In other news, I've been hearing from my host family! They are of the Gujarati sect of Hinduism. No, I have no idea what that means, and yes, I should probably look it up on Wikipedia before I show up at their doorstep. The parents used to live in Mumbai before they peaced out for the south, probably because Mumbai is mucho peligroso. (As a side note: I've found that when I'm in a foreign country and I don't know the language, I often lapse into Spanish. This trip could be very confusing, linguistically speaking.) The mom went to college, and works as an aerobics instructor and a journalist. The dad used to own a textile business before switching to real estate, share marketing and finance. Their 24-year old daughter Meera graduated from college and works in business, and their 17-year old son Nihal is finishing his senior year in high school and likes to play PS-2, as his email to me dictated. The description of their living situation I received via email: "They have a very nice and well kept house."
In other words, I think I'm going to be living with the Indian bourgeoisie for the next four months.
Woah.
If you get north of Maduari at all, remember that no woman anywhere else in India is an aerobics instructor, and bear in mind that most women get college educations in farcical universities with open-book exams. *No offense to any college-educated Indians or Indian-Americans. I blame all of my views of India on Shalini Sharan, who comes from a very big city and is duly jaded.
ReplyDeleteBut the host fam sounds cool. And super swanky.