arise, awake

Why, hello again! I'm back in India - this time not to learn a language, but to work on a project. I'm going to try to keep this blog more personal and not project related (though this distinction is likely to be blurred). Nonetheless, for project stuff, see www.sindhivoices.org

After leaving Delhi last August, I was so ready not to come back that I destroyed all of my SBI (State Bank of India) documents - which unfortunately, included my atm card pin number that I cannot recall for the life of me. Anyhow, just wanted to share so you get a sense of how kind of fortuitous and unforeseen this whole year has been/will be. But things were pointing this way for a while it seems. Before leaving my mom and I cleaned out my room at and sorted through memorabilia from as far back as 1^st grade! While browsing through a survey I had filled out from 3^rd grade, my mom and I were taken aback to see that under “Future Art Project,” I had written Pakistan project?!?

I got to Delhi last week where my welcoming now inspires the title of this blog post. The Delhi airport is brand spanking new. I must admit I miss the the familiar low ceilings and that welcomed me in the middle of the night after a long flight/catch up time on new releases. In response to all of the “fancy shmancy” newness – bright lights, signs, glam duty free stores, and a car garage with labels on each column so it’s easy to find one’s card and a system where parking fees are linked to time spent at airport, my uncle, frustrated by the confusion created by it all, the time it spent to find his parked car, exclaimed, after the complications of getting his parking ticket to fit into the reader slot, “inone to foreign country bana diya hai, ham to desi log hain.”

Badal to gaya hai delhi hamara. Hamara? Maybe not? But do-tin mahine ke liye to han. Notice it more especially now that I am living in South Delhi with a friend. “Development” everywhere. How interesting is the disconnect between large scale “development”/”modernization” and the supposes beneficiaries that my uncle’s response points to.

I’ll briefly update you on my whereabouts since my arrival. On Sunday, I celebrated my birthday (in Delhi for the second time?!) with some friends. We just had some snacks in Bengali Market and went to see “Ramkali,” a Hindi adaptation of one of Brecht’s plays - not sure if the original had multiple fun music/dance sequences. Yesterday, Asiya and I, both having never gone before, finally visited Nizamuddin for Thursday night qawwali. We were there for only three qawwalis and I happened to know the second one – chhap tilak – one of my faves because it reminds me of a dear friend! Despite being quite the tourist attraction, the moments at the dargah felt movingly personal.

Tomorrow we are having a dinner party – turns out there are a small bunch of us UT vaalas in Delhi this weekend. Hook ‘em! Though I’ve never been able to get my UT grad school friends to engage in the same kind of Longhorn spirit so notable in my undergrad.