Dry land riders by kt

Where to begin? The past few days have been such a whirlwind of traveling that I have a hard time absorbing everything sometimes because it is a nonstop barrage of all 5 senses simultaneously. The honking of all the cars stuck in traffic, the smells of exhaust mingled with food cooking at the various roadside stands, the taste of Indian spices, and the sticky feel that everything has due to the heat and humidity.

The other day, we went to Belur/Halebid to see the temples. It was amazing to see structures that have stood the test of time and maintained its integrity as well. I couldn't get over all the intricately carved homages to various deities. The highlight of the day was definitely the temple with 1000 steps (actually more like 661, but for the sake of argument, we will say 1000 because it felt like we climbed that many steps). It was basically a mountain with stairs to put it plain and simple and it wasn't an easy climb, but the view was worth it. At the top we were greeted with a temple and a larger than life statute that just might give Michaelangelo's David a run for its money.

The lowlight of the day? Definitely the driving and the traffic. I admit a slight bias here since I easily become carsick.

The next morning brought us yet another long car ride to Mysore, which is where we are as we speak. Smitha has relatives in every city, which comes in handy because her family really does take care of us and they pamper us as well!

We went to the palace at night and arrived in time to see the lights being turned off. Do Do? Laugh.

Dawn (ok, I exaggerate on the time a wee bit) brought us to the kitchen of Smitha's aunt Sashi, where we were not allowed to leave without a proper breakfast! They really do pamper us I'm telling ya!

We headed off to our first stop of the day: the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing - AIISH. We had quite a nice chat with the director, and I plan to write a separate entry about that later, so hold that thought. Afterwards, we toured the grounds and the campus with Shivakumar and Pavithra as our guides. We saw quite a few deaf children, none signed. We also saw hearing impaired classes being taught in English and Kannada, which is a language used here in southern India. There were classes being taught in some other languages too. I fail to remember the names at the moment though.

Next, we went to my favorite place of the whole day: the Rotary Club school for deaf infants and mothers. I'm an education major so I kept looking at the different ways they educate children here, and that place really got to me. Maybe because it was full of cute little deaf kids, maybe because most of the mothers were there with them and actually serve as their teachers, or maybe it was the way all of the kids crowded around me to see themselves on camera when I flipped the LCD viewfinder to face them, I don't know what it was, but the place got to me.

I felt conflicted. It's an oral school and I could see some of the kids gesturing and some of the kids struggling to understand speech, and the adults sometime used physical force to force the kids to speak orally with us. Meanwhile, there we all were, signing away and having the best of both worlds. It really does make me more grateful to my parents, if that's even possible, because I'm already very grateful as it is.

After that, we went to the J.S.S. Polytechnic Institute, unfortunately, most of the students were on holiday. We did get to meet some teachers and some hearing students who knew sign as well as some deaf students. This is where our two guides attend school.

It was certainly a long day but it was topped off by a visit to the KSM dam. We stayed there for a couple hours just walking around the Brindavan Garden and sightseeing the dam as well as the gardens. Once it became dark, we crossed the river to see the musical fountain.

Before I end this blog entry, I want to talk about the cows, yes, the cows. I saw one wearing a gold necklace today, I kid you not. While in Goa on the motobike, Wy and I passed a sign for a proposed cattle pound. Little old egocentric me did not get that at first until I compared it to a dog pound, a place for unwanted cows. Interesting. Cows are really sacred here and they're everywhere. It was a bit unusual to see cows among city traffic at first, but I've gotten used to it. They also have the ultimate right of way, traffic comes to a standstill when a cow crosses the street. We saw a lot of bulls today with painted horns. Their sizes range from small and doglike to the huge imposing beasts that we are accustomed to in America. Some are so thin that you can see every bone in their body and some are so fat that they look like they're ready to topple over at any moment. I still am a bit bothered when I see them tied to street signs inches away from traffic with hardly any room to even move, much less than lie down.

I shall end this for now as we are at the Nithyothsav hotel surrounded by waitstaff and about to eat. Ciao for now!
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