I’m attending Delhi Public School of Ranchi and the kids in my class are probably a year and a half ahead of me in Math and Science. If they are that smart they have got to be incredibly well behaved in class right? Wrong there is no order in the class room and it is even more hectic considering there is no teacher in the room half the time. So how are all the kids so smart? No it is not that every Indian is born a genius. The answer is in how much time they study and go to tutors. School is just a place to go to see where you rank among other students. Students here have to work hard since school after 12th grade is very hard and getting into and college is the only way to get a decent job in India.
The teachers speak in English to teach the lessons but I can only understand the English teacher more then half the time. The Indian accent is very hard to understand sometimes but trying to understand an accent won’t be my problem soon as I’m slowly picking up more and more Hindi. Hindi is spoken when ever people aren’t answering question or teaching lessons in school. So when ever the teacher makes a joke I don’t understand it. When the kids are studying math I either try to keep up, study history, work on art (doodles) or work on my Hindi (mostly work on my Hindi).
For P.E. the class just goes out and plays football (soccer) and the teacher will just bring us the ball and leave. There are some really good football players but I’m not out of my league. Football is the best part of the school day. The only thing about football I’m not looking forward to is when summer comes back around the kids are playing in sweater vest and I’m dying heat in my shirt.
We have to wear school uniforms which I thought wouldn’t be all the bad. I was wrong; currently every body is dress in all white with black shoes and striped sock. Soon we will switch to the winter uniforms in which we will wear a sweater vest or a blazer, thick grey pants, wool socks, and a tie. I will have a hard time with the winter uniforms since the winters here are like Alaskan summers on the warmest days. I will try to modify everything so that I can enjoy the whole experience.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Cricket Superstar
The other day as I walked back from the bank some kids at a small tire repair shack call me over. They didn’t speak English and my Hindi isn’t grand yet either. We tried to communicate and they brought up a chair for me to sit in. The only few word of English they could string together was “Indian girls nice, yes?” as girls from the local girls college walked by. Then they would say something in Hindi to the girls and point at me everybody around would then give an awkward smile to the four boys. After awhile small school children an there parents began to walk by so the comments to the girls stopped. I decide it was best to start going back to my house which was only a couple hundred yards away. As I began to leave the oldest of the boys who was about my age said “cricket” and made a the bat swinging motion. This intrigued me then he pointed at the clock and held up four fingers. I understood right away and agreed to play I tried telling him I would be back I think he understood but just kept attempting to say my name and holding up four finger and I would hold four fingers back the more he did the more I wondered if I had just agreed to buy four tires or something.
It took about fifteen minutes to walk back to the house since at every roadside booth some one wants to talk to me and I didn’t want to seem rude. When I finally made it back to the house I was very excited since I had been stuck in the house for the past couple of days. I felt like was twelve and just got invited to go play baseball with the big kids. When four finally rolled around I went and met up with my new friend and we started walking to the field which wasn’t very far. When I got there everyone was excited to see me and there was a wide range of ages present. There were a few people who spoke English but none very good. After introducing myself to everyone and shaking a lot of hands people wanted me to bat so I did. The bowler (pitcher) was throwing lightly to me and made it fairly easy to hit. On the fourth throw the ball bounce high and I drove up onto a house next to the small field which wasn’t hard since the filed wasn’t only about 50 ft by 100ft with houses around most of it. We were playing with a ball that was like a tennis ball but slightly heavier. After that the game began it started on a rotten note for me the first ball was hit to me it took a weird bounce and rolled to the boundary which meant four point to the other team. Soon enough my team was up to bat and I was at the bottom of the order. I saw a total of three ball a swing and a miss a weak ground ball and then the bowler hit the wicket on the third. In baseball perspective it would be like if a pitcher (me) was taken out every time some one hit a home run of him and I came into pitch and pitched a ball then a foul ball before giving up a home run.
The next game went a little better for me the put me in another position and I made a sensational catch. Ok it was really just a small jumping catch on a lazy bloop but all the little kids started jumping and cheering to them I was like a superstar cricket player. When my batting time came around again I also did better then the previous time I saw six or seven balls (opposed to the 20-25 average)and collect four point before popping out. Everybody then took a break and by that time somebody who spoke decent English showed up and he translated as everybody tried talking to be. The most popular subject to talk about was my name people called me everything from Caro to Great (I liked that one) and no one quite got it right. The person who spoke decent English gave me a ride home on his motorcycle.
