I have a lot of thoughts, but not all of them go very far, so I'm going to use this post for all of my little thoughts that will likely develop over the next three months here but right now are just little thought nuggets.
~ I will have to come back to India at some point. I already can tell. There is no way I'm going to be able to see everything and do everything I want to do in three months while taking classes. The country is huge and diverse in all sorts of ways, and it's going to be impossible to see the Himalayas and Goa and Hyderabad and Mumbai and Rishikesh and Calcutta in one trip. They also don't speak Hindi in southern India, so it would be somewhat of a waste for me to do my independent research project in a place where I can't use what I've been studying.
~ Today my host dad was talking about how India's economic growth is potentially unsustainable because it relies on the cheap labor of the (at least) 400 million Indians that can't afford the basic necessities, which consists of things like shelter, two meals a day, etc. He said eventually growth will stall or some kind of social upheaval will occur. All I could think about was wanting to write a short story about an uprising of the tragically poor Indian peasantry and the restructuring of society, but I don't know enough and there's the small issue of me not having any kind of creative writing talent.
~ Men here think all American women are easy, and some people think western culture is the downfall of good, traditional Indian society. Although my gut reaction is to take some offense, the more I'm here and the more I see of Indian "modernity," the more I can see why people feel this way.
~ I am so hot and sweaty all the time. It's like permanent Bonnaroo body and I think I have some kind of heat rash on my inner elbow. Lovely, right? It's fine, I'm just not used to the humidity and heat and pollution. Thus, I'm in desperate need of doing laundry.
~ I lose my train of thought easily so I can't think of other things right now. Apparently I might be taking bucket showers here? I guess I'll find out tomorrow!
In closing, here is a song/dance sequence from Three Idiots:
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