Back in the USA

So I have been a blogging delinquent the past month. I returned back to Oregon on July 1 in time to celebrate America's independence.

The culture shock was expected, as it's usually worse coming from East to West than West to East. I still try to walk to the left of people on the street, and I was handing things to people with my right hand for weeks. But other than that, I was ready to be home soaking up the Oregon sun minus the KTM humidity, and eating my fill of organic veggies and berries (as opposed to Carbofest 2011 that was four months of daal bhat - don't get me wrong, I loved it, but 8 kilos later, it was getting a bit out of control).

Now the agenda is to fundraise like mad for The Kumari Project, and return to Nepal in January of 2012 to implement some of the programming we are developing now.

To contribute, please visit: http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Kumari-Project
To learn more about The Kumari Project, visit: www.kumariproject.org

This will be my last post for a while, except I might continue to blog about wonderful eateries and drinkeries (aka bars) in the great northwest as I come across them.

These are a few of my favorite things

TRAINS

One of my favorite moments of the entire Mumbai trip was the day we got on our first train. We were extremely punctual, and decided to wait for our train for an hour under the shade at one end of the platform. When the train finally rolled in, we grabbed our bags and walked alongside the train trying to find our car, labeled S-3. Unfortunately, we had camped out around S-14, so we had a bit of a walk.

We had each just been given a fresh liter of cold water to take on the train with us, and we were dragging our bags and our bottles along. We had just passed the car labeled S-5, when the train started moving. It started rolling slowly at first, but then we realized it was speeding up...a lot. From there it was everyone for herself.

I started to run to the first door I could find. I hopped onto the train pretty easily, but my suitcase and my arm were still hanging out the door. I didn't have enough strength to pull my luggage (and I'd even managed to pack light - quite a feat for me) into the train, so I had to jump off and try again...as the train began to speed up. I had to break into a full on run and in the process chucked my water bottle over my shoulder and to the ground. I held my bag up into the doorway of the train and hoped someone would pull it in if I yelled, "Take. Bag. Take. Bag" loud enough. But nope...some lady sitting in the hallway just stared at me. 

Thank god an angel of a man told someone to take my bag in Hindi (key!) and literally pushed me on to the train.

The next step was to make sure everyone else had made it! Yep! More water bottles were lost in the boarding process, which we started to feel desperately at about hour two of the trip, but all in all, it was quite exciting - I'd always wanted to run for a train before :) 

---

KULFI 

My Gujurati friend living in Mumbai met me after a long day of touring NGOs in Bbay, and took me with his girlfriend to see the city. We saw the Queen's Necklace all lit up and beautiful and then retreated to the car and Kulfi Center when it started to rain. I had soooooo much kulfi, and it was so delish, and I wanted to go back the next day, and I still dream about it. My fav flav was def malai. 

They are coming...

So more on Mumbai travels soon, but for now. 

The newest NINJA ZOMBIES trailer was just released. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t97T1LZTSrY&feature=channel_video_title

From KTM to Delhi

A quick word: Took a seven hour ride in a sumo (basically a jeep) to Hetauda in the south of Nepal. Then another three hour sumo ride across the Nepal to India border.Very easy already to see how girls can be trafficked from Nepal to India. They don't stop you if you look Nepali because Nepal and India have an open border - you don't need to get a VISA to go back and forth from one country to another. Our driver wouldn't even stop despite half the people in the jeep yelling at him because he thought we were all Nepali, so we had to take a rickshaw back to the border and get my passport stamped - oh, and the VISA worked - yay! Oh, then we hopped into a sumo for another hour or so from the border to a train station in India.

India is beautiful. I don't know what I expected, but it's gorgeous. A friend just left to motorbike from KTM down through India. I thought he was crazy, but now I see the appeal. I got to experience maybe the next best, which was the train! I was dreading it a little...okay, a lot! As everyone I talked to, asked incredulously why I wasn't flying. We aren't flying because the INGO funding our trip wants to keep its costs down, understandably. However, the train was AWESOME. We took over a little section of the car (as per our reservations, which no one else apparently had), and had plenty of room. The heat wasn't even a problem as long as you come to terms with just being sweaty 24/7 (but KTM summers already prepared me for that), because they had fans going the whole time and the windows open as we cruised through the countryside. Oh, and the greatest thing is that it was really clean...as any place would be if you just throw all the waste (including human waste) right out of the train as it goes.

India is made up of a ton of farmland. Again, I probably should have known this, but I didn't really expect it. It seemed to me a mix between the flat American Midwest mixed with the lifestyle and farming techniques (with a bit better technology perhaps) of the farmers on the hillsides of Nepal. And seeing the farms brought a whole new understanding of Vandana Shiva's Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Read it if you haven't!

Well, that wasn't as quick as I'd anticipated, but now we are in Delhi for the day to meet with a few NGOs and go shopping with a former HimRights employee who just started working for an Indian NGO here.

Love/Hate

I think I already am developing a love/hate relationship with India. 

I went to the Indian VISA Service Center to get a tourist VISA for my trip to Mumbai this month. They made me fill out a form and told me to return five days later. I showed up on the designated day, and they didn't want to issue me a VISA because they couldn't find a blank page on my passport (because the one blank page was stamped by the Indian immigration officer when I literally walked from the Delhi airport international terminal to the domestic terminal). I was about to poo in my pants because I was so upset...but I convinced them to do it on the last page of the passport which already had text printed on it...and I got one! 

So now, I'm thinking, I have a VISA what can they do...oh right, they just not let me into the country. Darn. Well, we'll see how it goes. I leave tomorrow at the crack of dawn to drive to the border to Nepal and hop on an un-airconditioned train car to Mumbai via Delhi. Awesome.

Trekking Photos: Mountain Views

Finally some photos!
More to come too if I get time before my travels to Mumbai.

A typical trekking trail on the way to Everest Base Camp. I literally ran this trail (when it was flat and downhill) on the last day from Namche to Lukla. (When it was uphill, I crawled.)

Namche Bazaar. Nestled into the mountainside.

Namche Bazaar: The Thamel equivalent of the Everest region.
Everything is either flown in and/or trekked here, but they have everything.

You can even get your pentys laundered.

A trail above Namche on the way deeper into the Himalayans.

EVEREST! it's the one right in the center that is partially obstructed by clouds :) But we saw it! It's funny, but it's not really the most impressive mountain to look at.

