free tibet

I am in dharamsala right now, where the dalai lama is living in exile. usually it's pretty shanti shanti here, but things have changed ever since the massacres in lhasa in mid-march. half of the tibetan shops were closed when I arrived, out of solidarity with the strikes in tibet. tibetans, even the monks, are painting their faces with pro-tibet slogans. everyone, including foreigners, is displaying a tibetan flag. there are at least 2 different hunger strikes going on. walls throughout the town are papered with news articles from around the world regarding the massacre, pictures of murdered monks, and painted signs expressing tibetan frustration. there are continuous marches throughout the day, and candlelight vigils and prayers at the temple complex at night.

as a western liberal, I've always known I should be pro-tibet, but I never actually felt what that meant until I got here. it is really sobering to see how little power and leverage these people have against a behemoth like china, and how no country will actually step up to defend these people if it means acting against their economic interests. for example, nancy pelosi and 9 senators came to dharamsala to meet with the dalai lama, and there are still signs up saying "thank you, united states, for supporting the tibetan cause." that makes me want to cry.

or, we could just do that

I needed to recharge my cell phone today but there was no electrical outlet in my room. I asked the owner of my guesthouse where I could find an outlet, and he replied that there was one on the wall near my room. I was fine with just plugging my phone in right then and there, but, nice guy that he is, he offered to set up an extension cord into my room.



hello, shady, shady live wires.

kind of like being back on the J train platform

this is the Karni Mata temple in Deshnok, renowned for its holy rats. around 22,000 of them.

there's a neat story behind it, something about the hindu goddess Durga asking the god of death to resurrect the son of some guy, and when he refuses, she takes all the souls in the underworld and turns them into rats, thereby depriving him of company. something like that. either way, the story was the least of my concerns in this temple, especially since I arrived shortly before dawn in time for their morning feeding. in case you're not sure what's going on in that last photo, those are 2 rats nibbling at my feet -- thank god the sadhu was nice enough to give me booties.

what can YOU fit in a pickup truck with an extended cab and short bed?

because in India, you can definitely fit:
* 14 people in the bed, as long as 4 people are standing. oh, and 2 goats.
* 2 people on the roof, though I think 4 would still have been comfortable
* 4 women in the backseat with 5 children in their laps
* 3 people in front, in addition to the driver

welcome to my ride across the thar desert to get back to jaiselmer.

definitely better than backgammon

in an earlier post, I talked about games I had invented to make the time pass quicker while on the squat toilet (see, "even better than set or scrabble"). I have a small addendum to that.

Bullshit: (esp good if you have just taken a 3 hour cooking class or are in a town with Gujarati food) you create a massive pile of shit on the porcelain, and then see how many quarter buckets of water it takes to flush it down into the hole.

is this becoming excessive? I think it probably is.

a sunset that is . . .memorable

looking at this picture, you'd think I just went to some badass indian rock concert, right? nope, I went to watch the sunset. that's right folks, these people are filing off of a mountain. I'm in mt. abu right now, which absorbs a lot of the honeymooning runoff from udaipur, and sunset point is supposed to be one of the most romantic things to do here. I mean really, can you imagine anything more romantic than . . .



walking up a shit-stained street, hand-in-hand with your beloved . . .



so you can sit on benches and crowd around with 1,000 of your closest indian newlywed friends (while women walk around selling bhel puri, chai, and other snacks, of course) . . .



and take pictures as the sun (what you can see of it, as there are probably people in front of you) sets into dust? smog? what is that?

Bond does india

Udaipur is my first stop in Rajasthan, and any local will tell you that it's most famous for its part in 'Octopussy,' a mediocre Bond film (Roger Moore, not even Sean Connery). after spending a good chunk of the day walking around, I was a little miffed to discover the following discrepancies between the film and reality:

1) There are gorgeous western women running around half naked and in perfect hair and makeup, everywhere. Manning the rows on the boat, at casinos in sheer tops, bellydancing for guards, all of it a veritable boobfest. First of all, those women don't exist here-- most western women here are pretty grizzled from all the travelling they've been doing, and I certainly didn't see any dirty hippies in that movie. Secondly, those women would definitely be gawked at and/or harrassed and I didn't see a single sideways glance from anyone. that sounds harsh, but it's a reality -- india is probably not the best place to play out your half-naked harem fantasies, yet here is Octopussy, leading a rogue band of hot women on a scantily-clad-women's-only island in the middle of udaipur's lake. wtf?

2) Bond escapes into a jungle, where he is pursued not only by the bad guys, but also every single type of animal you would stereotypically find in a jungle. there isn't even a jungle around here, but if there were, you certainly wouldn't find a crocodile in it. some would argue that the tiger is legit, but I think we're in the wrong part of india for it. and the big snake is reasonable, but to encounter all of these within 3 minutes? udaipur is the honeymoon capital of india because it's tame and pretty, not because it's the bush.

3) the bad guy's bodyguard is a huge indian guy wearing a turban. I really don't think any of the hollywood producers were thoughtful enough to think, hmmm, he's wearing a turban because we want him to be Sikh. nope, I bet the producer was like, OOOH, what is more indian than a turban? and come on, he has maybe one line in the movie! all he does is grunt, and bring out all sorts of exotic weapons with which to fight Bond. a totally disappointing representation of indian people.

4) no head wobble, no one spitting betel nut juice, no indian music anywhere, and only one cow the entire film? they might as well have saved their money and filmed on a set in Queens, because the only thing they got right was the crazy rickshaw driving.