India That Magical Place

When I ventured out of my room it was with a resolve to meet new people. Date week had begun and I received a broom, delivered to the classroom, which read- “Fiona, you sweep me off my feet!”.

Date week is designed so that the students mix, a form of ’social interaction’ which is fun. The first week it happens a senior dates a junior, sending them anonymous letters and gifts all week. It is the junior’s responsibility to reply to the letters and then on the weekend you go on a date. It’s not a romantic thing, just cheesy and fun. Which is what I’m all about. The second gift was a boomerang which was passed back and forth between us with jokes on it, and so this went on all week, and then we got into an origami competition. It was really fun because you had no idea who was sending them and all week I had random people come and me ask if I knew who my date was. The return letters you hand to anyone and somehow it manages to finds it’s way to your date. It was such a cool ice breaker. The world was working with me to introduce me to new people. My date was a lovely young boy Prevar, a third year product designer. He took me to a lovely restaurant ‘Curries’ and then out for ice-cream where we met up with a group of NID students. Then it was back to the campus for a sing-a-long and a dance party. The students are all from different regions in India and the regions all have their own dialects, traditions and customs. The sing-a-longs consisted of students singing traditional songs from their home towns. I find this sort of thing really fascinating, India is so rich in culture, I was paranoid they were going to ask me to sing- they hinted at it, but I brushed it off. Ha, I’m tone deaf when it comes to singing and the only ‘Australian’ song I can think of is the national anthem. Really, no one wants to hear my out of key version of the national anthem. Where is my national pride? The next evening I was taken to the Cinema to watch a Southern Indian film, out of eleven of us there was only one guy who spoke the language and there were no sub-titles. “Fiona for a truly Indian cinematic experience you have to make noise and lots of it!” and they sure meant it whooping, yelling, laughing, whistling- they went crazy. Little meek me sat there for half the film too shy to make a sound, but by the end of it I could yell like the best of them. The film was in excess of 3 hours so I had some time to warm into it. At home I often talk at the TV, so really it’s just an extension of that.

Though I dissed the ‘ragging’ in an earlier post I accidently found myself at the centre of it. We have been editing with post graduate film students and they had to perform a cross-dressing play based on Titanic for the senior students. I was made the ocean ( I did volunteer for the role- part of my new ‘I should try everything approach to campus life’- but I had no idea what I was getting myself into).

We were lined up and yelled at for a bit, then we had to do a catwalk and introduce a student whom we didn’t know. I was a little shocked at what I had subjected myself too, and the seniors were shocked that I got involve, so I was given a little grace when it came to being yelled at. The object of the exercise was to entertain and simply me being there was entertaining enough for them. The students were SOooooooooo embarrassed/body conscience about cross dressing, it was hilarious, though I felt a little uncomfortable watching their discomfort. One guy had to leave because it was all too much for him. For me I’m an outsider so I was given special treatment, plus I really don’t care what they think of me- so I don’t mind making a fool of myself. Once the formalities or maybe I should term it initiation ceremonies were over It was party time. A film Student only affair- smuggled in booze and bad Bollywood dance music. Getting involved I didn’t find it as horrific as I did as a bystander in my first week at NID. You bonded with your peers, laughing about what you were being subjected too and once you did it you gained entry into the seniors world- thus the party. I suspect though the driving force for most of the juniors was the prospect of booze at the end. The things people do for a drink!

Swimming lessons and Cheap Booze!

Finally after a month we made it out of the city of Ahmedabad for a beach holiday. It was so refreshing to get out of the city. The over night bus trip was crazy- we spent the whole night airbourne, as we were over the back tire and there was very little to no suspension.

I was shocked to learn out of our four friends we went away with, only one could swim. The weekend was spent in the pool teaching them how to swim, drinking cheap alcohol (which was legal because we were in an independent territory, cheap because there were no alcohol taxes- You guessed it a bit of a haven for NID students!) and driving around the city on scooters. My one freakout moment was one afternoon when we went to the beach and it was the roughest surf I’ve been in for as long as I remember. Swimming after a day full of alcohol with a group who can’t swim and no life guards. No dramas, no deaths, no near deaths, Fiona stop panicking! I built a mini sandcastle in the bathroom with the sand that came out of my clothes!