Hippie Central

Last weekend I went to Rishikesh. Again the Lonely Planet guide is SPOT on in describing this hippie paradise. Very laid back holy town where one branch of the Ganges flows. Lots and lots of foreigners - most of them with dread locks. Apparently this is a place to get weed and meditate until your heart is content. There are many many many ashrams and yoga centers for those that wish to get in touch with inner peace.

I felt like I was walking around parts of Seattle just by the way people were dressed.

 Take those "world" stores from the malls in the US and put them all in ONE town and there you have Rishikesh. Which is actually quite frustrating because as I am shopping around I am looking for something "unique" something "Indian" and all I see is the same stuff they sell in the states AND it isn't that much cheaper. Tibetan jewelry sold here really is the same as Tibetan jewelry sold in the states. I always just assumed it was imported just for us dumb Americans - like you know how they say food in China tastes nothing like food in Chinese restaurants in the US...no such thing as General Taos chicken....that kind of deal. So, as I was looking I would get more and more irritated over the fact I couldn't find anything different. Just here you have the option to barter.

There was some cool colonial architechture  and some strange signs

And these were the guys I went with...Tp is on the left he is from that western part of India near Burma.  Then Chittu is in the middle and he is from Gharwal...so is the guy with the glasses but I don't know his name. 

Convertable toilets, blackouts, gynecologist and brain worms

Well, it finally happened.  I got sick.  Not no sniffles sick, but puke my brains out sick...But wait - you remember my post from Hardiwar about a perching toilet.  I thought it would be a while before I saw another one and regretted not taking a photo - well, Ive got on of my very own in my bathroom!

Just lift the one layer and poof - a toilet you perch on.

Now back to being sick and those pesky brain worms...

In a previous post I have lost my patience and tolerance of eating potato at least once a day if not 3 times. Because of this I am now finding that I am skipping meals...and don't really have too much of a problem. I don't snack on anything but peanuts because everything else  is covered in Masala flavoring - and though I do not mind, I do not crave it like say cheese puffs. So, Sunday I ate breakfast (dosa - which is like a very large sourdough crepe) and then didn't consume any more food until 4pm where I went to the local tea shop and had a small cup of chai. Around 6:30 I started to feel a little uncomfortable and then around 8pm I made my first (and most dangerous trip) to the bathroom. I had been sitting on my bed and had brought out my shower bucket as a "just in case" deal. I did not really want to use my shower bucket, but what could I do? When the urge hit, I grabbed the bucket, began hurling and sped into the bathroom. I rushed to my toilet with wings (great to grip)

and the next thing I recall is waking up soaking wet from puking all over myself and from falling into the shower. I blacked out. I have been reading these strange vampire novels and as I was coming around I was unconsciously throwing my shoulder against the cement divider (you can see it next to the toilet - that is what separates my shower from my non shower area) and thinking I’m going to be bit by a vampire if I don't move. My nose was bleeding, my glasses on the ground next to me scratched up and I was choking. I thought I was in some bad horror movie or really lame college party movie. It was really scary because in the 30 seconds it took me to stand and realize what had happened; I also thought about what could have actually happened. How would anyone - no When would anyone have found me if I had smashed my head harder than I did? People here do not poke their nose into anyone else’s business. And all the doors were bolted shut. I realized I was crying when I looked at myself in the mirror - and that made me feel even more isolated. You can hear practically everything your neighbor does or says - it echo’s in the cement building. Yet no one came to find out if I was ok.

