Last Evening in India

It's my last evening in India. My body is ready to leave. I am tired. However, I leave with regrets. I have had a wonderful time here, a very different time from what I expected. I expected to travel much more and didn't expect to get so involved in Indian life, either in Delhi or in Varanasi.

New Friends in Delhi

In Delhi, through my new friend Veronica, I met a wonderful group of people involved in women's rights, AIDS and gay issues. I also met a group of gay men (the two groups had quite a bit of overlap). Last Sunday, I attended a meeting that takes place every Sunday in South Delhi of English speaking gay men. I had been there for the first time a month before. I am very impressed with this group. It is organized by four or five men. They have a very relaxed style and quietly make sure that everyone is included. Both times I have been there, there have been new people and the group makes sure they are welcomed and included in the conversation. There is also a Hindi group that meets else where. It is hard to be gay in India and groups like this are very encouraging to me. I look forward to going to this group again on my next trip.

New Friends in Varanasi

On our last day in Delhi, Pauline and I got up early and, along with his father, walked Sidharath to his first day of school. We dropped by his house later on our way to the airport to drop off some prints of pictures I had taken. He proudly showed us his copy book with English sentences he had written. He had also asked the teacher to help him spell our names. When he saw the pictures which were of him, his father, Pauline and myself, he said he would put up the pictures of Pauline and myself on the wall and say good morning to us every morning.

In addition, to Pauline, Siharath and his father, I made other friends in Varanasi. I made it a habit to eat breakfast and supper at the guest house to continue my study of tourists in India. I met many interesting people there and made a couple of friends, including my two friends from Calgary and an Indian who lives in Pune. People who travel in India (and many of the people I had talked to had been to India more than once and some many times) are a breed apart. Most cannot articulate why India attracts them so. I think it is partly because India is so complex and inaccessible while also being intensely immediate and just when you are totally at sea, India opens up for a moment and the present is filled with joy.

Postmodern Folk Dance

Somebody has to do something about the presentation of folk dance. I saw two evenings of a Pan-Indian Folk Dance Festival in Delhi. It is choreographed for a proscenium staged, costumed like a Bollywood film, performed with very grating fixed smiles, and presented with almost no context at all. I am sure somewhere someone is addressing folk dance from a postmodern perspective, but they haven't reached Delhi yet. First of all, I would like to see "folk" more carefully defined -- we saw dances from tribal areas, religious village dances, dances that seemed more like street theater -- but all homogenized so that it was hard to differentiate one dance from another. I would like to see the dances contextualized -- which includes attention to performance venue. Most of the dances I saw fitted very awkardly on to a stage. I would like to see less "spectacle," which would include rethinking costuming. Finally, for now, I would like the question of duration examined. All of the dances were allotted about 15 minutes even though the original performance times varied enormously. When I get back I'm going to do a little poking around and see who is doing what in the world of folk dance performance.

Tour Guide

My friend Robert arrived in Delhi two nights ago, and I have spent two days showing him Delhi and since, it is his first time in India, giving him tips on traveling here. We had a great time. I finally got to Humayan's tomb where I have been trying to go since I arrived in India. Yesterday was Muharam, a muslim holiday, and we were in Old Delhi for the procession which consisted of tottery tall structures of bamboo and tinsel mounted on trucks and carts. These were proceeded by drummers and the carts would stop while men or boys reenacted moments from an ancient battle by fighting with sticks, swords or maces while the crowd cheered. I though this was an occasion of mourning, but yesterday everyone was having a very good time.

We also went to a mosque, a Sufi shrine, two Hindu temples and a Sikh guruwarda. One of the hard things for me and many travelers is getting used to visiting religious sites so I gave Robert a crash course yesterday.

I had a great time. I love showing off my knowledge and it was also a chance for me to think about what I liked best about Delhi and how to introduce it to someone in just two days.

O.K. The next time I write I will be in the U.K. or Poland.