The 1971-72 Global
Semester, Day by Day
Sunday, October 10, 1971
Our plane (Air India) left only 40 minutes late. The
stewardesses were Indian, very beautiful in their saris,
and very nice. They had one stewardess for economy class so
we nearly starved before we got served but the food was
really good. I had chicken curry. There was also some sort
of fish salad which wasn’t good but the curry was fine.
There was also rice with raisins, potatoes and peas, rolls,
and butter and cheese (made in Kenya but very American
tasting). There was also cherry cake for dessert.
We landed in Aden, South Yemen, for awhile about an hour
after we left Addis. It was 91° there and very humid. It
was dark when we approached Bombay. We could see a mass of
twinkling lights in the distance (the “Queen’s necklace”), just like
they were sitting in space.
Bombay on the ground was breathtaking too but not in the
same way. It was hot, humid, and very polluted. The “City
of a Thousand Smells” I call it. All bad, too. Passport
control was very slow. We got through fast but they gave
the Japanese people a hard time – I don’t know why – so it
slowed the line down. Then there were a couple of
long-haired Americans whom they wouldn’t let through even
when they showed them their money and promised to leave the
country in 21 days and even confirmed their flight out. If
I were them I’d just get my hair cut to avoid the hassle.
Bombay is dirty, slummy, and there are people sleeping all
over on the sidewalks and center islands. Our hotel looks
nice. We’re on the 7th floor. The room is large with nice
furniture, a sink, toilet, and shower (all in separate
rooms!) and two ceiling fans.
Monday, October 11, 1971
The night was hot and noisy but we slept fairly well.
Breakfast was good: corn flakes and fried eggs with toast,
pineapple juice, and tea. The restaurant is a night club
with abstract paintings on the walls that are most likely
the Kama Sutra illustrated. Very interesting!
Bombay looks much better to me today. From our window we
have an excellent view: palm trees, slums, tenements,
skyscrapers, birth control signs, and ox-drawn carts. It
doesn’t smell bad today either. We don’t have any energy
today to go anywhere. We leave here at 2:30 PM for the
airport, fly to Jaipur, change planes, and go to Agra.
Our bus never came to our hotel
so they called taxis to take us to the airport and what a
wild ride! All the taxis seemed to be racing to get there
first. The streets are crowded with people, animals, motor
cycles, and bikes. It’s really terrifying. They don’t slow
down, just honk and weave in and out. We missed having
several accidents by only millimeters.
We took a 737 to Jaipur. They served us snacks: a sandwich,
a bag of spiced nuts, tea, and some mint-green squares of
sweets with what looked like tinfoil on top (but was
actually sugar).
We couldn’t believe it when we saw the Clark’s Shiraz
Hotel! It has all sorts of shops, a huge, fancy dining
room, and bars and a nightclub upstairs. We got in at about
9:45 and proceeded straight to the dining room where people
were dining in evening dresses and white dinner jackets. We
felt like a bunch of peasants. A lady even came up to us
and asked us if we had been mountain climbing all day! The
food was the best yet: soup, fish in a sauce that tasted
like lobster, and tender, juicy, rare steak with peas and
potatoes, and cake with whipped cream for dessert. It was
all so elegant that we all sat and laughed in amazement.
They even asked if we wanted seconds!
There’s a pool here too. Lots of the kids went swimming
after supper. They split up Don and me: I’m with Ellyn and
he’s with Jeff.
Tuesday, October 12, 1971
We had a huge, delicious breakfast and then went to see the
Taj Mahal
{from Marylou}
and Agra fort.
Afterwards we went to a
government-approved gift shop. In the afternoon we went out
of Agra to Fatehpur Sikri.
We also visited a shrine to a
certain Moslem saint. He was a priest who made the Shah’s
childless wife pregnant with a son and so now people who
want babies go there, tie a string to the shrine, and make
their wish.
We left the Clark’s Shiraz at about 7:30 PM for the airport
and our flight to New Delhi. They collected our cameras at
the Agra airport, for “security reasons” until we were on
board the plane. We also have security checks at all of
these airports where they search your hand baggage and
frisk you.
The Agra airport, like Jaipur,
Benares, and others, is what is known as a government
aerodrome. The terminal is small as Indian Airlines is the
only one using it. The runways are concrete but are
sometimes lighted by smudgepots. Flares are fired to guide
planes in at night. Military facilities are nearby and
photography is always prohibited.
Claridge’s Hotel in New Delhi is at least as good as the
Clark Shiraz. Like Clark’s, the grounds are beautiful with
fountains, lawns, and gardens. The restaurant is like a
nightclub, very elegant and lit by candle light. They have
a floor show every night, too.
Wednesday, October 13, 1971
We had to get up early today because we had a tour at 9:00
of New Delhi.
