I want to first get the negatives out of the way...
Last week I stepped in cow dung, a pile of it, nice and wet, on our walk back to the hotel. I heard the squish with every step for the entire 15 minutes after that it took us to get back. I felt the disgusting yet collected look on my face. In the end all I got was an ugly rash on my feet and a pretty good story to tell. Not too bad!
This ugly rash on my feet. Itchy, ugly rash. A minor downer in my week but with a little Extra Strength Benedryl and a daily foot affirmation, all is well.
This morning. Not entirely negative but rather a strange annoying encounter involving a group of men. I would call them gentlemen but I'm not exactly sure they were gentle. They didn't look it. I arrived back from breakfast, eager to see the wedding that was about to take place at our hotel. The bride was Slovakian and beautiful and the groom was a local man from Hubli and handsome. It's a rare occurrence in Hubli to see a wedding involving a foreigner. I opened my window shade to get a glimpse of the wedding scene only to find a group of about seven men standing outside my room, loitering. The good thing about our windows is you can see out but nobody can see in. Thank goodness as I was standing in a tank top kurta. As I sat with Yasmine, in the next room over, observing the men and their actions we became more and more entranced and at times violated. Even though they could not see in our windows, it's pretty evident they knew there were two, white foreign, women in the room. One of the men even had the nerve to open Yasmine's door and peek his head inside. "Hello!" she yelled. And then another man grabbed the Do Not Disturb (DND) sign off my door and ripped it in half. I was thinking hello, I saw that! As I walked over to my door to lock the dead bolt. He put one half in his jacket pocket and through the other half over the balcony. I still don't understand the point of that. Respect, sometimes Indian men really know how to violate it. After several minutes of watching, and ragging back and forth Yasmine and I decided to move to Denise's room. The men were now huddled outside her window and we wanted the latest dirt. We climbed outside on the back balcony and crossed that way, holding on for dear life. There was no way I was going out the front door so walking the back plank was the only other option. Three women trapped in three small rooms, only mobile over a balcony. We discussed it, laughed a bit and soon after the men left. Strange. It was a strange experience. And the thing that put the cherry on top... they were not even invited to the wedding. They were government officials from Hubli/Dharwad that apparently think they can just drop in on weddings whenever they very well please!
I just shook my head as I looked over the front balcony and watched them drive away, one half of my DND sign in the exiting vehicle and the other sitting lonely by itself on the dirt floor below. It was an odd morning. Definitely one of those mornings, weeks rather when I ask myself, what the hell?
Last week I stepped in cow dung, a pile of it, nice and wet, on our walk back to the hotel. I heard the squish with every step for the entire 15 minutes after that it took us to get back. I felt the disgusting yet collected look on my face. In the end all I got was an ugly rash on my feet and a pretty good story to tell. Not too bad!
This ugly rash on my feet. Itchy, ugly rash. A minor downer in my week but with a little Extra Strength Benedryl and a daily foot affirmation, all is well.
This morning. Not entirely negative but rather a strange annoying encounter involving a group of men. I would call them gentlemen but I'm not exactly sure they were gentle. They didn't look it. I arrived back from breakfast, eager to see the wedding that was about to take place at our hotel. The bride was Slovakian and beautiful and the groom was a local man from Hubli and handsome. It's a rare occurrence in Hubli to see a wedding involving a foreigner. I opened my window shade to get a glimpse of the wedding scene only to find a group of about seven men standing outside my room, loitering. The good thing about our windows is you can see out but nobody can see in. Thank goodness as I was standing in a tank top kurta. As I sat with Yasmine, in the next room over, observing the men and their actions we became more and more entranced and at times violated. Even though they could not see in our windows, it's pretty evident they knew there were two, white foreign, women in the room. One of the men even had the nerve to open Yasmine's door and peek his head inside. "Hello!" she yelled. And then another man grabbed the Do Not Disturb (DND) sign off my door and ripped it in half. I was thinking hello, I saw that! As I walked over to my door to lock the dead bolt. He put one half in his jacket pocket and through the other half over the balcony. I still don't understand the point of that. Respect, sometimes Indian men really know how to violate it. After several minutes of watching, and ragging back and forth Yasmine and I decided to move to Denise's room. The men were now huddled outside her window and we wanted the latest dirt. We climbed outside on the back balcony and crossed that way, holding on for dear life. There was no way I was going out the front door so walking the back plank was the only other option. Three women trapped in three small rooms, only mobile over a balcony. We discussed it, laughed a bit and soon after the men left. Strange. It was a strange experience. And the thing that put the cherry on top... they were not even invited to the wedding. They were government officials from Hubli/Dharwad that apparently think they can just drop in on weddings whenever they very well please!
I just shook my head as I looked over the front balcony and watched them drive away, one half of my DND sign in the exiting vehicle and the other sitting lonely by itself on the dirt floor below. It was an odd morning. Definitely one of those mornings, weeks rather when I ask myself, what the hell?
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