Adaptations

Following the example of the women riding side saddle on motorcycles and walking brazenly into traffic to cross the road, I quickly learned in the first few days in Hyderabad to use my scarf to cover my nose and mouth to block fumes and dust and odors.  I remember thinking, “When will my scarf stop smelling like home?”  (The answer to that question, I found, is when you enter a temple during a festival for the first time.) 

 

Over the past couple of months, I’ve also adapted other new habits to adjust to life in India.  Some changes are probably pretty predictable for a person who moves to India, like taking up yoga and becoming a vegetarian.

Others are less likely, like discovering wheat berry, watching Arrested Development for the first time, and learning how to use iTunes (sort of).

A sample of even more adaptations over the past few months:

• I cook dinner on the stove contraption above. (And I thought my kitchen in Decatur was lacking!)
• I use hand sanitizer.
• I don’t check the weather.  (I’m not sure why this is.  I guess I realize it’s not going to change my behavior – I’ll still walk to work regardless of the sweat or the rain.)
• Water comes from this thing:

• Mom jeans, Indian style.
• I’ve learned to distinguish stomach disruptions from hunger – which sometimes feel awfully similar. 
• Remembering, slowly, how to bargain.  “70 would make me happy” is an effective bargaining phrase. “You give me this price and I’ll be happy.”
• Becoming ok with arguing with everyone – from the auto driver to the postman to the glaring stares that you meet everyday – to try to get things done.

These are the tangible adaptations that will make for good stories later in life.  (Or in mere months when I meet up with you for a blessed glass of wine over cheese and crusty bread..)

 Also. This is absolutely the only good thing about not having a fall:

 Admit it, you are at least a little jealous of this conference location.