Tengboche Monastery - where my mom and stepdad got married.

The view from Tengboche

My favorite mountain on the right:  Aama Dablam

An early morning climb with my incredible Norwegian trekking companions and our fearless guide, Babu.

The highest we got (we didn't go all the way to basecamp) was Dingboche at about 4300m. You can see how the landscape changes - barren and flat - at just about 4000m. There were even patches of what reminded of the Alaskan tundra. 

A very photogenic yak.

I think this is my favorite photo from the trek: prayer flags and sunrise in the mountains.

 

One of my favorite mountains...of course I don't know what it's called.

A Shameless Call for Followers

I greatly greatly appreciate my five friendly followers :), but just in case anyone is reading this blog, and would like to publicly follow it, the author would be very appreciative. So appreciative that she would send you a postcard from the country she resides in at the time that you join as a follower (she will also send postcards to the current fab five if they so desire).

Also, for those who have been long time fans, look forward to real life photos in the not too distant.

Buddhist Musings

I have been working my way (slowly) through Thich Naht Hahn's The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. I got through quite a bit trekking, which was lovely, but have still not finished it.

One passage struck me in particular:

"At the base of our views are our perceptions (samjna)...The Buddha advised us not to be fooled by what we perceive. He told Subhuti, "Where there is perception, there is deception." The Buddha also taught on many occassions that most of our perceptions are erroneous and that most of our suffering comes from wrong perceptions. We have to ask ourselves again and again, "Am I sure?" Until we see clearly, our wrong perceptions will prevent us from having Right View.

To perceive means to perceive something. We believe that the object of our perception is outside of the subject, but that is not correct. When we perceive the moon, the moon is us. When we smile to our friend, our friend is also us, because she is the object of our perception...Perception means the coming into existence of the perceiver and the perceived...It is impossible to have a subject without an object. It is impossible to remove one and retain the other.

The source of our perception, our way of seeing, lies in our store consciousness. If ten people look at a cloud, there will be ten different perceptions of it. Whether it is perceived as a dog, a hammer, or a coat depends on our mind - our sadness, our memories, our anger. Our perceptions carry with them all the errors of subjectivity. Then we praise, blame, condemn, or complain depending on our perceptions...Whether we are happy or we suffer depends largely on our perceptions. It is important to look deeply at our perceptions and know their source.

We have an idea of happiness. We believe that only certain conditions will make us happy. But it is often our very idea of happiness that prevents us from being happy. We have to look deeply into our perceptions in order to become free of them. Then, what has been a perception becomes an insight...This is neither perception nor non-perception. It is a clear vision, seeing things are they are."

Buggies Redux

Sooooooooo time for round two of bug updates.

Last night I was at a favorite bar in the area at the weekly young ex-pat gathering, and a cockroach ran straight over my hand and behind the seat. Sorta freaked me out.

However, I have become more and more tolerant of the bugs that inevitably come with the heat of summers in Nepal.

For instance, yesterday I spread my newly cleaned sheet on my bed and saw a dead, dried bug of some kind crushed up on it and didn't freak out.

I have also noticed a bug or two hanging out in the prayer flags hanging on my window and several spiders  and ants crawling around the walls, including the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen (not tarantula size, but still very large) near my dresser without screaming (too loud :)).

Street Smarts

A terrifying thing happened about a while ago in my neighborhood. After a night out in the touristy area of Kathmandu, Thamel, two of my friends - a very tall Aussie man and a rather tall (remember everyone is tall to me) German woman decided to skip the taxi cost and walk home down a main street called Lazimpat Road.

After a few minutes, a gang of about three motorbikes drove up and out of no where threw what they they were several large concrete stones at them, hitting the man in the shoulder and jaw and the woman in the calf. It turns out, as my girl friend's husband explained, that it is a common occurrence for perpetrators to attack male and female couples by throwing a stone aiming at the guy's head, so they can knock him out and rape the woman.

Like I said, terrifying.

However, they both handled it amazingly well, and have spread the word (as I hope I am doing now) to everyone to be safe not sorry and take a taxi at night.

Disclaimer for those back in the States that might worry: Please don't. I live in a super safe neighborhood, and am very careful about walking places in groups or taking taxis at night. Also KTM is generally a very very safe place, especially considering that it is truly the big cit-ay of Nepal.

Moment of the Mundane

I saw a sign outside the an internet cafe in my area that offered 'internet suffering' on its menu of services.

Unintentionally appropriate.

Snippets from My Day in the City

MORNING COFFEE
If you put broken cinnamon sticks in coffee, it tastes soooooo good.

AFTERNOON PURCHASES

I bought jeggings! They are the weirdest piece of clothing I have ever owned, but they are oh so comfortable and stretchy.

CLASS SMACKS ME IN THE FACE

I was coming back from dance class with a friend in a tuk tuk (a little biofuel-run public truck/bus that seats about eight to ten people). We were stopped at an intersection, and I looked out the window to see a super cute Nepali boy sitting in a large SUV on his mom's lap. He looked at me and I smiled and waved at him. He started to smile back and then, literally, turned up his nose and turned away. He was definitely like five years old. It would have been comical except that it was such an ugly thing to witness.

CITY SMELLS
Generally Kathmandu smells like urine, poo, sewage, and incense, especially in the summer. However, there is a huge flowering plant between my house and the main street, Lazimpat Road. At the end of the day, once they have been heated by the afternoon sun, the flowers release a lovely smell at beginning of the unpaved road leading to our house. I always look forward to it in the evenings.

Back in KTM

Everest was incredible.

Immense thank yous to my friend Surya Shrestha and Babu Gurung of Asian Journeys (www.nepalmountaintrek.com) for letting me join their Everest trek with one and a half day's notice, and leading an amazing trip.

And a huge thank you to Jwalant Gurung of Grand Asian Journeys (grandasianjourneys.com) for lending me the equipment necessary to make my way through the foothills of the Himalayas.

And, lastly, to my lovely travel companions from Norway.

HIGHLIGHTS

VIEWS
The views were incredible. We didn't actually go all the way to Base Camp, or even Kala Pattar (known for its 360 degree view of the mountains), but the views from Dingboche were astounding. Pictures to follow :)

GENERAL TREKKING CONDITIONS
The trekking was good - perfect weather, the end of the season meant that the amount of trekkers was tapering, so we got most of the lodges and trails to ourselves.

