As Muitas Pessoas

Caste system? WTF?

I understand the part where we are supposed to integrate into the stratified social system but I REFUSE to treat anyone less than a human being. If I did buy into the I AM AMERICAN HEAR ME ROAR role, then I would be trying to get cooking staff fired because the authentic Indian food is too spicy (I'm talking to you Steve from Michigan!)

But keeping in check with my moral system, I have been chattin' it up with the cleaning ladies for our dorm rooms. (That's right kids, study abroad and you don't have to clean your own room!)

And we have been gabbin like old ladies in a knitting club about food and family. However, we are only speaking in Kannada and with the 11 words or so I know I might have told her that I have 2 kids and that I'm married. Well, technically I am married but that's another post. ;) Sorry boys, the Hot Chocolate is off the market.

Speaking of marriage.... Random picture time!

 

But out of all the interactions I've had here with the other students and faculty, the two cleaning ladies, their names escape me as always, have taught me more about their culture than any 20-page lecture on historical Indian architecture ever could.

The thing is that despite having a grasp on other languages that couldn't get me out of an airport, high anxiety in most mundane situations, and a general disdain for over interaction with strangers, I have never felt more comfortable with people I don't know than when I am traveling, traveling alone more so.

I do enjoy the comforts of being in a group while abroad, but I always look forward to those moments when I can walk up and down the streets a little ahead of the rest of the Americans so I can just blend. There are not any preconceived notions of what I am, I am just another person in the world being in the world.

Family and friends are some of the most valuable things on the planet, but even they are at fault of taking away that special feeling of joy that can be derived from just being. Judgement is always the most painful when it is received from a loved one.

It just seems that most people I know back home don't really understand me, despite the lack of a language barrier - I think it's because my first language is nonsense.   It just seems easier to picture myself in these small scale situations with a more humble group of people rather than trying to fit into the masses. 

But in the grand scheme of things it does not matter what others think because we are all gonna die I guess. Wow that was morbid. I giggled when someone farted in Yoga today. Did that make it better? Good. :)