Anyway, I got myself cleaned up - new pj's and sent an embarrassing text message to the one friend I sort of knew. Chittu rushed over from a different dorm to check on me and then went and got me some juice and mineral water. When he returned I had just finished my 2nd bout of puking. Only this time it was coming out both ends of me at the same time - again good thing I had a bucket. Chittu stayed with me for about an hour checking my blood pressure (53/105) and asking if I wanted to go to the hospital. All I could think was OH MY GOD NOT THE BUTCHERS!!! Everyone says going to a remote hospital in India is the worst thing ever. I have no idea if it’s true or not, but that’s all I could picture/think. That scared me more than anything else. Eventually Bibbeck and TP came by and I eventually felt really embarrassed and shooed them out of my room....I lay down and tried to sleep...unsuccessfully. This time (good advice from TP) I did not rush to the bathroom, why should I if I have a bucket? Nor did I put my glasses on - it’s just puke to see. So I sat up threw my legs over the side of the bed, grabbed the bucket started puking and blacked out again. This time I didn't end up on the floor - but managed to puke all over my new carpet, my fresh pj's and bed sheets. - Somehow I kept puking in front of me even though I had lost consciousness while sitting up in bed.

I cleaned myself up again, started a lovely pile of puke clothing and laid back down in bed. Around 1am I threw up again. I was thinking of eating paneer and peas (Mutter Paneer) - the peas did it. Blahhhhhh into the bucket.

Chittu came by in the morning again and had told one of the professors what had happened to me - so of course now I had to go to the doctor. Only –not just any doctor….oh no. The best doc that could be recommended to me was a gynecologist. Chitt and TP took me to the gynecologist and when we arrived there were 3 men waiting to see the doctor.

The doctor turned out to NOT be a gynecologist, rather a general practitioner (we were all misinformed – uhhhh phew?). He wouldn’t talk to me directly, rather Chittu came into the examination room with me and the doc directed everything at him. It was very odd, like I wasn’t even there….The doc told Chittu my condition was more likely due to a dirty cup than not properly boiled water/tea. He gave me an anti-puke shot in the arm (thanks for the bruise) and 3 types of pills (no clue what they were) and sent me on my way….BUT before I stepped out completely – brought me back into the room and told Chitt he didn’t want to alarm him, but the uncontrolled jerking as I came into consciousness could be due to worms that had gotten into my body and made their way to the brain. Where’s the gynecologist now?? He said that it could be something worse and if it happens again I would need a CT scan because it could be “cystic fibrosis”...

We left – I’m fine and I now have friends I can call any time.

Tired of being an adult

Well, in conjunction with my last post about how WII works - here's something else to think about - the food. I thought about making this all orderly and printing out a menu but I don't have enough energy to invest in something that kinda makes me depressed....


Many students eat in the mess....it’s not like a cafeteria back home! It is the same food on a weekly schedule. Remember as you continue to read: Lunch and Dinners are ALWAYS served with rice, Dhal (some sort of lentils) and chapatti (like a flower tortilla but not). At dinners we get a salad (which does not mean a leafy green lettuce salad - no it’s chopped raw carrots, red onion, and this Indian version of a radish - is good) and at lunches we get yogurt/curd/Dahi. These are constants. The main dishes vary:

We will start with tonight...every Friday (tonight) is hardboiled egg night. Every Wed and Saturday is chicken for dinner. Now, don't get excited for me yet...it ain't no KFC. It’s like they just took a big ol butcher knife and cut the head off and then just chunked the bird up - yet somehow the breast meat went missing. There is never a visible "leg" or "wing" as I can find yet. Lots of vertebra and neck hunks and of course the trachea - I mean how could we leave that out!?!? I believe they remove the crop and the intestines but I’m not sure. They leave everything else....ugh. So I eat paneer and peas the veg option.

Then - for those of you who know me will find this extremely humorous - thus the I’m tired of being adult title. Monday is Aloo (that’s Hindi for POTATO) and cauliflower, Tuesday is aloo, cauliflower and carrots (I think they use the leftovers from Monday and add carrots), and Thursdays is aloo and cabbage. I can't remember Sunday...does it matter? Lunches usually consist of cauliflower and potato. Fortunately for me there is lunch on Wed of some sort of squishy soy ball dish (and potato of course) Friday for lunch is ladyfingers (ochra) and I think its Saturday where we have pumpkin or squash - again not bad. Breakfasts are not really different from lunch. They have these things called Parata which is like a thicker chapatti only it has vegetables (onion and chilies) diced inside them.

