Chai, Beef, and Hindi

*To get the full effect of this blog post, before you continue reading, go put on your winter jacket and snow pants and run to the nearest freeway. Sweating yet? Hearing traffic roaring by and horns honking? Ok. Now you’re in the right setting.

In spite of the hot weather, there is incredible beauty in this place. The almost-seven months of experience has allowed me to become comfortable enough to enjoy that beauty in new ways. I’ve enjoyed natural beauty: the colours of the sun setting over the pacific and the feel of the breeze rush past me as I stand on the train. I’ve enjoyed man-made beauty: the lights of the city and the sounds of the trains and the smell of street food. Here's closer look at a few more aspects of my life here:

Chai:

My days have begun to fall into a comfortable pattern. One of my favourite parts of the day is Chai time. Our office, like many buildings here, has a spacious rooftop overlooking the city. In the corner of the roof is a makeshift stall made of bamboo poles and blue tarp, providing cover for a little stove. (You can see what I’m talking about in my Facebook profile picture!) At 3:30 every day a group of interns and staff hike up the stairs to the roof to take a break from our work and enjoy the fresh air. We all crowd under the shade of the stall and watch as our favourite chaiwala (tea vendor) makes tea for us.

Side note: I am happy to announce that I have just mastered the art of making chai! When I get back, let me know, and I’d be happy to make some for you— you can taste a little of what life is like here :)

Beef:

This is an interesting time to be in this part of the world. One reason for this is the recent ban on beef. It is now illegal in our state to slaughter cows and purchase, sell, consume, or possess beef. Not that there was a ton of beef available in our state to begin with: the predominant religion here is Hinduism, and many Hindu people regard the cow as sacred. Prior to the ban they didn’t even serve hamburgers at the local Burger King. But now all slaughterhouses have been shut down, and what beef was available has been driven out. This has some interesting political and social fallout, especially as the people whose livelihoods depended on the meat industry now have to find new sources of income.

Hindi:

Main Hindi sikh rahi hu (I am learning Hindi). Once a week, we gather in another intern’s apartment for Hindi lessons. A New Yorker, a Canadian, a British couple and me all desperately trying to figure out how to imitate what our teacher is saying. The results are pretty comical. Often our issue lies in pronunciation— for example: there are four different ways to pronounce the letter “d.” I can’t distinguish between those different ways, because they all just sound like a plain old “d” to me. But to a native Hindi speaker, it could be the difference between two entirely different words or concepts.

Fortunately I don’t need to know much Hindi to get around. Most people speak English, or enough that we can communicate with short phrases and lots of pointing. I’m excited to be learning more Hindi, though— the looks on people’s faces when this farangi (foreigner) breaks out a Hindi phrase is priceless!