Back to School

School is back in session after a 10-day holiday. I was beginning to get bored, like any good schoolgoer, so I was happy to go back. The kids seemed happy to see me too. They told me all about the tsunami they had seen on television, and some of the girls had even donated old clothes and money to help the victims. Sneha and Nandini gave me a little pocket-sized Happy New Year calendar they had gotten from a hot water heater company.

School sports day is January 22nd, and preparations are in full swing. Every afternoon the kids go outside to practice their events. Yesterday the boys were practicing their human pyramid. They put one small boy on top of an older boy's shoulders, and the little boy immediately started screaming and crying, so of course he couldn't balance up there. The teachers started yelling at him not to cry. He put on a brave face for the next one.

Other events are going to include lemon-spoon racing and obstacle courses. Nandini informed me that I would have to come to sports day, so that week I should come on Saturday instead of Friday.

My parents sent me a Hindi learning CD, which is just in time, because people keep yelling at me in Hindi. Nishaant explained to us that Hindi is a sort of lingua franca in India (for many it's the second or third language they learn in school) so some people think it's the lingua franca for everywhere. I took a package to the post office today and a man at the door asking me what I wanted went through 5 words in different languages before he arrived at "stamp." I took an autorickshaw in the evening and asked him to turn right, and he argued with me in Kannada saying it was the wrong way. He even enlisted the support of a young man in a van next to us, who first argued with me in Kannada and then (I think) gave me the same argument in Hindi. They didn't seem bothered when I argued back in English. They either didn't notice or just thought I was crazy, I guess.