CHALO!

Chalo: Hindi for “let’s go”.  Pretty sure it’s the first Hindi word I learned.

It has been one month.  I thought it would be best to wait some time, to try to digest this country (small pun intended) before I should start to put my experience into words.  Even after one month I find it challenging.  How can I explain that my life right now feels like the opposite of my life one month ago?

But first I think I should try to put some sense behind the title of this blog.  “Being Schooled” refers to the fact that I came to India to teach architecture but also because I knew India has a lot to teach me.  I want a way to document my relationship to this country and to teaching….  and to teaching in this country, which seems to be quite a different task then it would be back home.   The hope is to separate posts into two sections – one tackling India and the other architecture.  I figure it would be more successful if I didn’t victimize everyone with thoughts on architecture, give you the choice……

Now to the gora part.  My view of India being the land of opposite has everything to do with my worldview - a gora’s worldview.  It’s a simple fact that I would not have anything to write about, none of this would be so foreign to me because it’s the way 1 billion people live, if I wasn’t a gora from the other side of the world.  I don’t want to say that is ME and THEM, but in so many ways it is.  I don’t want to say that I’m treated different – both good and bad - but I am.  How could I not feel this way?   Everywhere I go I am stared at.  Take a close look at the pictures I will post – see anything?  Yea, they are all looking straight into my lens, because long before I took out that camera they were looking.  I even beginning to think that the stray dogs give me a second look.   I am one of ten Caucasians on a 35,000+ campus, and outside of campus I have yet to see one.  People approach me and ask me if I will take a picture with them… of course, I always have time for my fans –but other times people just whip out their cell phones and try to get a picture of me shoe shopping in the mall (which is also embarrassing because a size 12 shoe is unheard of India.  I could settle for an 11, but apparently Indian foots don’t grow past a 10.  Good thing I can get custom made shoes for $30.. Bad thing is I can't speak enough Hindi to have them made).  There is reason to believe that no matter how long I stayed in India, no matter how accustomed I get, I’ll always be a gora here.

A quick view of my life in India:

About two seconds away from tipping over into that "pool".  Auto Rickshaws will take you and 5 of your friends 20 km for around 50 cents a person. 

I work at a private university in the architecture department.  I teach three classes – Design Studio for First Year Students, Architectural Graphics for First Year Students and 3D Software for Third Year Students.  The university has a 6 day work week…. That is not stated in the contract, how convenient.  Although I am currently in search of off-campus housing, I live in Boys Hostel #1 on campus.  The facility has all you can endure cold showers, available 24 hours a day.  I endure about 90 seconds of it every 24 hours.  The hostel still happens to be under construction, I only wish the construction workers clocked in at 9am and out by 5pm.  I’ve been woken up at 6am and 1am.. there is no logic, so try to keep your sanity by not even trying to establish one.

I really like my job.  An old friend of mine (not just because we go way back, the man is literally old) Mr. Rodi has always told me that I would become a teacher.  I used to think he was crazy, because he is, but maybe he could see something that I didn’t at the time.  I love teaching college freshmen architecture – they have no clue what you’re talking about, they think you’re crazy, they whine and moan about everything (even a few criers), yet they show up every day and keep trying at this stuff.  Honestly it’s challenging for both of us – How do I, at 25 years old and 4 months out of architecture school, begin to reprogram the minds of 46 students to think like an architect?

I am not going to lie, I have been frustrated a lot this past month.  I usually vent for my 90 seconds in the cold shower, it’s both my therapy and my way to block out the cold.  But the greatest thing about this place, the thing that erases the frustration, are the people.  It took no time to make some great friends and I couldn’t imagine my adjustment without them.  No favor is too big, no distance is too far, and no Indian philosophy is too complex to not at least try to sit down with me and explain knowing that even after our discussion I will still ask “Yea, but why?”  I hope one day I can return the favor.

And so this seems like a logical place to wrap up the first post.  I have a lot to catch you up on from the past month, but it would be best to break it into a few posts, to keep you on the edge of your seats, right? 

The goal is at least one post a week, but take the easy step to become a follower and you can get email alerts when I put up something new.  More of the interesting details later, hope you enjoy the pics.

Matt

Monsoon clouds are intimidating.  They are clouds on a mission - these clouds did not drop any rain on us, just rolled over us as fast as a car in stripes like this one.  Days later there was flooding further north.

Corn on the cobb, directly on charcoal.  It's the most popular quick bite.

Inside the "labyrinth" market in Chandigarh.

 Checking out some food, late night in Chandigarh.

Photo by C. Klein

Chandigarh. Photo by C Klein.

Shopping in Sector 17 of Chandigarh

Eating at the Sikh Temple

Photo by C Klein, because that monkey's dad looked pissed off.  I opted out of the rabies shot before I left.

Kids outside the Hindu Temple Naina Devi.  Photo by Christie Klein

Village below the Hindu Temple Naina Devi, situated in the beginning of the Himalayas.

Where our driver dropped us off.  We climbed to the top to visit the Hindu Temple Naina Devi.