You take the Parata and dip it into some sort of Dahl or vegetable soup thing which has - you guessed it more ALOO!!  We have Parata 2 or 3 times a week.  Mondays its omlet (with onion and chilies), Wed some sort of crumbled yet sticky saffron rice dish (can't remember the name) but it has potato chunks and peanuts in it - good but strange.  Friday is this other rice patty thing that you dip into some sort of dahl which has potato and carrots in it. Yippi.

Im tired of eating everything on my plate, Im tired of trying to be mature about all this and eating it because its infront of me.  I am reading stories and drooling when people in the book are eating peanutbutter and jelly or pizza....

How things work in WII

I thought it was about time that I start writing about my time here at school.  Ive officially started my project at WII, though I have yet to see the data or have more than 10 minutes to talk to my advisor....well, thats not quite fair, Ive talked to him 2 times now about the project and I am sad to say that I do not think I will be doing a leopard human conflict issue anymore.  So, I may be searching for a new project soon.  We shall see what this next week brings.  ANYway....

WII is located in Dehradun and I have been suprised at exactly HOW different it operates from the US based system.  Some of the things I am learning are shocking - particularly about the school systems and how they seem to work here.  WII is actually an institute.  NOT a university or a college.  Though, it offers a masters (they call it an MSc instead of an MS) it is still slightly different than what I am familiar with.  Lets start with them:

MSc
The MSc students are the ONLY official students to get a degree from this institute.  They accept up to 14 students every 2 years and only 2 of those are for foreign students (Usually from Nepal, Mongolia, China, etc.) - everyone else is Indian.  This year the 12 students (now 11 since one dropped out) competed against an application pool of 600 going through several tests and personal interviews.  Thats pretty cool!  I am sure there are exceptions so the rest of what I am going to say is MY impressions and MY interpretations of what I have learned thus far.  Undergraduate students in India go to school for 3 years - only.  Each and every part of their education leading up to their entrance exams for university is geared towards literal reguritation of exactly what is written in the book.  Every teacher teaches the exam to the student - even providing the test questions and the exact answer they expect.  There is NO thinking for yourself, no thinking outside the box and no expectations beyond memorization of the material.  University is not much different, but at least now they are studying a subject they enjoy. The classes here rotate and you study one subject for a week or two then move onto another.  Some weeks you are taught up to 3 topics a week.  This week they are studying Behavioral Ecology and Remote Sensing.  School starts at 9:30, there is a tea break at 11 and lunch at 1.  Afternoon classes start up at 2:30 and end at 5pm.  The topics of this week are Behavioral Ecology and in that they may have up to 5 or 6 teachers giving lectures depending on who is incharge of this "module".  There is some sort of break after 4 months and I believe they get 1 month off.  Their last 6 months are spent entirally in the field doing their research project and then writing up the results for a paper. 

In essance, it sort of reminds me of Undergraduate = community college in the USA (getting the basics and generics done as well as some "specialized" classes) and then their MSc is like the last 2 years of Undergraduate specializing in your intersted topic only intensive with a Honors Thesis/small project they have to do.  There is no expectation for an MSc student to publish at all.  Only, this comparison is not quite fair because these MSc students are really good at memorizing so they REALLY know theory.  They are very very book smart.  So, topics may be unfamiliar, but they learn very quickly.

PhD students aka Research Associates:
PhD students here are not officially registered as PhD students within this school.  Every student here (and there are a LOT of PhD's) is registered out of a different university and just has this "affiliation" with WII.  Only, they live, eat, sleep, breath WII or their field site.  All the expertise comes from faculty here at WII and its WII that provides most of the logistical support.  The universities they are reigstered with to officially graduate from - are figure heads only.  PhD students DO NOT TAKE CLASSES!  They are here for 5-7 years working on their projects.  You are expected to know your techniques or tools already...or teach yourself.  