We visited a Hindu temple built
in 1938.
We also visited the tomb of one
of those Shahs – the great-grandfather of the guy who built
the Taj,
{and Qutub Minar}.
We had a really lousy guide:
impossible to understand and not very informative. We
visited the Red Fort
and the Gandhi memorial in the
afternoon.
Then the guide took us to a
real hole of a store where they had saris and dresses with
stains on them. And they were expensive too. We were all
tired and disgusted by that time.
We got all dressed up for dinner when we got back to the
hotel. They had a band and a female singer going when we
got to the restaurant. They handed us a dinner and drink
menu and told us we could have any dinner we wanted! The
food was delicious. The floor show was sort of weird – a
modern dance by a man and a woman with sexual overtones.
And only 15 minutes long.
Thursday, October 14, 1971
Today we both woke up sick. I felt good enough to go
shopping with Marylou and some other girls at the Central
Cottage Industries. Later I began to feel sick so we met
Ann and Cork and took a taxi back to the hotel. I went to
supper and ordered chicken noodle soup, “sole Albert”
(filet of sole cooked in Vermouth), and a banana cabana
(like a banana split). I ate the soup and a few bites of
the fish and the ice cream and then let Bill Witrak finish
it.
Friday, October 15, 1971
Room service rang us to wake us up at 3:30 and we were down
to breakfast at 4:00. The flight to Allahabad was cancelled
because the plane broke down so we had to fly to Benares
instead and take a 3 hour taxi ride to Allahabad.
We arrived here at 1:00 PM,
dog tired.
Our compound here is nice. The house is white stucco. It
has a large sitting room, a dining room, two bedrooms for
the girls, four bathrooms, a room for the Narum kids and
one for Dr. and Mrs. Narum.
The guys are in another
building and in a tent and we’re in a tent.
I’m glad we are though; the
house is sort of musty. Everything, including our sheets
and the house, smells like mothballs. There are goats tied
up just outside our tent.
The food is tolerable and we
get one free coke and two teas!
Saturday, October 16, 1971
It started raining last night at 1:30 and it’s still
raining. They say it’s because of the typhoon that’s
hitting the east coast of India. It’s supposed to be the
dry season now.
Breakfast was good: grapefruit, corn flakes, a fried egg,
toast and jelly, and tea. We rented bikes last night. They
cost 25 rupees to rent for a month which is about $4.
In order to get hot water here we have to ask for it and
get a bucket full. But it’s hot here and the showers are
cool so it feels good. The toilets are fine – flush ones –
although one finds a frog in there sometimes. They have
plenty of boiled water for us to use. The girls says there
are lizards on the walls inside the house.
There’s a laundry boy to do our laundry but I’m not giving
him any of mine because I’m sure he beats them on the rocks
and my clothes aren’t that tough. Don’s jeans and underwear
can take it though.
Mrs. Wesley is a little old Indian lady who is our house
mother. She’s really sweet and helpful and concerned about
our welfare.
Sunday, October 17, 1971
It rained all day.
In the afternoon we took a
tour of Allahabad. We saw the junction of the Ganges and
Jumna Rivers, a holy place to the Hindus considered by them
to be the bowels of the Earth. Hindu pilgrims come here to
bathe in the holy waters. We saw some naked bathers. Also a
lot of beggars, lepers, poverty, and mud. We all had ice
cream cones at the Indian Agricultural Institute. We didn’t
have a regular guide, just the vice-principal of the
college who didn’t have much to say and didn’t speak
English very well when he did.
Don and I and six others were invited to a lawyer named
Dayan’s house. His daughter and son ran the party which
included many college students. We played some dumb games
but it was an interesting experience. The games were about
junior high level and the kids seem conservative in a high
schooly way. They were very nice and fun to talk to,
however, and the food was interesting. The sweets were
good. One was a carrot-colored oblong log which tasted sort
of like cocoanut. There was also a pastry with hot stuff
inside and peas in a hot sauce and tea. Most of the people
there were Hindus but there were a couple of Christians and
a Moslem or two. They played American records – everything
from Ricky Nelson (he’s
big) to Yellow River to the Beatles. They have a
thing about getting as many people possible in a car. They
came to get 5 of us in a little car which already had 3
people in it.
Monday, October 18, 1971
We have discovered that it
hasn’t rained this late in the year in 40 years here.
Previous Global groups didn’t experience any rain in India.
Yesterday the rain was considerable and our tent began to
get wet along the edges. No dripping leaks though.
The food here is better than we expected: meat of Sloppy
Joe consistency, mashed potatoes, cooked vegetable, and
fruit for dessert. It’s very bland except lunch today which
was Indian: rice, meat, potato and vegetable, all spicy.