DANCE OFF
In Tengboche, a Pakistani trekker that my group met challenged me to a bhangra dance off. It was followed by a cultural show by all the visitors at the lodge and included a Norwegian ballad, traditional Norwegian, Nepali, and Masai dancing, and a touch of Rapper's Delight.

APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF AMERICA BASHING
I've found during my international travels of the past decade that it is not generally prudent to advertise being from America. I just never really understood the need to deck out in American flag headbands and sew red, white, and blue flag patches on my trekking gear. However, with the election of Obama, and my recent travels to various countries in Africa, I have become, dare I say, proud to be an American...however, I was still subject to an appropriate amount of American bashing from afar in the dining halls of my lodge in Namche Bazaar, which I chose to ignore as I opted for Thich Nhat Hahn's The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching instead. It was an odd juxtaposition for sure.

RECONNECTING
16 years ago, my stepdad and mom got married in the monastery in Tengboche in the Everest Region. I was eight years old at the time - my second trip to Nepal, and the first night we stayed in what was then a small village called Phakding. I started playing with the daughter of the lodge owner, and after an hour or so, we disappeared into the night to deliver milk, drink tea, and sit by the fires of neighbors in the town. Last year, my mom and I visited Phakding again and managed to find the same lodge, even though it had been 15 years, and the area had become quite developed and, thus, unrecognizable. We found the lodge owner, who remembered us :), but her daughter was studying in Kathmandu. I decided to try again this year. I found the lodge and my old friend, Chirring, was playing with her one year old daughter in the middle of the dining room. We had tea, talked, and listened to a mix of Kanye and traditional Nepali songs. I have to admit I didn't even really remember what she had looked like, but as we sat together, her personality began to show itself and I remembered...she had been a few months older, and appropriately bossy for the age gap. She was knowledgable and sure of herself, but also hospitable and welcoming in a matter of fact way.

BAR NIGHT IN NAMCHE
Turns out the oldest bar in Namche Bazaar, at 3440 meters, is called Cafe Danphe's and is run by a Sherpa and Nepali/Tibetan couple. The wife used to live in Woodside, Queens, home to Adhikaar - one my favorite NGOs that works with Nepalis. I used to work for them too co-facitiliating a youth performance arts program. (They are also having their annual fundraiser tomorrow - so check it if you can - www.adhikaar.org.) Cafe Danphe's had some great khukuri rum, a wonderful atmosphere, and delicious and copious amounts of popcorn - definite trail recommendation.

PO-MO ROCK DANCING
I had a free day in Namche, and decided to spend it using up the last of my camera battery filming vignettes of dances on the rocks in the hillside above Namche.  A family who thought I was emotionally disturbed invited me to Khumjung to see the festival with them, but after some uncomfortable touching by the (seemingly drunk) uncle of the family opted to continue my crazy-lady dancing. Videos will be posted shortly on a joint blog with a friend studying dance theater in London.

EVEREST MARATHON
I decided to stay for the Everest Marathon to see the winners cross the finish line. I have had some weird obsession with the marathon since hearing about it a year and a half ago. I ended up staying in Namche until about 11 am to see the first three people cross the finish line (all Nepalis), the first female cross the finish line (the fourth person, and apparently an internationally known runner because she was clearly NOT Nepali), and the winner of the half marathon. If I ever get crazy motivated, I'm putting the Everest half marathon on my bucket list.

TREKKING BY MYSELF
My trekking group had gone ahead so that I could stay in Namche to visit with other friends who were trekking the same route and to see the Everest marathon, so the final day I trekked Namche to Lukla (17 km, the guides said, or 5 hours Nepali time and 7 hours foreigner time) in 5 hours. It was incredible. I literally ran down the first 30 mins to the river, and then sang every Broadway song I ever learned as I booked it to Lukla, clocking in at 5 hours with a 20 minute tea break in Phakding.

Everest Here I Come

Sorry things have been quiet for a while. And they will become even more quiet for the next few days. I'm on a sudden, last minute trip to the Everest region to visit Tengboche starting this morning and returning back on May 30/May 31, depending on the weather. A couple of friends of mine invited me to go at cost without having to pay for a guide or any other fees, and another friend hooked me up with a backpack, sleeping bag, and parka!

So I'm off! I'll check in from the trail if possible.

Peace.

Job job job!

I got a job today!! So I stopped working for HimRights and BBC to free up my time to work on The Kumari Project, but expenses are expenses and rupees are rupees, and I'm running low on them. Last week I got a potential job offer working for New Era (www.newera.com.np), a research institute in Nepal. I will be editing reports for them on my own time (perfection!), and they even want me to continue working for them while I'm in The States! Sweetness.

Bal Mandir Clean Up

So I was getting incredibly discouraged with efforst to support Bal Mandir, as it seemed like any money that was raised for the orphanage was not getting to the kids. Even some of the didis – women who live in the orphanage and take care of the kids 24/7 (who hadn’t been paid in seven months) - were selling baby formula boxes to stores to get money. However, May 1, I got incredible news.

Mitrataa (http://mitrataa.org/) is an Australian NGO that is run by Bec Ordish. They have been paying for scholarships for some of the girls at Bal Mandir, as well as running other projects on the ground in Nepal. And as of May 2, they took over running Bal Mandir for five years with the specific goal of creating a sustainable model, so that the Nepal Children’s Organization can not only run the orphanage after five years, but also use this model for the other eleven children’s homes they run in the Kathmandu Valley.

Already walking around the grounds, you can tell things are better. The kids have full plates of food with a variety of food, not just plain beaten rice. The didis are smiling and seem much happier. There are still many problems with the way that Bal Mandir is run, but already Bec, is trying to fix the most urgent things and create long term strategies for improving the rest.

One of the first projects Mitrataa organized was to clean up Bal Mandir. So Saturday, they spent the morning and afternoon scrubbing down the rooms, debugging mattresses, cleaning the outside showers and toilets, and picking up the trash littering the grounds. A friend of mine who runs a trekking company called Grand Asian Journeys (grandasianjourneys.com – check them out) brought ten of this guides to help pick grass and litter out of the brick courtyard outside the bathrooms. Also a friend visiting from America on a two week volunteer/trekking trip, a friend from the UK who is volunteering at a hospital in Patan, and his French roommate who had been in Nepal for three months spent her last day in Nepal at Bal Mandir helping out. And HimRights’ staff and friends of staff also came to help out for the afternoon – initiating the toilet cleaning, which was definitely the most daunting clean up area. Thank you so much to everyone who came to help out! (And thank you also facebookers for your long distance support J.)

