Of Ashrams, Monkeys, Pub Rats and Indian toilets vs. mobiles

A lot has happened in the last few days. Bad karma, probably having its roots in a previous life, has made my mobile fall into an Indian toilet. I have seen my first rat in an Indian restaurant, and of course, it was Oly Pub in Calcutta (believe it or not, I managed to go there about 15 times without ever seeing a rat. That must be a record). I have fed a tortoise named Tobias. We created a new Rum/Bacardi Lime/Cola/Beer drink that, I think, should be called Rubacobee; though I'm still not sure whether or not anyone will have that. But one thing at a time.

I had some wonderful days in Calcutta and I really can't believe that my visit to NUJS is already over again. As I won't know anyone there anymore in a few years, I'll do my best to find a cheap flight to come again next year - not for a trip as long as this one, but maybe a visit for just two weeks, which I would spend only visiting NUJS. I think that would be more than worth it.

My sister seemed to really like Calcutta also, although the city is probably harsh on people that come to India for the very first time. I did the same, but I had the calm retreat of Salt Lake and NUJS Campus, while I took Juliane sightseeing immediately as we had limited time. But loud traffic, crowded areas, pollution, heat and all the other inconveniences did not, from my impression, keep her from agreeing with me that Calcutta has a charme of its own, and that that charme is so predominant that it outweighs all the cons about the city. I'm not sure if it is cons really, as seven people in one auto-rickshaw, honking cars everywhere, so many people working on the streets and shady pubs with rats actually define that charme for me to a large extent.

We also had some time to spend with some of my friends in NUJS, though I feel that I didn't have enough time on Campus and to go out with everyone at all. I'm glad I'll see many of the "noojies" again in Delhi in March and April. I hope that will all work out. What was also sad is that I couldn't say goodbye to everyone properly, but there just wasn't enough time and you never know when everyone will be on campus. Anyway, Julian and I went for Oly Pub with Vardaan, Shubho, Anuj and Joydeep, to lunch with Deepthi and Tobias, to another lunch with Joydeep and Kavana and yet another lunch with Lun.

Oh, and as far as the sightseeing is concerned there are still some places for me to visit in Calcutta that I have not seen, i.e. the Birla Temple, Park Street Cemetry and the Marble Palace.

Anyway, so the last night in Calcutta we stayed at Shubho's place for a wonderful dinner (nice Bengali food) and then flew down to Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu, took a taxi from there to Tiruvanamalai (approximately three and a half hours for, I believe, around 200 kilometres for 2300 rupees - a bit less than 40 Euros, decent for your own car I think) where we're staying in an Ashram by Sri Ramana that Tobias' parents had suggested to us. We haven't spent that much time in the Ashram yet, but will eat there a couple times for sure and look at some of the happenings going on there. It's all for free, or rather, donation-based, so we should really take part in some of the things there I feel. I'm very interested in Indian religions and philosophies and agree with a lot that I've read, but really on a purely intellectual level - I really like watching ceremonies going on, but I feel a bit out of place when it comes to being part of them myself. There's many westerners here that don't seem to see it that way though. Whoever wants to experience hippie life of the 60s and 70s again should probably visit this place.

Today we went from Tiruvanamalai to Gingee, a place 35 kilometres from here that we had seen on the way that features two big forts on two relatively steep hills. We went up one of them, which was quite a task in the bright sun and above 30 degrees Celsius. Thankfully I'm not that temperature-sensitive and feel like I've become a bit accustomed to Indian weather again anyway, and I got a very fancy fishermen's hat in Calcutta for 50 rupees (haggled down from 150 - that was still too much though I think) against sunstrokes. There were many school classes there that were all very excited to see Europeans, so we had to take many pictures of and with them, shake many hands, and explain many times where we were from. Some late-teen boys got a bit annoying (while the teenage girls as well as children were very nice and a bit less assuming), but it was more entertaining than anything else. And a monkey jumped at Juliane to steal a soda bottle from her, but thankfully she managed to hold onto it without being bitten or anything like that.

After that, we went to have a South Indian thali at a place that was not exactly fancy (more or less on the roadside), but had really good and really cheap food: The two of us ate a lot and I had some extra Sprite and the sum only came down to 118 rupees. I really like South Indian food (especially traditionally off a banana leave!), so I hope to get a lot more of that down here. Later today we just want to have a look at the Tiruvanamalai temple (one of the largest in India), tomorrow we plan to get up very early to walk up the mountain here before it gets too hot to do it while still enjoying yourself.

And for anyone wondering about the mobile portion of the first stanza: Indian toilet, having to kneel, which causes pockets to point downwards, and iPhone falling into a black hole. You can imagine the frustration. But it was a freak accident, not my fault!! Let's leave it at that. ;)

I'm back!

Well, I've finally made it back to India! I'm spending a few days living on NUJS Campus in Kolkata, on 23 February my sister Juliane will arrive and then we'll be taking a trip around Southern India: First Tamil Nadu, then Kerala, then Bombay, and then we'll fly up to Delhi for another few days of sightseeing before I start an internship with a law there - this will be another six weeks, so in total I'll be spending ten weeks in India.

I must say that I've never been this happy to return to a place. I flew out from Frankfurt on Sunday morning, 16 February, had a good flight and then had my friend Shubho pick me up from the airport in Kolkata. I was extremely excited when I saw the first signs that I had really come back to India: I could see the Ambassador Taxis from the plane already, and when getting out of the airport I got excited by the smallest things like the smells in the air as well as cows on the street, little shacks by the road and all that. I spent the night at Shubho's place, and it was great to meet him and his family again.

The next morning, we went on to NUJS Campus, which I was anxiously looking forward to. I had only told very few people, like Shubho, that I was coming back, so I knew it would be interesting to see how my friends there would react to a surprise visit... Shubho, who is now in his fifth and final year, was teaching a class to the students in third year, many of which I had become good friends with when studying in India a year ago, so I thought I'd just enter the class with him unannounced. They really all were very surprised, and I was so happy to see them all. Within minutes I felt right at home again.

Now the last couple of days I've been enjoying college life, just being on campus and spending time with everyone, though unfortunately many of them are busy with their vivas (oral presentations of their written projects) at the moment - still, there is always someone that is not so busy at the time, and also, there's Tobias, my friend from Freiburg who is now doing a semester here just like I did, and Roman, who I also know from Freiburg and who is studying for two trimesters in another law college (NLS) in Bangalore, Tobias' parents that have come to visit, and Hava, another German student who is here for an entire year (which I think is a good idea - people have been asking me whether I had come back for an entire semester and I wished I could say yes. A part of me wished I had just planned to spend the entire ten weeks in NUJS, but many of the students will be in Delhi at the same time that I'll be there)

Anyway, there's still some things I have to take care of before I can be fully connected again - I cannot use my Indian SIM card anymore that I had last week, so I hope to get a new one soon. Hopefully, I'll be able to use that to go online also, especially when traveling. But for now, I just want to enjoy being back here and spending as much time with my friends as possible... I'm sure the days will pass all too quickly.