily, i brought that blue kurta. if i can get some black puffy pants, then i'll be presentable.

oh, i think this weekend will be a lot of fun and unless they stuff me full of food (which all signs really seem to indicate), i'll live to tell the tale.

because you had a bad day...

today started off a little rough. i didn't sleep last night (i finally went to be at 5 something this morning), and i missed breakfast this morning (they served dosas which were my favorite). then, as i was leaving the training to work on the questionnaire with dr. bala(subramanian), i forgot there was a step and hit the floor as the office boys stared on in horror and surprise (one of them, bashkir, said "are you alright, madam?" later as he was bringing in tea). i was absolutely mortified, but at least it wasn't like in the US where people just point and laugh when something happens.

i worked on reformatting the questionnaire for the MILES study today. it basically consisted of incorporating different comments into question wording, inserting a diagram, nothing to difficult. but i have tested my knowledge of microsoft word. dr. bala seemed adequately impressed.

this weekend, i'm staying with the family of my friend and fellow missouri academy alumnae, shivani. her grandmother, aunt and uncle live in hyderabad, and they were nice enough to have me this weekend. it'll be my first experience with a squat toilet, so this shall be interesting...

well, back to work!

moonwatching.

11 thirty-something: there's supposed to be a total lunar eclipse. it's supposed to be the longest and darkest lunar eclipse of the last century. it'll be visible in africa and asia, and it's supposed to begin at about 12:52 and i'll end about an hour and a half later. i was working on the minutes from the MILES staff meeting, but i think i can take a few minutes and see the "celestial phenomenon of the century" (well, that's what the news called it).
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i went outside at half past 12, rather, i stood on the little outside bit between the gate and the hostel. the guard wouldn't let me go outside (i wasn't trying to sneak out), so i sat with her and waited (she seemed interested in what i was watching when i told her that the moon would "disappear" in minutes. and surely enough, the moon bright part of the moon became smaller and smaller until finally there was only a slightly orange planetary body where the moon used to be. it was really quite cool to watch.

now unfortunately, the mosquitoes took it upon themselves to assualt me: i literally have new mosquito bites, most of which are on my left "flank" (the side of my left thigh). there are a couple on my lower left leg near my angle, one on my lower back. i'm a little baffled because i was wearing long sleeves and pants. honestly, though, it was worth it. i've now seen three eclipses (two lunar, and one solar) on three different continents (the lunar ones in maryville and here, and a solar eclipse in london when i was young). that's kind of a wild though, isn't it? :)

trouble sleeping

written at 4:37 this morning: "the fan just stopped running. this is an absolutely awful time for the power to go off. as if i couldn't already sleep.."

maybe the reason that i can't sleep is because i'm not physically tired enough to sustain deep sleep. i can fall asleep at about 10-11, but i'll wake up at 4 or 5 and it's a struggle to fall asleep again. it's not the jet lag because i've never really had trouble with jet lag before (then again, this is the farthest east i've ever gone).

today, i woke up at 4:30. i watched south park, i read my book, i tried some music, but i couldn't fall asleep. sowmya had awoken after an hour and a half, and we walked to the little temple to shiva (the four-armed hindu deity) that was at the top of this hill. the view was surreal, and to think that i've had it at my disposal all this time. i did some yoga, a little meditation, and rather than feeling calm afterwards, i felt energized. as if the energy from his frenetic dance was flowing around inside of me. that's a bit of a stretch, but i definitely felt something. since this inability to sleep past five has become a daily thing, this little hike might fit into my morning routine as well.

namaste and good morning ॐ

the shrine to the god, shiva

this picture and the next are both the amazing views i had from the top of the mountain...

pictures of our trip to charminar

the muslim quarter just a couple kilometers from charminar

charminar! it was built by sultan muhammad quli qutb shah in 1591 as a commemoration of the end of a plague epidemic that had hit the city. i got that information off of wiki, but i'm sure i could've gotten it from the tour guide who was charging 150 rupees to walk us through. but we weren't about to waste money on that.

some fruit stalls four stories below us (we took a few flights of crazy steep stairs to the top of charminar)

an alley in with loads of food, bangle, cloth, and other stalls...it's amazing how many people can fit into such a tiny area.

the mecca masjid or makkah masjid, which is just adjacent to the charminar. it's the biggest mosque in the andhra pradesh state, and one of the biggest in india. we were near it at 5:00 during the call to prayer, it was otherworldly.

