academia

first off, i got a bike!

it makes going to class a lot easier, since it takes 45 minutes to walk to campus. now i need to name it. and possibly get more cushion for my seat :)

the classes i've signed up for: women in india 18th-20th century, conversational hindi, indian philosophy, and gay indian literature.

women in india 18th-20th century is taught by rekha pande. she always wears the most beautiful saris and is most definitely a feminist. the first day of class, she explained why there needed to be a separate class specifically dedicated to women's history, or to use her term, her-story. her goal is for history to someday be rightfully called our-story. right after this beautiful speech, an indian male student raised his hand and said something along the lines of "no, women shouldn't have a separate class." now, in the u.s. i feel like a professor would be quite post-modern in his/her response, with something like "oh, interesting. maybe you are right, or maybe we can combine our ideas, blah blah blah." this is not how it works in india. dr. pande shook her head and said, "no. you cannot take this history away from us!" he didn't respond; and that was that.

conversational hindi is taught by bhavani (that's her first name). she works as a resident director in the dorm i live in, and has the most adorable little girl named thandvi. this is thandvi with noam (another ciee student):

so far, we've learned how to say
ap casay hey? (how are you?)
shupiya (thank you)
danyavad (thank you)
along with learning the vowels and consonants.

indian philosophy is taught by this adorable indian man who talked to us about happiness. indian philosophers are constantly trying to acheive eternal happiness, ecstacy. they also want to attempt to escape the bracket of suferring--which a question that i'm always thinking about.

gay indian literature is taught by hoshang merchant. he is an openly gay indian man, which is very taboo. he is a poet and has a long white beard and calls people "my child."

i love this class. he called me "miss hope" since i go to hope college. then he talked to us about his past lovers and how he thinks life i all one big joke. i am swooning.

love love love,
lauren