Hyderabad

It's been a long time since I last posted and my arrival in Hyderabad now feels like ages ago. My brother, my father and my grandparents joined me and my mother in Hyderabad. We visited family, saw some tourist spots and finished furnishing our new flat. Mid September my mother, father and brother went back to the states. My grandparents remained with me and have been taking care of me since.

During the last few months I have had such a wide range of experiences. I celebrated my birthday in India for the first time since I turned 7. For the first time I witnessed a wedding and for the first time I witnessed a funeral. I saw many festivals celebrated in the most colorful and splendid fashion imaginable. In addition, my research has gone through many ups and downs and now I am wishing that I bothered to record it all.

The fact is I am really bad at consistently blogging. And being bogged down with emotional up and downs that accompanied by academic obstacles did not help. Also, I began a C++ class at NIIT and that has been taking up time as well. The festive season is over now, and my research in falling into place, so I think I have a little more time and motivation to think about blogging. I did document all events through video and photos so I will most definitely upload them asap.

Having family in Hyderabad is both a blessing and a curse. I feel that without them I would be lonely and miserable. But knowing people here and already being part of the "culture" makes me feel that I am not getting the complete Fulbright experience. I'm not really sure what the "Fulbright experience" is but I don't think this is it.

For now, I am more focused on my research. I'm trying to work more and experience less, because the last 3 months of events has taken its toll on me both physically and emotionally. A huge obstacle I encountered in my research was that my dance teacher Uma Aunty was hospitalized for nearly 2 weeks. She now requires 1 month to recover. During this time I am still taking classes from Revathi aunty. In addition I have a lot "book" work including reading, looking through archives and conducting interviews.

I feel like this was a very to-the-point post, but I suppose that is how it would be after I have not blogged in so long. Anyway wish me luck! Because now I am about get my hands dirty with the work that has been piling up.