I finished off my last blog stating I was
headed to a Bollywood dance class that night. Well, for the last several weeks
my life has partially centered around Indian Classical dances instead. Deep
within the mazes of the Hyderabadi streets lies a beautiful home that has
become a place of happiness for me. These classes take place during the weekend
and sometimes during the week. Getting to know the teacher, I found she holds a
Ph.D in dance and filled me in greatly over just how symbolic many of these
dances are for the Hindu religion as well as the culture. Every movement I
learned came to mean something, including my finger positions. Basically, the
class consists of body movements, facial expressions and sign language.
Fast-forward three weeks and I've just performed in my first Indian dance show
on stage! I guess this was a larger performance than I thought it would be and
my group and I made the paper the next day. I went ahead and attached the
photos. The girls I danced with were relatively young, but I had an absolute
ball with them. They had me giggling at so many moments of class with weird
facial expressions we'd exchange or with the times we messed up moves. I often felt as though
I was a young girl again (since I'm so old).
With the rainy season having settled itself in comfortably, the mosquitoes have
come in overwhelming swarms. Let me tell you, I have turned into an itching/scratching machine. I haven't really needed my mosquito net yet, but
now, along with mosquito coils, I couldn't be more grateful for the thing.
Since I last posted I've also made two field visits for several days to more of
the tribal areas and Aranya's Permaculture farm. We planted a little over 30
mango trees with rain pouring all around us. Following the principles of
Permaculture, we insert the small plant into the ground and then go on to
pruning the trees and bushes around the forest (moringa trees, leucaena
leucocephala, etc.) and surround the little tree with this foliage. These plants will
go on to decompose and increase microbial activity that acts as both a mulch
and fertilizer. Plants such as the curry leaf tree are planted nearby which also function as natural pesticides preventing any harmful pests from destroying the mango tree. Again, this practice absolutely astonishes me in how simple-seeming
Permaculture is, but then how incredibly effective the results are. I had a
wonderful time escaping the city for a while and being surrounded by monkeys,
chai tea and the forest.
I leave in two weeks, but already I'm really so grateful to be here and to have
had this opportunity in the first place. Every once in a while I find a voice
in my head merely stating, 'I'm in India,' which kind of slaps me
in the face in a really kind way. I don't have a cell phone and I love it for
the time being. I also have limited access to chocolate so at times making the
journey to obtain a chocolate ice-cream cone is not only so worth
it, but also a major highlight of my day. When going for dinner I'm often
greeted by my neighborhood friend- a little girl with Princess Leia style
hair buns. All she says to me is "Hi aka!" (sister) and goes along on
her bike. I call her my friend because someone asked her one time, 'why don't
you ever say anything to me?' and she responded in Telugu that we knew each
other and were really good friends. Besides the fact that we have never done anything
more than smile and greet each other, I'll gladly take it. These are the small
things that make me happy which leads me to share what I recently read in Paulo
Coehlo's Like the Flowing River. The following excerpt really hits home...wherever "home" is:
'A man asked my friend Jaime Cohen: 'What is the human being's funniest
characteristic?'
Cohen said: 'Our contradictoriness. We are in such a hurry to grow up, and then
we long for our lost childhood. We make ourselves ill earning money, and then
spend all our money on getting well again. We think so much about the future
that we neglect the present, and thus experience neither the present nor the
future. We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we had never
lived.''
Philosopher Daniela over here, but I like how this reminds me to be where I am,
appreciate it and just go with it. One last thing, if you have not tried a
custard apple, put it on your bucket list NOW! It is heaven encapsulated within
a fruit.
