From Rohan again - July 17th, 2007

Bonjour friends, Comment avez-vous?
Je vais bien aussi.

Namaste! Aap Kaise Hai?
Main achaa hoon.

I am learning 2 new languages – French and Hindi.

In Hindi, the number 1 is written as 9; the number 0 is written the same way, so 10 = 90!

I am also getting familiar with some Indian English. Here they say “giving the test” instead of “taking the test”. They also say “Hech” for the alphabet “H”. So, the spelling of the word ‘Here’ is pronounced ‘Hech-e-r-e’.

They also often repeat the same word, maybe to give it more emphasis. Little-little, one-one, and so on.

Meanwhile, my classroom experiences have been mixed. The boy who used to call me ‘D.A.B.’ also would push me with his shoulders while walking past me. I dealt with it by doing the same to him one day, and he turned around and hit me. I hit him back. Pretty soon, we were both punching at each other and the rest of my classmates got involved trying to separate us! After that, that boy never bothered me. He even hinted that he wanted to be my friend!

Another day, some kid splattered ink on my chair, and when I sat on it my white shirt and short got all stained. I told the teacher about it, and some students were punished.

And I also heard that one boy had brought his Gameboy to SCHOOL! Apparently, he had skipped his first class and went to the roof of the school to play it. Every now and then, he would peek over to see if someone saw him. As he did so, a teacher spotted him and called his parents.

I is also getting used to calling my teachers "Ma'm". Students here say "Ma'm" several times in one sentence. "Ma'm, I did not come Ma'm because my bus did not come Ma'm".
People here shake their heads when meaning 'Yes' and nod their heads when meaning 'No'. I am trying to master that perfect nod and shake. It drives my mother crazy, she can never figure out if I mean Yes or No.

School is easy. The Math curriculum had already been covered in the 4th Grade APAAS in the U.S. I spend every evening playing with my friends.









Soccer, or Football, as they call it here.

See me in that photo? This the band Aurko, that played in a small setting in a clothing showroom Indigo Nation. They called me on stage and I danced with them. You can check them out at http://www.aurko.com/

The monsoons are finally here! - July 18th, 2007

It looks like the much-awaited monsoons are finally here! Every evening, we get a downpour. See the grey hue in the air? Everything is so green, and the smell of the mud feels so fresh! The ants and snakes also crawl out of their holes, so we have to remind the children not to go to the empty lots.

And see this forlorn hawk on its nest? Or is it some other bird's nest? C took this picture from our bedroom window. The tree is on the lot next door.

I now have a cleaning woman and also someone who makes Rotis for me and chops my vegetables. On weekends, she makes Idly/Sambar/Chutney for . Got to say, that is a real treat! She also cooks some typical South Indian curries with coconut for me often. I like that!!

Finally got the telephone land line! This is after weeks of calling the Engineer-in-Charge, who would then call the Field guy, and then tell me that the telephone man would come in the afternoon. Then I would come home and wait all afternoon, and no one would up. Very typical. It is not that they are being lazy, or that they did not want to do the work. It is just that the field guys are always busy fixing problems. They are out in the field all day, fixing lines and connections, etc. Anyway, I now have my line. Hopefully, we will get DSL in a couple more weeks.

The problem is that here everything is "No problem, Ma'm. Don't worry, Ma'm. It will be taken care of, Ma'm.

I have also learnt to call everyone "Sir". "What, Sir, what happened, Sir? No one showed up, Sir. Why Sir?"

So, Ma'ms and Sirs, so much for now.