A “Typical” Day

First of all, there is no such thing as typical in India, but if there were, this is a close as it gets.

Yesterday started like every other day, I woke up to a cold room and some hot, sweet, milky chai. After a bucket bath in an equally cold room and breakfast I was off to take care of my friend’s kids so she could go over her language lesson from the previous day and prepare for the next one. It’s maybe a 3 minute walk, and this particular morning the sun was out and the fog was gone.

Passing cows and stray dogs is quite normal and not anything to be afraid of, but it still always makes me move in a state of awe. There is a dumpster along the way and often both are found eating from it, usually a dog inside and a cow outside. That was the case this morning, however, the cow had a bird attached to it’s tail, and was…hmmm, how do I say this…it was grooming the cow’s back side. The way both animals and people co-exist here is sometimes too much to understand – this is an example of such.

When I returned home early in the afternoon for lunch the ladies were all up on the terrace, so I joined them there. They immediately brought my lunch up to me and the flies proceeded to gather. We just swooshed them away, ate and then rested. The sun hasn’t been out much for the past couple of days, so when it is, they like to be up there where it’s warm (I’d say the temp inside is 60 or below, so it is nice to thaw out). Not being in a hurry to come inside (though the flies were starting to irritate me) and enjoying the sunshine, I laid down on the mat and pulled my dupatta over my face. The mother jumps up and gets a table cloth to cover me with – but it was a little too warm. I pulled the dupatta over my body like a blanket and was fly free. We all were chatting like this until we just became silent, drifing in and out. I loved listening to the sound of children playing in the distant grounds, birds, everything else that was there. I have a greater appreciation for the dupatta after this.

When I went back to watch the kids (this time so my friend could meet with her language nurterer), we were searching for some items they wanted to send home. One such thing is called snake balls (which I had learned the Urdu/Hindi term for) and knew which shop to go to. As normal, a group gathered to see what the white faced people were buying, as I stumbled through trying to explain what I waned. Someone seemed to understand and was also explaining, but the lady would shake her head and show us something else. Okay, plan B was to get help from the boy who had these items, and so off to his house we went. He was unavailable, but his older sister went with us. The shopkeeper was out, but will have them for us in a couple days.

Next on the list were bindis, so I asked her which shop I should get these at – makes my love for a Wal-Mart style store increase – nothing like one-stop shopping, something that is non-existant here. ☺ She took me down another road and stopped at a vegetable stand. ??? I was confused but then she pointed to some okra, and said, here is bhindi. What? Ha! After I explained (again) what I was looking for we all laughed, even the vegetable guy. I did end up buying some bhindi because I’d been asking for it and was told it wasn’t in season yet, so it was a little blessing in disguise. As we were walking to get the real bindi I was trying to understand what went wrong. The daughter kept telling me that they were both spelled the same, but prononunced differently, but I couldn’t tell if there was a “p” sound or a “b” sound. It wasn’t until I spoke with her older sister that it all became clear. And since it’s something the Hindu’s use, not her faith, she couldn’t imagine why I would be buying them. So, there’s my first lesson in language. I can’t wait for the others. ☺