Every meal is basically the same. They do have soup for
supper but it is awful – grease soup – and very little of
it. The meat is tender. We had been told that we got water
buffalo. If this is buffalo, it must be from a very young
one. We also get two teas with cookies and sweets every day
and one free coke. We don’t eat much because the food is so
blah but if we take our vitamins and eat a lot of carbs and
bread and some meat or egg at each meal we’ll be OK.
Everyone seems to be having the runs.
The lady who lives in the house and her daughter came to
visit us. They taught us some Hindi words and offered to
take me to the market to buy a sari. The little girl
brought me a set of bangles which are made of glass. This
family is Christian (evangelical); they’re going to take me
to their church some day. It’s a mission church.
Today was the second, and most
important, day of Diwali, the Hindu holiday. (This is the Festival of Lights in which
each Hindu tries to attract, through light and sound, the
goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, who is apparently on the
prowl.) All of us were invited out to houses of
local families to observe the festivities. Don and I and
John, Rosie, and Dirk went to a lawyer named Parchui’s
house. They have a house with a big yard and a wall around
it. It’s sort of hacienda-type with a huge terrace and many
rooms. The inside was shabby by our standards, however: old
furniture, a monstrosity of a phonograph (which had a
plastic Taj Mahal in the center), and the whole place was
dusty and disorganized. The only thing that was impressive
was their new blue tiled and blue fixtured modern bathroom.
They have 10 children: 8 girls and 2 boys. Rita is the 2nd
oldest and has been to the U.S. on a Rotary exchange. We
had tea and sweets which were horrendously sweet and the
tea had an awful sweet spice in it too. Then we went into
the study where they had a little table with statues and
pictures of Ganesh and Lakshmi. They put some red stuff on
them with their thumbs, threw rice and flower petals on
them, and lighted lamps. They also had bowls of food there.
There was no ceremony as such, just the motions which all
of the members of the family went through. Then we lit
small candles which we placed on all the windows, terraces,
and walls so that the whole place was lit up, just like
Christmas.
After that we went to a school which was lit with electric
Christmas-tree-like lights of many colors. There was a
statue of Kali there which people were worshipping. Kali is
mostly worshiped by the Bengali and most of the people
there were Bengalis. They were setting off fireworks all
over and we felt very insecure. We’d never been so close to
them and our ears were nearly blasted out. I really didn’t
enjoy it much although some of the fireworks were pretty. I
just don’t like them going off 5 feet away from me. After
the fireworks were over we went back to the lawyer’s house,
9 in a car, to have more fireworks. (Some of our group who
attended another house witnessed the aiming of bottle
rockets into the yards of neighbors!) Fortunately, they ran
out about 10:00 and they took us home.
It didn’t rain yesterday, for once, or today. Things are
beginning to dry out. We had three lectures today: one on
Diwali, which was good, one on a tape which was useless,
and one by an Indian economist which was all review. He’s a
poor lecturer, too, with a shrill voice. He is P.D. Hajela. He lectured on The
Mechanics of Economic Development. We also listened to
and/or discussed a lecture by Potter at a St. Olaf
convocation entitled "Characteristics of Indian
Philosophy."
We have another dog now in our tent at night – a brown
female who comes in every night and leaves early in the
morning. She scratches herself a lot so I got a flea collar
for her from Kit.
Tuesday, October 19, 1971
I can’t help but wonder if those people we visited last
night really believed in those gods and goddesses they were
worshiping. The man explained their holiday rather
objectively, I thought, and they all laughed and joked
during the “worship”, especially the children. The parents
were more serious. Maybe they just do it because it’s a
tradition or maybe it’s the ritual that counts only,
without any thought being necessary, like a superstition.
It’s really getting hot now. The clothes are drying very
well and so is the tent although it still smells musty.
In the afternoon Don and I rode our bikes around a little
(they call them “cycles” here). It’s so nice to be able to
ride on a street with just bicycles, rickshaws, and
horse-drawn carts on it. There are cows too, and an
occasional car, motor scooter or bus, but, for the most
part, it’s very peaceful. This is a very pretty town with
lots of trees, flowers, and big old houses. Even the poor
areas are brightened up with flowers and artistic work on
the buildings.
Jane, Cork, Ann, Marylou, and I went with Ester, our 12
year-old neighbor,
to a Japanese garden nearby.
It’s a beautiful park with fountains, water lilies, trees,
and flowers along winding paths. There is also a small zoo
with rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, a porcupine, rats, etc.
There is also a children’s area with a big elephant slide
and other playground equipment. We got stared at a lot by
people. I don’t imagine very many Americans come to
Allahabad. It’s not exactly a tourist town for Westerners
although it’s a main pilgrimage place for Hindus.
Today marks the beginning of
our academic work here. Parmar is ill with amoebic dysentery and his
substitute lecturer (Hajela) is babbly, boring, and
simple.
We had our fourth Narum lecture, this one on Indian
philosophy.
