Cholera

Cholera
Originally uploaded by Maleaji.

Promise made, promise kept. The state health museum is now possibly my favorite place in Hyderabad.

This weekend

Every day since I moved into my apartment has been pretty much the same-- I get up in the morning, go to work, come home, eat, read, and go to sleep. This seems weird even to me, because I'm in India, and I should be making the absolute more of every second, right? Except that the heat makes me so tired that when I'm outside I feel like I'm bring sucked into the earth (I don't know if that makes sense unless you've experienced it, but it's the most accurate thing I can come up with), and I'm by myself, plus I have food waiting for me at the house, which was always my chief reason for going out when I was here before. On Saturday, I decided that I was at least going to make the most of my weekend, which I think I did. I went to the public gardens in Hyderabad, which are nice, if not the most spectacular gardens in the world. On the grounds of the public gardens is the AP state health museum. The lonely planet mentions it briefly, but after going, I can't recommend it highly enough. Lots of dodgy (and many disturbing) dioramas on nutrition and disease. They say you're not supposed to take pictures, which is why my digital camera is awesome, since I can turn off the flash and actually know if the picture turned out. Because... I just have to post the pictures (although rest assured that I did take any pictures of the jars of fetuses or jars of tumors. Or the wax models of venereal diseased genitals. Those were not cool. (Tom, I promise you will like the cholera prevention poster.)

Slightly shell shocked, but having my confidence in the weird awesomeness of Indian museums, I went to the AP state museum. It had a lot of pretty stuff in it, some interesting sculpture from around the state, and an extremely sad looking mummy, but mostly it was pretty just because of the architecture-- sort of a white, Mughal-inspired wedding cake, and it was really peaceful, and would have been even better if there wasn't a burning pile of garbage right outside the entry.

After that, I went to Kalanjali to shop, and bought material for a new salwar kameez. I might be getting carried away with the clothes that I'm buying, since I'm really not going to be here very long at all. The thing is, I kind of hit my stride in Indian fashion just before I left the last time. Now that I know how and where to shop, it's hard not to buy clothes, because they're just so pretty. I mean -- the last time, at firt I bought clothes that were some of the ugliest things I've ever put on my body-- worse than anything my mom ever picked out. The bright turquoise seahorse kameez. The sargent pepper kameez. This time, I look good. I get compliments. And I walk past shopper's stop twice a day. And there's a fabindia here now! But aside from that...

I ended up just taking auto rides around the city (which felt like a convection oven -- dry, hot, windy), but helped me remember how everything fit together again. I went to Minerva, and had the most amazing Chole Bathura (Puri-as-big-as-your-head) that I've since I ate at Minerva last. They're extraordinary, they're massive. And they are awesome with Thum's up. Since I was in Himayat Nagar, I caught an auto to Barkatpura. The auto driver was strangely excited about the way I said "Barkarpura bus depot lane keltunara?" As we drove along, things looked the same, and then slightly different, and then I realized I was on the flyover!!! The Barkatpura flyover!!! The driver said that it opened 2 years ago. Not too bad, I guess. And it is more convenient. I walked past the program house, past the wall of the urinating men... I didn't go to the apartment building.. I don't know why, it was just the middle of the day, and it just felt too weird. So I went back to Begumpet and did some more shopping, a few errands.

When I went home that night, I talked to the owner of the apartment I'm living in, and we started talking about Tigers. He used to be a zoo curator, and a forest conservation officer, and is just generally a super nice, really interesting guy. He gave me his book to read, which is about tigers, and has a chapter on the tiger that he raised in his house, and that used to play with the monkey, dogs, and puma that he also had in his house. It was awesome.

Anyway, I'm at a crazy mall / movie theater on Hussein Sagar, and my movie (star wars) is about to start. So more later.

This is for Tom

I woke up this morning, and what did I get but pickle sandwiches. That’s right, mango pickle on white bread. I ate one (there was a pile of them), but I really couldn’t eat more.

This is the end of my first week of work, and I think I’m settling in. I’m still really not sure what I want to do over the weekend. Star Wars at the Sangeet? Shopping at Kalanjali? Finding a new book at A.A. Hussein? It’s wide open.

First try

This is my first try at a blog. I'll keep you all posted, rather than sending lots e-mails to different people. I will try not to be to narcissistic, but please rein me in if I start to be.