chai, garum chai

halfway between breakfast, lunch, dinner and any rumbling of hunger is a phenomenon all its own. tea time. an enduring testament to the british raj, tea is arguably the national pastime in india. chai stops punctuate long taxi journeys, hot mornings and slow long days in the classroom. at each train station throughout india chaiwallas (tea men) board the train, waking soundly sleeping passengers with their croonings, “chai, garam chai.” an offer of chai during a day of shopping creates a captive audience of consumers, awaiting their tea at the hands of storeowners, with increasingly “beautiful”, “unique”, or “perfect” goods.

at woodstock, tea time occurs promptly at 10:20 and 4:15 daily. students descend the high school ramp to the cafeteria to obtain their chai while teachers escape to the teacher’s lounge. tea time in the teacher’s lounge is an interesting world of expectation and responsibility. you see, there is a tea sign up, and twice a semester you are responsible for providing a tantalizing snack--enough to allay tensions of morning classes and sustain hunger pangs until lunch. opening the doors to candle lit trays of cookies or an empty table, void of goodies, can make or break the workday. and, we are what we contribute to the midday snack.

as this is my first tea time (student teachers are not responsible for bringing tea snacks as they are not actually real teachers [which is arguable] or grownups [not arguable, in my case]). i felt i needed to make an impression. a statement— “i am not only a capable social studies teacher, but also a domestic goddess who produces items of culinary wonder in her free time.” reminiscent of bridget jones’ aspiration toward domestic divinity, i too have met trials (a la blue soup). i entered my kitchen at approximately 6 pm, ready to cook myself a delicious dinner whilst baking tantalizing banana crumble muffins. due to mathematical miscalculation and not reading the directions (lifelong deficiencies), as welll as confusing powdered sugar for flour (i hesitate to admit this), my first batch ended up frothing over in the oven just as my pasta needed to be drained and my simmering vegetables required tending. suffice it to say, 5 hours later, my last batch of muffins is in the oven (due mainly to the fact that the oven is scarcely larger than one of the “easy bake” variety and a six-muffin tray is all that will fit inside).

despite my blunders, cheers to the british raj and the wonder that is tea time.

p.s. remember the "proper english tea" from st. olaf days of yore? yeah, well, nothing in india looks like that, but here's to a gimse photo winner.

perspective

when i returned to woodstock i moved out of king’s chambers into mount hermon. i hurriedly packed my things, shoving still-on-hangers clothes into my suitcase with household goods and books. when i moved to the bottom of my closet, i found some pants that i have never worn. i brought the pants and some unused body wash down to my ayah (maid/ housekeeper) who was working at my neighbor’s house. she hugged me and told me, “thank you my baby, thank you” and followed me back up the stairs to my apartment. her attention turned to the mostly-used shampoo and conditioner bottles in my garbage can. chondra gently burrowed in my trash to find honey, peanut butter and some other food that i had deemed past its prime. i tried to explain that the peanut butter was past its expiration date, partially trying to redeem myself for throwing it away and also trying to tell her that i didn’t want her to eat it. she opened it, smelled it, and said “tikka, tikka” (okay, okay). the half-used food and minimal amounts of shampoo and conditioner almost moved chondra to tears as she kissed my face and put her hands to my cheeks. “thank you my baby, thank you.”

i used this global village handout in class on the first day of the semester to give students a sense of how fortunate they are. we went on to discuss the responsibilities deriving from our position and educational status in the world community. i wanted to give them a sense of perspective concerning the world around us.

the global village

according to phillip harter, from stanford university school of medicine, if the earth’s population at the end of the twentieth century could have been shrunk to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would have looked something like this:

57 asians; 21 europeans; 14 from the western hemisphere, both north and south; 8 africans
52 would be femaile; 48 would be male
70 would be non-white; 30 would be white
70 would be non-christian; 30 would be christian
89 would be heterosexual; 11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 89 percent of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the US
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
(harter, 2000)

there have been times throughout my time in india when the poverty and injustice have overwhelmed me, awakening my inner parts to a sense of indescribable, almost gut-wrenching, underlying humanness. however, i have never experienced the sensation of a woman examining my trash to use what i had hastily discarded.

