my deal

right now... spending a year in india on a fulbright grant, based in kolkata aka calcutta, studying dance, researching dance, learning bengali, and doing my best to learn hindi also in this anti-hindi town. i just finished getting my BA last year so this is an added year of education, of postponing choosing what to do with myself for the rest of this life, and so, of course, also of confusion. vascillating between things.

but what i am doing here is really exciting--the dance form is kathak, a classical north indian dance form that is unique from other classical indian dance forms in that it represents a fusion of hindu and islamic culture that emerged out of the mughal courts. it is fast. there are spins. pirouettes. footwork that will set your feet on fire if not the stage. intricate, mind-boggling, but also playful rythyms. and hands that move through space with incredible softness and grace, delineating directions, circles, lines, figure-eights, hands that make arcs in the air. eyes that tell stories. a dance that is all elegance, grace, delicacy.

so, i am spending most of my time trying to get a handle on all these beauty, struggling at it every day at dance school. when i'm not doing this, i am visiting other dance schools to do observations for the whole research thing, wandering the city in search of the perfect cafe, studying bangla as best i can, going to language class, washing my laundry in a bucket in my bathroom (no, no washing machines, and the washerman that comes already wore out half my clothing the last time i was here in only four months... i trust my own hands better), reading the telegraph to get the news on the latest bollywood or to a lesser extent hollywood gossip, reading, trying to get sounds out of my tabla (the drums that accompany kathak... trying to learn trying trying), taking walks in the quieter areas, listening to hindi language tapes, shopping for fruit and vegetables because everyone seems to love to feed me a diet of bread rice potatoes noodles sweets and eggs and so i sort of start wondering where my health will be going, napping when it is too exhausting, rehydrating with endless liters of water, and daydreaming.

so there is a lot. and what with all the tea breaks the days pass fast. i'm sure before i know it it will be all over.