Microbus Travels

Moment of the Mundane:

I was so squished in the micro yesterday that every time it jerked, the song on the ipod in my pocket changed.

Moving Out of TGH

When I was adopted 24 years ago, my mom and dad stayed in the Tibet Guest House (fondly called ‘TGH’ by the YNepal 2011 crew) for maybe five weeks before taking me to Amurica.

Since then, we have ALWAYS stayed at TGH. Even as the room rates increased and their clientele got fancier. We stayed whenever we traveled to Nepal. I stayed there for a summer on a Yale fellowship. We recommended TGH to our friends, and the YNepal volunteers have also stayed there four years in a row.

But now, operating on a smaller budget, I had to leave hotel livin’. So I moved into a new apartment this week! AND I LOVE IT! Now I am living with a former WFF colleague and a very nice Australian couple in Lazimpat (behind the ShangriLa Hotel). The area is very nice and peaceful compared to Thamel. The main Lazimpat road has everything you could possible want for much more Nepali prices than Thamel…eggs for 7 rupees each, homemade yogurt for 35 rupees, and a bundle of vegetables for 100 rupees (approximately 70 rupees to a US dollar).

And I’m loving my room – it’s larger than any room I have had since high school, and the place is absolutely lovely. I had a short conversation with the landlord today, and she said that I could come back and rent from her if I was ever in Nepal again – so I’m very very excited by it all I could just spit.

I was worried about electricity, but monsoons have given us much more power than before, and the charm of candlelight is certainly growing on me. We have hot water most of the time! And we even have a didi who comes to do our laundry and clean our house twice a week…how sweet is that?! Although, it definitely makes me think of White Tiger a little too much…but I guess that’s a subject for another post.

Playing Catch Up

Sundance, April 30: The weekend before last, some friends convinced me to go to the Sundance Music Festival up in the hills outside Kathmandu at a place called Last Resort. It is known for having the second highest bungy jump in the world, but it also has a restaurant and a collection of large tents for people who come to take part in the various outdoor activities that they have.

Once a year, they organize a two-day music festival and bus people in from KTM for an evening. They set up about 150 tents (the ones that are permanent are fancy safari-like tents, but they set up backpacking type tents) all over the hillside and number them. You get assigned to a tent, and then you have all meals included and a stage set up with a variety of music including folk, traditional, rock, and a late night DJ.

The day started out raining so hard, I had to take a rickshaw from my hotel to get to the bus stop because there was a foot of water flooding the road. I was skeptical about the journey, as I wasn’t keen to spend an evening in a soaking wet tent listening to mediocre music.

But I rallied, only because I’d already paid for my non refundable ticket. However, the journey started off well. I was with a large group of friends of friends, one of who managed to get us a private van to take to Last Resort because we ‘couldn’t all fit on the buses.’ Then, once we arrived, it turned out that the rain that was slamming the KTM valley all weekend didn’t even reach us. The resort was beautiful with a little plunge pool, a nice bathroom J, and a lovely restaurant area with tasty eats. And, the weekend was full of lovely music (none of it spectacular, but definitely entertaining and a nice variety). But the best thing was the atmosphere. It was a small group of people, and no one really knew more than a few people, so everyone was incredibly friendly. I even lost my camera, and everyone thought someone had taken it, but I was sure the crowd was too chill (and too rich – admittedly there were mostly expats) to steal it. And it’s true! I was sitting on the bus ready to go home at the end of the weekend, and one of the staff members brought me my camera – it had been lying in the grass…oops. Besides my favorite German in the world coming, I didn’t know anyone at the start of the weekend, but I actually managed to make a few friends who have already made Kathmandu feel much more like home.

So thank you, Last Resort!

Poop Check In

To all my adoring fans, sorry for the interweb silence these last few weeks. Things have been a bit hectic…haha, when are they not?

To start off with, a meditation on poop:

Last week, coming back on a three-four hour bus ride with some mild but seriously inconvenient bowl issues, I had a discussion with a complete stranger about the mucus content of my poop – he is a doctor in training, so that (maybe) gives you some context.

That being said I also had another discussion with a complete stranger about pooping ourselves after about 30 minutes of the usual get to know you chit chat.

I guess what I’m saying is your bowel movements do become part of the ‘usual chit chat’ in Nepal, and it’s something I sorta love. Traveler’s diarrhea as they like to call it can seriously mess with one’s sense of control. But, once you make it through (often multiple bouts) it becomes a ‘right of passage’ in a sense.

One of the co-leaders from the fourth annual YNepal trip this year commented that last year she had greatly appreciated my graphic recounts of my bowels in various states of urgency and liquidity, as they helped her become more comfortable sharing her ‘activities.’ I was quite touched.

To wrap up, as you may know, I am not a religious person. But the only time I pray is when I am on the toilet.

Summer Nights

Walking to Dairy Mart to get an ice cream cone in the dark.

Staying out late playing hide and seek in the cul-de-sac with the neighborhood kids.

One of those perfect warm air summer nights cooled by a gentle breeze walking home tonight.

Can't Get Enough

Today Arjun started a dance, "Just do a regular walk... You know, just a regular model walk" and then proceeded to suck in his cheeks and then flip his head from front to side at every step as he kicked up his feet. It was amazing.

Then we performed the regular eight counts with the direction, 'Freak out garne.' That means, simply, 'freak out.' Simple but effective.

Pet Peeve

When people respond to mass emails back to everyone (when they clearly do NOT know everyone else on the panlist). Then, their email to everyone clearly shows that they did not read the entire original email.

Why Do the Druggies Make the Best Art?

Yesterday I attended an opening of a collection of art by Newari artists – painters and sculptors mostly, although there was also a mandala modeled after the sand mandalas made of a variety of significant Newari items, such as grains, in addition to the colored sands. The gallery from which all the artwork was collected is called the Bodhisattva Gallery and is actually run by the husband of the director of HimRights/BBC. In fact, after work the entire HimRights crew trekked to the gallery opening. It was quite nice to be a part of such a wonderful collection of individuals…once again I gush about my coworkers :).

