The power has been out for seven hours today from 11-6pm. Nancy told me that due to some kind of general strike against the increase of petroleum price to 6 rupees/liter, many shops were forced to close and electricity stopped. India is such a crazy country sometimes that you have to be a little crazy yourself to really fall in love with it. The quality of life is such a drastic change from the US. Water is rationed and now power is out due to some strike!
I did not do much today other than going to the university for the one sanskrit class and the private class that I am taking with professor Vinaydev. Even though she doesn’t have a PhD in Sanskrit, her knowledge is insane. Neel agrees that she knows a lot of Sanskrit but that she was a little silly for not having a PhD. I wonder the same thing. Today I found out that she can actually converse in Sanskrit! She gave a little short story of Kalidasa in Sanskrit in class. Although I did not understand most of what was being spoken, I really appreciated the fact that she sounded so fluent in this language. Neel told me that he actually wanted to learn how to speak Sanskrit from her but because she was sloppy with time, he gave up. I didn’t agree with him because I thought that his idea of time is also completely out of whack. He told me that walking to Vinaydev’s apartment from the university would take about 1 minute. Little did I know that 1 minute is the equivalent of my 5-10 minute. Really there is no concept of being punctual with time here in India. Not sure what the reason is. My studies have improved dramatically and I am really excited and happy to study this text with some of the best scholars in the world. It’s truly a privilege to be here in India and to study a language that I love.
I think I finally found someone who will be sweeping and probably mopping my room for me. I know I sound like a lazy snob, but houses in India get dusty really quick and since I am on vacation and I sweat like crazy even though I hardly do any work, you can just imagine all the hassle that I have to go through if I were to clean my own flat.
Classes will end very soon at the university and the people that I have met will probably go back to their villages. I am a little sad about this, and not sure what life will be like when I come back from Vietnam. I am leaving for Vietnam in a couple of days and Chinmay and Prachi are having their final exams. I think it’s when I get back from my trip that we’ll be doing more traveling, but even right now, things are going pretty well.
I did not do much today other than going to the university for the one sanskrit class and the private class that I am taking with professor Vinaydev. Even though she doesn’t have a PhD in Sanskrit, her knowledge is insane. Neel agrees that she knows a lot of Sanskrit but that she was a little silly for not having a PhD. I wonder the same thing. Today I found out that she can actually converse in Sanskrit! She gave a little short story of Kalidasa in Sanskrit in class. Although I did not understand most of what was being spoken, I really appreciated the fact that she sounded so fluent in this language. Neel told me that he actually wanted to learn how to speak Sanskrit from her but because she was sloppy with time, he gave up. I didn’t agree with him because I thought that his idea of time is also completely out of whack. He told me that walking to Vinaydev’s apartment from the university would take about 1 minute. Little did I know that 1 minute is the equivalent of my 5-10 minute. Really there is no concept of being punctual with time here in India. Not sure what the reason is. My studies have improved dramatically and I am really excited and happy to study this text with some of the best scholars in the world. It’s truly a privilege to be here in India and to study a language that I love.
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| Sanskrit school-teachers |
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| Vinaydev, my Meghadoot teacher. |
I think I finally found someone who will be sweeping and probably mopping my room for me. I know I sound like a lazy snob, but houses in India get dusty really quick and since I am on vacation and I sweat like crazy even though I hardly do any work, you can just imagine all the hassle that I have to go through if I were to clean my own flat.
Classes will end very soon at the university and the people that I have met will probably go back to their villages. I am a little sad about this, and not sure what life will be like when I come back from Vietnam. I am leaving for Vietnam in a couple of days and Chinmay and Prachi are having their final exams. I think it’s when I get back from my trip that we’ll be doing more traveling, but even right now, things are going pretty well.
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