The Delhi Show

Pictures

Hi guys!

If anyone still reads this, here is a link to my best photos from the India trip...they're scanned and are bad quality but...http://www.flickr.com/photos/michellea/

Take care!

The 12 days and the 48 hours.

June 5th 7:00AM depart Delhi for Hong Kong
June 5th 3.00PM arrive in Hong Kong
June 7th 2:55PM depart Hong Kong for Vancouver
June 7th 12:00PM arrive in Vancouver
June 7th 5.00PM depart Vancouver for Edmonton
June 7th 7:30PM arrive in Edmonton

So there’s the end of it. At least two years until I really travel again. Who knows when I’ll be back in India.

I cannot say how much I will miss it.

Lately?

Well, I like to say that not much has happened as of late but, I suppose it has. Most of it is my personal life, with a bit of work and travel mixed in. Shortly after my last blog post my close friend Annii from Brisbane moved away as her good friend from home, Sam, moved in. There is always this strange balancing act in life, hai-na? After this switch, and on the persuading of my roommates, Jen and Ethel, we spent a few weekends at the Delhi Discos dancing and sweating to Punjabi remixes.

Heat
Progressively the heat in Delhi has risen. At first it was broken with nightly showers and the then-exuberant flowers in February (spring) were overwhelmed by the purple, white and yellow best that overcame New Delhi. Old Delhi seemed content. The rain cooled spirits and brought thoughts of shortened summers. I took a trip to Jaipur at this time – another weekend. I had used the excuse that when I went through after the camel trek I hadn’t visited any of the sites. I also said I needed to shop. Sam and I triumphed over the forts, the palace, the cenotaphs, the markets, mahals and some good old non-veg cuisine. With the site-seeing, I tried to remember what I had seen 4 years ago while persuading Sam into drinking beer at a bar found the last time (in March) and constantly annoying him with a “oh, I think I remember this. We just need to walk around the corner” (Thankfully he’s aware and understanding about my complete lack of direction sense (and need to not only voice that I strongly believe that I do indeed boast a sense of direction but also my need to discuss my past experiences and provide proof that I have in fact been there before). It was a wonderful trip.

Hospital
Shortly after enjoying the decline in temperature from Jaipur to Delhi, the rains stopped. With the dry heat, my cough came back and our skin dried up. Jen became very sick after just a day of diarrhoea and had to brave a trip to a public hospital (to make matters worse she had never seen a “developing” world’s hospital and her, along with our other companions, were terrified by the “state” of things). After standing up to a nurse, icing Jen’s 104 degree fever, stopping a doctor from administering the completely wrong drug, fixing Jen’s IV, and seeing the unreached suffering in the clinic, I’m positive that I’ve made the right choice in careers (keep your fingers crossed I still feel this way in 2 years).

Work
Work slowed in productivity but not in mass as I became lazier with the heat. My “Passion and Portraits” project on photography and HIV has become a precedent and the outcomes (photographs) from both the workshop and the participants continuous efforts show me the impact I have made on these girls. My broadsheet (newsletter) “Positive Times” continues to get raves and I’ve given my colleague 2 months worth of articles so that it will still be published for the two months before the next intern comes. I had my going away party and my last meeting with the implementing(COL) and host (IPPF) organizations. I finally realize how many wonderful opportunities I was allowed in this internship. So many more then other interns I know.

Last in Delhi
The last week or so Delhi has become unbearable. In New Delhi traffic has increased as single people honk down the streets in their air conditioned Maruti/Santro/Ambassador/etc. Auto drivers lazily sleep parked under trees with their feet dangling from the backseats of their rickshaws. Shopping streets/areas have become cheaper, less busy but more hustled. Tempers come and go as the initial stab of dry heat brings out the worst in people before people detach, allowing the heat to make them indolent, idol and indifferent. Most (smart) people are staying inside. As for me, my daily walks to the near-by dhaba for lunch (chola bhutra most days) burn my skin and tug at my throat. The papers I normally bring to edit or read over on the walk are left behind as my eyes can’t adjust to the bright white of the paper and the sun.

Saying Goodbye
Sam, Julie, Mark (a new Canadian from Toronto) and I decided to go to someplace hotter but also for these less-traveled tourists the “place to go in India” – Varanasi/Benaras. I was hesitant to return again to someplace I had been not only 4 years ago but within the last 3 months. I used shopping (which I did hardly any of) and goodbyes as an excuse this time. Truthfully, the trip was ideal. Traveling on my perhaps last train ride ever in India, I enjoyed the farm and cities passing by, how the light reflects through the barred windows of the train onto the passengers, the gentle rock of the train, the loud squeal as another train passes, sitting and smiling with co-passengers somehow bonded by the at-first-glace only commonality between us – that we so happen to be sitting on the same train - and finally, the earthy taste of chai bought by strangers and held in clay cups. Our train dropped us out of the city and a friendly over-stuffed local bus offered to take us somewhere (language barriers prevented us from knowing if it was where we wanted to go). Young boys - just man enough to finally persuade the ‘conductor’ to allow them a seat - were pushed aside so that Julie and I could enjoy the smells and sites of this jammed bus (the aforementioned boys spent the majority of the trip looking longingly at their held-up former seats). An auto ride and a fair walk later (would have been less, if only the windy narrow streets of Michelle’s Memory matched the little narrow streets of the actual Varanasi) we were walking along the ghats. The weekend was spent sitting, watching, eating, wandering and sleeping. For Sam, Julie and Mark the trip meant seeing something they had never seen before, climaxed by the burning bodies at the Manikarnika Ghat. For me it meant a culmination of everything India has ever stood for to me: the annoyances, the beauty, the people, the religions, the classes, the food, the stink, the sweet smells, the divisions, the diversity, the veracity of life and death. Saying goodbye to Varanasi and that feeling that (as dramatic and passé as it may sound) sits in my heart for that city was necessary and a way of saying goodbye to India.

Next
I officially ended work last week but since my travel buddy Julie is still working I’ll be coming in until around Friday to tie up loose ends. Most of the “Shanti Niwas” (my roommates and the upstairs flat) leave late this month early next month everything seems to be floating away in the smoke. I can almost hear the noise of the page turning. (haha, do you think I could use one more cliché’d euphemism??) Anyway, I will most likely give up my mobile phone either this Friday or on the 4th so I’ll be unreachable by phone but I’ll continue to check my email. I look forward to seeing you guys. WCB crew send me an email and we’ll figure out a date for lunch. Calgary folks, I’ll be down for July 1st at the latest...if anyone knows of a great bright quiet 2 room apartment for rent as of August 31st tell me. Edmonton people, I’ll see you guys as soon as I sleep off some jet leg. Let’s plan for the 8th, 9th, 10th ish?

Take care.

Love,

B.N.

Hey guys. So I’m officially in the nursing program. That’s right, I am going to become a nurse after all. It’s a great program only 20months for people like me that already have a university degree. The other news is that I will be flying back to Canada earlier then expected (most likely sometime in the first week of June).
I don’t know how I’m going to leave India. I really don’t. The only thing that I’m really looking forward to in Canada is all my family and friends, can’t wait. (oh yah and I’m looking forward to salad, soya nuts, sunflower seeds, beef) Anyway, I wanted to send out a general request for stuff from India. I don’t have much room in my backpack but if there’s anything special you want –tell me! Otherwise, you know how horrible I am at buying souvenirs, don’t be hurt if I don’t bring anything back for you.

Love you all

Michelle