The art too, was quite spectacular. There were a few pieces that really drew my attention, but the ones I liked most, of course….were a series of four small 12 inch by 12 inch paintings of the heads of deities framed by a circle of bringt luminescent teal. They were painted by an artist who, I learned this morning, had a drug problem, but stopped doing drugs to paint. Apparently, he is a very talented painter who moved easily from painting to sculpture but has recently stopped making art and returned to drugs…

I also found the iconography fascinating. There was a painting of a the compassionate Green Tara holding a hand with the palm out to signify ‘giving’ and the other hand was holding a lotus to signify ‘protecting.’ It was beautiful to see and learn how the deities actually embody these concepts. It also gave me some good ideas about my Bagmati River Project…which will be revealed at a later date…don't worry - there will be no drugs involved.

Cockroaches Tickle

Not a joke. They do. I was awoken last night by one crawling on my arm.

At first I tried to convince myself it was my hair. But no, hair feels different than cockroach legs.

I tried to go back to sleep, but caught the roach in my cell phone light. Darn.

I trapped it with a glass and managed to isolate it in a corner of my room out of the way to deal with in the morning.

When I awoke, I literally spent about 20 minutes deciding what to do with it. It was still alive in the morning (they can probably survive a while without food, yes?). I contemplated if I had a book big enough to kill it with, and figured it would just be wrong...or maybe right....to kill it with the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying...Then I tried to figure out which shoe I wanted to get roach guts on, and decided none. I thought I could drown it and not have to risk it escaping as I lifted the glass, but that drowning (after a bit of starvation) would be a terrible way to go. I could have dropped it out the window too, but that seemed too risky, as it was only a floor down, and he could crawl right back up...so I just left him there. And thank heavens for maids...the glass was washed and placed on my bedside table when I got back from work today. I love you TGH.

Powerpoint Fun

Part of the reason I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front, is that I have been consumed with putting together a two full day report writing seminar for the staff of HimRights and the BBC (Beyond Beijing Committee for those of you who might be coming just now to this blog). 

It was actually rather enjoyable to put together a powerpoint and present for two days - glad to know that Theater BA isn't going to waste. 

I reviewed most of the staffs past reports to identify and repair common mistakes during my presentation, and I think the staff appreciated it. My favorite part of the presentation was, of course, a role play. The director wanted the staff to begin practicing putting together grant proposals (as it is I believe she does most of the grant submitting, and the rest of the staff runs the projects and reports on them as they are being implemented). So I developed a fake call for grant applications, and they drew names out of a hat to determine who were donors and who were grant applicants. The applicants got put in groups and had about 25 minutes to put together a proposal. They then presented it to the board of three donors (all women, which was an exciting luck of the draw). It was quite lively and hilarious - the winning group wanted to build a community center, specially for children and the elderly. When questioned further about what activities there would be for the younger kids, the 'applicant' replied that there would be a nice playground. When asked about activities for the older folks, he stuttered, then regained his confidence, and explained that there would be a 'temple in the corner' for them to pray. Maybe you had to be there...

Anyway, one thing I have LOVED about working with HimRights and BBC is that every staff member I work with is really appreciative of feedback and constructive criticism. I know I haven't been in THAT many working environments, but generally it seems that people (myself included) think they know how to do it BEST and that prevents them from even listening to what the other person has to say or suggest. However, I have found that almost every time I have worked with a staff person, they have been eager to learn more and correct their mistakes. It makes for a pretty stellar working environment. 

Moment of the Mundane

In my preparation for the report writing presentation, I had to investigate the difference between an indefinite and definite article. Perhaps one failure of my public school education, or maybe it is a failure of American education in general...or my memory, I was never taught the difference. But when asked to describe articles to people whose native language doesn't even have articles, it's a bit difficult. Anyway before researching the true definitions, I was working with someone individually and turns out my intuitive definition (about the specificity of the article determining whether it was an 'a/an' or 'the') made me a little too happy.

Paani Paryoooooooooo

That's Nepali for It's raaaaaaaaaaaaaaining.

It rained hard yesterday. At about 4pm the generator at work went off, and the skies were so grey, that I had to read a report using the torch on my cell phone.

Monsoon Fashion Alert
Thank god we collectively decided to skip dance, because as I was walking home, i spotted the most impressive invention ever designed. Some background: Everyone here rides a motorbike or a scooter. Besides walking, it's the best way to get around KTM. But when it rains, one might be potentially screwed with just a normal poncho as they try to navigate the streets on their motorbike. However, yesterday I saw a man wearing a poncho that not only fit him AND the front of his motorbike (with a clear plastic window for the headlights of his bike to shine through), but ALSO the poncho had two head holes and covered the woman seated behind him on the motorbike. Genius. Pure.

MJ Update

Today Nepali MJ (whose name is actually Arjun) taught us how to moonwalk. It was awesome.

Orphanage Visit

I visited the orphanage this week.

It is clear that the lice outbreak happened there. ALL the little kids at the orphanage were getting their hair chopped off as I wandered in. (One of the other leaders of the YNepal trip traveled home with lice as well.)

I was at the orphanage on a Tuesday, so imagine my surprise when I saw about six girls - about 14-15 years old, in the orphanage when they should have been in school. Turns out the orphanage did not have enough money to pay for the necessary books and school supplies to send the kids to school. They were awaiting a donation from an Australian organization, I believe, and hoping to start school on Monday. 

NYT :(

I've been trying to keep up on the news, following my almost complete ignorance of the fact that the US government was potentially going to shut down and, or course, to find out how Trump is doing in the poles. But what a week for me to start being current event savvy - the NYTimes now charges if you want to look at more than 20 full articles a month...damn.

Kathmandu Guides

Nepal has an impossible system to direct people from one place to another. Often the name of an area is based on a temple (or mandir) that is in that neighborhood. Or, directions are based on the names of neighborhoods, but once you get to the neighborhood you have no idea how to get where you are supposed to go. The whole problem of getting around is compounded by the fact that the name of every place sounds exactly the same to me, or I can not retain it for more than 5 seconds even as I try to repeat it over and over again.

However I became quite proud of myself the past few weeks, as I have figured out the key to making sure I'm on the right path home: smell. I know I am crossing the Bagmati River when I smell toilet air wafting around the micro. And, I know which of the six lanes to turn down in the market place because I follow the lane filled with fish.

