Do Lucknow

I heard that my blog is featured on the BULFIP website, so I’m going to post some info for the people trying to decide about whether to come to Lucknow. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to come or not, really until I was on the plane… up to that point I kept telling myself I had the option to turn around. That’s how I got myself to skydive, come to think of it.

The only thing I could compare leaving the U.S. for that long was dying! But it was kind of neat to know what it felt like to prepare for death, and then die, but still get news updates and talk on the phone with your life.

The language instruction is fantastic. It is different though, and I think primarily because each class is so small there’s more opportunity for slowing down and getting wrapped up in the details of linguistic whatever. Very interesting, but possibly you wanted to get on to the next goal. Again, because it’s so small, you can be accommodated but you have to express the complaint/wish. Only Urdu is spoken in class, both because the teachers are much more comfortable speaking in Urdu, and because it’s their teaching style. They generally have a very good theoretical grasp of English. With the other Americans, I generally speak English. We often speak Urdu at lunch, or at home if we remember, but it’s just a real mental relief to have other Americans to communicate with. Lucknow is not a very English-speaking place, unlike Delhi is for instance, and maybe because of the program and lack of tourists many Lucknowis actually expect you to understand and speak Urdu/Hindi.

Our stipend is just about equal to what the teachers earn, and support their families on. We eat out and travel instead. For me it was not quite enough; I came out about $100 below each month, but that is entirely because of 1. shopping and 2. taking the Shatabdi Express back and forth to Delhi many more times than necessary. I can safely say that the stipend was not enough for the girls and was enough for most of the guys. I don’t know why, they just didn’t spend as much. Rohish even saved money, in spite of buying a motorcycle and sound system, kamal ka. Outside of UP I traveled to Pune and the Northeast. We went on field trips to Hyderabad, AP, and Aligarh, UP. Sadaf and Geeti went to Pakistan. Rohish went to Rajasthan. Nathan goes to Jaipur every now and then. Maryam went to Aurangabad. I had plans to go to Jharkhand but I’m running out of time.

This year there are seven students in the program, and five of us live together in a flat above a family’s house that we have minimal but sufficient contact with. The other two live in home-stays a little farther out. I decided there was a trade-off between loneliness in the home-stays and a less learning-intensive environment living among other Americans, and I chose the latter. It keeps me sane. That decision is up to you. There are a bunch of other little things I do to keep my sanity (membership at the gym, over-paying favored cycle rickshaw drivers and feeding them chai). The thing that keeps me going the most, though, is learning Urdu. It’s really fun. If you’re not that into it, it would be easy to get depressed. There are other projects that keep you going: Geeti and Sadaf take a dance class, I take a singing class, Nathan takes tabla classes and goes to Musheiras, Brian plays a bunch of tennis, Rohish is working on some articles for the Urdu newspaper, Maryam has her dissertation research to translate. Stuff like that. I met an American lady teaching at Lucknow University for a semester who said that out of 30 years of overseas experience, her experience in Lucknow has been the most difficult. So you need to pamper yourself a little.

Hope that helps!

I got one request for my opinion of the nuclear pact from my loyal sister, so you’ll all have to read through it! Yay.
First, though, the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Signed into force in 1968, it now has 187 ratifying members. It has three goals: non-proliferation, dis-armament, and to shift nuclear use toward peaceful energy goals rather than weapons goals. Five countries are allowed to make and own nuclear weapons: France, Russia, China, the U.S. and the U.K. Same as the permanent members of the UN Security Council. They agree not to transfer nuclear technology, weapons or fuels to non-ratifiers. There are only three countries that have never signed: Pakistan, India and Israel. North Korea has pulled out, and Iran has expressed desire to pull out. It’s obvious that Pak and India have nuclear weapons since they tested them; Israel never has but possession and capability are inferred.
The Indo-U.S. nuclear pact lies outside the NPT. It tacitly accepts that India has and makes weapons, and opens 14 of India’s 22 nuclear facilities to international UN inspections. Obviously the U.N. is in on the deal too. Those 14 facilities are civil energy facilities; the other 8 must be defense. India will receive better technology and better access to fuels. The world will receive assurance that accidents are less likely.
Pakistan immediately requested a similar pact, and was bluntly refused. There are three good reasons: Pakistan doesn’t have the same energy needs as India, it has been an aggressor state, and Pakistan’s politicians have shown an eagerness to evade non-proliferation goals.
There is criticism of the pact both in the U.S. and in India. In the U.S. it is mainly that this weakens the NPT. India is singular and extraordinary for several reasons: as a defensive neighbor to nuclear China, India will never sign the NPT; India has laws against a first nuclear strike; and India has demonstrated nuclear responsibility. It may in fact weaken the NPT, I’m not totally sure it won’t, but the NPT is flawed and this pact accepts reality while not destroying the NPT, which is useful. In India the criticism is mainly along the lines that any agreement with the U.S. is a bad idea because the U.S. is unpopular. There are also the people who just don’t like nuclear anything. That’s a valid point; the waste is not so chill. But it’s a different topic.