Wednesday, October 20, 1971
Something upset the dogs last night. They would come in the
tent, lie down, and then start barking and go back outside.
They did this all night and there were other dogs barking
in the distance too. I managed to get a flea collar on the
brown dog while she was in the tent.
10:45 AM. We just got done with another lecture of
excruciating length by the economics professor. So far,
three lectures, it has been virtually all review about
economic development. That wouldn’t be so bad but the guy
talks very fast and unintelligibly at times. He babbles! He
looks sort of like Count Dracula with a shiny pompadour, an
insane look in his eyes, and a funny grin on his face all
the time. It’s hard to take an hour and a half of it.
Today I went shopping in the afternoon with Jane, Ann, and
the lady next door (Theresa P?) and her sister-in-law,
Helen. We walked through the back gate of our compound,
through another compound of well-kept houses (which Theresa
said were all Christian) and down a narrow street for 50
yards to a big street with shops on it. I bought a
beautiful sari made of partly synthetic cloth that’s
wrinkle-free and very soft. We had a crowd of little kids
following us around all the time. Most of the shops were
closed so we weren’t there very long. On the way back we
stopped at Helen’s house. She led us up a narrow and steep
flight of stairs to a big five-room apartment which was
nicely furnished (by Indian standards). She had an antique
clock on the wall and a picture of Jesus.
While we were waiting for Helen on the way to the market we
saw two veiled Moslem women with a little white girl of
about 6 years. She was grubby looking like all the other
kids but was unmistakably European in her features:
strawberry blond hair and very fair skin. We couldn’t
figure it out.
Hajela continued his lectures
on development in under-developed countries. We also had a
discussion/lecture for Narum's class.
It’s surprising how often the
general dinner conversation here drifts into discussing
one’s bowel habits.
Thursday, October 21, 1971
Hajela's lectures continue.
Today's was on capital formation. We also had a
discussion/lecture on Hinduism for Narum's class.
Friday, October 22, 1971
Irene, and Indian girl, and a couple of her friends, came
by at breakfast time and invited us to their basketball
game. All the girls we have met are really sweet and
they’re all so pretty too.
Today we went to Benares (Varanasi). We had to pack
everything up and leave it in the Narums’ room because we
can’t lock the tent. We took our water bottles and our pack
and our pillows and sheets and blankets because they don’t
have much bedding in the hotel. It was a three-and-a-half
hour ride in a crummy wooden bus with zero leg room even
for me!
The weather is, for me anyway, almost perfect. The days are
clear and bright with just a slight breeze and the
temperature runs from about 70° at night to about 85° at
noon. It’s very comfortable in the shade, even when the sun
is hot. The land here is perfectly flat with trees and
fields as far as you can see.
Market areas in Indian cities are fascinating but hectic.
The streets are narrow and crowded with people, cows,
bicycles, and rickshaws. One has to be constantly watching
so that he doesn’t get run over and also constantly
watching where he steps. People spit and relieve themselves
all over and also there is always dung and garbage on the
street. The smells are many, ranging from urine and manure
to burning trash to fried, spicy foods.
In Benares there are all sorts
of holy men and lepers who beg. The lepers are so pathetic
with their stubby fingerless hands and toeless feet.
Today we stopped, after seeing some Hindu temples,
at a section of the market
where the cottage industries are. This is the tourist trap
of Benares. You step off the bus and they descend upon you
with knives, necklaces, flutes, carvings, etc.
“Hello, madam, real sandalwood, only one rupee.”
“Look, sir. You like this? Real ivory.”
“You have American dollar? I give ten rupees for dollar.”
Etc., etc., and they’re so persistent!
We got back on the bus and while we waited for the others
they stuck their wares in our faces, the same ones coming
back every two minutes. It could easily drive someone
crazy.
Today we also visited the Hindu university. It has a
beautiful 1300 acre campus and a huge temple which allows
all people to visit the central shrine (usually only Hindus
can). The central shrine looked like a phallic symbol –
just an oval stone standing on end – with flowers around it
and a pitcher dripping Ganges water hanging over it. At
every shrine in the temple there is a priest, usually a
little old man with thick, round, wire-rimmed glasses. Our
guide was a good one and very informative.
The hotel here isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It’s
about like the one in Gondar. They gave us each ten rupees
to buy food and we can get three meals here for that! And
they sent lunch with us today, including two bottles of pop
each, so we’re all set. We only brought 7 rupees with us
and we had to shell out 8 for the guide so we had to borrow
one from Marylou. We have candy bars and one coke each left
so we should be OK until tomorrow night. The food here
tonight was pretty good, a little better than in Allahabad:
soup, some kind of meat, rice with mutton curry, bananas,
and vanilla pudding with some jello.
