Indeed, it has been a trying few weeks. What with the unceasing monsoons; the eternal brokerage and leasing wars; and an disasterous attack of conjunctivitis- fever- subconjunctival-hemmorhaging (that is, me looking horrifically bloodshot and zombie-like, but-- DON'T WORRY-- in no real danger, according to mayoclinic.com), I am convinced that Delhi is testing me. CAN I HANDLE IT?
I guess so. Though I have yelled at more rickshaw drivers in the past two days (VIDESHI KA F*CKING PRICE NAHI CHAHYIE-- which roughly translates as 'I don't want your goddamn jacked-up white girl price!') than in the last month altogether. I have also watched a lot of The Office. Coping mechanisms, folks.
The Good News:
1. I have moved into an apartment!:
I am still feeling kind of ambivalent about living with foreigners, since normally I try to go all in for cultural immersion, etc. But since I'm living with a French guy (and thus get to practice my French A LOT), I think it will be a cool complement to my fully-Indian work environment. And I really like the flatmates and the beautiful flat.
I am going on a business trip! I find this spectacularly amusing. Luckily, my trusty fictional secretary Buster is on hand to manage the details, since otherwise, I would find it rather hard to stomach that today at 1:45pm it was decided that I would take a 7am flight to Mumbai/Bombay tomorrow for all day meetings Thurs-Fri. I am going to stay in Mumbai through the weekend to see a few sights and meet Jessie/Eliza's family, hopefully.
3. I can speak with an Indian accent fluently!:
YET.
With love!,
Cal
PS Jonas is busy undercover on a top secret mission. I have spoken with Buster and he assures me that she is busy with undisclosed, high-security, confidential operations but will be reporting back soon with news for us pleebs. Post is in transit somewhere or other, but meta-blogging will commence soon, hopefully with a mixed-up meta-top-ten list of her favorite Mixed-Up Files.
PPS The latest installation of pictures!!!: CHANDIGARH.
My favorite tourist site in India was actually this incredible sculpture garden called the Nek Chand Rock Garden. This guy stayed up half the night for 20 years making thousands of small sculptures with found objects and creating an incredible garden with waterfalls, fake concrete trees, and thousands of people made out of broken bracelets, car parts, etc. Chandigarh, Punjab.
Nek Chand Rock Garden. Chandigarh.
Lizard. Nek Chand Rock Garden. Chandigarh.
Jonas (Virginia) at one of her favorite sites-- the major government buildings designed by the famous French architect, Le Corbusier. Chandigarh was actually a totally planned city, designed to replace Lahore when it became part of Pakistan and the Indian part of the Punjab was without a capital city. Though 2 Americans were originally hired to design the uber-modern city, one died in a tragic plane crash and the other resigned, so Le Corbusier took up the job. It's a lot calmer than the cities down 'on the plains' (like Agra and Varanasi), but sort of dull and ugly too, if you ask me... A lot of concrete.
More of Le Corbusier's work. Chandigarh.
In person, I thought these buildings were all pretty ugly, but I think these pictures bring out how unique they actually are. To be clear, Jonas took all of these. Or maybe Buster-- the mad secretarial genius! Chandigarh.
Last architecture picture. Pretty sweet. Excellent work by Buster, as usual.
For Cool-E!
The Good News:
1. I have moved into an apartment!:
I am still feeling kind of ambivalent about living with foreigners, since normally I try to go all in for cultural immersion, etc. But since I'm living with a French guy (and thus get to practice my French A LOT), I think it will be a cool complement to my fully-Indian work environment. And I really like the flatmates and the beautiful flat.
As they say here, it's a 'very posh locality'. That basically means, quiet, green streets and lovely balconies-- a nice retreat from the Delhi madness. [For those of who you have been following the Commonwealth Games debacle (that is, those of you who read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/asia/22india.html) know that Delhi is a massive shitshow (in many respects... see my facebook photo for one example) and is making an international embarrassment of itself by trying to host a sports competition half the world hadn't heard of until they read about the rampant corruption among Games officials and lack of hygiene in the athletes' dorms.]
So, the point is, I'm going expat-style for now. It has been really, really stressful finding a place, but I think it will be worth it now that I'm getting settled.
2. I am so important!:
2. I am so important!:
I am going on a business trip! I find this spectacularly amusing. Luckily, my trusty fictional secretary Buster is on hand to manage the details, since otherwise, I would find it rather hard to stomach that today at 1:45pm it was decided that I would take a 7am flight to Mumbai/Bombay tomorrow for all day meetings Thurs-Fri. I am going to stay in Mumbai through the weekend to see a few sights and meet Jessie/Eliza's family, hopefully.
3. I can speak with an Indian accent fluently!:
This is not Hindi, of course; but helps immensely with my communication. I have also started to bobble my head more than a bobble head doll. (Subliminal messaging: You can only *hear* this Indian accent (which is basically unshakeable) and *see* this head-bobbling if you SKYPE me!) The Hindi is getting there too.
THE BAD NEWS:
1. Conjunctivitis
2. High Fever and Headache
3. Subconjunctival Hemmorhaging
Despite the strong suspicion that Roz Chast has rubber-erased my original subconscious and replaced it with hypochondriacal cartoons, I am actually recovering just fine and am thanking my stars that I don't have Dengue Fever....
THE BAD NEWS:
1. Conjunctivitis
2. High Fever and Headache
3. Subconjunctival Hemmorhaging
Despite the strong suspicion that Roz Chast has rubber-erased my original subconscious and replaced it with hypochondriacal cartoons, I am actually recovering just fine and am thanking my stars that I don't have Dengue Fever....
YET.
With love!,
Cal
PS Jonas is busy undercover on a top secret mission. I have spoken with Buster and he assures me that she is busy with undisclosed, high-security, confidential operations but will be reporting back soon with news for us pleebs. Post is in transit somewhere or other, but meta-blogging will commence soon, hopefully with a mixed-up meta-top-ten list of her favorite Mixed-Up Files.
PPS The latest installation of pictures!!!: CHANDIGARH.
My favorite tourist site in India was actually this incredible sculpture garden called the Nek Chand Rock Garden. This guy stayed up half the night for 20 years making thousands of small sculptures with found objects and creating an incredible garden with waterfalls, fake concrete trees, and thousands of people made out of broken bracelets, car parts, etc. Chandigarh, Punjab.
Nek Chand Rock Garden. Chandigarh.
Lizard. Nek Chand Rock Garden. Chandigarh.
Jonas (Virginia) at one of her favorite sites-- the major government buildings designed by the famous French architect, Le Corbusier. Chandigarh was actually a totally planned city, designed to replace Lahore when it became part of Pakistan and the Indian part of the Punjab was without a capital city. Though 2 Americans were originally hired to design the uber-modern city, one died in a tragic plane crash and the other resigned, so Le Corbusier took up the job. It's a lot calmer than the cities down 'on the plains' (like Agra and Varanasi), but sort of dull and ugly too, if you ask me... A lot of concrete.
More of Le Corbusier's work. Chandigarh.
In person, I thought these buildings were all pretty ugly, but I think these pictures bring out how unique they actually are. To be clear, Jonas took all of these. Or maybe Buster-- the mad secretarial genius! Chandigarh.
Last architecture picture. Pretty sweet. Excellent work by Buster, as usual.
For Cool-E!
Yo. I just read your whole blog, and now I really miss India. I like how we noted some of the same absurdities (e.g. honk please).
ReplyDeletePrice is "daam" fyi.
that monkey picture is what monkey pictures are all about
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you've survived with only that much of Hindi!!
ReplyDeleteI would so love to hear your Indian accent!!