I wish I were a boy for 2 hours

Hey everyone,

Time for an update. Today is holi, one of India's biggest holidays, and I am not participating. Why? Basically because I am a girl. Holi is a holiday in which Indian MEN take to the streets and have color fights, here in Jaipur with colored water. They are drunk and in many cases on lots of drugs, and women are therefore advised against joining in these festivities because they WILL be assaulted, raped, abducted, etc. This, of course, is not something I want, so I am not participating. The boys in the program are going (or are there now) to the old city and participating in all the fun, but women are to stay behind closed doors for their own safety. This holiday really highlights why it sucks to be a woman in India. Incredible sexual repression and rigid gender inequalities make it so women would actually be in danger simply being in public today. We were even told not to take rickshaws to and from different places. For some, holi can be a family holiday, but mine does not play. And my impression from talking to the other people in my program is that their families don't either. For the boys, that's fine, they can go to the old city, but for the rest of us, it's sort of lame. I feel like I'm missing out on a really incredible cultural experience. On the other hand, I am starting to understand the culture a bit better in terms of gender and sex, so I guess that's something. I hate to dwell on this, since it isn't really productive, but I can't help being really angry/upset at the situation. On the other hand, I did some cool stuff yesterday. I went to an elephant festival in the city for holi, saw one of the traditional bonefires, and saw a hindi movie with my family. The elephant festival was both really cool to see and really interesting to observe as someone here studying culture and development. The packaging and presentation of Indian/Rajasthani culture for the hoards of tourists and Indians alike was somewhat cheesy. It emphasized some traditional elements of the culture but made it brighter and more exciting for us all. There was traditional dancing, an decorated elephant contest, and elephant rides. The marching band, as my friend Ella observed, played a loose and somewhat discordant melody which somehow worked together. Functional but not functional. So India. Going to the movie was also an interesting experience. First of all, we went to a mall to see the movie, which looked incredibly American on the one hand, but was really Indian on the other hand. While it was multi-leveled, clean, and had high ceilings, it also was void of huge chain stores and instead had small, individual stores. It was like taking the individual vendors out of the market and giving them their own little venue in this mall. Definitely an Indian style mall. Also, you buy tickets for specific seats, and the movie had an intermission. Totally different. The movie that we saw was called Dev D, recommended to my host father by his students from the course he taught for the last three weeks in Amdebad (spell check where r u?!?). It was a story about love gained and lost, and the misery entailed by the lost part. There were tons of scenes of the main character drinking and doing drugs, and after awhile I felt as though I got the point. In reality, I would say that a good half hour or forty five minutes could have been cut out of the movie and I STILL would have gotten its point. No such luck. Also, people talked unabashedly throughout the movie and even answered their phones. My family hardly noticed. I certainly did. Today, we will be having a family gathering at my host father's family's house. Family affairs are certainly a part of holi celebrations, so I'm at least experiencing that part.

Rewind to last weekend. Went to see the Taj Mahal. It was unsurprisingly spectacular and beautiful. Seeing pictures and seeing the real thing are leaps and bounds different. It's hard to pintpoint how you feel when you see this incredible monument of love and experience the nuances of its architecture. We played hackey sack there also, which is ridiculous and awesome. Ill put up pics of this later. The only thing about the trip which really sucked is that we got ripped off and scammed for money. After specifically not hiring a guide at another site, someone started talked to us about the place, claiming to be doing it out of religious faith, and then pressured us aggressively for money at the end of his "tour." I tried as hard as I could to walk away, but it was incredibly awkward. I probably should have known what would happen, but I was unsurprisingly naive.
I have to go get ready for my family gathering so I'll just say one last thing. I have decided for my independent study to research track two diplomacy between India and Pakistan and how it has been affected by 26/11. I will be living in Delhi, maybe alone, and am really nervous. If it turns out that I would have to live alone, I'll probably opt for a host family, but regardless of this, I'm really nervous about conduct my own field work. I have to do all of these interviews, and I'm really unfamiliar with that format of research and am worried that I wont actually be able to find contacts/set up these interviews. Any input from SIT alumni would be helpful.

Firme lenge!
Mimi