Other students:
Tiger Project Research Associates
They have initiated a tiger monitoring project where they have just hired 29 people to come and do camerat trap and line transects in every national park in India for the next 1.5 years.  They have just hired another 25 people yesterday - all of them have an MSc in biology or some related field.  So, they go through this 2 month training program being taught programs like MARK, DISTANCE, PRESENCE, statistics, and basic ecology of other animals around India.  Getting everyone on the same page.

Diplomats
These are Forest Officer personell.  Much like if your state Fish and Game or Fish and Wildlife agency sent their employees back to school.  They come for 2 week short courses to learn new techniques or to get a better feel for a topic. 

Then there's me.  No one seems quite to know what to do with me.  I am not an MSc student, I am not a Research Associate in any way - but I have a PhD.  The faculty have nothing really to do with me - because what am I really bringing to the table?   I eat with the students in the doorm (they call them hostels) cafiteria (they call it a mess or mess hall) - but I live where they house the Diplomats.  I have given lectures and will be giving others Ive been told.  And I have been allowed to sit in on a class or two thus far which gave me some purpose there for a week...now Ive got nothing again : (

Chrismas Day in Mumbai

Christmas eve was so nice we didn't get home until 1am due to the train ride and the sitting around talking in a bar thing...so we diecided to take it easy on Chrismas morning....I got to sleep in Woohoo till 11am.  But the day wasn't quiet for much longer.  After 3 phonecalls from Ram and several text's I thought I would finally answer his call.  We had decided to go to the movies and go to a MALL...I was kind of excited actually, because again - a mall here isn't like a mall at home - right?  Inorbit was the name of the mall and it had a theater and 3 stories.  It was actually a small mall really becuse it wasn't spread out like ours are. 

But the only people you see in the malls are the wealthy upper class.  So, in a lot of ways it is a foreign bubble of westernization because just outside is the chaos from the rickshaws, totes, beggars, and slums.  The mall was the first place I saw something "christmass-y" (besides Santa the night before).

In the mall was a KFC, Ruby Tuesdays, Pizza Hut, and a Subway. There were also other unfamiliar coffee joints, donut shops, and Thai/Chinese food places. I had Subway! YUM. Course, there is no roast beef on the menu and my Subway melt (170Rs) which normally has bacon chicken and turkey did not have bacon per say, rather what they called bacon which tasted/looked/smelled like what we call sliced honey ham.

Either way it was AWESOME to have green lettuce, mayo, tomatoes, olives, and meat I could recognize on bread that tasted normal. Really, the food here is Good and GREAT in some places. Its just that when you have NO option (like I have now) cravings for familiar things arise and Im psyched when something that is labeled Nacho cheese actually tastes like nacho cheese.

After wandering the mall for a while we decided to check what time the movie started…we were 4 hours early for the only showing that wasn’t sold out (12 midnight). The theater had 3 screens and all but the midnight shows were closed. So, we decided to head back to the ocean and sit there for a while. It was nice.

After our sitting we got hungry so ended up at this place…

I have to ask Bec what the name was but OMG was it fun and good. Its this retro joint that has Austin power / In like Flint type furniture (see my Picasa Album for further pics). We sat at a large old school telephone table and began our orders for Christmas dinner with Milkshakes! I had the Ferro Roche Milkshake and YUM was it divine – esp at the end.

We all ended up ordering the “Traditional Christmas Special” which was garlic rubbed chicken with masala gravy or something drizzled over it on a bed of pureed mashed potatoes and spinach accompanied by garlic rubbed bread. Dinner came with a free glass of wine.

