Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut

I first blamed it on jetlag, but then after a week it couldn’t possibly be jetlag.  Then I thought it was the heat, but I learned to stay out of the heat and still felt the same.  The new work schedule perhaps, I was not used to working 9-5, six days a week?  But now it’s been 5 weeks and the feeling remains.  In any other circumstances I would have adjusted quickly, so why not here?  I’ve come to realize that once you land in India, you cannot escape it.  And maybe a gora just isn’t hard wired to keep up with it.

It’s a feeling we all have had, when your body is contempt to keep moving but your brain wants no part of the rest of the day but inevitably it has too.  There seems to be some reason to be optimistic, my brain used to quit around 2 but now it has the decency to wait until after I get off work.  I guess this is why it has taken me more than two weeks to create a second post…..

It is a sensory overload - head on a swivel, noise in the air, keep shaking off the bug that just landed on your forehead, ears desperately trying to find a quieter spot deep inside your head, don’t step in that (probably too late), and wow that really was a brick that just fell off the top of that building (I no longer use buildings for their shade against the sun, apparently it may kill you).   My brain has to process in 2 hours the same amount of information I processed in 2 days back in the states and there is no escaping it… literally, as I write this, 12:15 am, outside my window there is a pick-up cricket game with 100 students cheering every 5 minutes or so.  I can’t help but laugh, because as I sit here thinking about what follows that last sentence, there is a cricket inside my room that started chirping.  I could not make that up if I tried. 

So Eyes Wide Shut isn’t just about my subconscious not being able to deal with a full Indian day, mostly I think of it as a way to describe the things that my eyes see and just can’t figure out.  What boggles me the most? I was 4 hours into India, halfway between Delhi and Jalandhar, and my bus stopped at a Haveli (term used for mansion, but in this case it is also a popular restaurant/attraction) for restrooms and food.  I picked up some food, ate outside in the courtyard and looked for a place to dispose of my trash.  And since, as we have previously covered, the security guard watched my every bite, when I was done he quickly showed me how to throw my trash on the ground… as if there was a method.  Don’t worry about trash cans, because even if they have them, there isn’t the infrastructure to deal with it.  Well that’s not true, because there is a whole army of stray cows and dogs that deal with the trash for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  You see it everywhere. The highway has piles of trash like they are safety bumpers. Even the spiritual climb up the mountain to visit the Hindu Holy Site is littered with trash (check out the pictures).  It’s hard to grasp….People here keep their personal space clean, but seem to have no regard for cleanliness in public space, even temples.  Add these few examples to the list - men holding hands (any time of day, no matter if you are in a crowd or alone), sweeping the floor with a 2 ft long broom (so you have to bend over while sweeping with one hand), four people on a motorbike - man wearing the one helmet (wife and two kids have rubber heads? I see this a lot), politicians can outlaw the sale of alcohol for two days surrounding election days and also outlaw the sale of non-vegetarian food on any day for any reasons (this strikes me as anti-democratic, especially when I am about to watch a LSU football game). There are things you can grow to understand, and there are some you can’t. 

I hope this picture can help explain India.  We all know these speakers, the ones that are disguised as rocks so that you can hide them outdoors.  Its a nice idea right?  What's nice about it is it serves a certain utility (as a speaker) with a certain aesthetic (camouflages into a natural scene).  Whether we are conscious of it or not, designs like this "rock speaker" (aesthetics + utility) surround us everyday and we use them based on the way they were designed to be used.   Not true for most things in India.  This speaker, whose purpose is to be hidden, is elevated by a cut stone inside a locked cage next to the walkway.  It could not be in more contradiction to its design then it is here.  I see this, in so many different ways, everyday.  What is great about India is I can struggle everyday to try to make sense of existence here, and then it gives me this picture. And then I understand.

