Busy day planned for the day so long as my body does not decide to alter the plan. I am running a little behind schedule already for my scheduled internet time, but now that I'm here, paying double what I should for internet, I might as well stick around a little awhile. After this I plan to pop over to the University and interview students. I want to ask questions about how the caste system affects body image, and how individuals feel in their body and the agency they view over their bodies. How Hinduism affects relationship with the body, also how myth affects the day to day life, and how all the constant sensory input changes the way they experience their bodies. Who knows what sort of answers I'll get, or if I'll even be able to make a connection. After that I plan to meet my friend on the roof of the hotel. I have a friend from a class here in Varanasi, I knew he was going to be here, and was trying to connect and last night I ran into him on the street. Always bizarre to see a familiar face on the other side of the world, even when you somewhat expect it. Then at 4 I plan to meet Raju to see the silks he made by hand. I want to get a scarf for my mom (thats right mom, for you! What color do you want? I kind of doubt that you'll be able to respond before I get one, however) Then he will take us to get astrology readings.
Ok, so consider this series of events that may or may not be related for a moment. Yesterday afternoon I went to the Kirtan place Raju showed me. It was all religious men there when I first walked in, and they invited me to sit with them and gave my symbols to play. They seemed delighted I was there, and even more so when I knew the words. Jaya jaya sita ram... pretty easy. They were all delighted, that is, except for one of them. An older man in orange robes. He kept scowling at me. Was not satisfied with how I played the symbols and kept correcting me, and just never seemed to be very happy withmy presence. He seemed pretty happy to eventually forcefully take the symbols away from me when I was taking a picture, as one of the men indicated for me to do. I pretty much tried to ignore this fellow, everyone else seemed really happy I was there, and there were even some other tourists who came in to sing too, who probably did way worse than me, but this guy still singled me out to scowl at. Finally I left, gave a 50 ruppee donation and walked away. He seemed happy about the donation. I walked back towards the hotel and out to the ghats, and as I was trying to find the ayervedic massage and yoga place Raju showed me, I swear I saw the same guy in the orange robes. Now it must have been someone else, but it seriously looked like the same guy, and he looked at me with a knowing expression, scowled at me again and said something in Hindi that sounded like a curse. I then tried to find the ayervedic place and couldn't find it. It seriously isn;t possible for me to have not been able to find it, it was so obvious, but yet it was completely absent to me, and within 20 seconds of seeing that dude I suddenly had an attack of stomach cramps and needed to rush back to the hotel. An unrelated chain of events of a connected story? Up for you to decide, I suppose. I have my feelings about it. A really interesting book I purchased yesterday with several psychological journals on Indian identity was talking about how the causal reality of many Indian's lives are dictated by myth in ways it would be difficult for an observer to understand.
This country seems incredibly psychic. Street vendors laugh at me as I try to make it back in time. They don't seem to laugh at me other times...
Went to a performance yesterday night. First citar and tabla followed by traditional kathak dance. An Indian man asked me for some of my water to take a pill, which really threw me off. It went against all the subconscious health precautions I took on coming to this country, and I accidently made a scowling face at him. "Problem?" has asked? I said no, and indicated for him not to put his lips on the bottle. He said of course, and drank. I then found out this man was a pretty famous musician, whom the musicians playing for us were very honored to have as an audience member. Geez, of course. I hoped for the next few seconds that I didn't make too much of an ass of myself and proceeded to have my leg fall asleep several times during the performance to jolt and knock down my waterbottle on the fellows leg. Not open, of course.
The dance was awesome! I had some huge insights for my project while watching it. J9 mind, you've done it again! Observed and oicked up pieces for about a week now while not seeming to do much at all, and then bang, a concept is formed and all the pieces organize themself around it beautifully. Good, I was worried I wasn't doing anything! I made some big connections between the relationship between myth and embodiment. Hinduism has this huge cast of characteristics prevalent in the univer to choose from to embody. They move through individuals and mobilize them, and I believe one's relationship with their body in this lifestyle has something to do with being able to allow myths, stories and energies to fluidly move through them when they need to. The dance was really about that. Embodying gods and goddesses and telling stories with the body. Beautiful.
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