After dinner we decided to order another glass of wine and then have desert. I was almost too full so Bec and I decided to split a desert.  Now, there have only been 2 other times in my life I had been this happy to have a chocolate desert put in front of me – to the point where I actually couldn’t eat any more. I can always pack away the chocolate, but this Avalanche (200Rs) the best $ Ive ever spent.

It had chocolate cake as a base, topped with chocolate ice cream, chocolate moose covered in a hard chocolate shell, with chocolate brownie chunks and chocolate truffles as well as a tall sculpture of chocolate/white chocolate drizzled with chocolate syrup.  This that I am holding is the JR Avalanche ...there is a larger one....Next time Im not going to share!

Christmas Eve in Bombay

If you read the last post, you will note I said never give out your phone number.  Well, by the time I got to the airport in Delhi after leaving Sunil, I had not learned my lesson.  The domestic airport was small where you take busses to the airplane and everyone flying out waits in one of 3 terminals..So, not very big.  In the airport I broke down with my first opportunity to have Real western/american food. I used to be this STAUNCH person who insisted on NOT eating in an American food establishment because I wanted to try something else.  Well, even McDonalds is different.  Remember this is a country where no beef is eaten.  So, what do they serve at McDonalds???  Chicken!  There is like 8 different chicken meals, as well as Lamb and fish.  And that's it.  So, in the airport my choices were a coffee stand with strange looking sandwhiches or McDonalds....I went for the McChicken meal....which again was different.  The chicken was flavored Masala.  Not just your plane breaded chicken...While waiting for my fries I again struck up a conversation with a guy who was waiting for his as well.  This guy (Ram) was an NRI from Australia (NRI = Non resident Indian).  He was from Canburra.  Again, seemed like a nice guy, just out of university in marketing and here for a month break traveling around.  He was also going to Bombay and was alone.  He was willing to meet up and chill with me and Bec - so I said SURE - here's my number!  E-Gads!  If I had only known!

Actually Ram wasn't bad, he was just increadiably lonely or very desperate for friendship because he litterally called/texted me at least 4 times a day for the 3 days he was in Bombay at the same time I was.  We did eventually meet up on Chrismas day and you will see a photo of him when you read that blog... 

Chrismas day we went to the Ocean!

and then to the Gateway of India.  This was the archway that the last british soldiers marched though when they finally vaccated and relinquished rule over India.

This just so happens to be right next to the Taj Hotel.  This is where the 11/26 (as Americans would say) or 26/11 (As everyone else says) attacks happened.  This was the shootings happened the day after thanksgiving in 2008.  This is where we decided to have Christmas Eve dinner.  YUM, but WOHA was it expensive.  This is a posh hotel to stay at and it is SWARMING with tourists. 

This is me looking posh as I sit in the fancy hotel

This is what I had for dinner.  What is it you ask??  Good question.  It was Steak Rissoto.  Steak you raise your eyebrow as you should and as I did...and asked, "What kind of steak is it?"  The reply given was "You know, Indian Steak"....MMMMBoy was it good....really, it was good.  I think it was Buffalo.  You can see the dish beyond mine is Salmon over Rissoto and thats what Andrew and Bec ate.

Buffalo:

This was the place where I also got to see an Indian Santa and Albino Elf...

Never give out your phone number....

I decided to go visit my friend Bec in Mumbai for several days over christmas and new years before starting my official grant.  I was so proud of myself of arranging what seemed at first very complicated travel plans.  I had to book a taxi from Mussoorie to Dehra dun, a train from DD to Delhi barter my way into a taxi ride to the airport from the train station and book a plane from Delhi to Mumbai.  In Mumbai I didn't have to barter (thank god) but get a ricksaw from the airport to the local train station and a train ride to the neighborhood I was to stay in and then a bus/rickshaw to the apartment complex.  Then of course arrange/barter my way back home.  The only thing that was "easy" was the rickshaw in Mumbai and the Taxi in Mussoorie.