The neighborhood that I played was a poorer one but not close to the poorest for Indian standards. Even though it was the poorest neighborhood I’ve been to it was also where I felt the most comfortable I. Everybody was very nice and wanted to test the English they knew. The cricketers all wanted me to come back and play again.
It took about fifteen minutes to walk back to the house since at every roadside booth some one wants to talk to me and I didn’t want to seem rude. When I finally made it back to the house I was very excited since I had been stuck in the house for the past couple of days. I felt like was twelve and just got invited to go play baseball with the big kids. When four finally rolled around I went and met up with my new friend and we started walking to the field which wasn’t very far. When I got there everyone was excited to see me and there was a wide range of ages present. There were a few people who spoke English but none very good. After introducing myself to everyone and shaking a lot of hands people wanted me to bat so I did. The bowler (pitcher) was throwing lightly to me and made it fairly easy to hit. On the fourth throw the ball bounce high and I drove up onto a house next to the small field which wasn’t hard since the filed wasn’t only about 50 ft by 100ft with houses around most of it. We were playing with a ball that was like a tennis ball but slightly heavier. After that the game began it started on a rotten note for me the first ball was hit to me it took a weird bounce and rolled to the boundary which meant four point to the other team. Soon enough my team was up to bat and I was at the bottom of the order. I saw a total of three ball a swing and a miss a weak ground ball and then the bowler hit the wicket on the third. In baseball perspective it would be like if a pitcher (me) was taken out every time some one hit a home run of him and I came into pitch and pitched a ball then a foul ball before giving up a home run.
The next game went a little better for me the put me in another position and I made a sensational catch. Ok it was really just a small jumping catch on a lazy bloop but all the little kids started jumping and cheering to them I was like a superstar cricket player. When my batting time came around again I also did better then the previous time I saw six or seven balls (opposed to the 20-25 average)and collect four point before popping out. Everybody then took a break and by that time somebody who spoke decent English showed up and he translated as everybody tried talking to be. The most popular subject to talk about was my name people called me everything from Caro to Great (I liked that one) and no one quite got it right. The person who spoke decent English gave me a ride home on his motorcycle.
The neighborhood that I played was a poorer one but not close to the poorest for Indian standards. Even though it was the poorest neighborhood I’ve been to it was also where I felt the most comfortable I. Everybody was very nice and wanted to test the English they knew. The cricketers all wanted me to come back and play again.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Durga Puja
Hi Everybody,
I got to go to a big festival called Durga Puja. On the second day of Durga Puja they celebrate by sacrificing water buffalo and goats. Thousands of people come to the local palace to watch this event. There is a gated off area where the animals are sacrificed luckily the people I went with knew the King and Prince who lived in the palace and I got a front row view of the event. The tradition is to also dip your finger in the blood and dot it on your forehead I decided to partake in that. They do eat the buffalo afterward so they aren’t wasting the meat.
I got to go to a big festival called Durga Puja. On the second day of Durga Puja they celebrate by sacrificing water buffalo and goats. Thousands of people come to the local palace to watch this event. There is a gated off area where the animals are sacrificed luckily the people I went with knew the King and Prince who lived in the palace and I got a front row view of the event. The tradition is to also dip your finger in the blood and dot it on your forehead I decided to partake in that. They do eat the buffalo afterward so they aren’t wasting the meat.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A New World
Hi everybody,
I have been slowly but surely adjusting to the new environment that I'm in. Each day gets a little bit more exciting. The celebration for the holiday of Durga Puja is going on now. The streets are being filled with bamboo structure that are held together by twine then covered with giant sheets. From a distance the structure look like real temples instead they are just make shift covers for some wonderful temporary shrines. I have been in two and the art is amazing.
Each time I have entered the temple or have been anywhere I have gotten a lot of strange looks. I've only seen one other white person since I have gotten to Ranchi . I get three reactions from people who seen my some smile and life, others look bewildered, while a few have given me a condescending gaze.
Everybody has heard of cows roaming the streets freely but that is only the beginning here. Animal that roam the street here include dogs, goats, water buffalo, cows, chickens, pigs and people. The strangest thing about all this is the animals are fearless the lay on the side of the road or in the middle of the road and that is an amazing feat considering that cars only stop for cows. The horn is necessary for this feat drivers are almost constantly honking their horn to worn bikes, people, animals, and slower moving traffic the danger that is right behind them.
A sign I saw in Kolkata sums up Indian driving the best when it showed an infant begining carried by a passenger on a motercycle the point of the sign was to promote helmet use.
A sign I saw in Kolkata sums up Indian driving the best when it showed an infant begining carried by a passenger on a motercycle the point of the sign was to promote helmet use.
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