Typical

Please excuse this break in regularly scheduled blogging about Rishikesh, but my host father bought this Rs 150 ($3) bug zapper that he just brought out, and he's running around the apartment annihilating bugs with this terrifying tennis racket-type thing. You swat the bug ("The best ones are the ones that are in the air! They just fry to bits.") and there's a zapping sound and a zapping light thing that comes from the metal grating and then the bug is no more. It's hilarious and slightly terrifying because I highly doubt bug zappers sold on the streets of Delhi are regulated at all. For all I know that thing is strong enough to kill things bigger than bugs (but hopefully not). Conveniently but confusingly, the zapper also comes with a built-in flashlight, which is useful whenever the power goes out (which is fairly frequently). Keep on zapping, Adil!

While I'm here, actually, let me tell you about a few Hindi miscommunications in the last week or so:

1. Last week, Adil and Khadeeja were giving the baby a bath before we went to the went, so I tried to make a Hindi joke (always, always a risky call with my level of language knowledge) by saying, "Bacchi gundi hai," which means, "The baby is dirty." I realize this isn't really a joke, but bear with me. Apparently "gunda" with a short "u" sound means dirty, but I said "gunda," with a long "u" sound, which means villain or goon, so Adil and Khadeeja thought I was calling the baby a rascal. Sorry Imaan!

2. Later, in the car, we were talking about how most Indian people are fairly short. Again, trying to break out my Hindi (I do this a lot with varying results), I said "chote log," which means small or short people. Apparently, though, it's a somewhat offensive term referring to low class people or people with small hearts, so I unintentionally insulted the whole of the Indian population (all 1.2 billion of them, oops). Sorry Indian people!

3. In Sarah Kate's Hindi oral exam, Goutam Ji asked her the word for dog, which is "kutta." She responded with the feminine form, "kutti," which is used the same way that the word bitch is used in the United States (aka not in a positive way). Sorry Goutam Ji!