In other news, we found a house!  It’s a beautiful house, great floor plan in a nice, quiet neighborhood.  There are 5 of us moving into this house, which costs 25,000 rupees a month.  Here’s the best part about that – 5,000 rupees is $108.00.  On the other hand, it is completely unfurnished which in India means no air condition, no hot water, it needs fans, needs lights, refrigerator, needs a real good scrubbing,  and of course furniture.  Let’s just say it’s still cheap even after this added costs, but it has not been easy.  The house took us almost every day of three weeks searching for it and it’s proving almost equally frustrating to coordinate the move in.  Let me remind you of my motivation – hot showers, hot showers, hot showers, hot showers…  Don’t ever take them for granted.  The house made me realize the reason why I’m so exhausted - nothing in India comes easy.  Nothing.  Pictures of the fully furnished and inhabited house will be posted shortly… hopefully.

The title Eyes Wide Shut came to me after I was leaving one of my studios as a perfect way to describe my students.  I realize I am new at this teaching thing, I realize I need to constantly find ways to be more effective, and I also realize that there are cultural differences – we understand things differently and my Chalmette accent is a tad bit different then what they are used to – but the reality is despite all my effort the students do not meet expectations.  It’s not because they are unable to because some students do so, inconsistently, but rather it seems like a disregard for their education/future.  You can tell them and show them the same thing over and over and over again, and the next class they will bring back the wrong thing. Again.  My students went through their first big pin-up last week.  Most rose to the occasion and met expectations (maybe my numerous threats had something to do with it) but still some students simply did not care enough to complete the work on time or did so with a minimum amount of care.  What completely scares me about this situation is this:

In the United States, an architect must have completed a professional degree in architecture from an accredited university.  After his/her study, they must complete an internship broken down into specialized areas of work for nearly three years.  In addition to this internship, they must also pass 7 independent exams before becoming a licensed architect.  It’s considered impressive if a person completed this task within 5 years of graduation.  All of this, of course, costs a shit-ton.

In India, an architect must have completed a professional degree in architecture from an accredited university.  After his/her study, they must pay 500 rupees ($10.86) to process the paperwork.  They are now an Architect.

Buildings don’t change.  They have the same complexities and necessities over here as they do in the states (basically).  The only thing standing between my students who right now don’t care enough to re-do a one hour drawing and in a few years building an office tower is me.  I use that viewpoint when I grade, and why shouldn’t I?  It may seem rash but its reality.  A reality that to me, is sort of frightening.  Another addition to my work that was conveniently left out of my contract is that I am now a thesis guide for 3-fourth year students.  One year removed from my own thesis and I am the expert.  Not to be outdone, these fourth years, in their final year of their not-so-grueling study, may be lazier than my first years.  Sounds like a challenge.

CHALO, away from the dorms.  You know that feeling of sleeping on someone’s couch and living out of a bag?  Maybe you do, Maybe you don’t, but that’s exactly how I have been feeling when living on campus.  I leave my room at 8 30am and return at the earliest at 10pm.  Every moment of the day I am in a space I cannot call my own and surrounded by people.  I cannot wait to move into this house.  O yea, hot showers.

Matt

I know this is gross... but you come to the blog for the truth, right?  In India, if you step in "mess" you also need to figure out what kind of "mess" it is.  Dog? Cow? Goat? Human?  In this case..... Human.  Thanks for capturing this moment JoJo, instead of warning me of the impending doom, you focused the camera.

Sneaking a peek at what's for dinner.

Can the door be any smaller?

Trash disposal off the side of the mountain.  A man came from behind me with a metal bin full of trash and threw it over.  It tumbled down until I couldn't see it anymore..... that whole trail is full of trash thrown off the top of this mountain.

My graphics class.  They love drawing elevations in the sun.

Outside my office, constructing a new wall.  They throw handfuls of cement against the brick, and then smooth it out.  "Built it with my own two hands" takes on a whole new meaning.

The hallway outside our first review.  If it rains, the building floods. 

Christian reviewing first year projects.

Our first review.  The school doesn't have a tradition of such a formal critique.  A lot of the older students came after their class to figure out what all the noise was about.

JoJo in first year reviews.

First Year space model.

Bamboo scaffolding around a water tower.  I have no idea how they build it straight.

Riding on top of the bus into Jalandhar.

We found a snake charmer! When they ask for money with a snake, it's a pretty effective method.

Sipping coffee on the balcony, watching the neighborhood cows.