Now for anyone who stuck with me till the end: I went home to D.C. for four days suddenly last week. I did seven major things: bought a new camera with my hard-won insurance money, ate a burrito, cuddled with Jackson, looked at an apartment John and I might buy, went camping in Virginia, and got engaged. I’ll show you pictures of four of them.

First, I have to print an error correction: the Lucknow deaths weren’t due to Hindu/Muslim communalism. I picked that up from the internet, but it turns out they were Muslim shop owners and three of the four that died were Muslims. Also the looted gun shop was Muslim-owned. I rode by today to check it out. There were ten lazy policemen sitting in front sipping chai.

The weird thing is how quickly it morphed into a communalist issue in the press and general understanding. I went to Aminabad today (finally got my photos!) and asked the frame shop owners what happened, and they said oh, nothing, just some Hindu-Muslim riots. Maybe he just didn’t want to say anti-American, as if I didn’t know.

The Varanasi blasts that went off tonight are obviously anti-Hindu, and now everyone is really nervous, not just the Americans. Who knows why they were set off, or who did it, or who benefits. Maybe the Hindu fundamentalists benefit, but that’s my heritage (conspiracy theory genes) speaking. The serial blasts in such symbolic places (the river Ganges, the Hanuman temple, the train) but without a huge loss of life… hmmm, very interesting.

I just read a great article: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=89087. It was published before the blasts. Political parties based on ethnic or religious identification should be constitutionally banned. That’s my opinion. In 1947 no one anticipated how they would take off, and it sure was interesting. But not good. Other democracies do it and India should too.

The institute is closed again tomorrow due to nervousness. We’ve heard rumours of riots and car burnings in Lucknow, but it reminds me a little of Sept 11 when we kept hearing new reports that the Capitol was struck, fire on the Mall, a plane heading for the White House, a car bomb at the State Dept. I had to walk out to the Mall to settle for myself that it was just a bunch of rumours. I don’t feel comfortable walking out to Lalbagh tonight though sorry.

Well, my presentation tomorrow was supposed to be on the Indo-US nuke deal. If any of you want to know about it, I can give it here, but you have to ask. I have all day tomorrow to mope around the house, forbidden to go outside… at least I bought a watermelon yesterday.

This afternoon Geeti got several SMSs from Fazal (also known as Chubby) saying the city was turning violent and we should go home asap. Several more warnings followed, from other people: do not leave the house, not even to go to the gym, which is two blocks away. So I had to cancel my list of errands, which again involved going to Aminabad, but apparently that’s where the two deaths occurred, though maybe that was in Kaiserbagh right next to Aminabad. We had stranded guests. Rohish’s mom, grandma and grandma’s cousin are visiting; their meal in Hazrat Ganj got interrupted by bloody people running by and getting the restaurant closed while they were still eating! Then after making dinner and eating with us, they couldn’t get anyone to take them to their guesthouse. Finally at 10 pm they got a driver, and he’s charging rps 250 for a 40 rupee trip. We also had another visitor Matt who’s been in Korea for two years. He did the Urdu program in 2002 and is staying at the same guest house as the Lal matriarchy, so it worked out that they could get home together.

That’s all I had to write, just a little nerve-wracking news. For the record, I’m in favor of the nuclear deal; it’s been a long time coming. In general, Indians are too. Right now, the protests are an interesting alignment of the secular left and Muslim hard-liners. People upset about Bush vs. Islam (and following so recently on the Europe vs. Islam cartoon masla), and people upset about the standard West capitalism nuclear etc. issues. And interestingly, it can turn into a Hindu-Muslim thing pretty quicky from there… might seem complicated, but if you’re looking for an excuse… e.g. if Hindu shop owners don’t close their shops quickly enough (where closing means supporting the protests)… anyway, instead of writing more I just stole all of Sadaf and Geeti’s photos from the past several months and I’m going to post a few.

Below: The old British Residency, Mohurram at the Bara Imambara, Hyderabad, our instructors Wafadar and Aftab at the airport, and Aligarh