Qajaq Dancer

Okay, it is Wednesday here in India, and the past week has been filled with some pretty good stories. I met with and connected with fascinating people, realized that my teaching is evolving in response to the culture and the students in my classes, visited previously “un-thought-of” places new to me that are centuries old, and discovered a few answers to questions I did not realize I should have been asking. At the same time, I feel like I’m falling behind on a couple of fronts, one is getting this week’s blog post done and the other is my intent to learn a little Hindi. I know there is no imperative on either count, but they have helped me anchor my perspective of time and context during this adventure. Photo taken by Sagar on our boat ride on the Yamuna River.   By the way, my definition of an adventure is when you find yourself wondering to yourself, “what the #@$% were you thinking that landed you where you are?!!” Onl...

On Sunday, I actually had the day to do as I pleased without a scheduled activity. In New York City, I have whiled away whole days without leaving my home, and prepared for bed at night realizing that I did not actively attempt to do anything. Here in India, I have had a harder time giving myself the room to not be actively pursuing something to justify “uprooting” myself to spend six months in India.  This is not to say that I don’t have plenty to do today, with classes and choreography to prepare, writing this blog, writing a blog post for Fulbright to post on their website ( http://blog.usief.org.in/Posts.aspx?PostID=2339 ), reviewing and continuing my Hindi studies (still working on identifying letters and words), reaching out to new contacts and setting up meetings, etc. However, I have come to realize that sometimes it is critical to allow “down-time” for processing information with some reflection, recording my observations and postulating next “steps”. ...

The amount of time I spend getting around in cars has been really great in getting a sense of the geography of Mumbai. It has also made me conscious of a few more things that remind me of my childhood in a tropical country. Mumbai is lush with trees and vegetation, most of which I have not seen on a regular basis since leaving Jamaica. I have no idea what the local names are, but it warms my heart to recognize breadfruit trees, poinciana trees, tropical almond trees, bougainvillea bushes, banyan trees, monstera vines, plumeria and so much more. In the USA, I doubt that I could identify one tenth of the temperate flora as compared to the tropical plants whose names have come creeping back to me, upon repeated viewing on my daily walks and car rides. At least once a week, I try to catch up with Petra in her neighborhood of Bandra, where I do occasionally teach and where a couple of other “Fulbrighters” are residing. One indicat...

What Does That Mean? In a very short time, it has become clear to me that I must perpetually be on my guard to recognize how both verbal and non-verbal language differs from that which I have grown accustomed in the USA. Hindi and words from other languages pepper the vernacular English commonly used here in Mumbai. I will have to wait until I have spent some time in Delhi before I can say which vernacular slang and usage I imagine to be specifically regional. But here I will address things I think are pretty universal around India. I have already written about words like Lakh and Crore which is indicative of Indian’s thinking literally in tens of thousands, and hundreds of millions. Four quick examples: Theek hai. Kriti. Revise. Crossword. One of the first “words” of Hindi, I was encouraged to use was “ theek hai ” (I had to look up how to spell this in a standard Roman Transliteration), and it corresponds with “okay” or “all is good” whether statement or question in English...