Crristmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

I arrived in Goa on the 22nd following a very long bus ride. I was lucky to get a bus in the first place as many of them are packed with people leaving for the holiday. Contrary to popular belief the Christmas holiday is a fairly big one, at least as far as I can tell. At the least some people have the holiday off off of work, if only for a short time. Goa is especially observant of cristian holidays, having been a Portugese colony at one time. Apparently Dec 21st is when Goa was released fom colonial rule.

I decided to come to Goa (which is a western state in India) thinking that the two week break would be too short to fly back to the U.S. and have any good visiting time. In hindsight I probably should have flown back anyway, but given that I only arrived in India in late August, i felt I had to spend more time exploring when given the free time to do so. I'm making the best of being away from family and friends, but it's still hard. It's always harder than you think it will be ;)

The bus here was a few hours late and arrived about 1pm on the 22nd. I happened to be on the same bus as my friend Ria's brother Rahoul and his new bride. Rahoul pointed me towards the nearby bus stand and off I went towards Arumbol, after he invited me to their reception. I figured I could find my way up to the place and hopefully find a place to stay. I came out here after having been invited by some other friends to join them on the 28th. Bangalore was getting to be just too much so I decided to leave early, leaving me with almost two weeks here and no plans.

Luckily I found a small room the first night with some suggestions from a visiting Finnish woman. It was a bit dingy, but I lucked out the next morning when I found some huts for rent along the headlands. For about 500 ruppees ($12) a night I get a great view of the ocean and some space away from the crowds. There's a nice resturant on the rocks nearby where they literally bring you fish up ferom the water and cook it tandoori style for your meal. With a beer, that full fish cost me about $6 or 250 ruppees.

I found a scooter yesterday when I was trying to get my way down the coast for Rahoul's wedding reception. Ria invited me down so I thought I'd take a scooter. Not thinking that I needed my passport, getting someone to loan me one was a challenge. Luckily a taxi driver offered me his personal bike for a $300 deposit. So I agreed and learned how to ride a scooter for the first time.

Now mind you the Indian roads are nuts. It's always a game of inches. Heading out at sunset, I was somewhat weary, but it was fine. I set out as the moon rose over the dry rice paddies and the humid wind kicked up. It was coolong off but I knew I could find my way there, even by unmarked back roads. About three hours later I found the resort where the reception was held. It was a beautiful carnival-like affair with lots of great drinks and food. We danced a lot to strange american covers and bollywood hits. I hung out with Ria and her cousins and told jokes and clowned around like one does at any family wedding. By 2am we were all tired so I was invited and ended up staying at Ria's family's place before riding back this morning. They were really nice and it was a fun party.

I rode back this morning along back roads and through little villages, stopping at various beaches and overlooks along the way. It's a very different way to experience a place. This has been a trip of many firsts for me. Heading out like this is challenging when you are alone, but I hope you can all visit through me. I hope to tell you more about it sometime soon.

I'm thinking of you and I hope you are all having fun together.

Love,
Gabe

From Late September to Late October

Fall is here in India too, and there have been a wealth of festivals and holidays in the past month. During the Dusshera Holiday, Hindus worship and give thanks for their tools. On the right is an auto driver with his auto covered in flowers, banana leaves, and other decorations. Many people will offer a sacrifice in honor to their tools....so you would see many people splitting open watermelon-like fruits near their cars, storefronts, or gates in the case of guardsmen.




I've been pretty busy working. For one thing we've been trying to get the Center for Experimental Media Arts off the ground. This mostly means that we've been conducting reading groups and having lab meetings so that our students and ourselves can get project feedback. I spent a few weeks writing a grant to the MacArthur Foundation for digital media and learning. It was pretty satisfying to try to get the concerns of about three different organizations allied together (along with their support). Who knows...maybe the funding will come through and help make CEMA more robust in it local and global presence. Here's the gate to CEMA on the left.



Here's Zack in our newly refurbished CEMA offices.




...and Prayas and Yashas on the other side in the lab...




Other than that, I've been doing some design research, working on a paper about "design ecology", and moving into our new apartment closer to school/work/CEMA.



Here is a street near our apartment complex...


and our building...






and the other buildings in the complex...



our living room...



...and the view from the balcony...


my room...


the hallway...



...and the kitchen

update late-september

It's been rather hectic lately. Besides India winning the twenty-over cricket championship last night against Pakistan, life's been rather lively. I was teaching an information design class last week. This week we're preparing for a symposium on space and culture. I'll be moving into a new apartment next week and will try to have a comprehensive update soon. Until then, perhaps some additional context for my stay here....

Indian Outsourcing Comes Full Circle _NYTimes

and my favorite place to eat: Hot Hot Chinese Food



and also very good is 100ft restaurant– here with many of the Srishti faculty

Saturday's walk

Mallashawarum

About culture shock...

My friend Liz if in Thailand at the same time I am India. We've had a sort of conversation going about our similar experiences in South Asia.

Here is a link to her blog where she lists what she can't get used to.

With the exception of wearing skirts, I'd have to say that I am in agreement.

Now about those cows...

Images from Malleshawaram

expect the unexpected

Expecting the unexpected starting to become the norm here. Last night eclipsed alomost everything I've seen so far. The night started simply enough. After a day of meeting with colleagues and planning fro an upcoming conference, I went back to the apartment to work on course planning and other what-nots. We had promised Ulrike that we would go to "Bollywood night" with her, and so when the time came, we relented even though we weren't feeling entirely up for it. I was expecting a bunch of movie clips or something. After meeting Ulrike, her friend, and Anna, a visiting designer, Zack and I caught an "auto" with them to the place. We arrived at a tall bank building to find out that we were headed to a club. We were escorted in and up to find ourselves on the roof of this large modern building. A dance floor sat in a large swimming pool with about a foot of water in it. A DJ was jut getting started playing what turned out to be Bollywood music hits. After getting drinks Anna and I pretty much hung out and talked while Zack and Ulrike moved to the dance floor. When I tried to meet them there later, I was barred for not having a date. Couples only.

Anna and I found the rest of the crew and we danced to some pretty good mixes. The energy was huge, and everyone was WAY into it. The dance moves were hot and straight out of the movies. At times a chorus would erupt from the crowd, delighting us with the unexpectedness of it all.

Sweaty and time to head home (clubs close at 11:30), we caught an "auto" back to Mallashawaram.

So were riding in this auto back home and all of the sudden we catch a burst of drums and noise. Looking to our left we almost fall out of our seats at the sight of this huge parade just getting underway. We quickly paid the driver and joined in. I'm still not entirely sure what was being celebrated, but it was a procession with a large icon in tow on its way to a temple. There must have been at least thirty drummers all playing rhythms, starting, stopping, and picking it up in the presence of anyone dancing.

Zack and I were immediately pulled into the procession and urged (very forcefully at times) to dance and be excited, generally. There were large puppets and a troupe of female Sri Lankan style dancers. Other characters included a big swashbuckling catacala (?) dancer that later stopped an oil tanker with his foot. A guy on stilts did some sweet moves while a couple of skeletons ambled along demurely. Oh, and there were four camels. Just because.

We tagged along for awhile and talked with some of the guys. While waiting for the tail of the procession to catch up, we got a good look at the camels and they got a good look at us. When the tail of the parade finally did catch up, we found out that that the icon was designed to be about five feet too tall for the overpass above the street. After watching it try several different points beneath the overpass, we decided that we'd had our fill, caught a cab, and headed home. Details.