Settling in

Victories.

the other night I was invited to go see a tabla solo performance. It was absolutely pouring rain, cats and dogs, and I wasn't sure where I was going. I took a rickshaw and held my umbrella out over the driver. he got me as far down the main road as he could, and then it was up to me to navigate the Gullis, (alleys). It was dark and now the alleys were rivers. What was neat though was that if I had tried this two weeks ago I probably would have been irritated and terrified of the filthy water, but this night it was more like an adventure. It was fun. I asked people all along the way and always got welcomed smiles and responses like "you know hindi?!"

Part way there I met a small boy with a huge backpack on his shoulders. He said that he would show me how to get there, so I held the umbrella over his head and the flashlight as we waded through ankle deep streams over large cobblestone blocks. We rounded a few corners when the road went down hill a ways. At the bottom, there was a lake easily 3 or 4 feet deep. I asked my 8 year old guide if there was another way to get there and he said "Come on." On the way we passed by his house and he ran in quickly to drop off his bag and then proceeded to take me the rest of the way to the concert - which wasn't that far at that point. When I got there, I thanked him and was so presently surprised that he didn't ask me for money or anything - I think he just really liked the fact that I talked to him. Now I feel like I am starting to "get" this place. It isn't intimidating any more. I can go anywhere find anything, just by asking. Yes it is confusing and filled with twists and turns, but people are always willing to help and it is nice that I have had so many experiences that have not directly resulted in requests for money. It is nice to feel like a human and not a walking wallet (as is usually the case in tourist India).

Inside the concert was held in honor of Ganesh for whom there is a 6 day festival held primarily in Maharashtra. Apparently, the Marathi community of Banaras was sponsoring this event. One thing I did learn is that when they say that it will start at 730, they really mean about 9. When I was leaving at 11pm they told me that there was still another act and invited me to return the next day as well. I asked the nice gentleman what time it would start tomorrow, he said 730. I said, like today? He said. Yes. :)

The concert itself was really good. It was better than most concerts I saw in Lucknow and just as good as many of the concerts I have seen in New York. It was in a small hall so they didn't overblast the microphones as they seemed to do every time I saw live music in Lucknow.

The next day was also great filled with fun conversations at the Tabla Makers' shop and more discussions about music performance with players.

Of course, I knew it couldn't last forever as I woke up this morning with a stomach bug, and forgot that if I touch my refrigerator door barefoot I will get an electric shock. Oh well, now I'm forced to make time to read (and wear sandals)!

The hills are alive...

... with the sound of one-on-one Hindi lessons......!
I'm in cool, rainy, wonderul Mussoorie!! Poor Allen is still stuck in hot, sweaty, sticky Varanasi!
(giggle)

I'm up here to go to the Landour Language School - work on my Hindi while trying to escape the heat (and subsequent heat rash and eczema). One of the wonderful things (depending I guess on how you look at it) is that I feel totally disconnected from anything up here. There is no internet at the guest house I'm staying at or at the school where I spend most of my time. Who needs Google Reader when the mountains are staring you right in the face! Who needs email when you can just sit in your room and think (or nap) for hours on end!

So, I'm warning you in advance that you might not hear much from me while I'm up here. So Allen will be the lead blogger for a while ....



......



So...... you may not hear from both of us for a month or so, but rest assured that we're having fun and having plenty of adventures - that I'll be sure to update you all about when I get back.

:)

How Language Shapes Our Cultural Norms

Students of linguistic anthropology would not be surprised by me claiming that language can shape our view of the world... but the impact of that process is hard to see when you're learning your first language because you have no basis for comparison.

I'll admit that when I learned the smattering of Spanish and French that I now have at my command, I didn't feel that a strong cultural clash was coming through my new found understanding ... most likely because those cultures, while different, were still Western and retained many similar underlying cultural principles.

Learning Hindi is like entering into a new and secret world.

First, you start off with an entirely new script and alphabet. Instead of your A, B, Cs you learn your Ka (क), Kha (ख), Ga's (ग) . Word order is entirely different, in your head if you translate literally you sound a bit like Yoda (Allen Ghar par hai = Allen home at is). But this isn't the stuff that shapes culture per say, just a sign of how two systems could develop differently. No, what I'm talking about starts popping up by Chapter 6 of "Teach Yourself Hindi"... these examples range from silly to more serious --- but hopefully we'll keep updating this list.

The infinite names for family relations
Following up from my recent wedding post ... not only do you have about a million names for your various family members, but they are all based on reference to the husband's family - because the wife has given up her family to join the family of her husband.

There is no word for boyfriend/girlfriend
Almost goes without saying in a culture of arranged marriages, but was still sort of surprising to learn. I've been told by several friends that "love marriages" as seen as synonymous with elopement and are distinctly frowned upon as being anti-social. Not hard to imagine given that it is not supposed you get to spend lots of time with your spouse (and hence really know them) until after you're married.

There is no word for "Please" b/c it is built into the language in different command forms or verb tenses/registers.
Again, not so terribly surprising if you've come across informal/formal "you" forms before, but what makes Hindi interesting is how many gradients of respect are available in the language. From Rupert Snell's "Teach Yourself Hindi":

tu - indicates great intimacy and is used in addressing a close loved one or a small child

tum - is informal and casual and is used with a person expecting no formality or deference - a friend, child or servant

ap - is relatively formal; it indicates the respect one shows towards equals (and above!) and is the natural choice in conversations with all people not falling into the previous categories

A good example of this distinction comes from a story one of our American friends told us. She was hosting a birthday party for her daughter and had invited all of the neighborhood children that she plays with. The mom was trying to get the children's attention for another game, but was using the ap form for her command and she couldn't understand why none of the kids would listen to her. Then one of the other mothers issued the same call for order in the tu command and all the children quited down ---- they weren't accostumed to being addressed in any way other than as tu.

Causative verb construction = Servant verb construction
This is pretty advanced grammer, so I don't know all the nuances of this construction - but there is a verb tense in Hindi that recognizes the presence of servants ... it is a very construction that says "I did this thing but through the actions of someone else". Like the difference between "I put out the fire (myself - implied)" and "I put out the fire by telling so-and-so to do it." It came up in Allen's class because they were watching a movie about a King - where all of his "actions" were done through some other agent.

This is just a work in progress ... hopefully we'll have some more neat language examples for you as we progress.

Lucknow!

(another note from Allen)

I have successfully oriented in Delhi and am now in Luck. now. I am in Luck, now. or so it may seem. Today I visited my soon to be host family for a very short time and will move in tomorrow. They seem nice and the room seems clean. I don't really know much yet. They showed me that there was an alleyway which led to a door directly to my room. I wonder if that means they don't want me to be in the rest of the house? we'll find out. The only member of the family I met was the mother. She seemed very nice, she is very Hindu - so that will help me to keep increasing my hindi vocabulary while learning Urdu - which is kind of perfect. She kind of reminded me of one of my Hindi Teachers back at NYU... Anyhow, more to come. Tomorrow is the placement test. Wish me luck!