coming home

when you fly air india, you reenter the subcontinent at the departure gate. disorganized queues and the omnipresent feeling of craziness that is india precede actually setting foot on indian soil. returning to india, or visiting for the first time, necessitates a certain degree of acclimatization. fully confronting your mortality when crossing the street or riding in a rickshaw, overcoming the ogling eyes of indian men on street corners, struggling with immense poverty, overcoming gastrointestinal crises and remembering the erratic nature of “indian time” are all integral to living in this home.
one of the best parts about having dave here was sharing the madness and beauty of this place with someone new to india. things once routine regained their novelty. and new things were incredible, partially because, looking back, they seem like a dream. camels, with tattoo-like designs on their skin, hauling carts on the sides of the road, painted elephants walking in the busy streets of jaipur, the indescribable magnificence of the taj mahal, the sunrise from the ammer fort in jaipur and the sunset from the monsoon palace in udaipur.

i am astonished at the amount dave and i packed into this indian adventure. the highlight of our day in delhi was probably the jama masjid, the largest mosque in india and a peaceful escape from the rampant commotion in old delhi. one of the minarets at jamma masjid can be climbed (if you are a woman, you must have a man to accompany you… thanks, dave) for an incredible view of the old city and the red fort. another amazing facet of the mosque was that, among the pigeons, a few green parakeets dotted the sky. the next day we saw one of the wonders of the world and throngs of interesting tourist groups surrounding the taj.

possibly the best morning of the trip was arriving at the ammer fort early enough to see the sunrise, chatting with the priest and some others and witnessing a morning singing/chanting service at the most beautiful hindu temple i have ever seen. we were then able to tour the fort before any of the other tourists arrived. other highlights include attending a bollywood movie with no english subtitles and a cheering and jeering crowd, riding on a rickshaw propelled by dave (as a motorcyclist pulled alongside us and asked dave if he had a license), climbing up to a temple to catch the sunrise in pushkar (well, almost catching the sunrise), an incredible jain temple in ranakpur, witnessing an indian shave for the first time, tea and conversation with a menagerie of friendly indian men (that is not meant to sound so sketchy) and taking an indian cooking class in udaipur. you might notice a theme: sunrises. though i can’t believe i saying this in print, i appreciate you making me get up early, dave. there is something about that time of day, like the world is unflawed and brand new. and, when you’re in delhi (specifically), this is quite the statement. also, if you’ve haven’t seen it, may i highly recommend the james bond classic, octupussy (featuring the lake palace and other udaipur sights). the movie is aired at most rooftop restaraunts in udaipur and the sounds of the movie become the soundtrack of the city from 7-9 pm.

traveling for the past two months has impelled me to redefine my idea of home. it’s amazing to feel completely at home in new places because of the people surrounding you. cambodia with isaac and ashlee and rajasthan with dave gained a feeling of comfort, even though the places were completely new to all of us.

the morning after i dropped dave off at the airport i started my slow return to the life of a teacher/ grown up. the drive from delhi to mussoorie, 8 hours of honking, hair-raising taxi manuevers and incredible sights, reminded me of the first time i rode to woodstock in august. cole and i were so overwhelmed with the visions of india that, though we had only slept an hour or two, we could not unglue our eyes from the passing countryside. as the taxi wound up the mountain to mussoorie, i realized, not for the first time, that india has a special home in my heart. and though i can't believe i will not be with many of you for another year, india continues to draw me in. to emulate isaac arnquist, blogger extraordinaire, here are the top ten reasons that i have decided to remain in india for another year and a half…

10. the determination to become immune to bacterial infection.
9. i haven’t been in the himalayan snows yet.
8. india knows how to do the color green (countryside, mountain trees, parakeets) like no place i’ve ever seen.
7. i still don’t know how to tie a sari, levitate in yoga or drive a motorcycle.
6. to continue living in the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
5. the opportunity to travel for months at a time and fulfill my dream of being a professional traveler.
4. teachers. I have much to learn from the seasoned jedi knights at woodstock.
3. friends. how often can you simulate a college dorm at the top of a mountain halfway around the world?
2. students. it’s pretty stellar trying to teach based on global citizenship in an international school with kids from over 30 different countries.
1. when you flip a coin, you have to adhere to it’s decision.

so there you have it. i leave you with a verse from robert zimmerman, fellow minnesotan.

“well, i'm livin' in a foreign country but i'm bound to cross the line
beauty walks a razor's edge, someday i'll make it mine.
if i could only turn back the clock to when god and her were born.
"come in," she said, "i'll give you shelter from the storm."

~bob dylan, “shelter from the storm”