my friend and travel companion, sowmya :)

the three of us (the girl with the bindi is niranjani, a coworker and pitt med school student)

this picture and the one above it were taken in two bangle stores near charminar...this area is kind of known for being bountiful in bangle stores. some of them are gold, some of them are not. so vigilance of the quality (and pricing) is of the utmost importance. i paid 50 rupees for bangles that he tried to charge 150 for: i was NOT about to be ripped off.

again...

it would appear as though i'm battling another mild bout of salmonella poisoning. sowmya ate the chicken, but not the mangoes (the poultry would be the typhoid mary, here). my stomach is still in knots from lunch on saturday. fantastic.

shopping (6/12/2011)

yesterday was the shopping day! we went to a walmart-esque superstore called big bazaar (it was a lot less trashy and china-y than walmart, though) and i bought 6 tops and 3 bottoms for about 3000 rupees, which is about $60USD, so that was a good deal. afterwards, we went to go see "x-men origins" in its opening weekend here (it opened on june 10th). and i'm not a fan of superhero movies/comic books turned movies, but i really actually enjoyed it. it went at a good pace, all of the young mutants were hotties, and most of all, the cold war-era costumes were gorgeous to look at.

we (neeranjani, a coworker of mine, and i) stayed with one of her aunts. her cooking was fantastic (i think i've already mentioned that?) and a welcome change of pace from the spicy canteen food. unfortunately, i ate too many mangoes and suffered from diarrhea for much of the weekend. when we went to see the movie, i went to the bathroom, washed my hands, walked out, and ran back in: it was THAT bad. i used my IBFAN knowledge and made myself a simply solution of sugar and water for some much needed electrolytes. unfortunately, i forgot my immodium at the hostel, so that was my first action following my return from secundrabad. never again am i traveling without that.

i'm back to the office this weekend. sorry mum, i wasn't ignoring you, i just didn't have internet access this weekend, so i couldn't blog. i meant to tell you that before i left.

anyways, back to work!

the charminar (6/11/2011)

so today, we explored hyderabad a little bit. initially, we were supposed to shop for clothes, but since it wasn't scorching hot as it normally is, we decided to do a little bit of sight-seeing. we went with sowmya's aunt and two young cousins (and when i say young, i mean 2 and 6).

first, we went to this museum that was dedicated to mughal emperor salar jung. there were artifacts of his old possessions like pictures, military uniform, pyjamas, clothing; and also that of his son and grandson the II and III, respectively. there were also entire rooms full of textiles, granite statues of deities, ivory decorations, arabic calligraphy, the artisanry of all of which was just breathtaking. on the way to the museum (when i was driving there with neeranjani from her aunt's house), we saw some people on camels which is apparently a tourist attraction. then we saw a couple more on the way back!

after that, we went to this restaurant called decca paradise (i think?) and we had a feast. we got veg manchurian, chicken kabab, butter and regular naan, paneer (this was shared between four women and the two little ones). we were stuffed. we went to the charminar afterwards. i'm not sure what its purpose was because we didn't spring for the tour guide (i was sore because he made me pay the foreigners' fee of 100 rupees as opposed to the 5 rupees that sowmya, neeranjani, and sowmya's aunt paid). we took an extremely steep winding staircase maybe three or four stories up and there we got a gorgeous view of the adjacent (across the street) mosques and shops in the muslim quarter (at least, i think we were there because there were so many muslim people as well as the fact that the signs for shops were in arabic).

we went to get ice cream at a shop nearby (i didn't get anything because the waiter FORGOT to bring me the ice cream that i ordered). then they went into the area where they sold bangles to look for some. i bought 8 of them for only 50 rupees (a little more than $1). this after the shopkeeper charged me 100-something for them, which sowmya's aunt said was unreasonable. only after i put them down and began to walk out of the store did he acquiesce to my haggle. as we went to another shop, i definitely felt my bum get grabbed. i evil eyed the boy who did it and walked the other direction, only to have him grab the other side! it was definitely a little bit infuriating and a lot sexual harassment. but there really wasn't much for me to do other than stew at what had just happened.

now, we're back at her aunt's place. i'm still full from lunch, and i'm feeling a little jet laggy tiredness, but i'll push through it and try not fall asleep. it was a good day, though, and tomorrow we're SHOPPING! :)

indian hospitality (6/10/11)

this weekend, i'm staying in secundrabad (a city very near to hyderabad) with a distant relatives of neeranjani's (her dad's such and such). unfortunately, i was not awake to greet her because my jet lag, once again, put me to sleep at an inopportune time (at about 8:00 while on the couch watching shrek with neeranjani). after she got here, we had dinner. we had idli, chapati, this bean dish that looked like zim sadza veggies (it was tasty), and another vegetable dish that looked like a cross between okra and celery (i got the sauce from it, but i'm not a fan of veggies chalk full of that fibrous sclerenchymatous texture). then after that, she insisted we have this snack which i believe is dried tapioca that's then deep-fried (that was REALLY good), and then she forced some fresh mangoes on us (which, despite being full, i couldn't too readily resist), and then tried to get us to have dessert which we both had to pass.

