India-bound

It’s been busy ’round these parts of late. Added to the demanding life of this lazy academic and enthusiastic amateur photographer this week was the news that I will be heading to India in late August to teach Buddhist Philosophy in the Antioch Education Abroad program.

I’m a bit speechless about the whole thing, so I’m not sure if it’s quite sunk in. But I have begun studying Hindi and plan a full Bollywood immersion at some point in the summer, and I am downloading maps and what-not to familiarize myself with Mother India. I’ll be based in Bodh Gaya, which is relatively close to Patna, which is to the north, and between Varanasi to the west and Kolkata (Calcutta) to the east. But ‘relatively close’ here means several hours by car, which makes perfect sense to anyone raised in Montana.

One of the things that I’ve been told to prepare for, mentally, is the utter poverty, often just blocks from well-to-do neighborhoods. Likewise the filth in the streets, including no small share of human and other animal excrement. But, while only time will tell, I do have a feeling that I’ll do okay there. I lived in a relatively poor neighborhood in London, sandwiched between the affluent and quaint Greenwich Village and Peckham, one of England’s most violent places. In Shanghai and Xi’an China last year, one of the first things that greeted us was the musty smell of urine wafting from many alleys. Come to think of it, the entrance to my flat in London was an alley, where I was greeted many-a-time by a drunken individual leaning against a wall peeing. So I’ll be prepared for that smell – but from the sounds of things, it gets worse… much worse (think Slumdog Millionaire).

Of course, of all the people I’ve talked to who have been there, only one said that overall he didn’t like it. The rest, at least a dozen or so, had nothing but praise for the country.

A few photos from my friend SJ, who went in 2007 to our friend Soorjya’s wedding in Kolkata (we all met during studies in Bristol, ’04-’05). I was supposed to go as well, but got snagged in VISA bureaucracy – I wound up not getting my VISA until a week after I was to depart – so the joke now is to make sure I get my VISA early.

Beautifully colored fishing nets.