Niki my driver picked me up at 3am to drive me the 1hr to DD for my 5am train (600Rs).  We passed a BUNCH of goats on the road.  Got there in plenty of time and got onto my 6hr train and tried to sleep.  Couldn't because of the lady next to me who kept getting out of her seat.  Got to Delhi and bartered with some taxi drivers to hire one of them for 4 hours considering I had a 7 hour layover.  Got a nice santa looking sekh guy for 500Rs.  The deal was he was to take me to the Red Fort (a world heritage site) where I would chill for 2 hours and then drive me the 1hr through traffic to the airport where I would spend the next 3 hours waiting for my plane. Safe and early.

The red fort was strange…Maybe its because I am not completely wow’d by history

or I noticed when looking at Viking stuff in Norway that it all seemed fake. Couldn’t really tell if it was real or what. So, in this place – that is OLD, everything has been ransacked and damaged through time from wars and thieves. The only “pretty” things left were the marble inlay and the

walls. It basically was this palace if I remember right that was built by some Raj and is an assortment of buildings (i.e. audience chambers, meeting rooms, residency, and bath houses) that had a big fountain in front that doesn’t have any water running through it anymore. Guess it would be interesting to have seen it in its hay day, but I think something is lost on me. It was neat for sure, but – eh?

Prior to entering the fort I did visit this strange exhibit - Blood Martyrs????

It was a collection of paintings by other people about martyrs,

 or Indians who had given their lives in honor of India. I really liked the section on women.

These rebels lead armies and defeated those British bastards in little battles through time. There were mass slaughters as well, and many paintings depicting epic battles.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While inside the Red Fort I made a mistake.  I was "friendly" to a young man.  He struck up a conversation with me and seemed very "smart" and with it.  I didn't know I made a mistake until the next day.  But, this young man's name was Sunil Kumar.  Sunil was in 11th standard and all he knew about me was that I was in university....which here in India, you are a student for a short time (i.e. max age about 22)and you are wealthy to be in university.  Most people do not go on for MSc's or PhD's....basically he didn't know how old I was.  He seemed like a smart kid.  He was very nice to me and It was a short conversation at first.  Then I met up with him again (by accident) in the gauntlet of shops preventing you from leaving.  Here - it got a little strange, but not much.  He insisted on buying me something.  I told him "no, please, I have my photos and that's all I need".  He didn't listen and ran away and came back with this gift:

He also kept trying to buy me a bracelet, but I have big gorilla hands compared to Indian women. Eventually he found a bracelet and purchased that as well. I really do not understand why someone would spen 150Rs on a glitter globe of the Taj Mahal while we are at the Red Fort known for its marble inlay. I also do not understand the fascination with gaudy jewelry. The only way I could stop him from buying more gifts it seemed was to leave the red fort. Which was unfortunate, because I wasn’t completely done and I would have liked to shop anyway…Outside the Red Fort, we continued to talk and were pestered by totes wanting to take a photo. Sunil asked if I would take a photo with him and I said sure assuming we would use my camera…OH NO, Sunil decided that he would like to get a print out and therefore paid for our photo to be taken.

He got 2 different poses and I got to keep one of the photos. Up until this part it wasn’t a bad day or things could have been simple. We could have parted and all he had was a photo of me which many other people also have up to this point, so whats 1 more? OH NO….he had to ask for my phone number and I of course had to give it to him. My phone had rang while we were talking so he knew I had a number, I couldn’t give him the wrong number either because he said – here take my number and give me a call so I know your number…He then even checked by calling me as I finally walked away and got into my awaiting taxi.  Over the next 10 days I recieved at least one text message a day AND an attempted phone call.  I never answered or replied.  The creapy thing is that as time went buy the messages got more and more strange.  Declairing I was his sun and moon, that I was his shining star of a friend.  I eventually figured out there is a way to block phone numbers on my phone and it has been blissfully silent since.

