The stereotyping

So one of my professor gave a decent set of stereotypes of Indians which is interested enough that it gets to go into the blog by itself.  ( ) give the explantion of the stereotype.

It goes along the lines that when God(s) created the Indian people, he started spreading out beauty in the north and worked his way south, (north Indians are normally fairer skinned which is seen as more attractive by Indian standards, sidenote many facial and skin beauty products over here also contain a bleaching agent to actually lighten one's skin which is weird). Then to dish out intelligence God(s), started in the south and went north. (Southern Indians are generally higher educated and more literate than northern Indians, and many northern Indian groups such as Punjabi's are stereotyped as being dumb).   Then starting in the west God(s) began to give out wealth and worked his way east (Western India is where some of the richest Indian states are such as Gujarat and Punjab, and is also where Mumbai/Bombay, the financial capital of India is located.  Additionally the Eastern states are some of the poorest states in India and many have insurgencies i.e. Maoists relating to the widespread poverty).  Finally, when it came to emotions God(s) started in the east and went west (East Indians are stereotyped as being very emotional and many of India's great artistic intellectuals and writers are from the east, with Kolkata/Calcutta generally regarded as the literary capital of India. The west Indians, especially Gujaratis, on the other hand are stereotyped as being interested in money and little else.)

While these are stereotypes and therefore not necessarily true, they are at least partly true like any decent stereotype and provide an interesting way of understanding India which is an extremely diverse country with many different languages and cultures inside the country.  Some other stereotypes that I have been repeatedly told is that people from southern India tend to be more laid back and easy-going, Punjabis are jolly people, and northern Indians are more aggressive.  The good thing about being here in Manipal is that I get to meet people from all over India without actually having to visit every part, which would take a long time.

Procrastination in India

As I sit here feeling uncomfortably full, dinner+ a box full of cereal, I realize that I have no desire to write the reasonable paper for class tomorrow.  Foolish of me to think that I could do this paper before it was due shortly now that I am in India.  Also despite looking like regular corn flakes, I believe the cereal actually has a some drug in it as I cannot stop eating the cereal when I have it or thinking about eating it when I run out of it.


Shakti must mean nicotine

Anyways a bit more about life here, I live in a boys hostel (dorm) as all the hostels are segregated by sex.  The girls have this awkward curfew where they have to be signed into and physically in their hostels by 10:30 at the moment although this is expected to be pushed back soon.  Luckily, Indians only feel that girls need to be back before its too late, so I have no curfew to speak of...I think.  Continuing on the conservative side, girl-boy relationships  here are 'interesting' involving a lot of close talking and awkwardly holding hands and thats about it.  I really should write this paper about Indian newspapers.  Must eat strawberry cereal.  Also wed. was Republic Day, a national holiday which meant no classes, and a very militant flag raising ceremony in which the contingents of students from various departments marched around the greens in formations.  On a side note the opposition BJP political party(hindu nationalist) called a state wide bandh (strike) which led to some regrettable road and business closures and bus stonings.  All that to support their minister who is being prosecuted for corruption and who has the brilliant defense of everyone else was doing it too. 

Time to write, but not really.

Live from the south

So finally getting the chance to update the blog on a pirated Internet connection as the infamous bureaucracy of India has yet to process the forms for my connection.  Anyways classes have started and I met Dean Goodman of SIS repeatedly much more than I've ever seen him in the US.  Even had lunch with him and a British nuclear physicist one day.   I have traveled around to several Jain and Hindu temple sights in the area and have been eating everything that is put in front of me with no problems so far.  I don't know generally what it is I am eating unless it is a type of bread or rice.  Lots of tasty, spicy multi-colored glop really.  The temperature over here is solidly in the 90s with reasonable humidity which wouldn't be terrible if one wasn't wearing pants or jeans, but that's what people wear.  This is the first study abroad program for manipal uni, so they have made a big deal about everything, which has been awkward at times as they give us a lot of attention.  The other American kids in the program, 7 girls, are all in the public health courses, which means that 2 of my classes are simply myself and the professor, and the others are with the Indian geopolitics students.  A little weird but should be manageable.  Additionally, the I seem to be adding a great deal to these classes as the professors and students regularly ask me wide ranging questions about the US such as how American protests are. 

So to conclude this ramble India is chaotic, colorful, hot, inexpensive (seriously like 1/6 the cost of things in the US somethings even cheaper) and extremely contradictory. 

Traveling

As I prepare to leave the snow blanketed state of New Jersey for the tropical high 80s of Southern India, I find myself with nothing better to do than creating a blog that will be occasionally updated with things, thus mimicking all the people who just got back from their semesters abroad.  Currently I have a flight from Newark to Mumbai, a mere 16 or so hours of flight time plus a 10.5 hour time difference between myself and one of the native homelands.  Upon arriving at Mumbai at around 10 on Tuesday night I then get to be put up in a airport hotel in Mumbai for 8 hours before I get on a domestic flight to Mangalore in the south.  Upon arriving in Mangalore I look forward to a 1.5 hr bus ride to the coast where Manipal and the uni are.  So assuming everything goes as planned I leave at 8:20 EST on Monday and arrive in Manipal at roughly 4 in the afternoon India time on Wed.  The expected joys of traveling.