My Foray into the South

            So I’m sorry for not writing for a while. It’s been a lot of wonderful traveling. I’d love to write about Goa and Mumbai, but a lot of that was just Peter and I lying around on the beach. Suffice to say that we had an amazing time; but there wasn’t much site seeing. We did walk around the southern side of Mumbai for a bit. That was the part that the British largely inhabited and there are a lot of colonial era buildings. I always have very mixed feelings about being in areas where the British had a strong presence. On the one hand, the buildings remind me of my home. On the other hand, it is a reminder of colonization. I really enjoyed Goa and Mumbai. They were much easier than the areas in which I’m currently living and working.

            Goa is a perfect beach area, with the exception of the huge amount of aging European tourists there. The sands are completely white and fine. The Arabian Sea is probably the warmest ocean in which I’ve ever swum. Peter really enjoyed it and I think it was a good vacation for both of us. Similarly, Mumbai was busy but much easier than Delhi or other large cities. I saw women walking around at night, way past the time that I see women walking around Delhi. There was a lot of traffic in Mumbai as well, but people were generally less aggressive than in Northern Indian cities.

            I spent only four days in Dehradun before going to Kerala for the Fulbright Conference. Kerala is completely different from any other part of India that I’ve been in. It is green and humid, but very well organized and people move much more slowly than in anywhere else. Kerala is also a communist state and does very well in literacy and other human development markers. I was surprised at how many people spoke English.

            The conference was amazing. It was so wonderful to hear about everyone’s research and commiserate over difficulties that we’re all have with our studies. My research was well received and I feel ready to go back and collect some more data for my project. Mostly, it was such a relief to be able to communicate with other native English speakers. More and more I feel that there is a distance between myself and the fluent English speakers that I meet in India. It’s amazing how much culture affects one’s ability to communicate. I also feel like I have to keep back a lot of the emotions that I feel, because I don’t want to come off like I don’t like or respect India. Therefore, it was great to get the chance to express myself openly among so many other young people living and working in India.

            The conference was held in a five star hotel. It was pretty nice, although it was very shocking for me to go from my work in Uttarakhand to this amazing hotel in Kochi, Kerala. After the conference a large group of the student researchers used a houseboat to travel around the Kerala backwaters. The backwaters were bigger than I expected. I know that there are smaller canals, but houseboats can’t get through them. The larger backwaters were very green and although they were hot, it felt much less hot than the plains area that I’ve experience in north India.

            The houseboat was nicer than most hotels that I’ve stayed in on my own in India. But we saw other houseboats that were decorated as if all the furniture and interior decorations came from Pottery Barn. It was a relief to be able to interact with people outside of the conference and just talk about our experiences and perceptions of our work and the world around us. We were also joined by two girls who are doing their Fulbrights in Tajikistan (the conference was for all of South and Central Asia.) Hearing about Tajikistan emphasized just how similar India is to America in many ways. Tajikistan is not a democracy, 50% of its GDP comes from the drug trade, and if you’re a white woman people either assume that you’re a missionary or a Russian prostitute. I immensely respected their work and perseverance, but it also made me very happy to be working in India.

            A smaller group of us branched off after the houseboat and decided to go to Munnar, which is a hilly region of Kerala. We took a ferry to the town that we thought had the closest direct bus to Munnar. Turns out we could have gotten one from where our houseboat was. Regardless, I really enjoyed the ferry. In terms of comfort, it was not as nice as the houseboat. But I saw much more of Keralan life and wildlife. There were a large number of egrets, ducks, cormorants and some other birds that I had never seen before. The ferry went by a huge number of bright green rice fields and people’s houses, which were nestled right at the edge of the canal.

            After a day of traveling, we got to Munnar. I can’t say much for the town of Munnar itself, but the tea plantations around it were beautiful as were the hills. We were unable to go to a wildlife sanctuary nearby, because it is the dry season and most animals have left that area. I loved seeing a different culture in South India. There are a lot of Christians in South India and many of the churches and shrines look very similar to Hindu temples and shrines. I saw many figures of Jesus that were positioned like Krishna.

            Hiking around Munnar was a nice rest from the intense heat of the backwaters and it was interesting to see a different type of hilly terrain. Instead of pine trees and devdars, these hills were covered with palm trees and other verdant, big leaved plants. There are a huge number of palm trees in Kerala. It is no wonder that “toddy”—the local moonshine is made from palm tree sap. I tried toddy and I have to say that fermented sap is about as delicious as it sounds.

            We spent about a day-and-half in Munnar and then traveled back to Kochi. Our hotel was in the Fort Kochi area, which is right by the water and a lot of old things, so of course it was also very touristy. I don’t think I’ve ever been around so many white people who are not affiliated with Fulbright since I came to India. I have to say, that I really did like Kochi. It is very laid back and people are generally very nice. The only problem is that it is nearly impossible to get a drink. Everything closes by 10 or 10:30. One night we ended up taking our Tuborg bottles of beer to the beach, which was much nicer than sitting in a bar anyway.

            Holi is the festival of colors in India, when people throw colored powders on each other as well as water. It was March 8^th and we thought that we had missed it. But it turned out that people celebrated a second Holi on Sunday, because it was the weekend. Our Munnar group met up with a group who had stayed around Kochi and we headed over to a temple where we had been told that Holi would take place. The “Holi play” mostly consisted of children and their parents, so it was a very safe environment. Us being white, where a natural target for little children to throw colors on. So we ended up considerably more saturated in color than most of the other participants. It was a much better experience than I anticipated it to be. Some of my friends had warned me that Holi can be an excuse for drunken men to try to rub color on you. But it was only families as this small celebration. This was probably due to the fact that Holi is not really celebrated in Kerala.

            The nice thing about being in Kochi was that it exposed me to South India. South India is generally better developed and slower paced than North India. Now I can understand why all of my South Indian friends at the Wildlife Institute talk about missing their homes so much. Many things that I would not have done in North India, I did in Kerala without any problem. This included going to the beach at night, playing Holi, and walking around at night with three other women. Some of my friends even wore tank tops and shorts and they were not harassed once. Of course, people do stare. But that is largely to be expected. It seemed to be heaven for my friend Hillary who is based in Tajikistan.

            Well, now I’m back in Dehradun and I had about two days to adjust before going back to the field. I’m very excited to start my fieldwork again. Seeing Peter and going to the conference really rejuvenated me. I feel more confident about my work, although my Hindi has vastly deteriorated after spending so much time around other Americans. I will be going to a lower altitude area about two hours away from Joshimath. I’ve been told that the wildflowers will be blooming now, so I’m excited for that. Dr. Uniyal also earnestly warned me that I need to be in the house by dusk, because the area that I’m going has a “leopard problem.” For the first time since coming to India, I don’t want to argue, “American women stay out after dark.”