My favorite photo!
Checking in with Continental in Delhi, I am delighted to learn that the airline plans for the plane to leave a half hour early in order to try to beat the developing fog. Hurray! We will actually leave on the day we planned!
We go to the Food Court in search of a…hamburger! Sarvani has been craving her meat all these weeks. Instead, though, we find a wonderful little place that makes fresh pasta dishes, offers Caesar salads, and mixes fresh fruit smoothies. Our taste buds could hardly be happier. It’s a welcomed break from three weeks of only Indian food – however much we might like it!
After standing in all the requisite lines, including Customs and Security (twice), we board. The flight to New York is smooth and uneventful, and so is the flight to Chicago. In Chicago, we indulge our taste buds with more Western fare: an Egg McMuffin for Sarvani, a pizza-style turkey sandwich for Meena, and a toasted turkey Panini for me with blue cheese and fresh basil. Yum. We even bring along a large Greek salad as we set off for Seattle where “Uncle” Jim greets us with great warmth.
A Welcome Greeting from "Uncle" Jim
After literally 42 hours of travel, we are home. Our housemate, Rosario, prepares spaghetti, and Jim and Dana, along with our neighbors, Anne and Clay, join in the meal. What a perfect homecoming.
There has been ample time for reflection throughout these weeks, these flights, and this return. Here are some of my final observations:
- The world is a smaller place than when we left.
- Travel creates global citizens. I believe we can all benefit be gaining greater understanding and comfort in other parts of the world.
- Everywhere is different, and yet the same.
- We, in the Pacific Northwest, live in a stunningly beautiful part of the world.
- We, in the U.S., take so many things for granted. Things like spaciousness, quiet, water we can drink straight from the tap, clean air that doesn’t turn our nostrils black, and trucks that regularly pick up our garbage, to name just a few.
- But still…I will no longer feel quite whole or complete without actually setting my feet on Indian soil fairly often.
- Even Sarvani now says that she would actually like to go to India every other year. (Tell me how the finances will work for that!) She feels that missing Christmas every year (which is when most of the Odissi festivals take place) would be too hard. Indeed, many times the girls have said how much they’d like to have a Christmas tree, see lights on our house, and open just one wrapped gift… We all really look forward to next Christmas at home!
- I can’t live without Indian food! Despite the girls’ desire for a break from Indian food, I’m studying our Indian cookbooks, already starting to try recipes for the dishes we like most such as channa masala (spicy chickpeas), aloo gobi (potatoes with cauliflower), various types of paneer (Indian-style cheese), South Indian cabbage, and flat breads. So far, I haven’t made anything quite as good as we had in India, but I won’t give up until I do!
- Likewise, I am determined to learn more Hindi. Although we are all so much more comfortable in India now, I believethe key to even greater comfort and independence will being language. Every word of Hindi I could speak was greeted with such a positive response and it made everything more certain and clear.
- While the trip was challenging for Meena, it was the essential beginning.
- I now see in Sarvani a strength I never knew she had.
- And…I love to blog! Look out, I might find an excuse to do more!
***
Finally, Sarvani was asked to write a narrative about her experiences as an assignment for school. It only seems fitting to close the story of our time in India with Sarvani’s own account:
INDIA
When we finally landed in Delhi I could barely walk. I hadn’t gotten up the whole 14 hours of the second flight! We were supposed to meet a friend whom we were going to visit for a few days, but we couldn’t find her! We waited for an hour or so for someone to show up. Finally my mom said we would just have to get a taxi and find a hotel somewhere close by. I was a little bit scared about going out into the unknown because once we left the safety of the airport, we weren’t allowed back in. As we were walking out, we saw a man holding a sign with our name on it. I was really relieved. As soon as we got in the car Meena jumped back out and threw up all over the ground. Eventually she felt better. We had a really nice time with our friend Ramya and her family. She has an adorable little girl that was really fun to play with. She can speak English pretty well and all she talks about is Rapunzel!
Too soon the weekend in Delhi was over and we were on our way to Bhubaneswar. This is where I would be staying for three weeks! As soon as I stepped off the plane I was shocked by how hot and humid it was. The smell outside was almost a burnt smell and the air was tinted orange. We were met in the airport by another one of the dancers. We rode with her to our hotel and got settled into our room. The room was a lot nicer then I thought it was going to me. It had two beds, a western bathroom (thank goodness) a T.V. and a balcony! When I looked out from the balcony I remember just how crowded and dirty India was. There were small garbage piles everywhere. A huge white cow with a hump on its back like a camel was eating out of one of the piles. A couple of the garbage piles were on fire which made the air smell nasty. There was a group of about six dogs and three puppies romping around. I noticed that most of the people were wearing winter jackets, gloves, scarves and a couple people were even wearing ski hats even though it was 75 degrees outside! It was pretty funny. There were motorcycles, bicycles and cars whizzing around loudly honking their horns. I watched T.V for a while and soon fell asleep.
The next morning I went to rehearsal. It was really nice to see all the other dancers since I hadn’t seen them in awhile. After only about 10 minutes of dancing I was soaked in sweat. Our dance teacher was being very hard on us. The steps had to be perfect. If not, we would get bad reviews in the paper. I think I worked harder then I’ve ever worked in my life!
At one of the rehearsals my skin started to feel tingly and raw. I didn’t really pay any attention to it until I started to also get dizzy. My mom said I had a fever and she gave me eight pills to swallow. EIGHT! I felt a little better but not good enough to dance!
I still went to some of the rehearsals after that but I didn’t dance very much. We were performing with live musicians and we had to rehearse with them. I still was feeling really sick but I knew I had to go so the musicians could rehearse their music with the dancers. About half way through the dance I started to feel really bad I ran outside and threw up into the bushes. When I came back in, the musicians and the dancers were looking at me. I was so embarrassed, I bet they all heard me puking my guts up outside…I felt a little better though so I finished the rehearsal.
I still wasn’t well by the first performance so I only did one of the dances. It went pretty well, I think! And so did the rest of the performances, except for one. I think it was the worst performance I have ever done, even though it wasn’t really my fault. I was feeling better by then though! The performance was at a temple. All the dancers rode there in a bus. It was sort of a long way away, especially in a bus. When we finally got to the temple it was dark and chilly outside. We were led into a tall tent and we sat and waited. A dog came and sat with us for a while. It was very hard not to pet him! Apparently if an Indian wild dog bites you it can be lethal! When it was finally time for us to go on stage I saw that the stage was carpeted. That wasn’t good for one of the dances we were doing. We have lit candles on small plates that we hold in each hand and a bigger brass plate that we dance on the edges of, yes…yes it does hurt very much. It was going to be very hard to do on a carpet. The first dance we did was a disaster. The musicians skipped a whole verse! Our moves didn’t match the words and our placements were all wrong but I tried to smile really big. My dance teacher said we handled it well. In the candle dance my candles went out in the first few seconds because of a fog machine. I didn’t even know there was going to be a fog machine! It didn’t really matter though because it wasn’t noticeable. It was just annoying. When Arunima saw all of my candles blown out, she almost laughed on stage! Even though that performance kind of blew up it was still kind of fun. The next performance went perfect! It got a lot of good reviews! The day after that was Christmas! We went to church. It was really different from church here! Then we went to a really nice restaurant for dinner. The next few days I just relaxed in our hotel room eating delicious food, going out to the market, and watching adventure time on T.V. Over all it was a pretty good trip and I’m glad I went.
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Thank you so much for sharing these experiences with us.
"Two international dancers give a beautiful performance." Arunima Roy and Sarvani.
sarvanidance 