Greetings from Pune, a city in Southish India along the west coast. I am here for a week helping one of our field coordinators train the people who are conducting our surveys. I can’t say I’m enormously helpful, seeing as most of the training is in Mahrahti. Fortunately, Mahrati is really similar to Hindi, which I can at least follow somewhat, and most of the guys know some English. We are training a group of 20 guys, all of which look to be between 20 and 25, and seem extremely terrified to talk to me. Good thing I’m not trying to flirt with them or that would surely scare them off! We are working through medical cases that they are going to survey the doctors about. I think it’s safe to say the low point for me was when the trainer didn’t know what constipation was I had to explain it to the group of college-aged guys. Yeah. That went real well.
I don’t really have any time to explore Pune, although I did have the first afternoon I got here free. I attempted to go to the Osho Ashram, which is the main tourist destination here. The Osho Ashram was founded by this guy who proclaimed himself a guru and promoted using sex as a way to find yourself. It still operates now, and there were a ton of people walking around in robes who are in the process of finding themselves…riiiiight. I attempted to take the free visitors tour, but was told they just had to shut it down due to a pending lawsuit. Then I read that in order to set foot in the Ashram you have to take a mandatory HIV test. Now I’m definitely glad I couldn’t take the tour because I have visions of stepping through the gate and immediately getting jumped by some guy all in the name of him finding himself.
Thus far, though, Pune is my favorite place in India. What is so great about it? Amazing vistas? Historic temples? Great culture? No no, none of those. One word: Television. Yes, my hotel room has a TV, and every time I turn it on they are either showing Friends or Desperate Housewives. It’s as if there is a channel out there that is catering specifically to me. I get back to the room at 9pm, Friends is on. I turn it on at 7am when I get up, its DHW. Amazing! Then, in a rare moment of brazenness I navigated away from this channel and found a 2008 gymnastics meet between University of Arkansas and Alabama. Talk about random! I’m sure that D-1 athletes at decent programs across the country have no idea that a few years from now some family in rural India will be gathered around their prized position watching their meet!
I must admit, working with the surveyors and going out to the villages to interview doctors is still slightly cooler than all the Friends reruns. I’m sorry for the lack of pictures, we try to keep a somewhat low profile when we go into the villages, which is obviously completely impossible given that I’m a white female, but me snapping a bunch of pictures definitely wouldn’t help. Being here has also made me appreciate how diverse the US really is. It’s so bizarre to me that I have been in Pune, which is a huge city of 5 million people, for five days, and I have not seen a single non-Indian. There were a few whities at the airport, so I suppose there are some others wandering the streets here somewhere, but I have yet to spot them. The worst part is that if I have a huge stain on my shirt or my hair looks crazy I have no way of knowing it, because everyone is staring at me all the time anyway.