Usual and Unusual

Here is a post about what I did today, Wednesday, March 6, 2019.  It was a kind of interesting day. A mixture of usual and unusual things happened. 

First of all, my friend Julie is here visiting from Seattle, which is great.  She arrived about five days ago.  We’ve been busy and not busy doing things and not doing things.  Soon we will be busier because we will be taking a trip to Darjeeling and to Sikkim.  More on the adventures of Julie and Mary to come!

This morning I started to walk to campus, but after walking for a few minutes, I thought I’d take a toto instead.  There was a toto guy right there so I told him I was going to NBU and could he take me to Gate #3 for 40 rupees?  (The totos don’t have meters, so generally you have to establish the price in advance.)  He shook his head “No.”  So I said, 50 rupees?  “No.”  So I just walked.  I don’t know why he wouldn’t take me.

En route, I ran into an elderly woman I have seen several times on my walk.  The first time I saw her she was shuffling along, struggling to carry a gallon of water.  So I had gestured asking if I could help her carry it.  She indicated no, she could do it herself.  The next time we saw each other we smiled and greeted one another.  And that happened a few more times.  Then this morning when I saw her she came to me and we greeted each other and stood clasping each other’s hands.  Then she said, “Bukhar,” and pointed to herself.  And then she said, “Rupees?”  “Bukhar” means “fever” (I think she just meant she was sick, since we were holding hands, I could tell she didn’t feel hot).  You know what rupees means.  I just shook my head “no,” and walked away feeling pretty bad about it all.  I never know how to handle that sort of thing and feel I don’t have a good answer.

I got to campus and went to my office.  After getting some emails out of the way, I started to prepare a lecture on the Vietnam War for tomorrow.  I found out yesterday that I could give a lecture to the world history class about the Vietnam War.  And that I would have an hour for the lecture.  Let’s see how far I get in one hour. 

They are doing construction on the roof of my building.  It is a flat concrete roof, and there is a lot of pounding and scraping going on.  Today there were machines involved and it was terribly loud and since it sounded like whatever was happening was happening directly over my office, it was scary. I kept imagining a freak accident that would end my life in a split second.  I walked out of my office to gather my wits and Somnath (the peon) walked by and I told him I was scared!  He smiled at me and said, “No, ma’am, everything is fine.”  So, I went back into my office, assured that everything was fine.  And it was. 

One student came to my office and asked if I would appear in a documentary she and some other students are making about local tribal people.  I told her I know nothing about the topic and regretfully declined.  When I told Julie about it later, she suggested that I could appear in the documentary as the one asking questions about local tribal people.  My brilliant friend!  But alas, I think my opportunity for a star turn in this particular documentary has come and gone.

Then one professor (name and identifying details withheld) came to my office to say hello, after we had played email tag for about a week.  The hour-long conversation was more of a “versation,” on the professor’s part—in other words, get rid of the “con” part of “conversation” and you have an idea of what happened.  (“Mansplaining” would be another descriptive word.)  As we sat facing one another across my desk, I became increasingly desperate to get out of the situation.  Finally, I thought to myself, “WWMMHD?”  (What would my mother have done?)  I gently scraped my chair back and stood up smiling.  Professor X stood up nearly simultaneously, and I thanked Professor X for the visit and off Professor X went, much to my relief.

While Professor X was in my office, two students came and asked if they could take a picture of me, which turned into a selfie that included the two students, Professor X, and a very tiny shot of my head floating in the background.  Then two more students came and presented me with a lovely invitation to attend an International Seminar on “Social Movements and Development Issues” at which my “kind presence and active participation is solicited” (so read the printed invitation).  And then, while Professor X was still there, two other professors came and invited me to give a presentation at a seminar on “Language, Culture and Society.”  I said I didn’t know what I could talk about at such a seminar since it wasn’t really in my area of expertise, but they explained that I could talk about my local area, which I take to mean that I can talk about the local culture of Tacoma (?).  Anyway, I said yes, but am going to see if I can find out what other people will be presenting about and maybe I can come up with something worthwhile that will fit in somehow. 

Then, I walked home, and did a little food shopping on the way.  I stopped at “my” fruit vendor’s stand.  The elderly gentleman who owns the stand is quite distinguished looking, and when I pointed at the green grapes, he picked a couple to give me a sample – yes, very sweet, could I have a half kg?  I also got a half kg of small bananas.  I paid the 110 rupees (about $1.50) and put the grapes in my bag.  As I walked away, he hollered after me – I had forgotten the bananas.  A gentleman who was waiting to purchase some fruit helped me fit the bananas into my bag and off I went.

My next stop was a small shop that is like a grocery store (I suppose it actually IS a grocery store – why do I say it is LIKE a grocery store?).  When I left I asked the clerk if the road that ran next to the store connected with another road that goes to my apartment building and he didn’t know, but a woman standing there knew and she told me that it did!  So I found a new way to walk home, a much quieter way than my usual route through the congested market area.  A relief! 

On my way home, I saw a stray dog that I had first seen about three weeks ago.  The first time I saw it, it had a horrible open wound, where one of its legs had somehow been cut off.  It was a horrible sight, and I couldn’t understand how the dog could survive such an injury and I also couldn’t imagine how painful it must be or how the dog could bear it or how the wound was not infected.  I saw the dog several times after that.  But I hadn’t seen the dog since I came back from the conference I attended last week.  I assumed it must have succumbed to its wound.  So I was quite surprised to see it today – and I don’t know if I was happy or sorry to see it. 

Then I got home and Julie was here and I told her about my day!  And she told me about her day!  Both of us had usual and unusual things happen today.