that's the funny thing about older people, and especially older foreign relatives: the phrase "i'm full" means little to nothing. there's ALWAYS room for more food even when you feel like a tick that's about to burst. her aunt was delighted at my appetite even though i was really too lethargic to eat too much.

tomorrow, we'll go into the city and do some shopping. i need to get a bunch of tops and bottoms that i can interchange because the western clothes i brought will only fly on the weekends. we'll probably go to the bazaar (?) because they've got some affordable ready-made stuff there, plus i hope i can find some sandalwood mala beads because the one i have back home is probably nearly ready to break.

i should get to bed since we're apparently being woken up at 6:30-7:00...on a saturday. i don't think indians subscribe to the whole notion of sleeping in, but i suppose i've gotten used to it.

good night!

the rain, pt. II

running around during a monsoon downpour? check. i'll consider this my indian baptism. 

better weather.

i feel like i'm ALWAYS talking about the weather. but today, it's so nice. it rained last night (as per usual), so it's still humid. but it's overcast and cool and windy and it feels so nice (for lack of a more eloquent phrase). i've never been so happy for cloudy weather! we (sowmya and i) were going to walk up to this hilltop shrine, but we were cutting it a bit close to the time we needed to be at work. i just want to sit out there and and feel the breeze because it was uncomfortably hot yesterday (what little sun there was was just piercing and gross).

but anyways, back to work!

not quite over my jet lag

 it's 4:40 am, and due to forces beyond my control, i'm awake. i think it started a couple of hours ago when i woke up because i thought the air conditioner was on. i could go back to bed after that, so for a while, i tried willing myself to sleep, but i suppose my meditative powers aren't strong enough as i couldn't force my mind to ease.

i guess since i'm up, i might as well make some more progress on these minutes for tushar. i'd just really like to still be asleep...
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5:14 am: i'm finished with what i can do with the minutes, so i guess i'll try going back to sleep. if that's not successful, i guess i'll read? ugh. i'm going to be exhausted tomorrow, which is upsetting because i'm really trying my best to not use jet lag as a crutch and to be as productive as possible.

the rain.

i don't hate the monsoon rains because they make everything muddy: i can dodge the small standing ponds on the road. i don't hate them because we have to dodge the frogs and tiny lizards (and the one tiny mouse we encountered) that love the rain: i think reptiles and amphibians are kind of cute (unless they've been flattened by a sandal, motorbike, or car). i detest the monsoon rains because they encourage all of these disgusting little insects out of their tiny holes and into our rooms. i was alright with the tiny fast moving ants because they're harmless and masses of them could be killed with mosquito repellent. hell, i could deal with the flying ants because they can be pretty easily squashed with my shoe. i can handle the mosquitoes because they're not foreign to me at all. what i CANNOT deal with, however, are these cockroaches. these big, fat, black flying cockroaches. i can't bring myself to kill them and they're kind of scary looking. and because i don't yet have a mosquito net, they're able to climb on my bed. i'm dealing with those in addition to the tiny, annoying, but admittedly harmless, ants that're also in here.

on another note. because i know she's reading this: dear mom, THANK YOU for this industrial strength flashlight. it's been tremendously helpful in helping me avoid small ditches and treading on tiny animals and insects when walking back from the canteen late at night. it's also unnecessarily strong: i can actually put a spotlight on a building from a couple hundred meters away (we learned this yesterday night, and were reminded again tonight when we elicited a "hey!" from within the boys' hostel when i accidentally shined a light on it). also, since the rains have started, rolling blackouts have become more frequent. today when sowmya and i were on our way to dinner, there was no power in the canteen (and of course everyone stared as we walked in because i'm probably the only one on this campus that uses an industrial strength flashlight rather than a smaller one or a the one of their cell phone).

right now, i'm having like phantom insects: it's like phantom limb only i keep imagining that their are insects on my skin and in my hair (which is not at all an unrealistic hallucination). i'm too paranoid to sleep, so i'm finishing typing what minutes i can before i listen to the meeting on tushar's iphone in the morning. i'm on my last points couple of points, so i may as well finish it up and get some sleep. fingers crossed i'm not being devoured when i wake up. AHHH! a moth just flew into my leg...this is going to be a night of extremely fitful sleep with all of these bloody insects in here. this net needs to PLEASE be up tomorrow night.

