now i know how paris hilton feels. (sort of.)

what i perhaps have not really discussed yet is how much we stand out. we really do. sometimes, when we're in touristy areas, there are other non-indians. for example, at easter services at the anglican cathedral, we thought for sure there would be a whole slew of british, etc. there were about 5. other times, like around our house or the hospital, there are none. this manifests itself in a variety of ways. charmingly, little children poke their parents and point at us or smile shyly. everyone stares and nobody tries to hide it. when i tried to feel an old woman's thyroid the other day, she jumped up and tried to run out of the room. "it's ok," said the other patient. "she just got scared because she was expecting to see brown skin." fair enough. the more tiring side of this is that we're a constant target for people trying to sell things or begging in the streets/ at our taxi window.

so, anyway, we had the day off today owing to the birthday of b.r. ambedkar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambedkar) and went out to the banganga tank, a very old water tank surrounded by temples. it was bigger than we expected and lovely and quiet, with not a honking horn to be heard. it was also pleasantly free from the begging/selling variety of attention, although a gang of cricket-playing youth did stop us to ask where we were from. they were overheard repeating our names to themselves as we walked away. the tank itself was full of all kinds of birds, and turtles and what seemed to be enormous carp. and swimming children. i don't even want to think about what sort of zoonotic diseases were in that water, but they were enjoying themselves. there was lots of people-activity, too, with women drying chilies on the side, and cricket being played, and prayers being said, and washing being done.

(the tank)

(aforementioned swimming children)

after that, we headed to see a jain temple, which was also very beautiful though hard to appreciate fully without knowing all of the jain stories that were depicted.

(statues outside)

we also stopped into the hanging gardens. the hanging gardens was full of families enjoying the holiday who immediately commenced staring at us. one little boy came up to us and asked "excuse me madam, one picture?". we thought he was asking us to take a photo of him and his mother, but in fact there is now a photo of us and some indian woman we don't know floating around out there. like taking photos with animals at the zoo, elizabeth remarked. unfortunately, i don't have a copy of that one.

we also were ambushed by an old man who, without warning, gave us candies, dabbed red paint on our heads, and wrapped red and yellow strings around our wrists while chanting a blessing . he then charged us 200 rupees (which is like $4 but an exorbitant amount of money for string, i think). short of slapping his arm and running away i'm not sure what we could have done. of course, even before the chanting commenced we had been the center of attention, but when this started, everyone around us fell silent and turned into one giant, gawking circle of mumbaikers. there was nothing to do but stand there and take it. the dye from the string is now running down my arm, making me look jaundiced. i think this totally makes us look indian, right?



i thought so.