Saturday, October 23, 1971
We were in the bus at 6:30 AM today to go to the Ganges. We
had to walk from that same stupid market place we were in
yesterday, through the same bunch of holy men and souvenir
sellers. After that was a narrow street lined with beggars
and then the steps down to river, crowded with beggars and
bathers. We got into some rickety wooden boats, half of us
in each, and, after much difficulty, got away from the
shore. The river was beautiful. The sun was barely up and
there was a haze over the water silhouetting the boats in
the distance. There are temples and palaces lining one side
of the river for miles. The bathers are purified by bathing
in the Ganges. At the same time many worship the rising
sun. They fill a brass jar or pitcher with water and offer
it to the sun, slowly pouring it out. After bathing, the
people are blessed by a priest and a red mark is put on
their foreheads. They then take a jar of Ganges water to
the temple to a morning worship service there.
We floated down past the
cremation place where several bodies were burning but we
couldn’t see much from a distance. Then we landed and
walked up a narrow street, saw the golden temple, and
finally got back to the bus. The streets are filthy with
sewage, spit, and manure and are crowded with beggars, holy
men, pilgrims, cows, goats, and small children. I really
felt contaminated when I got out of there.
This afternoon we visited
Sarnath, near Benares, where Gautama Buddha underwent his
enlightenment.
Our hotel was really a hole. We
got bug bites (I just discovered mine now). The men in the
“dorm” room had beds full of fleas and tried to sleep in lawn chairs after
discovering their situation. The breakfast was good
– cereal, eggs, bananas, toast, and tea – but lunch was
pretty bad. We were glad to leave.
Sunday, October 24, 1971
We got up and went to the mission church at the Bible
seminary today: a bunch of girls (and Don) and Mrs. Poplae. It was
an old-time evangelical type of service. There was a bunch
of traveling ministers and missionary types there and some
of them sang country western type of Bible songs. I had a
hard time keeping a straight face. There was one big pudgy
man, Rev. Woodhouse, who had that perpetual fake grin on
his face all the time. He gave the sermon and the Indian
preacher translated. It was all just quoting Bible verses.
And then at the end he asked anyone who “didn’t know Jesus”
to raise their hand!
They asked us to stay for coffee afterward and we got to
talk to many people, both American and Indian, plus eat
good American-style cookies. The head man at this mission church was
from Minnesota as was his wife (Robbinsdale).
We saw an elephant and a Hindu mourning group, complete
with corpse in a shroud.
We all went to bed by candlelight. The power went out at
8:30 PM.
Monday, October 25, 1971
Mrs. Narum is leading a group of our students in some choir
practice for a music contest at the university. They are
singing “Come Holy Ghost Our Souls Inspire” and “Lord For
Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake.”
The dogs barked and howled again last night. I don’t think
people pet and play with their dogs much here. Raja doesn’t
seem to know how to act when I pet his head and scratch his
ears.
He obviously likes it because
he stays and wags his tail but he looks sort of surprised.
We only see the brown dog at night. She disappears with the
coming of daylight. I can tell when she comes because she
thumps her tail on the floor.
The Hajela lecture today was
on economic aid to UDCs. Contrasted U.S.'s (political,
strings-attached, anti-communist) with Sweden's (moral,
humanitarian) as described by Myrdal. We also had a
discussion/lecture for Narum's class.
Tuesday, October 26, 1971
We had our fifth major Narum
lecture today. The anti-Vedic revolts of the Jains and the
Buddha.
We exchanged money at the bank today. What a bunch of red
tape! And, with all the bookkeeping, they don’t even give
us a receipt!
Wednesday, October 27, 1971
We had lectures from Dr. Paksa
on Indian Philosophy and Dr. Parmar on Goals and Process of
Development. And, for Narum's class, we had a discussion on
the first two chapters of Nakamura.
People are getting sick again – sore throats, diarrhea, and
some strange bug or virus.
We’re learning much from
Narum. His course is superb and as a teacher he is superb:
a brilliant mind, a comfortable and easy-to-talk-to man. He
inspires one to thirst for knowledge like no one I’ve ever
met.
Thursday, October 28, 1971
Some people seem to never go to sleep in this town. There
is a temple or mosque or something near us and they sing
and carry on about every other night. Or the dogs bark all
night or there’s something else. And the servants come to
work about 5:00 AM and clatter around.
This afternoon Shankar took us downtown to a nice jewelry
store. He’s taking us to another one tomorrow.
Our Narum discussion today was
on universals vs. particulars and on emptiness.
Friday, October 29, 1971
Some Peace Corps workers came and took 14 of us out to the
village of Poulpur about 30 miles from here. We were really
crowded in the jeep. Our driver was Mrs. Wesley’s son. He’s
in his late 30s probably, dark, handlebar mustache, and
wears shorts and knee-highs.