june 8th - always a day late with these

i don't feel too bad this morning. i thought i'd wake up extra early because of jet lag, but surprisingly (actually, not too surprisingly), i slept like a lump. fingers crossed i won't be extra sleepy this afternoon.

i took a shower today. normally, this isn't noteworthy, by any means, but i took an "indian shower." this basically consists of a big bucket filled with your preferred temperature of water, and a little pitcher which is used to pour water onto your body. while taking said shower, you typically assuming the position, which is basically a squat. it's actually a lot more pleasant than it sounds. the water heater for the room isn't on or it isn't working or something, so we only have cool water. if i would've taken an actual shower, my body probably would've gone into shock. but since i was able to control the amount of water that came into contact with my skin, it was more refreshing than anything.

today was also my first full day off work: i did go yesterday, but i wasn't fully utilized because i was jetlagged to a point of dysfunction. today, we had a MILES meeting. MILES is the elderly health program i talked about yesterday. i was responsible for keeping track of which participant said what in order to write up the meeting's minutes later. so i guess i've absorbed secretary-personal assistant duties or something. i mean, i'm alright with that role. it's a bit of a lot, but i can take it on.

i didn't stay at work all day today, i started falling asleep as i was listening to tushar's recording of the meeting while i was typing up the minutes so i came back to the hostel and napped for a few hours. i guess i haven't quite eluded that jet lag, but i'm getting there slowly, but surely.

food today was good. we had puri for breakfast which is like a flat, fried donut but bland to taste (like the roti/naan of breakfast food). with it, there was some sort of spicy potato curry. i liked it, but it was a bit too much fried food too early in the morning. if they serve it again, i'll just mack on some granola bars. for lunch, we skipped the canteen and had cool point, which is a little cafe thing on the hospital grounds. neeranjani (a pitt med school student-to-be) and i shared some veg noodles, which were good. and i also had an omelette: that was good, but what i thought were the same green colored beans as in the noodles were actually chilis, so it was a bit spicy.

all in all, a pretty good day. i can't complain. after all, i am in india :)

the day of my arrival (thoughts from the 7th of june)

sitting in the guesthouse:
it's honestly a little overwhelming to be in hyderabad right now, especially since i've always dreamed of traveling to india. i had a few initial reactions:
1. the heat is no joke. we got off of the plane and i was immediately beaten down by it. it was only like 5:30 when we got here, and it was already as hot as the average summer day in pittsburgh (i think it may have been 30-something celsius when we arrived, whew!)
2. the driving is just like africa. speed limits and traffic lines are, again, just a recommendation. and everyone is constantly beeping their horn. how can they even know who to be cross at when cars are coming from literally every direction? and pedestrians? they're some bold people. it's going to take me close to forever to not be afraid of crossing the road.
3. i'd sort of forgotten how religious/spiritual indians are as a nation. but the handful of roadside temples to different deities (i recognized parvati, shiva, and hanuman) quickly reminded me.
4. i was kind of surprised at the number of half constructed buildings i saw. there were some apartment buildings that didn't look all the way completed but people were clearly living there. and then just random cement structures with metal beams that were clearly a work in progress.

i'm still taking it all in...i just can't believe that i'm actually here.
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i tried to ask for food at the guesthouse, he gave me HOT chai....yeah, i'm definitely going to have to learn some telugu. i'm not going to be as tolerant or forgiving of the language barrier when i haven't eaten a filling meal in like two days.
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at the SHARE office (first day at work):
honestly, today was a bit of a struggle: i'm ridiculously jet lagged. i thought it was relatively late here, and then i remember that i've only been here for a little less than 12 hours. i napped on the couch in the SHARE office, and then i nearly fell asleep when i was meeting with tushar (a "coworker who went to pitt's med school) about my duties (more to come about that) and then with nitin desai (the administrator) about getting a phone.

speaking of duties. since i hadn't been given any particular tasks by dr. bunker, tushar (a medical student at pitt) is putting me to work. i'll be working pretty much exclusively on the MILES study, which is the old age study for which i received partial training with allison prior to my arrival. i'll officially be in charge of keeping inventory for all of the equipment that we'll be using: this includes levels for the stadiometer (what we're using to measure height), mouthpieces for spirometry (measuring lung capacity and air flow), grips for measuring strength, the whole lot. additionally, i'll be reformatting the questionnaire they're using for that study: i won't be changing any of the language, i'll just be making it easier to read and interpret. i was put on this job because i'm apparently a computer whiz (in the words of dr. bunker).