Additionally, my ride-the-wrong-microbus shame was alleviated by the fact that twice in the past week - once with someone who has grown up in Kathmandu and once with someone who has been here a year - we got on a microbus together and got on the wrong one.

Lice Check

Apparently sarging can cure lice...I think I might change my mind about this book after all.


As of today, I will not have to resort to cutting my hair. However, I am a little disappointed as I spotted the perfect hairdo the other day in Thamel - shaved head except for a pony tail of dreads that are like three feet long. Oh well.


This evening, after work, I took public transportation across town (a proud moment but also a very long moment) to meet with Kolpana, a former Bal Mandir orphan who is studying for her B.A. She took me to a baby formula supply store, where I used extra YNepal donated funds to purchase about $350 of bulk formula for the babies at Bal Mandir. Thank you YNepal and supporters!


Note: Sadly it is the infamous Nestle formula, however the orphanage boils the water it mixes the formula with.

In A Different Voice 1970s/The Game 2000s

I just finished In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan. It's taken me forever to finish this book as I am struck with thoughts to journal after almost every paragraph I read.

It has helped me understand women, men, myself, and although one might find it to generalize based on too small a sample, I cannot deny that it has rung true to my experience and enlightened my own behavior in this especially difficult early-mid 20s phase of development.

The book identifies differences in the psychological development of men and women, positing that women mature into an ethics of care, while men mature by an ethics of justice...and how those systems of though relate to one's understanding of the self in relation to others...It describes how women come to conflate goodness with selflessness, and that relationships and responsibility to others are manifest in women’s actions, while men manifest their need to separate as they develop into adulthood. In addition to many other things, it has got me thinking about my work in Nepal, the responsibility I feel to return and care (in a way) for the girls that were not adopted. 

Anyway I would HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone - female or male. And if you read it, please let me know your thoughts!

That being said, I'm following up one of the seminal American feminist's texts with The Game by Neil Strauss. I realize I’m coming late to the buzz this book has created, but I am finally getting a chance to read it after hearing some rave reviews by men in my life and, of course, falling for the negging and peacocking that have become so notorious.

I must admit, I’m already offended at the use of two of America’s biggest feminist quotations to justify the supremely disrespectful behavior towards women…however I’m trying to keep an open mind. We’ll see if it lasts for 452 pages…

Success!

So I became a tiny bit obsessed with this book Half the Sky a few months ago, particularly the parts about Nepalese girls being trafficked to brothels in Mumbai. I was delighted to start working with HimRights on their anti-trafficking proposal and to learn about all the wonderful things they are doing to prevent trafficking at both a grassroots and national/international policy level.

I found out they were organizing a nine day trip to Mumbai to meet with NGOs working in trafficking and to actually visit the red light district of Mumbai to see first hand what the girls go through. Today I got up my courage to ask the organizer of the trip if I could go if I paid my own way. She said yes!! We'll see how it ends up as the logistics have already been a nightmare for her, but I would love to go, so wish me luck.

Swoon

Arjun, the dance teacher knows my name :). My work in Nepal is complete. I'm flying home tomorrow. No but really rumor has it that his dance troupe is going to be in a Kollywood movie (Kathmandu Hollywood, duh), and a few o' the girls and I are plotting to see how we can be in it!

Happy New Year's Eve

Tomorrow is Newari New Year's Day in Kathmandu. Since they are on a solar calendar here, I believe it will be the year 2068.

Apparently the tradition is mostly to spend time with family and eat. However given my current health challenges and the fact that the KTM pollution cold is hitting me hard again, I will be eating laddu in bed and inaugurating my pirated copy of Blue Valentine. 

I don't know much about the religious traditions in Nepal. They all baffle me as I can't really tell any of the names apart (well no one has sat down and formally tried to teach them to me, but I imagine that would just be embarrassing) and there are tons of traditions that are caste-specific or Hindu or Buddhist-specific or celebrated by both in different ways on the same days or the same ways on different days...or something. However, almost all Hindu/Buddhist ceremonies I have seen in Nepal have two things in common: They are beautiful. And they last forever.

Two days ago when walking back from dance with my friend, we wandered through Asan Tol (the local market area that I am just beginning to figure my way through) and came to an intersection blocked off by police. There was a gigantic cart (the wheels were probably twenty feet in diameter) with a tower built on top. In the tower looking out the window was, I believe, a priest of some sort and other religious figures sat outside the window perched on the tower. The tower itself was decorated with what looked like pine tree branches, making it look like a tremendous Christmas tree...The other temples in the square were lit with candles. It was beautiful. I was hoping to spot the Kathmandu Kumari, the living goddess, but we couldn't stay for all the festivities.

Dancing Queens

Okay, now to the fun stuff:

I went to dance yesterday because I had finally recovered from the soreness of the first two classes and could move again.

We started a new dance, and about two moves in, I realized, as I was fist pumping in the air, the this move reminded me of something. A few moves later, after stepping side to side and clapping in the air, I also realized I recognized this move.  After a whole sequence of moves I swore I had done before, but not to the Bollywood song we were currently dancing to that I had never heard before, I realized where these magical moves had come from: Dance Central. They came STRAIGHT from Dance Central.

To be honest, at first I was a little dismayed that I was paying for lessons when I could just play a video game and learn those same moves, however, I also realized that Dance Central seriously pales in comparison to the way that Nepali MJ does these moves. (And I also realized I was paying 75 cents a lesson vs $10 in the US - very "cost effective" as a coworker of mine said.) And I know, from other classes, that he has a much larger repertoire that was he exhibited in that class.

Plus, one thing he taught us that I don't recognize from dance central is probably my all time favorite move. I have titled it "The Lyger" - remind me to do it for you next time I see you.

Are you serious?

So, I was ready to regale you with stories of my completely entertaining dance teacher, but instead, I have some very sad news. It turns out I have lice. Well done. And not just any lice, oh no...My friend at work – the only person I know well enough to ask to see if there are bugs climbing around my scalp (but even that took me a while to build up my courage, while the lice feasted) is apparently the official de-licer for her entire family, and she said I had more alive than she had ever seen and we caught six GIANT lice…like REALLY F-ING BIG LICE. Awesome. I was/am actually really really really freaked out about the whole thing, but I was calmed by the fact that she didn’t think it was a big deal. I asked her about washing all my clothes and throwing away my brush, and burning my sheets, beheading my teddy bears, and all of that…but she looked at me like I was crazy and said none of that was necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely taking precautions, but it was calming to know that it was all going to be alright…that being said, I still want to cry in a corner.

