Weekly Activities

In this post I hope to give you a better idea of what my life is like in Mumbai on a day to day basis and telling you about my host family.

Let me start on a typical weekday. I wake up around 7:45 because I have to go to yoga class. I started this yoga class on August the first and it lasts two months. I go every weekday morning at 8:15 and I walk there from my house. I was interested in yoga because I feel it will strengthen my mind as well as my body. The first few days have been a little boring but I think it will pick up soon. So far we have mostly been learning how to breathe and sit. There are various ways of breathing such as breathing in deeply and raising your shoulders then relaxing your abdomen while keeping the shoulders up and forcing the air out though your nose every second passive inhale active exhale, then breathing in one nostril and out the other. I’ll give you a couple of moments to try those as I’m sure you are. So for the first few days we were just learning those and some very basic exercise. Jens (German exchange student) and I are the youngest in the class by about 20 years on average and 10 years for the minimum age difference. The yoga I have seen in Canada is more like glorified stretching, as they do not touch on the other aspects of living life as a yogi. There was a whole Yoga book written about how to live a healthy life and stretching is only one chapter there is a lot written on what to eat and how to control your mind. Some hardcore yogis can even control their heartbeat, and to think I thought getting a stellar mark in Math 30-P was enlightenment I was definitely mistaken. My favorite part of the yoga is at the end, where we lay down with eyes closed and the instructor tells you to relax certain parts of your body from the toes up, it is hard to explain but if you really listen to what he says you become so relaxed it’s insane. I’ve never been so relaxed in my life my body felt like a thousand pounds of blubber. This part can also help you with your mind as I often find my mind wandering off to what tasty breakfast Neeta, my host mom, has prepared for me, I am becoming better at concentrating on what he is saying and relaxing my mind. As you can imagine some people accidently doze off during this part. The best part for my dad is this whole course which goes for 2 months only cost a little more than $9 Canadian Dollars. So a hint for the other exchange students, although the classes are boring (for now) I think it is good to have a schedule that you stick to early in the year to assimilate yourself in the culture and not just stay confined in your room.

After yoga I come home and have breakfast, which Neeta or Agee (my host grandmother) has prepared for me. It usually comprises of some hot dish like eggs or some sort of veg flapjack, and then some toast and corn flakes and then some sort of pastry. I love the pastries they are like eating Christmas baking every day, although that may sicken some people I would love it. After breakfast I usually read the newspaper then go on the computer for a bit, read, study Hindi, or recently I have been watching the Olympics. One thing that really surprised me about India and Mumbai is how many people die on a regular basis from freak accidents. There are cases of big walls falling and crushing people, many people getting washed away or drowned by the volume of rain, human stampede killing people, staircase to temple crumbling which ended up killing and trapping people and the strangest cases of husbands killing their family and themselves when they figure out they have HIV, these stories do not even make the front page. Not to mention all the bombing that happened not to long ago. In Canada they would be talking about something like this for a week on the front page. For example in the paper today an Indian shooter won a gold medal so that took up the better part of the first 4 pages, then on the 5th page there was a stories about how 2 drowned and a family of 4 was swept away by the rain and 7,000 people across the state have been evacuated. Page 10 had information on how Pakistan committed their 22nd cease fire violation and how 135 were rescued out of a 250 foot gorge in the mishap I mentioned above about a temple staircase collapse. I do give the newspaper a little credit as they had a small article on how 5 died in a police fire in Kashmir beside the 1/2 page picture of the Olympic gold medalist. The Olympics are enjoyable like always but I don’t really like the sports that most of the Indian athletes participate in and that is basically all they show. I don’t find watching shooting and archery that interesting. After that I have a small lunch which usually comprises of some sort of curry, rice, vegetable dish, chapatti (bread), and maybe some fish. You eat with your hands here and sometimes you can get a spoon. I actually asked my host mom for a knife the day I made pancakes for them and she couldn't find one. The way that works is you rip the thin bread known as chapatti and grab what you want and soak up the sauce in the same bite, you are only supposed to eat with the right hand but sometimes I need both. Eating the rice is a little more complicated so you usually pour some sort of curry or dal on it and then mix it up with your fingers to combine the plain rice with the sauce then you pak the rice against your fingers with your thumb and scoop up in a motion towards yourself so the rice it is sitting on your 4 fingers and then you put the thumb at the base of you fingers and pop the rice in your mouth. My family got quite a good laugh when I was trying to eat during the first week, I would grab instead of scooping and rotate my head and open up my mouth and then drop it in, and looking back now I see how improper that was. I figured rotating my head was better than looking to the sky and dropping in food but I think that each one makes me look equally retarded so rather than looking like a bird getting fed by its mother I looked like Jean Chrétien taking a nap while in a sitting position. I also had another problem in the first week of eating the food, there was this strange yellow substance under my nails that I had never experience, I thought it must be some sort of Tropical Disease and I was going to lose my right hand. Oh wait isn’t that the hand I eat with, my hands were just really dirty and my mom told me that it was one of the spices that is used in Indian cooking which dyes things yellow. Mondays and Thursdays we don’t eat meat and comparatively to the other exchange students that is a good thing as many other students are in vegetarian families. I don’t know if I could stand eating vegetarian every day but I guess you get used to it.