{from Marylou}
They took us to a tube well
they had drilled for irrigation. The dust was terrible;
very fine and almost white. They finally got the pump
working and we could see how the water runs in the mud
ditches around and around through the fields.
The Peace Corps workers claim
that much is and has been done as far as digging wells and
introducing new seeds is concerned. They say that the use
of the new “miracle” grains is quite widespread. They took
us over near the Ganges to eat lunch and we saw where they
were building a pontoon bridge.
Saturday, October 30, 1971
Yesterday was the first in the
last five or six that we haven’t had a power
failure.
I went to Civil Lines with Marylou. It’s a modern shopping
area with a variety of stores. We ate lunch at the Kwality
Café. I had fried fish and potatoes, which were good, and a
banana split, which was great.
It is customary to sing grace
at the table here in India. Mrs. Narum, choir director that
she is, has us singing the familiar words to the Gillette
theme as well as in 2-3 part rounds. Group singing is
becoming a tradition among us.
Sunday, October 31, 1971
Monday, November 1, 1971
Last night we had our Halloween party. We invited a whole
bunch of little kids and we all dressed up in costumes. We
did pretty well considering how little we had to work with.
Coleen and Rosie were “Injera and Wat”, Erika and Jane were
Siamese twins, Terry was a blue bumble bee. Paul Chmelik
was a butterfly. I put some lipstick on my face and wore a
blanket over my Arab dress and a headband with feathers.
There were tons of peanuts to eat and the floor rapidly
became covered with shells. We had 3 jack-o-lanterns and
lots of crêpe paper decorations. I think all the little
kids had a good time. They probably thought we were all
crazy. They had delicious cookies and lime juice and some
rather strange pumpkin pie. The games were hilarious:
musical chairs, step on each other’s balloon, peanut hunt,
pass the guava from neck to neck, etc. Dr. Narum wore his
kurta, a silver medallion, pants stuffed into knee-highs,
slippers, and a head band that said “Fram Fram.” He was
obviously Saint Olaf.
I put on my pajamas, my ripped
T-shirt, knee-highs, and a Norwegian stocking cap. I don't
really know what I was supposed to be but I think most
people thought "fool."
Mary and I went to Civil Lines today. We bought some
material for kurta shirts and had ice cream at
Kwality.
One of our lectures today was
by a Nehru who was the Indian ambassador to China in the
late 1950s. He talked about the India-Pakistan
situation.
The music contest was today at 5:45 PM
after the last lecture.
This evening a few of us (Rosie, Paul C., and I, with Tito
from Kashmir) rode our bikes over to a large temple near
here where we got forms to apply for yoga lessons. An
Indian law student, who knows yoga, took us there. I don’t
like riding my bike in the dark but it wasn’t very far. The
only panic is at intersections where I never know where to
look for traffic. Sudden stops are bad too because the bike
is too big for me and it’s a boy’s bike.
The temple is a beautiful white structure surrounded by a
wall with a big elephant over the gate. We were led into a
dark gymnasium, lighted by a single birthday-cake size
candle, where men were weight-lifting and doing exercises.
Rosie and I may have been the first women ever to enter
judging by the stares we got. The law student helped Paul
fill out the forms, which were in Hindi. A month’s worth of
lessons cost 13 rupees.
Tuesday, November 2, 1971
This morning 14 of us got up and left at 6:15 for our first
yoga lesson. It’s nice early in the morning: cool, quiet,
with not much traffic. Our yoga instructor is about 70
years old, toothless, and in excellent shape except for a
slight pot belly. He has a shaved head with one long strand
on top and wears a T-shirt and some sort of loin cloth. He
speaks fairly good English, understandable most of the
time. Today he taught us some elementary exercises, which
I’m sure we’ll be stiff from tomorrow. He also showed us
how one can clean his nose and stomach with water. First he
poured water into one nostril and it ran out the other,
then he put a piece of cord into one nostril and it came
out his mouth. Then he drank about a gallon of water and
you could see his stomach become distended. Then he took a
piece of rubber tubing and, after saying “om”, fed it down
his throat (all 3 feet of it!), leaned over, and let the
water run out. A truly amazing performance!
We were all discussing yesterday how our standards have
changed as a result of this trip. I’m not tired of my
meager collection of clothes. All I care about is that
they’re comfortable, relatively clean, and that I don’t
smell too bad. I’ve given up on my hair: it’s pig tails or
braids all the time now.
We had our sixth major Narum
lecture today.
Our Indian lecture today was
by Dr. Datta on Indian Philosophy, especially Tagor and
Gandhi.
We had a "town meeting" at 6:30 tonight.
Wednesday, November 3, 1971
Three kids are sick right now, one pretty seriously. His
symptoms are a fever and shaking. They brought in the
doctor.
Today's lecture was from
Parmar on international implications of development.
