Day 7-8: Brunch & First Sanskrit lesson

 I live on the 10th floor which is the top floor of the apartment building and there are two rather nice balcony which get really breezy. This morning I spent an hour in meditation listening to Durga’s recording of the Sanskrit sabdas. My goal for this summer is to memorize all 160 plus sabdas (the vowels and the consonants). It will be challenging but if I know all the sabdas, it will take me closer to my goal.

view from the other balcony (ppl washing clothes)

After meditation, we went out for brunch somewhere in Pune. It seems like motorbike will be my means of transportation if I’m going out with my housemates--it’s fast and fun. Cars are really only available for the upper-class Indians. To demonstrate their point, they asked me how much would a used Honda cost in America. I gave them an estimate of around 8-13 thousand. In India, however, the same car would cost 50,000 dollars. India is trying to discourage its citizens from driving--gas costs roughly about 6 dollars/gallon. We did the conversion b/c gas sold in India is by the liter and not by gallon.

always a line at the gas station

had some really good dosas here

The road in Pune is much better than that in Delhi--it’s wider and not a whole lot of traffic. There are a lot of apartment buildings too all over Pune and the city right now is growing very fast because of the IT sector.

We went out for brunch at a local place and I shared dosa with one of my housemate. The dosas were very tasty. It’s made by some kind of flour that has been deep-fried and inside it are very tasty potatoes. All of us had a good time...they helped me with some Hindi words. Turns out that one of my housemate is going back home to pursue a business degree. He wants to become an investor, previously he was a software engineer. He has about 4-5 bags and he’s taking a bus which I think will take about 2 days. After brunch, we went for a juice stand where I had mango juice which is aum in hindi. God it was good. There are different types of mangoes which can be as costly as it is in the US. The alfonso mango is the costliest. It can go a little over than a dollar for one.

The mango in India is really juicy, sweet, and tasty

God, last night was a total disaster. My roommate and I were eaten alive by mosquitoes. It was so bad that he had to get up half past midnight and started spraying insect repellant. We also closed the doors to the balcony. I am seriously gonna have to take the doxycycline medication religiously now that I’m here in Pune--really don’t want to get malaria in India. The problem is that the temperature in Pune is rather nice and temperate than in Delhi, and the apartment is right next to a lake, with stagnant water that locals use to wash clothes which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I had like at least 10 bites on my right arm and it itched like hell during the night. I feel much better now.

 Every Sunday there is a supermarket outside the apartment. Local farmers from surrounding areas come to sell their food.

Monday 5/23/2011

Vikas showed me how to make chai tea yesterday so this morning when I got up before 6, I made some chai for myself. It was good but I still need some practice. Since I have been in India, I haven’t had any coffee...no Peets or anything. I sipped a little bit from Shalmali, the girl who I sat next to on the plane to Pune but other than that, I haven’t found a need for coffee. Dehydration is a major problem for me, but I have read somewhere that coffee in India is nothing to rave about.

Aradhana with her daughter (before lesson)

 Again this morning after my morning sabda meditation I got ready for my first class with Aradhana. I actually asked her to reduce the fees for me because 15000 rupee was a little too much for my budget. We agreed on 12,000 which is a good price for both of us and my rent is 8000, so that means I pay $500/month for both lessons, room and board, which allow me to set aside some money for traveling on the weekends.

She finally decided that Samkya karika was not good for me at my level and so we are reading simple prose books in Sanskrit. It looks manageable enough. She also gave me 4 English sentences that I have to write into Sanskrit. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday in the morning at 9 o’clock. The 4 English to Sanskrit: 1. Always speak the truth. 2. Which is the best boy? 3. Don’t speak harshly. 4. My name is Quang. I’ve been pressing her to find me sanskrit recordings of sabdas and hopefully I can get my hands on them soon.

All of my housemates went off to work today. Some went at 8:30 and others at noon. Vaibhav came back, had lunch, took a nap...and did not go back to work. The concept of time and daily routine can be strange at times. Then again, Indian IT workers a lot of times have to work around American and European hours. But he told me later in the evening that he he didn’t sleep well last night b/c of the mosquitoes and felt like he needed to take a half-day off. He also said that once workers met their monthly quota, they don’t even have to come into the office.

 Renjeet, our wonderful cook who also lives in the apartment will be away for 10 days. He's going to Bihar for a wedding. We have a woman who will be cooking for us while he's away.

You can't beat food made at home

   

I’ve been studying for the past couple of hours, and while studying I noticed that there were power cuts throughout the day. I’m not sure what the reason is. Usually it would be out for a period of thirty minutes but sometimes it felt like it lasted for several hours. Couldn’t use the internet or charge my laptop.

Pune is a very nice change from Delhi. There are tall apartment buildings and new condos. There are, however, still slums on the outskirts of our apartment building. I wish that someday everyone in India can live in apartment buildings and have the same basic comforts that everyone is entitled to have.