A Breadth of Fresh Air

Many of you asked before I left for India if I was excited for the move. To this, my standard response was that I was more excited for a month or two into the trip, than I was about moving here. This Sunday, exactly one month and two weeks after arriving here, was the day I was anxiously awaiting. Finally, things seemed to click into place. For the first time I felt like I had a bit of control over the shape of my experience here and that things would become the adventurous, cultural exchange that I was hoping for.

I started Sunday much like every other day—wishing that I had more sleep. It was a bit easier getting up however, knowing that I wasn’t headed down the usual dirt road that runs along the pungent and polluted stream on my way to work. Instead, my roommate and I grabbed an auto to meet up with a group for a rafting and trekking trip organized by “The Wanderers.” I had heard about “The Wanderers” through another expat, and knew very little about the group other than that they liked the outdoors. There were a total of 15 of us, including one Grameen Foundation staffer that I met randomly here in Bangalore (small world). On the 100km journey North in an old bus, I relaxed while listening to some Ryan Adams on my ipod, and checked out the surrounding views. The scenery quickly morphed from streets crowded with cars and people to unpaved back roads interrupted by herds of cows.

After about three hours of bumpy roads that would eventually lead to an extremely sore ass, we arrived at our final destination: The Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary along the Bheemeshwari River. The river is surrounded by lush green mountains and is home to a variety of wildlife—unfortunately only the birds were out for our trip. We saw several hawks, eagles, and other smaller but equally beautiful species.

The trip was led by four Nepalese river guides who were great at entertaining us. They made up for the small size of the rapids by steering our boats into each other so that they could start splashing battles. After about 2.5 hours on the river with a few easy/moderate series of rapids, we headed back to our base where there was a great south Indian lunch awaiting us. The day finished off with a short trek to one of the mountain peeks that had some beautiful views of the river and surrounding mountains. On our way back we ran into a guy using two elephants to help with his farm work. It was cool to see and touch the elephants, but sad and frustrating to see such amazing animals chained up and being used as laborers. We got back to the base and packed up to head home. Before getting on the bus, I tasted a tamarind fruit/nut that I pulled off a nearby tree by the recommendation of our guide. It was deliciously sour and crunchy.

The trip overall was a great relief from the city, from the pollution, and from the difficulty I had been having connecting with Indians. The other “wanderers” were all extremely friendly and interesting, and we all shared a similar interest in the outdoors. There were two Indian guys that were really funny, and kept insisting that “Americans go first.” They would tell me that every time we were in line to get on the bus or get chai or food or something. They also were determined to teach me some basic Kannada phrases, despite my inability to remember them for more than 4 seconds. I’m sure it was pretty hysterical listening to me try to pronounce things. “Nina”…”No no, its pronounced Neena”…”oh okay, Nena”…”noo, its nEEEna.” Uhhh.

Anyway, “The Wanderers” do trips every weekend at all different levels of difficulty and length. I’m looking forward to using this group as a way to experience India’s wildlife and make some friends while I’m at it. Interestingly, on the ride home, I found myself searching my ipod for the few Indian songs that I have.


More cultural transitioning/learning occurred this evening when I gave Mrs. Ghosh’s “chicken stew” recipe a try. Mrs. Ghosh is the wife of the CEO of Ujjivan. She runs the NGO in charge of delivering social services to our customers. She also has quite the reputation for being an excellent cook, and rarely gives out her recipes. As one of the lucky recipients of her treasured recipes, I feel that it is critical that I perfect this recipe (or at least get it to the point that my taste buds determine it to be perfect). It didn’t come out terrible, but needless to say, I suspect it will take another dozen or so tries before I’m willing to let Mrs. Ghosh taste it.

So there you have it. My first gasps of clean air and my first steps towards cultural assimilation. Now, I’m excited to be here.