My Last Weeks

An Excuse…

This will be my last blog post from India.  And I know, I kind of balked for a couple weeks there with the (optimistic) weekly updates, and you fine readers deserved more than you received. Your unwavering (presumably) and enthusiastic (hopefully) readership factors greatly into my desire and ambition to actually write, even though it really do enjoy it.  It has been a great symbiotic relationship, between you and me. I have a lot of time to think and I see a lot.  And sometimes, I feel like I have a lot to say (which is true, but does not guarantee quality), which is channeled into my blog. All of it. Without much editing... The point I'm trying to make here is that I really appreciate you, whoever you are - family, friends, stalkers, lost internet folk - taking the time to actually read this, or any one of my posts.  I wouldn't say that I feel that I've shared this experience with you, but on my first post, I succinctly stated that India is fucking cool, and I hope that I have shared that with you. I hope that you are at least a percentage, a fraction, a teeny tiny bit as enthralled with India as I am.  If I have made you think at all that India may be the coolest (not literally) place in the world, then I am satisfied.  If you have enjoyed my illustration of a country of one-sixth of the world's population, the world's oldest religions, and the highest concentration of cows all over everything, then I am happy.  And, if I have, at some point, elicited a genuine "lol", well then I am just psyched.

Not that it's a good excuse, but one of the reasons that I haven't posted anything in such a long time is because, until a couple weeks ago, I haven't really been doing anything new.  For the first few weeks in Mumbai, most of the excitement was simply from living in a huge foreign city. My placements at various clinics and hospitals were interesting and just the right amount of concerning.  Commuting was a daily gamble with life and death.  Downtime was spent exploring local parts of the city or catching up on homework and other "real world" affairs.  And all the students here became friends, sharing the experiences of dealing with all of this as foreigners, as "goras," in Mumbai.

After twelve weeks here, I still feel foreign, no doubt, but only to the extent where I stick out wherever I go and I have unconsciously perfected a blank, vacant stare of non-understanding when someone appeals to me in Hindi or Marathi.  Other than that, I am surprisingly comfortable in India. I have my favorite bars, I know the train schedules, I can essentially communicate with people, and I have bought toilet paper.  You can officially claim you’ve lived somewhere when you have to buy a six pack of toilet paper.  Because that’s what this is, for the last three months, I have been living in India, and it’s become another home.

My train station

And that’s why I haven’t written in so long, because I don’t feel like writing about my daily life.  It’s not too interesting.  But, I’ve been becoming increasingly aware that this is not my permanent home and I seriously need to get Indian shit done.  So the past couple weeks have been pretty interesting and I’d love to share my last weeks in India with you.

My India

An Escape…

Matheran is hill station – essentially a retreat created by wealthy colonials to escape the heat – set on top of a plateau at 2,600 feet, surrounded by all the shit that I have obviously taken for granted in Utah:  trees, valleys, waterfalls, dirt, air that isn’t perfumed with car exhaust and garbage water.  It lies about 90 kilometers to the north of Mumbai, which is (thankfully) close enough for a train ride and far enough away to not smell.

The Monsoon Package is important to this story for two reasons.  The first is that the Monsoon Package allowed us, Jessie and I, to stay overnight in a relatively non-infested hotel for relatively cheap, and pretty much set the conditions for our trip.  I accredited everything good, bad, or otherwise to the grand idea of the Monsoon Package. The improvised dance club in our hotel?  Beer delivered straight to our room in such a secretive manner that it could only be illegal?  The jaw-dropping, magnificent, and completely refreshing vistas, almost devoid of ridiculous crowds?  The leech that managed to attach itself to my leg?  All thanks to the Monsoon Package!

The picture really can't do justice to exactly how happy I am to be
on a mountain, with grass, and clouds, and no people...

I watched this cloud engulf the mountain for a good half an hour.

The second is that the Monsoon Package is a result of the monsoon (you following?), which is in full swing here, meaning it’s pretty impossible to escape the torrential rain.  It rained the entire time we were there, which was wonderful because we were pretty committed to being muddy and wet and dirty the entire trip, and we were not disappointed.  We hiked all over that damn mountain and the evidence was everywhere on us.  Also, upon searching high and low for a way to keep our electronics, passports, and other such important stuff safe and dry, we realized that India does not have Ziplock bags.  Like, anywhere.  I know.

This isn't actually that much worse of a state
than what my feet are usually in here...

Yeah, India is beautiful as shit.  Gettin' our early morning hike on.

The following week was pretty unremarkable, except for the day that I got sick.  I made it 10.5 weeks here, in close contact with a ton of sick people, avoiding most major illnesses, and then I get the flu.  Because the monsoon season is also the flu season.  I learnt that, although being sick is a generally uncomfortable experience, being sick in a hot, humid, unfamiliar environment is even worse.  But, I guess it had to happen, and I got over it in time for my last weekend here.

An Excursion…

My last weekend was spent essentially running around, trying to do and see everything that I haven’t and wouldn’t be able to make time to do and see the following five days.  I went from the north side of Mumbai, Borivali, to the south, Colaba, and stopped in between.  I went from hiking to ancient Buddhist caves to volunteering with stray dogs to observing rectal surgeries to scouring a beach for cool seashells and rocks (because they were really cool!).  Luckily, I have pictures of most of these events (sorry guys, but I didn’t get any rectal surgery pics), so I won’t have to verbally describe everything I did.

Kanheri Buddhist caves in Sanjay Gandhi National Park

I almost look short!

Beach front at Bandra

Sanjeevani Hospital, where I hung out for six weeks

For the past few days, the last days of work, I am with the Society for the Education of the Crippled, a school for children with physical and mental disabilities, which I actually really enjoy. For instance, today we spent a few hours painting and learning Hindi, both of which I thoroughly enjoy.  I learnt that “gai” is Hindi for cow and that a cow is not a sheep.  I can’t turn down these pearls of life wisdom.

Coloring.  It is awesome.

An Ending…

So yeah, as I’m writing this, it’s Wednesday evening.  I will go back to SEC tomorrow to do more crafty stuff and say goodbye to the kids.  Friday will be spent in the city, doing last minute things and saying goodbye to Mumbai.  I leave India early Saturday morning, fly for 30 hours, and arrive in Utah late Saturday night (because I like to taunt jetlag).

I am sure that I will have another post in a few days or a week or whenever, just to update everyone on the re-immersion into real life and maybe some more pictures, but for now, I’m going to go enjoy my last hours in India.