Ideas of Disorder in Hyderabad

I left campus yesterday afternoon with Caitlin and took a ride in the Auto Rickshaw. I prefer to call them travel by Tuk but it's a personal reason, and no one seems interested in joining me in that designation. Who cares. No one else has been riding yet. Cate was a fearless companion to be sure, buying fabric to put in her room on the wall (the walls are a bit stark and dirty), taking side trips without the slightest protest. It was funny to see the worry on her face, but she didn't acknowledge it openly and just forged ahead. Very cool.

The edge of the city was daunting. The scene was also very, well, foreign. Mostly I have to let the photographs speak for themselves, as I cannot begin to categorize how I felt about most everything here. In the simplest sense, I fall back upon the visual, and say that the color scheme here is so fascinating; it bears up under intensely saturated scenes, with color popping out of some of the most unlikely places. Joyous bursting reds and greens with gold accents and mirrors and embroidery. All the while there's the barefooted amongst the broken glass, men and women hunched over by roadside fires, or sweeping the streets and patios with twig brooms. It may be too romantic, but it's like a heaven opened up and puked all over hell, and no one knows which direction to go in.

There is the usual obvious effect of economic boom descending upon a poorer country; the tent cities, the children hustling or simply asking for money. It's the same as anywhere. The signs by the roadside tell you most often who's got the money that's being sought.

All in all, it is a fascinating trip so far, and the perturbations of ideas I have for work is actually too much. I think i began this post talking about how I would stick to what I care about the mos, the visual, instead of the social and economic. Of course, the two things cannot be separated. In terms of color and light though, this place glows. The air is thick and colors everything and this permeates the environment. The light is from a different kind of sun. The pigments are of a different kind of earth. My things carry a decidedly different palette of colors than everything born in this land, and they look different under this sun.

I don't quite have any culture shock yet, since I am only a tourist and haven't been put in any lany position where I have to do things that I wouldn't try to do at home. I am certain that will change very very shortly though. Then school will start, and I will disappear into that world.

Orion is at 12 o'clock

I arrived at the Study in India Program Guest House in Hyderabad, India at 7pm local time last night. I hadn't really slept in about 40 hours. Some strange airplane dream states. I finally slept today, during an orientation lecture. I had a dream that I had to take my orientation name badge apart, which I attempted to do during the lecture. I later napped from 4 to 8pm. I'm better, but this is still quite dreamy.

The constellation Orion hurts my neck right now. It is directly overhead. I am completely amazed and enthralled by this orientation. It's winter, and the stars are not in their usual places. I find this to be very wonderful.

I have not quite got my pictures organized with this new internet connection/wall plug charging/lack of a hard drive situation, but it's coming. Currently I am contemplating whether or not to follow the directives of the faculty who are watching over us intensely. We have been directed to stay on campus and not to venture into the city. Our house "daddy" Dipankar characterizes the state of the city as one of mourning for Janardhan Reddy, a prominent politician. However, the assistant director Kavitha warns of demonstrations and possibly rioting.

This places me in a bit of an awkward state of conflicting feelings. I have gear. I have my own desires to gather some images of the city. I also don't want to cause any trouble. Also, I don't feel an intense lack of safety here. Certainly, I am a long way from home, and in another culture and don't know crap about crap. Simply put. On the other hand, these are the images that should be gathered.

I am reminded of Marker's Sans Soleil. I want to show you the street, the festivals, the echoes of this ancient culture as it meets modernity. I want to call a taxi and take a tour of the city RIGHT AWAY! For tonight, I will most likely take my binoculars out onto the balcony next to my room and look at the stars in their new positions and contemplate my level of insubordination for the morning.

I find it odd to be here in the aftermath of a terror attack that shook up the country. It is so much like my first visit to NYC, nearly two years after the towers fell. People are shaken. They have strange fears, and predjudices that they sometimes hide, and sometimes fail to hide. Add to this a strange combination of progressive understanding about the unfairness of the caste system, with a daily, obviously unconscious, deferrence to it. There is much to contemplate here, and actually the jet lag is probably helping me be more creative as I consider the forces at work here. I am so completely far from home.

Tomorrow, there will be adapters, pictures, and I do believe a bit of intrigue. Tonight, I am going upstairs, and outside to look at my new stars. Times 10.

Word to my travel mates. There is not a single average one among them. I don't think I could be with a better group of people. Sincerely.

Departure

My plane boards for Frankfurt Germany in about 25 minutes. In a few hours my fancy red phone that has made my life simpler and easier, will be silent for a long time. I will no longer know if I should be checking my email, facebook, myspace, youtube, flickr, aa.com, orbitz.com or any other of the hundreds of alerts spread across 3 email accounts, 4 social networks and the myriad of travel points networks that I belong to. Nothing. Not a peep. Not a text. It's just a pretty little phone book/calculator now.

Oddly enough, to maintain its potential return to power still is going to cost me $5.95 a month.
My phone, it still has a lifeline. For all of my recent detachment, I still give it that. Who am I kidding? I still included my ex-girlfriend in the bulk announcement of my impending silence. The power of modern attachments and ancient attachments are strong equals.

I like airport bars. The service and the prices encourage moderation. As does the company most often . I did meet a guy in the Dallas airport once. He was talking to everybody, back in the corner of the smoking bar. We were all crushed back in the corner huffing down our addiction, eyes burning, sipping $5 cokes and $8 drinks. They knew they had us. The guy was chatting up everyone. He was friendly, and seemed sincere. Of course, as I was leaving I noticed his reach had narrowed in conversation to a very pretty blonde in a business suit. They looked cute together I thought.

Well, It's time to go to Germany. I've spared the pictures of places stateside. We're going to take a little shift now, and start looking for things that are different. See you later. Probably tomorrow morning. From Frankfurt Airport, where they will test my non-smoking resolve.

Not such an easy list after all

I usually love not having a vehicle. I don't spend any money on gas, oil, tires, insurance, car washes, and all that endless list of car ownership. That is different right now. I have arranged a trip half-way across the planet, gotten a scholarship through the State Department, and still managed not to completely fail in school (miracle on the last part). The holiday season is seriously impeding my departure from my block though. No car, soon no phone, and no internet. All I want to do is get most of this crap (which most of it is) off to Goodwill, with the remainder in my generous friend's basement.

Frustrating.

However, In four days, I'll be gone. Regardless. In eight days, I'll have plenty of money. In 10 days, I'll start school in Hyderabad. It's possible that in eight days I will be on the beach in Goa with a bunch of international college students listening to live house/dance/trance/techno performances. Whatever the case, one thing is saving me from certain madness. Winter ends in 5 days. I can only think of one other time that I have mad so many countdowns. That time is over, and as the distance grows from it, it begins to pale in comparison. Back to sweeping up, and begging for transport.

This is how it starts

I'm leaving for Hyderabad India in 7 days. I just took my first malaria prevention pill. There's still too much stuff in my house. I just met a bunch of new people that I don't want to leave, mostly because I'm afraid that they won'tbe here when I come back. Silly of course, but that is the way it goes.

I have a list today.

Step One: Remove all garbage
Step Two: Remove all clothng I won't be wearing
Step Three: Get people to come get their things that they don't want to lose to the previos o ensuing steps.

I will make it. It's an easy list.