Thursday, November 4, 1971
Parmar's lecture on
development was continued today. We also had a
lecture/discussion for the Narum class today on
epistemology and metaphysics of the West. "Common sense
realism is assuredly wrong."
Mary got sick this afternoon so she moved into the house.
It’s 9:00 PM now and I’m in the tent preparing for a solo
night. Over half the group is sick now or has been
recently. Symptoms include fever, nausea, sometimes
intestinal disorders, aches, difficulty breathing.
Friday, November 5, 1971
Saturday, November 6, 1971
The bug caught me yesterday
after tea (we have coffee at 10:00 AM, tea at 4:00 PM). I
had been feeling groggy all day. My temp before tea was
98.3° and by 5:15 was 100.8°. I hauled myself inside to the
Narum boys’ room which had become a sick bay for the men.
John and Jim had recovered by then and they moved out so
Mary could move in with me and let Marty have her bed back.
I got steadily worse and by 6:15 I was at 101.8°. By 8:25 I
was shaking, breathing in gasps, and tossing around in my
bed. When I woke up at 5:00 this morning my fever was gone
and I felt fine. I’ve spent today in bed since Denny said I
should. Since no one was in our tent last night Mary and
Jim had to haul all of our stuff in. Probably 65-70% of our
group has been sick over the last few days. Some just have
the runs, some just have a fever like me, some have both
like Mary.
Sunday, November 7, 1971
We moved our stuff back to the
tent in the morning and by noon I was in bed again with a
fever.
Monday, November 8, 1971
{from Marylou}
Tuesday, November 9, 1971
More Parmar lecture today. And
we had our seventh major Narum lecture.
Virtually everyone has been sick with some mysterious
virus. I was stricken Thursday. My fever was 101.8°. I
moved into Marty’s bed and she slept in Narums’ room (they
were gone for the weekend). I started taking my antibiotic
and continued my Lomotil and Kaopectate (I finished Denny’s
bottle of Kaopectate and started Linden’s).
Wednesday, November 10, 1971
I stayed in bed, prostrate
with a fever in the middle 101s and a fair headache.
We had some Indian musicians here tonight. The main
musician is an insurance salesman who is an amateur but
plays with professional skill. He taught George Harrison
for a few days when he was in India a few years ago.
{from Marylou}
Parmar's last lecture
today.
Thursday, November 11, 1971
Don got sick last Friday and is still sick with a fever,
headache, and nausea. The doctor, an old lady named Dr.
Bihar (European or American), came to see Coleen, Jeff,
Ellyn, and Don today. She questioned us about our typhoid
vaccinations and what we had eaten or drunk in Benares. She
said she really doubted that it was typhoid though. She
gave Don a prescription for a different kind of antibiotic
(chloramphenicol) which Mrs.
Narum promptly filled.
Friday, November 12, 1971
Saturday, November 13, 1971
Sunday, November 14, 1971
Don is still sick. We went to the doctor yesterday in a
rickshaw. Dr. Chandra diagnosed it as typhoid or
para-typhoid, the same as Dr. Bahar’s diagnosis. We
questioned our group about their typhoid inoculations and
came up with this theory: those of us who got our shots the
last half of May at St. Olaf were the ones who got sick.
Two exceptions were Dirk and Melanie but they undoubtedly
had a different serum. Gary Halvorson had his shots at the
same time we did and he said that the nurse told him that
he was getting a new batch of serum. A few people who had
their shots in other places got slightly ill. But the whole
Narum family, for example, stayed well and they all had
their shots in a different place than we did. Apparently
our serum was old or didn’t have the right strains in it.
Don and Coleen were hit the hardest. Coleen still has a
fever and headache every day too. I am really tired and run
a fever of 99.0° to 99.5° in the afternoon.
Mrs. Poplae had her hysterectomy yesterday. They haven’t
given her anything for the pain so she’s not comfortable.
Her tumor was about as big as a baseball. I hope it’s
benign. Jane and I are going to see her this afternoon.
It gets cooler here every night – down to about 50°, I
suppose, then up to 75° or so during the day.
Most of the people have left now for break. The Narums
leave tomorrow. Jane, Rosie, John, and Doug leave for Delhi
tonight (Rosie goes to Hyderabad from there) so that leaves
only us, Coleen, and Ellyn here.
Monday, November 15, 1971
The chloramphenicol has worked
well, just as Dr. Bihar had said they would. She said my
fever would drop 1° a day and it did, in very neat
steps.
Tuesday, November 16, 1971
We moved into Narums’ room yesterday after a brief hassle
with Mrs. Wesley who wanted us to live in the Narum boys’
room. This room is nice but the windows won’t open and it’s
sort of dark. Our tent is down
and gone now.