I cut out of work early and ran to my favorite pharmacist, who is familiar with every ailment I, my mom, or my friends have had while in Nepal, to get Mediker and then I shampooed like I have never shampooed before...wish me luck.

In other news...last night, a friend showed me a new swanky Thamel hangout that serves the best ice green tea smoothie EVER – it’s my new obsession, so I'm writing from there now…but it's a small consolation....very small.

Bots

A belated summary of my time in Botswana. Some of you may know that I am working for an international human rights org called Minority Rights Group International (MRG) based in London consulting for their street theater to combat racism project in Kenya, Rwanda, Botswana, and the DR.

Well, I lucked out, not only in getting the job, but also in getting to travel to our partner countries to help move the project forward in each country. Two weeks ago, I flew to Gaborne, Botwana to tour with the Botswanan street theater group. 

Botswana was lovely - it was warm and I love working with our project officer and artistic director, so I was especially excited to see them.

The first performance I saw was a cultural event organized by our local NGO partner, RETENG, and our project office, Chanda. The Acting Vice President of Botswana was there, and he was amazingly supportive of our and RETENG's work. The group also performed in a church, a school, and community centers in Gaborone and Francistown.

The performance itself was in Tswana, so I understood not a word, except the name of the main character, Ndwana, yet I did understand the meaning of the performance. After seeing it six times in a row, I did not get tired of it, and the design of the performance and the commitment that the actors demonstrated inspired me to get back into my own art-making.

MJ Returns

This weird thing happens when you are in Nepal for a while. You start to see 'Nepali versions' of your non Nepali friends and family. Today I realized who my new dance teacher looks like: Michael Jackson. It's super entertaining to watch him....even when he's not dancing.

Dance dance dance

Very cool: Today I went with five young ladies from my office to a DANCE CLASS taught by this awesome Nepali guy. Today we did 'jazz contemporary' with a little traditional nepali dance (sort of) thrown in. Apparently they have also done Bollywood, the jive, and tango is on the schedule. This is going to be awesome.

Not so cool: I remembered why I hate office jobs and hierarchies...boo. 

Public Transportation

I was super proud of myself because today I finally figured out how to get to work on the public transportation: white mini vans with signs - written in Nepali - telling the patrons where the van is headed. You can flag them down and jump in while they are still rolling or hop on at one of the stops, designated only by the fact that there might be a few people congregated in a certain area on a main street, but those people might just be trying to cross the street...you never really know. Anyway I had figured out how to get home FROM work, but I hadn't figured out how to get TO work. With the help of a coworker, I figured out the destination of the bus I needed to get on, but, when searching for it, accidentally asked, "Where is Lagankel?" instead of "Does this bus go to Lagankel?" in Nepali...oops. (I guess it's better than when I tried to outsmart a shoe salesman who had been selling the same shoes at a cheaper price one week before and said, "Next week, it was 260 rupees..." I always get next and last mixed up.)

Anyway once I figured I had mastered the bus system I was chatting with some other coworkers at lunch and asked them about the pricing system. Apparently, there isn't really one. Each bus charges what it wants to. I was giving all the drivers 11 rupees because that was the price the first time I got on a bus years ago, and I thought that was the fixed price for all public transport, but when I learned I may have been giving them my 11 rupees and shortchanging them as I jumped off the bus, I felt bad. That, apparently, was a hilarious notion. Oh, and I got lost walking back on a supposed 'short cut' this evening. I guess I still have quite a bit to figure out...

Ninja Zombies Premieres THIS WEEK!

The long awaited film, Ninja Zombies, premieres THIS week at the Litchfield Hill Film Festival (last year Underground Sonata screened here - it was called the Ken Film Festival then and we recruited one of the main actors for NZ at the festival!)

Not only am I totally stoked for the premiere and wishing I was a millionaire so I could fly back to CT to see the final film, but I am also psyched because my long distance press attempts paid off: Noah and my joint effort press release was published in the Litchfield County Times (that's right...) online: http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2011/04/05/entertainment/doc4d99ff10a034f081527198.txt 

I've never gotten anything that I wrote before published in a news source!

Anyway for all you nutmegers out there, go check it out. The town of Kent is delightful and surrounded by an incredible golf course and water fall in addition to housing lovely bars, restaurants, and a chocolatier if I'm not mistaken, and the festival is one of the most intimate in the country.

Good luck NZ! I wish I could be there!

Elation in Nepal

When I was eleven years old, my super cool older cousin, Graham, visited my mom and me in Nepal. He was in the middle of years of traveling what seemed like everywhere and anywhere. I still remember him telling us about sharing a flat in Spain with a group of people who were so poor, they couldn't afford to buy food. Thankfully, one of them happened to be a gourmet chef, who would sautee canned tuna and cornflakes in honey and garnish it with grass from the lawn downstairs.

Not only did I envy Graham's glamorous and exciting travels, I envied his passport. He had so many stamps, he actually had to have extra pages added into his passport. Well, for the first time in my life I am SO close :) My Nepali 90-Day on-arrival VISA took the last blank page of my passport, which means I will have to apply for those glorious 'extra pages' when I return to the states in June.

Woohoo!

Frustration in Mumbai

Well, I am back in KTM, but with a sad story of bureaucracy to tell. Well, it's so boring I won't rely it, except to say that my transit VISA, which I waited for which I waited about 2.5 hours for which I paid $50, ended up only allowing me to leave the airport in Delhi to collect my bags and recheck them in the domestic terminal to go to Mumbai. My VISA, did NOT however, allow me to see my good friend Kaushal and get a night tour of Mumbai as my first experience outside of the airports of India. :(

South African International Transit Lounge Check In

Who knows how much I'm paying to connect to the wifi network here, but it's worth it for a quick status check in.


Luci Duan just wrote a wonderful article for the Yale Herald on spring break volunteer experiences, and YNepal is featured a lot! Check it out: http://yaleherald.com/news/changing-the-world-in-fourteen-days/


I must say, though, that one thing that is missing from my quotes/experiences, is that YNepal is thriving because of the wonderful student leaders that have led trips over the past three years, so thank you Jarrad Aguirre, Jon Espitia, Kim McCabe, Hilary Rogers, Edith Sangueza, and Chelsea Wells! And of course, thank you to all the amazing volunteers who have come on the trips!

