hot. very hot.

While I was away I crossed the 2 month milestone of the study abroad experience. I’m now about half way done with my whole Indian adventure. I think I can safely say that I’m pretty accustomed to the Hyderabadi lifestyle at this point. Being away really gave me a new perspective on this city. Now that I have a frame of references for comparing North India to South India, I have a better understanding of what makes Hyderabad Hyderabad. First of all, I realized that compared to beautiful, cosmopolitan cities like Delhi with colonial architecture and a thriving cultural scene, or charming medieval fortress towns like Jodhpur with breathtaking views everywhere you look, Hyderabad is a little on the shabby side. In fact, Hyderabad looks a little like an arid, post-apocalyptic dystopia where everything is covered in a layer of dust and even the nice buildings are under construction. This is not to say that Hyderabad isn’t beautiful on the inside…it has a great personality…it’s just going through that awkward pre-teen, ugly duckling phase right now. The city has exploded from 5 million people to 7 million people in under ten years (if I recall the statistic correctly) which means that it is going through a lot of new and unusual physical changes before it reaches full maturity.

Being away also made me realize how much South India pride I have developed, specifically in terms of food. For every North Indian restaurant that we dined in, I actually found myself craving dosas (they’re like crepes), iddli (breakfast pastries), and biryani (a Hyderabadi rice dish) more. I figured by two months in I would be completely sick of all forms of Indian food, but actually, I’ve grown so accustomed to it that it’s all I want. You should also note that I have become a beast when it comes to handling spices. There is no pepper, no curry, no masala too picante for my taste-buds of steel.

The North was much cooler (in the literal, heat-related sense) than the South. I did not know this until I returned, stepped off the airplane and wanted to die. I had slowly, over ten days adjusted to chilly 80 degree February weather, only to return to the ungodly weather of the South. Currently, I can't tell if the reddish color of my skin is a sunburn or just an overheated flush. That is not to say that I haven’t slightly adjusted to the heat. I only complained about ten or eleven times today and it was mostly for the purpose of making small talk. “Ghastly heat, eh?” that sort of thing. I actually walked the mile from class buildings to the dorm in the noonday sun wearing a scarf and survived, so I must be getting tougher, right? In fact, I’m getting tougher in more ways than you know.

Nothing fazes me anymore. Today I found a cockroach crawling around in my purse and didn’t even bother to gasp; I just shrugged, set the bag back down and assumed it would find its way out. Hours later I rode my bike directly through a heard of water buffalo and thought nothing of it. And moments ago as I walked down the hall a winged-creature swooped past me, a girl stepping into the hall and said, “was that a bat?!” I responded, “yup,” and continued on my way unimpressed.

In spite of becoming hardened to the many oddities of life in Hyderabad, I still haven’t mastered everything. I learned this today as I sat outside on a bench working through an embarrassing attempt to read-aloud with my Hindi tutor. Out from the trees emerged a jovial, sari-clad old woman who began heckling me in Hindi. I’m not good enough with the language to have any idea what she was saying, but it involved a great deal of pointing at me and laughing. After several minutes when the woman mercifully went on her way, Rajini, my tutor, revealed that the woman had been making fun of my ankle-bracelet. I bought it in Varanasi thinking it was so culturally appropriate, but apparently it’s a faux-pas to wear it only on one ankle and without the symmetry of two I look like a foolish Westerner. I have so much to learn.

On an unrelated note, have you ever heard of this fruit? CLICK HERE