New North: Orient-ation, Maps, and Week 1 in the Eastern Hemisphere

It has officially been 1 full week since I first touched down in Mumbai. This week has seen:
(the village life for Indian cattle is a good one.)

1. A narrow escape from a corrupt airport taxi man.
2. A big favor from a good-hearted airport taxi man.
3. A full day of sleep.
4. Innumerable delicious Indian dishes and cups of chai.
5. Meeting 29 exhausted, jet-lagged American’s.
6. 2 painfully slow bus rides.
7. Street dogs, street puppies, street cats, street cattle, street bats.
8. 3 temples of Lord Ganesha.
9. 1 bag full of dirty laundry (washing)
10. 1 very Happy Birthday to our new friend Jessa!

(The lodge!)

We arrived in Durshet for our orientation, a rural ‘forest lodge’ that came through on all its promises. It was beautiful, peaceful, the beds were huge and the mattresses, paper thin, and our adventure with the bucket shower officially began. My wonderful and lovely roommates (Sarah, Stef, and Lenny (AKA Ellen)) and I dumped our stuff before lunch, cooked by fabulous Indian women (who would later teach us traditional indoor games, which all the squatting-based ones I was terrible at, though I did find some success at a seed-tossing game).

(Street Puppies!)

Over the following three days, we drank chai at 6:30am on the porch and it made us insanely happy. We did morning yoga, which was more of a work out than I’m willing to admit. We got to know our program staff and each other. We ate a lot. We watched a wonderfully dramatic and goofy Bollywood movie called 3 Idiots. We played our first ever game of cricket (which is a startling fun game). We trekked to a village and learned how to fetch water from the well and carry it on our heads and how to grind rice and make flour. We learned some Marathi and some Hindi.

(The roommates on the swing, Lenny, Sarah, Stef, and me.)

Of course, we also talked a lot about what lies ahead for us in Pune. We talked about cultural norms, about dressing and speaking and how to not offend people with your feet (don’t point them at people, don’t touch things or people with them, if you do accidentally, apologize profusely). We talked about culture shock (ah the dreaded words!) and about talking to rickshaw drivers and your host family and children on the street. We talked through our fears of sexual violence. We talked about staying healthy and the fact that we will all (at one point or another) be sick.

(Rianna grinds rice into rice flour in the village!)

The word “Orientation” originates from the fact that East use to be at the top of maps, thus a compass or a map ‘orients’ or ‘points East’. In an interesting way, this was the most orienting orientation I’ve ever received, because in those three days, we tried to pick our Western lives up, spin them around the axis of culture and language and norms and climate and understanding, and turn them East.

(Breakfast chai! Thank goodness for jet-lag, or we would have never woken up to drink this elixir.)

One of the most memorable conversations (though there was probably at least one with everyone I met) I had this week was with Stef in front of a map. We talked about regional definitions and the way maps are distorted and why North being on top is arbitrary. Having moved in with my wonderful host parents, struggling through unpacking, lessons from my Baba (dad) on laundry, fruit bats in the trees beyond the terrace, Marathi, and how to make chai, I know that the transition couldn’t possibly happen so fast, that the swinging compass that is my life is slowing down and will settle soon (hopefully, God (and Lord Ganesha) willing) on a new North. Until then, I suppose I will just have to keep swimming.

(Stef, Len, and I, post-welcoming and with flowers from the Dean and registrar of the institute where we study, Pune at last!)