I think I'm going Native

Everything seems brighter in the mornings. You feel happier, your surroundings also look brighter and you really do have a better perspective. I think mornings bring out the positive side for me. I didn’t even mind my new living conditions. Mind you, I will make it my own in the next coming weeks. Shopping here I come! This morning was particularly interesting. I was about to enter a whole new area of my life that I really haven’t ventured into before....the traditional Indian family.

I know it sounds strange but having grown up with just having my mum and brother around, I guess this experience I am about to explain is something very cool. I am not surprised by it in any means but it is something that popped out.
The family that are the landlords (The Kumar’s) actually live with their extended family meaning basically everyone lives together. To the foreign eye, this may seem strange but to the Indian perspective it makes complete sense. You have three floors of apartments and on each floor you can find a family. In this case, the top belonging to the grandparents, second to the Kumar’s and the first floor to the younger brother’s family. I am so used to having a nuclear family set up.
The Kumar’s are really very nice and friendly. They were shocked that as a person from the south that I could actually speak half decent Hindi. Again, this is a trend that I have noticed since I arrived in India and it has only been a couple hours! I think aunty (Mrs. Kumar) was very excited to be able to communicate to me since the last interns were all foreigners (mind you I am labelled into that same category here). The Kumar’s have two very sweet young girls. Pahlavi is in grade 9 and Mansi in Grade 6. They immediately started calling me didi (older sister). Being the youngest, I have never been called that so it made me happy. It’s a very simplistic sense of happiness really.

I am so glad to be eating home cooked Indian food! It really is a treat. Again, this sounds strange but when you travelled like I did for the last two years eating out all the time, homemade food is oh sooo good! It’s been ages since I had poori (lightly fried puffed up tortilla) and chole (chick peas...soo yummy)
I had found out the previous night that my boss Sudhir would be heading out for the next couple of days. So, after breakfast, I was escorted (really) to meet Sudhir. I think I will really enjoy working with him. Sudhir has a tremendous level of energy around him. He is very experienced having worked for 11 years with ICRC and then became the CEO of SARD in 1996. He is really one of the main voices that are encouraging India to sign the treaty to ban landmines. I think his approach to the issue is very realistic. He is focusing on uniting the different NGO’s here on rehabilitation efforts. Sadly, the plight of the survivors is quite tragic. The Indian government often does provide them with healthcare services and believes the issue of landmines is nonexistent because the Indian army has “cleared” all the landmines in India. So, most of the survivors here really are victims. They don’t even have artificial limbs or proper annual repairs for their prosthetics. After meeting Sudhir, I was really left with a sense of purpose. I felt like the child in me once again wanted to tear through all my practical ideas and say I too can save the world!

I have a funny feeling that over the next five months, I will not get used to being complimented on my Hindi or being mistaken as Punjabi. My accent is kicking in as well. Yes George, it can be funny at times. No, somebody is not going to get hurt yet and for all my Indian friends reading my blog right now, I have only one word to say to you- Surrey. I guess living in surrey for the last 12 odd years can do that to you.

Walking up the street in the sweltering heat, I really didn’t feel like wearing by yoga pants or western attire for that matter. No matter what you wear, Indians have an uncanny way of knowing that you don’t live around here. Again, girls in India don’t really walk around by themselves or live alone and I don’t think I want to make it overly easy for everyone to identify me. Apparently every Sunday, there are huge bazaars on the main street. Locals pretty much set up stalls and sell all kinds of stuff. Anything from underwear to yarn and all the sari material that you can possibly need. I have been told that the quality isn’t that great but who cares! It’s colourful and we all know how much I love color. So, after doing some quick shopping I headed back to my room to pass out.