sita, ram, strippers and rice pudding..SUNDAY FUNDAY!

This past sunday the 5 of us (alizarin, ruth, me and the victorias) set off at 7 am - in a sketchy white kidnappers van with dirty shag carpeted seats facing eachother like a diner booth -into the Madhya Pradesh countryside. As we took berasia road out of the city we watched the UCC Factory's presence slowly and eerily stretch and then diminish- first the factory itself and then a series of dingy, patchily overgrown fields (undoubtedly heavily contaminated) studded with the occasional metal structure, and then just past some railroad tracks where we saw what we believe to be the infamous solar evaporation ponds full of toxic waste that are causing much of the contamination (completely unguarded and not roped off with a few people walking on their edges). once we got out of the city the atmosphere was so different- small, rough brick houses with neatly painted teak columns, openness unimagined in the bustle of Bhopal in the form of fields and fields.. some with little green sprigs, some dry and burning (we couldn’t figure out why but it was definitely intentional), and a few full of marigolds. Our driver blasted the one bollywood cd he brought along, sang off key and chewed neon red paan (a mix of betel nut, spices, sometimes tobacco and paan leaves that many Indians love/are addicted to) incessantly, often stopping to our dismay to buy more and spit globs of bloody-looking saliva through his maroon striped teeth. As you can probably guess, we weren’t to happy with him but it was Sunday funday and no one could bring us down.

After about 45 min we made it to Sanchi, one of the most impressive series of stupas (buddhist structures commemorating Guatama and his teachings.. They are shaped like upside down bows because when a disciple asked buddha to design a structure that followers could congregate around to remember him in the future he used his only 3 objects a walking stick, a beggar's bowl and a shawl.. TADA a stupa! one more buddhist factoid: according to the book i was browsin on at Sanchi when buddha had his epiphany he saw 4 things- a diseased man, a dead man, a monk and the last which i had never heard before STRIPPERS. i thought that was funny...) in India- initially built by the highly regarded Buddhist leader Ashoke and then added on to over the ages before being deserted, rediscovered amidst the jungle.

Sanchi was beautiful. We were ripped off for the white girl price of 250 rps. each compared to the indian 5!!! We entered only after wading through a rowdy procession of cows that happened to cross in front of the gate just ahead of us. they were all still decorated from divali with painted horns and henna dalmatian polka dots. once in we walked around, appreciating the ornate gateways, massive stupas, parthenon-esque ruins and many smooth buddhas with their faces taken off (we thought by thieves or maybe the mughals, muslim leaders in the 16th century, or other muslims since portraying the human form is sacrilege in Islam). We met some buddhists from singapore who were circumemulating (in other words walkin round and round and chanting real solemn like) and chuckled a bit at some snatched white american buddhists humming and rocking in corners.

We fumbled back into the conversation-encouraging van with only the driver in the front seat this time and began our trek to Udaygiri in neutral down the mini-mountain that Sanchi's stupas are perched on. We wondered at the burning method we saw some people using on their crops and laughed at the driver for stopping more times than we could count for paan, water (he made dede get out and hold his bottle under the tap while he pumped from a spiggot on the side of the road. humiliating), and to ask for directions, because when you're stuck in the backseat of someone's van and are hours away from anywhere you know and everything's in Hindi but you speak only English, all you can do is laugh.

When we got to Udaygiri, which was only 16 km away from Sanchi, we were greeted with choruses of "Money? Chocolate? Pen?" from all the local kids. And really, if you were to know only three words in English, could choose three with more crutial significance than these? We walked into the open metal gates that surrounded Udaygiri's rock formations and started searching for the Hindu and Jain cave temples that we'd read about in our guide books. Shortly, we realized that the temples were spread out over kilometers of land and that we wouldn't really be able to see many of them anyway and that a few had been locked up years ago because the ceilings were in dangerous condition. We hiked to the top of the rock formations and wondered at all of the people chopping up this plant (smelled like Sweet Annie, which can help fight malaria, but we never figured out what it was) for its branches. The view from the peak was vast and serene. The sun suggested we take a sit-down to collect ourselves and admire the moseying river, acres of farm plots, and chortle at the one satisfied cow that was grazing the who field on its lonesome. What a contrast to the American meat industry, something we've all been hearing a ton about since Dede picked up Food, Inc. It was a beautiful place but our visit was cut short because we all got separated and had to meet a Victoria at the car because we couldn't find her up in the rocks.

We debated going to Bhojpur (waaay south) and decided to stick with the original plan and visit Vidaisha. We traded numbers with the driver and told him we'd be back after some time so we could walk around and get a bite to eat on our own. We started asking around for a restaurant and quickly realized that there was only one restaurant spot in Vidaisha and it was about a kilometer away. We stopped at a vender on the ground to buy jingly ankle bracelets and didn't get as ripped off as we could have thanks to Victoria's bartering skills before we got to the restaurant. We had a delicious meal of chapaatis, curried vegetables, chana (chickpeas), kafta (a paneer dish), and another paneer dish, coming to a grand total of Rs. 300 (6 dollars for 5 people! I love hindustannnn!)

On the way back to the van we stopped in a curtained-off storefront temple and got invited to sing and cymbol-chime along to "Sita RAM!" with a bunch of wrinkly, enthusiastic and friendly old men (one of whom we nicknamed snoop for his resemblance to the rapper and who was dancing around like a madman and smilingly teaching ruth his bell-making method).We were jamming and laughing so hard that we didn't realize the crowd gathering outside looking in until it was so thick we couldn't see the street. Turns out they don't get many tourists in Vidaisha.

Ruth and I picked up a couple mini Hindi-English dictionaries and Dede got a neon orange anklet on our way back to meeting our disgruntled driver, who we thankfully saw driving down the road. We hopped in and ended Sunday Funday with Roman's pasta and sauce made from scratch and some 30 Rock in Sathyu's room.