Moment of the Mundane (or a life or death experience - you decide :))

Now some of you know I am Quizno's #1 fan! But I have to say, Subway won me over just a few hours ago. I was touring the Delhi airport - which has become quite swanky, housing even a McDonald's that serves such items as paneer salsa wraps (but they were sold out :() - when I came across a Subway serving salads. I have been DESPERATE for raw vegetables for the past month - the plight of a vegetarian - so, I decided to boldly (and idiotically) dare the gods of bodily functions by ordering a salad complete with lettuce, tomatos, cucumbers, and green peppers, none of which were peeled, but I was assured they were 'washed with mineral water.' Well, it's been a good 12 hours and sickness has yet to take hold, so hopefully I have not spoken too soon :)

Off to Botswana

Okay final blog post for a while. Tomorrow I am off to Gaborone, Botswana to tour with a theater company who is doing street theater to combat negative stereotyping and discrimination in Botswana as part of my work for Minority Rights Group International (a wonderful London-based international NGO: http://www.minorityrights.org/). 


Before I go, I must do a bit of Ninja Zombies promotion. As some of you may know, I acted in a film this summer called Ninja Zombies directed by Noah Cooper and produced by Mike Castro. It's in the final stages of production and a test screening is going down on March 26! Get the details here: http://www.ninjazombiesfilm.com/?p=760. And, if you can't make it, don't be too sad. We are trying to figure out creative ways to get the film to those who are not in the CT area. In fact, if you know of any film festivals close to you, let me know and we will try to submit NZ so we can be showing at a theater near you! If you are still not able to see the film, hopefully you will be able to catch it after we get a sweet distribution deal (cross your fingers :)). 


Oh, and I'll give a box of milk duds to the first five people to spot the zombie played by my mom, Beth Eldridge.

Moment of the Mundane

Today I spent a good 30 minutes in a KTM traffic jam listening to my cab driver hock literally 16 loogies. We could have saved like ten minutes if he had been more focused on driving than hocking.

What's in a name?

I must thank my cousin, Sneha, for the idea for this blog title! Perhaps a year or so ago a fb update informed me that one of the quizzes you can take about people popped out 'free bird' as my descriptor. I remember reading it and thinking that I liked the sound of it, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to have been a portentous description of my life for the past year.

I was extremely fortunate to get perhaps the ONE job in the world for which degrees in Theater Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration were essential, and as a result have gotten to travel to many different places and meet wonderful people and artists in countries around the world.

I also chose to quit my lovely Yale 'yob' in search of a certain type of freedom. I have been meditating (albeit off and on and briefly) about the nature of freedom and self-determination at a point when my peers seem to be asking themselves what kinds of freedoms they want in their lives and what kinds of jobs and lifestyles allow them to seek and achieve them. I realize more and more that what I always thought of as an arrogant, American obsession with personal freedoms (and freedom fries and freedom toast) is what, in a sense, I am now seeking (and what a true privilege it is, as so many people are simply fighting for this right to begin with, and not even able to exercise it). Hence the 'right to life, liberty, and freedom' has taken on new meanings for me in the past few years...and I hope this blog will illustrate interesting parts of my flight through the freebirdskies for the next few months.

The perks of 'load shedding'

I'll have to get back to you regarding what exactly 'load shedding' means, but it results in 14-16 hour blackouts a day in KTM.

Sadly, that is what it has taken for me to not be connected to the internet while on my laptop. Happily, I have learned that I can be more productive in four hours of no internet connection than I can with 20 hours of being online while 'working.' Sadly/happily, when I have the option of being online I am a pure addict.

March 22, 2011: Welcome to my blog!

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while, but not being so gifted with the written word and not being much of a blog reader myself, I was resisting. (Plus, I have always had an aversion to personal blogs as they seem to be the epitome of new media narcissism…although it seems the past few months have been a lesson in realizing that doing the things that I used to judge harshly is not always a bad thing.)

However, I have come across some rather exciting things, much of the mundane (which is actually prompting the actual writing of this first blog post), and a bunch of people doing cool stuff and fun and interesting places which I would love to share with anyone who wants to procrastinate at life and read my blog.

If nothing else, I hope this blog will be a good way for me to keep my friends and family updated with my random activities, and encourage them to email me and keep me updated on their lives as well.

So…the mundane that is prompting this blog post: I have a real job once again. It’s been almost nine months! But don’t get too excited, folks, I’m only here for one month. The ‘here’ I refer to is Himalayan Human Rights Monitors (HimRights: http://www.himrights.org/) and Beyond Beijing Committee (BBC: http://www.beyondbeijing.org/).  

A very cool organization that I used to work with/volunteer for called Adhikaar in NYC (they are awesome and their executive director, Luna Ranjit, just completed a half marathon as a fundraiser – check them out: www.adhikaar.org) connected me with Anjana Shakya, the director of HimRights and BBC. After a few months of emailing Anjana in preparation for my travels to Nepal, I finally got a chance to visit the office and got hired right away to help revise and submit an urgent proposal about domestic and international sex and labor trafficking, of women, girls, and children, in Nepal.

What an incredible opportunity and coincidence, since I just finished Half the Sky, and have been raving about it to anyone who will listen. If you haven’t read that, check it out: Half the Sky by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof. They are a couple who are former NYT correspondents and living in Oregon. Check out the movement (and the book): http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

Anyway, I’m already learning tons about trafficking in Nepal, and am very impressed with the grassroots approach HimRights has taken to raise awareness of trafficking, and help stop trafficking by providing local job opportunities and information for legal and safe foreign labor migration. (As most of you know I am really in Nepal to start a women’s cooperative specifically to give young women a way to continue their education and give them local job opportunities so they are not at risk for being trafficking, or needing to go abroad to find domestic work.)

John Stewart’s 'Moment of Zen' = Arun Storrs’ 'Moment of the Mundane':

3 hours and 3450 rupees later, the Indian embassy has my passport so I can get a transit visa to go to Mumbai for eight hours…awesome…on the way back from Botswana to KTM. However, what truly is awesome, is that I get to see Dr. Kaushal Parikh for my very short layover in Mumbai. Ghosts of 38 Bishop are surfacing with the spring air.