Don’s temperature was below normal all day yesterday so I
think he’s got it licked. If it’s normal all day today then
he can be up and around tomorrow. I’m still feeling a
little tired and have a temp of 99° in the afternoon but
I’m eating like mad and my constipation is getting better
so I’ll be OK soon too. When I get to Calcutta I’m not
leaving the hotel and we’re bringing our water bottle with
boiled water from here. We’re not going to take any
chances.
They had a practice blackout here last night. Pakistan is
thinking about declaring war. I doubt if they’d ever get as
far as Allahabad though.
Ellyn and I went to the market this morning and I bought
some bananas, apples, and tangerines.
The mosquitoes drive me crazy at night. I’ve got bites all
over my forehead and hands. Their high-pitched whining
wakes me up all the time.
Wednesday, November 17, 1971
Thursday, November 18, 1971
Friday, November 19, 1971
Mrs. Poplae is worse. She’s got a fever. They claim
everyone gets a fever after an operation here.
Saturday, November 20, 1971
Sunday, November 21, 1971
Monday, November 22, 1971
Today the Narums returned so
Mary and I have to split up.
Tuesday, November 23, 1971
We’ve used up all of our
Bufferin, all of our Vitamin C, all of Mary’s tetracycline,
all of our paregoric (plus 2 bottles of Kaopectate) and
nearly all of my tetracycline while we’ve been in
India.
Wednesday, November 24,
1971
It’s 9:00 AM and we’ve been in the air for about 45
minutes. The dumb Indian Air Lines gave us a big hassle
about this flight. They told Dr. Narum 2 weeks ago that our
reservations were OK – all 32 of us could fly out of here.
Then, a few days ago, they told us only 13 of us could go
and the rest would have to go by taxi to Benares and fly
from there. Needless to say, we were all upset. We had all
hoped we would never have to travel down that awful road
again. The five of us who were here went with Shankar down
to the airline office and argued with the guy, who fidgeted
and told us 16 could leave from here but no more because
the runway was too short because of repairs being done on
it. So we gave up. Then, when the Narums came back on
Monday, they said they had been told 21 of us could go.
Finally it went to 26 and then to 29 (3 people left early)
so we all got on the plane, finally. I really don’t know
what their problem was.
This plane is a Fokker Friendship turbojet. It holds 40
passengers and it’s not full. We did get a better explanation for our
hassle with Indian Air. With the pending war with Pakistan,
standing reservations for possible government troops or
personnel are kept on all Indian Air flights.
One of our group of
vacationing students, when faced with being bumped from a
crucial return flight, finally got on the plane after a
couple of the girls burst into tears. Their motto: when all
else fails, cry.
Everyone is worried about their baggage weight. Some people
are at least 20 lbs. over, including their hand baggage.
Mine weighs exactly 44 lbs., not including my purse. That
includes a kilo of apples and a lb. of candy so I’m
probably still a little under.
I didn’t get to see Mrs. Poplae again because I got a cold
on Friday and then, when I thought I was over it, I got a
splitting headache, the worst I’ve ever had. That was
Monday night. Kit gave me some Sinutabs and they did the
trick. Mrs. Poplae’s operation is healing fine but she’s
got a cold and headache now so she’s still in the hospital.
Our hotel in Calcutta is pretty good. It’s the oldest in
Calcutta (est. 1830). The rooms were huge, had rugs,
excellent beds, nice furniture, but were not real clean.
Thursday, November 25, 1971 (Thanksgiving Day)
This morning we had another hassle with the airlines, Thai
this time. They had us confirmed yesterday, then they
called and said the flight from Kathmandu was full. Narums
told them we were getting on anyway and we went to the
airport. The terminal was very nice and very empty. We were
the only ones in the whole place! We found the Thai agent
and the Narums started the hassle. Mrs. Narum is truly
excellent in argumentative skill and good old Norwegian
stubbornness. Unfortunately, the Thai representative was
also a stubborn Norwegian. Finally they sent a telegram
that said, “Group of 36 refuses to be split up. Repeat –
refuses.” So they bumped off the extras in Kathmandu – who
had only gotten their reservations recently anyway – and we
got on after a relatively easy passage through passport
control and security check.
Calcutta’s Dum-Dum
International Airport was almost totally empty. One flight
was going out in the afternoon – ours – and one flight was
going out at midnight on BOAC. Three Pakistan planes had
been shot down two days ago and the possibility of an air
war near Calcutta may have caused the rerouting.
While we were waiting for our flight, Burt
Quent, a CBS news correspondent appeared with a very
impressive looking yellow bag containing film and sound
tapes to be used in an upcoming CBS special on the
Bangladesh situation. It was to be in our care to Bangkok
where we would hand it over to CBS officials who would
relay it tonight to New York via satellite. He promised us
that the St. Olaf Global Semester would be mentioned on CBS
news.
