There are a number of things I should be doing, writing a 40 page paper is number one. But currently, I actually have 45 pages so it will all work out. After some retrospection which can only occur after watching the newest Sarah Kay video on TED (http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_how_many_lives_can_you_live.html), I understand why I have spent nearly obsessive hours editing this paper. It is not, as my parents and anyone else who has ever edited a paper of mine may hope, a new found adoration for the rules of grammar, but my tiny attempt to place on paper nearly four weeks spent alone in India. In a Himalayan Village.
In a Himalayan Village. Nearly 9,000 feet in the air. With soaring mountain peaks and birds just outside my window. I'm not sure how my study came out, there is lots of editing to do. What I do know however is that translating the indelible mark of the people I sat with and the beauty I experienced is nearly impossible to do. So please forgive me as I fail, because we all have those stories that we can't quite share with everyone we love anyways right? Which nearly makes them better, and forces you to live them fully
Here is my top 10 list of things to know about my study experience in Uttarkashi ( in no particular order):
1. Chai with milk warm from the cow, vegetables I picked that morning, and a fire with wood gathered in the afternoon - there are not supermarkets. If you want something, you make it. You milk the cow, you gather the wood, you knit the sweater. Hand plows are still used in abundance, contrary to my experiences at Hale Farm and Village as a child, they are not a tool of the past.
2. Laughing with Nani-Ji, Anju, and Gayatri-Ji - She spoke Gharwali, I spoke English ( with a bit of Hindi), and that small woman with her Gharwali blessings helped me laugh harder than I had in weeks.
3. Ambica and the Swing - Ambica is eight, one of six children, and we would shout our English numbers as loud as we could as I pushed her on the tire swing outside of my room. Our voices echoing against the concrete.
4. The Hilarity of making two separate forms of media; two different newspapers in Uttarkashi and the Etv local evening news, speaking in Hindi in the latter may I just add.
5. Everything involving Motorcycles and Himalayan roads
6. My cell phone - little Nokia phone bought for $11. Thank you for connecting me whenever I needed with some pretty wonderful people scattered throughout the world. I couldn't have done it without you.
7. Sukhi Village - As we made chopatis, Gayatri-Ji, her sister, and her neice, nestled in this tiny room with a wood burning fire, the sun woke up. Smoke filling the air until the eyes stung, the sun shot through the clouds of the room. On cue, every person raised a hand in thank you. I'm not sure I've ever thanked the sun before. But maybe it's time I start.
8. Ladu - both the person and the sweet. Ladu the person for making me laugh at my terrible Hindi, and the sweet for just being really absurdly delicious.
9. Sunsets - Mountains are never just blue or grey at sunsets, they are a rainbow of color. the sky shifting from blue to yellow, to the pink reflection of the glaciers. The world melts from the normal blue of the shadows in daytime to the rainbow of the sunset to the blackness of night. Oh, and the ability to sit on a roof and watch it happen.
10. Rooftops - conducting interviews on climate change, while sitting on the roof of a home, learning interesting things and hearing people's stories juxtaposed against mountains. Welcome to field research
these photos are largely from a hike to the home of two very wonderful people, and the three days spent in Landour ( near Mussoorie) with Patrick. The flags are from a hill top known as Flag hill. From the top you can see Tibet, Tibetans place flags here to mark the location.
In a Himalayan Village. Nearly 9,000 feet in the air. With soaring mountain peaks and birds just outside my window. I'm not sure how my study came out, there is lots of editing to do. What I do know however is that translating the indelible mark of the people I sat with and the beauty I experienced is nearly impossible to do. So please forgive me as I fail, because we all have those stories that we can't quite share with everyone we love anyways right? Which nearly makes them better, and forces you to live them fully
Here is my top 10 list of things to know about my study experience in Uttarkashi ( in no particular order):
1. Chai with milk warm from the cow, vegetables I picked that morning, and a fire with wood gathered in the afternoon - there are not supermarkets. If you want something, you make it. You milk the cow, you gather the wood, you knit the sweater. Hand plows are still used in abundance, contrary to my experiences at Hale Farm and Village as a child, they are not a tool of the past.
2. Laughing with Nani-Ji, Anju, and Gayatri-Ji - She spoke Gharwali, I spoke English ( with a bit of Hindi), and that small woman with her Gharwali blessings helped me laugh harder than I had in weeks.
3. Ambica and the Swing - Ambica is eight, one of six children, and we would shout our English numbers as loud as we could as I pushed her on the tire swing outside of my room. Our voices echoing against the concrete.
4. The Hilarity of making two separate forms of media; two different newspapers in Uttarkashi and the Etv local evening news, speaking in Hindi in the latter may I just add.
5. Everything involving Motorcycles and Himalayan roads
6. My cell phone - little Nokia phone bought for $11. Thank you for connecting me whenever I needed with some pretty wonderful people scattered throughout the world. I couldn't have done it without you.
7. Sukhi Village - As we made chopatis, Gayatri-Ji, her sister, and her neice, nestled in this tiny room with a wood burning fire, the sun woke up. Smoke filling the air until the eyes stung, the sun shot through the clouds of the room. On cue, every person raised a hand in thank you. I'm not sure I've ever thanked the sun before. But maybe it's time I start.
8. Ladu - both the person and the sweet. Ladu the person for making me laugh at my terrible Hindi, and the sweet for just being really absurdly delicious.
9. Sunsets - Mountains are never just blue or grey at sunsets, they are a rainbow of color. the sky shifting from blue to yellow, to the pink reflection of the glaciers. The world melts from the normal blue of the shadows in daytime to the rainbow of the sunset to the blackness of night. Oh, and the ability to sit on a roof and watch it happen.
10. Rooftops - conducting interviews on climate change, while sitting on the roof of a home, learning interesting things and hearing people's stories juxtaposed against mountains. Welcome to field research
these photos are largely from a hike to the home of two very wonderful people, and the three days spent in Landour ( near Mussoorie) with Patrick. The flags are from a hill top known as Flag hill. From the top you can see Tibet, Tibetans place flags here to mark the location.