No real harm, just disappointment at the fact that there is still this need to be hesitant at making friends, particularly with the opposite sex.  I would never think that a person I met in the US would be that desperate or wierd.  How do you make friends other than by staying in touch and meeting over and over.  Why should my friends be limited to girls only unless it is in a very garded situation?  This country is just strange.

150 public acts of urination/defication Plus an Albino elf and Eunuchs

So, I am finally at WII and will be based here for the next 9 months. I am now reachable more consistently and the mailing address will not change.

Hindi school officially ended Dec 11th, but I continued private lessons until Dec 22 when I left for Mumbai. It snowed once before I left and reached about 4C, Mumbai/Bombay was probably about 22C....I have returned to very cold weather. It is even cold here in DehraDun. To wrap up some of my last thoughts and to start fresh with my experiences I thought I would summarize some random points. Over the past 3 months I have counted 150 times I have seen someone in the act of either peeing or pooping. (thought I would use a more adult word like defecate - but lets just call it what it is...) I realize it is a strange thing to keep track of, but honestly it was... easy?? Its just one of those things that you say to yourself, wow, Ive seen a lot of men on the side of the road or in the street taking a leak - oh look, theres another. And then all of a sudden its like Wow, Ive seen 10 people going to the bathroom today. Then it just turned into a competition with whomever I was out with to see how many we could see.

Another strange count is the amount of Albinos - yes Real albinos I have seen since coming to India.  I saw a family of 4, plus 2 others AND a little boy who was dressed as Santa's helper (aka an elf).  He was so cute!

How about my count of eunuchs!  Eunuch's in India are their own cast of people.  I have only seen them in Bombay and OMG are they everywhere.  Here's a little of what Wikipedia has to say:

Hijra, a Hindi term traditionally translated into English as "eunuch", actually refers male-to-female transgender people and effeminate homosexuals (although some of them reportedly identify as belonging to a third sex). Some of them undergo ritual castration, but the majority do not. They usually dress in saris (traditional Indian garb worn by women) and wear heavy make-up. They typically live in the margins of society, face discrimination and earn their living in various ways, e.g., by coming uninvited at weddings, births, new shop openings and other major family events and singing until they are paid or given gifts to go away. The ceremony is supposed to bring good luck and fertility, while the curse of an unappeased hijra is feared by many. Other sources of income for the hijra are begging and prostitution. The begging is accompanied by singing and dancing and the hijras usually get the money easily. Some Indian provincial officials have used the assistance of hijras to collect taxes in the same fashion; they knock on the doors of shopkeepers, while dancing and singing, and embarrass them into paying.  Recently, hijras have started to found organizations to improve their social condition and fight discrimination. There has even been a wave of hijra entering politics and being elected to high political positions.

Basically, from the looks of it - everyone is terrified that the Hijra will curse them so they pay them to go away.  We had one approach our rickshaw and actually talk to us - WOW wish I had a video recorder or something cuz his/her voice was freaky. She was interesting looking.  The little I know about them is facinating and I would like to learn more.  You see, homosexuality in India is very taboo and still, these people have decided to even re-create the indian core home life and try to make a family in may ways.  They are groomed and trained by a guru and take her sir name and pay her from their earnings. 

Anther count has been midigets.  I have seen at least 15 midigets since coming here.  Is it bad that midigets are always fun to spot?

Ive also seen 3 Indians with blue or green eyes.  They are GEORGOUS.  Much like the little girl on the cover of Nat Geo that made news long time ago - it is very striking when you realize what it is about the person that keeps drawing your eyes to them.

Oh and while in Amritsar I came across 15 bearded women.  Considering it is against the rules to cut or pluck your hair if you are a Sikh - this was a symbol of their faith.  As I have mentioned before, Sikh's are the warrior class and they consider women equals.  So, even the ladies are deadly with a sword.  The lady in this photo is the one with the yellow outfit...

I am going to restart all of my counts from this point and see how I get along.