Learning Telugu has been stressful. I feel like one one hand I’m remembering a lot, but on the other I’m forgetting everything I learn. I hope that over the next week or two I’ll become competent enough to at least say something to people, even if I don’t know what they’re responding with. It’s also frustrating to not be able to read. I wish that I could read Telugu because I feel like I could really accelerate my understanding and vocabulary.
I visited the village where I’ll be working two days ago and it was a strange mix of excitement and apathy. People generally continued to do what they were doing, but we still attracted quite a crowd as we moved through the village. Dr. Nuckolls has been adopted into the kinship system and so has family relations in the village whom we visited for a while. Afterwards we traveled down to the beach and saw the temples and the boats and catches of the local men. The boat technology that’s used now is thoroughly modernized; instead of boats made of worked logs lashed together the new boats are made of fiberglass and a few are even outfitted with motors. These new boats are so much more efficient that Jalari men travel upwards of five times further out to sea than they had previously (100 kms as opposed to 20). As we stopped into the home of another one of Dr. Nuckolls friends we were given soda, which is pretty much customary when guests are around. Dr. Nuckolls told his friend that it would be unnecessary to go to such an expense (since there 5 or 6 students altogether), but our host insisted and with the response, “how else should I act?” we were handed a round of drinks.
As it so happened, it we were on the beach as men started to come in with their catches. We even saw some young men carrying in a swordfish worth 5000 rupees, or about one months salary for one person. That’s only 110 dollars.
Yesterday the group took a day trip up to the tribal area of Araku valley that sits on the border of Andhra Pradesh (which is the northern border of what is considered south India). The people there aren’t related to either of the major groupings that categorize Indians today. They speak a language (or group of languages) that is neither Dravidian based or Sanskrit based and it is theorized that they are the native inhabitants of the area, although the majority of the tribal peoples are Hindu (but their worship practices vary dramatically from Brahmanic Hinduism). The area is protected and was explained to me to be a kind of reservation. I’m not sure of the specifics of what that entails, but I do know that in 1970 the Indian government created an act that only allowed the sale of tribal lands to other tribal peoples. However, heavy logging has reduced what was once a lush forest into grassy hills.
Vizag sits at the bottom of the Eastern Ghats and traveling north meant going into the mountains. There is a relatively famous cave on the way that was actually quite impressive. As we walked up I wondered what kind of experience this would be. All caves that I had been in previously were with the supervision and guidance of a tour guide. As it turns out Indians don’t really care too much about supervision and once we passed through the gate there was not a single person guarding formations or informing people about appropriate interactions with the cave. I could have hopped across the railing and traveled as deep into the cave as I pleased and not a single person would have said anything (believe me, I was tempted). Borra Cave has a large opening (probably large enough for a 3 or 4 story building to fit into), and very few formations. The path that we walked on had been tiled with slate and there were stairs, but that only went back so far. Dr. Nuckolls explained that on his last visit, 25 years ago, he had gone quite far into the cave, which eventually met up with an underground river. There is a Shiva lingum inside the cave which is simply a columnar formation that is believed to be a manifestation of the god Shiva. It’s not exactly in a convenient spot and 25 years ago was only accessible by rope climbing.
When we arrived in the valley we were given a presentation about the local area from the local non-profit organization that heads up AIDS education, environmentalism, sanitation and other similar things. After lunch we ate a delicious meal and went out into one of the tribal villages. We were fortuitous to find the village engaged in traditional type of dancing, which is almost exactly like a conga line, albeit a little more complicated. The line of people moves around like a snake which coils in on itself and generally moves in a circle. Some students got involved in the dance, but that didn’t seem like my cup of tea so I opted to take pictures for the people who hopped in. When we went back to the headquarters of the non-profit they taught us how to actually do the dance and we did one with us students and the people who work for the non-profit (I reluctantly joined, although I was not nearly as reluctant as some). There really aren’t any musical instruments involved (or any at all) besides drums and the human voice, but the beats were so much different and complicated that it was actually quite nice to listen to just them. I think that American drum lines could learn a thing or two from these tribal people.
While walking, Dr. Nuckolls told me (after affirming that I could live in a place like the village we visited) that I should bring my family back and live in one of the tribal villages for a few months (you’re apparently taken much more seriously if you bring your family with you). It’s a fascinating idea, but not one that I’m sure I’ll ever feel comfortable doing. Would I really be OK with taking my son to not only a foreign country, but to an area infested with mosquitos and poor sanitation? I don’t know. At this point I could probably be talked into it, but only after some lengthy education. It was really quite nice to be in a place that wasn’t filled with trash though.
Today is the start of San Kranti, or the harvest festival, which is probably the largest festival in Southern India. I’ll let you know if anything piques my curiosity.
Justin
No comments:
Post a Comment