After lunch I go to college by train, which I described in a previous post. I am in the arts division at Jai Hind College in the Logic division. My classes include: psychology, logic, history, political science, Hindi, English and Environmental Studies. I don’t really like college because it is boring and the class is way too big. There are like 60-70 kids in my class the good part is at least 90% of the class is girls. Around the college is a nice area along the Arabian Sea called Marine Drive. College usually lasts from 2-6 but I often come home a little early to dodge the Rush Hour traffic.

When I get home I have high tea, so that includes tea and biscuits. Then I usually go on the computer for a bit, watch TV or read.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I have a Hindi tutor with another German exchange student. Those just started up so I don’t know much yet but I am learning or “mai Hindi seik raha hu” transliterated from Devanagari script. The classes are a little different from what you might expect in Canada, as they are at the teacher’s house and we sit on the ground not in some fancy desk while the tutor’s child is making a mess around us and grabbing the tutor.

On Wednesday we go to Church because if you go to the Church 9 Wednesdays in a row you get what you wish for. Yes you are not mistaken I said Church, Christian Church, I have gone to Church more times here for religious purposes in one month than I have been to Church in Canada in my lifetime.

After High Tea and activities after that I have dinner. Dinner is a lot later than in Canada we usually eat dinner at about 9:30 or 10:00 pm. I am having a little trouble with that just eating a huge meal then going to bed. Dinner is very similar to lunch and my even be the same dishes if we didn’t finish them.

More weird train sights, I saw two guys on the side of the track and one was prepping the other to insert a needle I can only assume drugs, also I saw a policeman walking with a guy who had a bleeding head and the policeman was wielding a baton I can only assume unruly behavior and a quick smack to the head by the policeman.

Then I usually have dessert of ice cream, Kulfi (Indian ice cream), chocolate, or some other Indian specialties I can’t pronounce the names of.

My host family is super nice it comprises of Anil, my host father, Neeta, my host mother, Anand, my host grandfather, and Agee, my host grandmother. My host brother Abhishek just left for Brazil 5 days ago. Anil is a lawyer and he does lots of work in the courts, he is out of the house much of the day but still find time to watch TV with me or chat with me in the evening. My host mother Neeta is very nice and she prepares great meals. She is very approachable but she worries a lot. I guess she is just looking out for me though. Neeta runs a class for very young children like 2 year olds and on Mondays and Tuesdays they are in the house so I stay in the TV room/Dining room/Grandparents bedroom. My host grandfather is so funny, he is always dancing and clapping when a tune comes on the TV and he speaks English but he always emphasizes one word in a sentence so he would sound like (mumbling) ddaayyyyawanna EAT. It is pretty funny but I can understand him for the most part and I really enjoy every conversation I have with him. Agee is not very talkative but she is very nice and is a good cook.

I do have servants in case you are wondering but just a maid who comes by for a few hours every day and a kitchen helper who comes by a few times a week for a couple hours.

So I think that is it for now I have attached a photo of the family I am staying with in our living room. I think you can guess who is who.

I hope that gave you a better idea of what I am up to on a daily basis.

Please leave comments, if you want to comment on the structure and format of the blog that would be grand too because then I can improve my next post. Is it too long? Would you like shorter more frequent posts? Any ideas for topics?

Thanks, I miss you all.