i had my first lunch at the canteen. apparently, the level of spiciness varies from day to day depending on the mood of the cooks (wonderful...), but today, it wasn't too bad. i won't say it wasn't spicy because the more i ate without drinking water, the more my mouth felt like pins and needles. but i ate more than sowmya who apparently has a lower thresh hold for spicy foods than i.

something i'm not yet used to is all of the stares that i've been getting. in swaziland and south africa, i guess i was just stared at because i look african but i have the poise and composure of someone who's not of the continent: basically, they thought i was sexy :) but here, it's a different kind of stare. it's one of like awe and wonderment. both shivi and sowmya told me it's because they've likely never seen a black person in real life before, only on TV or movies. but hey, it's fine. i'm perfectly willing to break the stereotypes that hyderabadis have towards black people.

one last thing. i knew that andhra pradesh had a lot of muslims, but i didn't realize they were so conservative. i thought they'd have their heads and arms covered and all that, but the number of abayas and niqabs i saw on the streets actually surprised me a little bit. AND THEN, in light of that conservativeness, i'm a little shocked to hear that the theaters are playing "hangover II" with all of its foul language and nudity and the like.

i guess i'll watch some shows on the computer and try to stay awake. i can't fall asleep now or else i'll be setting myself up for a terrible sleeping schedule for the next few days till my body acclimates to the 11.5 hour difference. as soon as dinner's over, though, it's bedtime.

purgatory in heathrow airport

it's really odd to travel overseas and to see people who look similar to friends you have back home. for example, there was an iPad advert that featured a boy that looked kind of like didi, it was a little strange.

the flight to heathrow was relatively uneventful (except for the paramedics coming onto the plane after an accelerated arrival to the gate to help a sick woman). i couldn't sleep initially, so i had some dinner and i was out until i had to use the bathroom, and then again until we were about to land (i even missed breakfast). london, as usual, was like stephen king horror movie foggy. normally when the plane descends, you can see a bit of the city even from a relatively high altitude. but not london. even after we flew below the cloud cover it was a bit of a struggle to see buildings until we had nearly landed.

upon arrival, i figured out where i needed to go to catch my flight to hyderabad. unfortunately, my suitcase was too big for this flight, and i had to check it in. this is exactly what i had hoped to avoid: if these baggage people steal my toilet paper, i'm finding them in rajiv ghandi airport and using their shirts as replacement charmin. i won't be negative, i'm crossing my fingers and hoping that my bags arrive like they're supposed to.

after going through security (and nearly having my water bottle thrown away), i went to eat at this little cafe called giraffe. i had scrambled eggs on focaccia, which were alright. only after i ordered them did i remember that i didn't really like restaurant-made scrambled eggs (i can only eat mine and my mother's), but some salt and pepper made them edible. the orange juice was absolutely amazing, though: it reminded me of trader joe's.

i wandered around, and enjoyed some duty-free window shopping. there was a shoe store called kurt geiger that had some reallllly cute heels. i honestly thank god i'm on a budget or i'd have purchased a pair or two. it's wild that i can be flying and shop for gucci, prada, and herve leger in my downtime (i obviously didn't buy anything).

so i'm just sitting and waiting for my flight. it's dumb that they finally show your flight on the departure screen an hour before because the C gates are 20 minutes away so you're sprinting to not miss your plane. *fingers crossed* that i'm in A, that's only 10 minutes away.

again in the airport.

one year and one day ago, i was sitting in the same dulles international airport getting ready to fly to swaziland. i'm not a believer, but i was certainly blessed to be given the opportunities to travel around our beautiful world and see what there is to see and help those i can in the process (PLEASE pardon the cliche, i'm not normally like this: i'm just excited).

this year, of course, i'm off to hyderabad. i'll have a five hour layover at heathrow after a 7 hour flight, then i arrive in hyderabad at about 5 in the morning on the 7th. after all these months of waiting, i'll finally be there. I CAN'T WAIT! :)

the countdown (part 1)

t-minus six days until i hope on a plane and leave for india. i'm finishing up this paper that dr. bunker assigned me. it's like a comparative summary in which i evaluate and compare hemoglobin levels between rural and urban/upper and lower class indians as well as their western counterparts. i think that she wants me to use PubMed, but i've been largely successful looking at data from the World Health Organization. but there have been some articles that've been useful.

i've also been doing MILES training, where i've learned spirometry (a process measuring lung capacity and the patient's ability to forcefully exhale that air), how to take blood pressure, a few different physical battery  tests. it's been interesting. i definitely appreciate nurses a lot more after the training because taking those measurements is initially difficult at first, and then seems a little tedious at worst.

the 7 day countdown has begun, and i just can't believe i'm almost gone :)