Thursday, July 17, 2008

Day 9

So I've decided to keep up this every other day posting regiment, mainly because I can't bear to see my entries lined up as Day 1, Day 3, Day 5, Day 7, Day 8 or even worse "Day 10". There shall never be an even numbered day! Unless it's my last.

An email I got from my darling mother:

"Hi Rushi, it is 5:15 am, I have read your blog for the upteenth time. hungry for news. Have you got a phone? how is your cold? are u getting enough exercise? the dates for SAT and ACT are Sept 13th and Oct 4th. Do you need to do any subject tests in SAT?. I like to know where u went and what u did, regardless, if it seems like a laundry list. e.g., what is your apartment like? what is the neighbourhood like? Is it residential or commercial? Can you walk to the shops? What have u done at work the first three days, what have you learned? When u get home after a rest u shld take some time to sort your clothes out, make sure they are getting washed etc, may be make a trip to the bazaar to buy some food items and groceries. A cake of Rin soap (blue detergent soap for hand washing) may be a good idea. You can buy some bread and eggs for bfast. Have u got a sim card? It shouldnt be so difficult to get. They usually sell it in the lowliest of stores and it is pretty ubiquitous. You just need to take your phone and they charge it for a payment. Are you getting enough rest at night or if not resting during the day? Do you have a scype connection or a camera in your computer? We miss you a lot.Love,Mom"

To answer your questions..
Have you got a phone?: Well, I have one.. but it doesn't have a SIM card, I'm sorryyyy, it's very much out of my control because you have to use some sort of Indian ID to get one. I'll try to get one ASAP.

How is your cold?: I've got to say, my cold sucks. It has progressed to a cough, and under the polluted air conditions, it makes me very uncomfortable. I have been forgetting to keep hydrated, but last night I bought some tissues and food, so hopefully I can combat it. I am going to bring my water bottle to work from now on.

Are you getting enough exercise?: In all honesty, probably not. I'll be more disciplined about this I guess. But I've also been hacking and stuff, so it's a little hard to go outside onto the street where there is dust and stuff everywhere. According to Malvika, Bangalore is the allergy capital of India. I took a Claritin today, I don't know how much it helped.

Subject tests?: Yes, I think so. Biology and... something else. Something I can score really high on easily without studying too much.

What I did today: I woke up, I was at Mallika's house. I stayed their last night, because Akshay didn't come home until late, so I just stayed with her. We watched an existentialist movie called I <3 Huckabees, which is about this guy who works for a coalition for saving open spaces in the community, but he's slowly losing his power to a business exec for a store called "Huckabees" who wants to make an alliance with his coalition who is a stunning Jude Law with an American accent. But the dude sees this African guy three times in a row and feels like it's the key to the deeper meaning of life, so he goes to these "existentialist detectives" to track the case. It's a mind trip, Mom, you should watch it. After the movie, Mallika played guitar and we sang until we were tired. So this morning we got up, had breakfast, showered, and then I went to the apartment to change, and then we left for the office.
The office today was admittedly more boring than usual because I didn't have a lot to do. But near the end of the day, Samrat let me help to sub a story, which was pretty much the highlight. It was a really interesting story taken from the Washington Post that I had to cut down about martinis. After work, I went to Malvika's and we ate dinner and watched this movie Transamerica about a transsexual lady, who is played by a real woman, so I think it must be tough to play a guy who becomes a woman if you are actually a woman... Then I came home, and wrote this blog. That's an admittedly unsaturated telling of my day.

What is my apartment like?: Not too small, not too dirty, not too clean. It's just nice here and very much a bachelor pad. Last night, I bought some groceries for it: milk, noodles, bread, butter, etc . There are two bathrooms. My room is a study with light blue walls that leads onto the balcony where the maid hangs clean clothes to dry. But the people under us had a problem with someone climbing up, so I have to lock the door all the time as a security measure. They have a weird chirpy bird that also acts as a motion sensor/burglar alarm, but it is too soft, so it just ends up annoying the hell out of me.
Next to my room is a bathroom but its lights don't work and it doesn't get a lot of hot water. Across from my room is Akshay and Kaushik's room, except I've never met Kaushik because he's visiting Delhi and he was supposed to have come back, but he hasn't and it's making Samrat really mad.
If you walk out of my room and turn right, there is the kitchen/living area and Samrat's room. That leads to the door that has a broken lock, so you have to use the upper latch, which works just as well.
There's a lot of sand lining the staircases and stuff.

Neighborhood: It's mostly apartment buildings and small businesses. There's a few stores, and as you walk further down there's that Shanghai Junction restaurant I mentioned before.

What I have learned: I've basically learned how fast inspiration has to come and how fast it has to be good. People literally sit down, churn out an article, read someone else's articles, put them on a page, re-edit, and give them to the printers, in about a day. I don't do much, admittedly, I watch people, I talk to people about their jobs and today, I got to help by cutting down an article from an outside source. Yesterday, I did some research for Malvika. I sit behind people and make suggestions about what they should say, I made up a headline yesterday ("Hepatitis C strikes singer"). I think I've also learned that the people on the newspaper aren't like, the smartest people ever. Not that they're not smart, just that they're not so scary. And I feel like I could do the same things as them... and it makes the whole journalism idea seem far more attainable to me. (At least in the world of Features- news reporting still seems really hard and scary because of all of the history you have to know and all the big words you use that eventually become really boring, serious stories [at least those about the war], unless you're on CNN and you get access to better information...) Also, that many different types of people can be good at the same thing. I don't know, it's just so interesting to see the dynamics of a real daily. Also, I've been using my downtime to research colleges, and I found out today that UChicago doesn't have an undergrad journalism major, so I think not.

Clothes situation: Periodically, I clean my clothes, leaving the bigger items to the maid. Tomorrow morning I'm going to refold all of the clothes in my suitcase.

Skype: Yes. I can be online in the afternoon or late at night.

I miss you guys too. A lot. It's just weird to believe that I saw you guys everyday when I'm here.. I love you, and I'm sorry I don't have a SIM card... But I love and miss you.

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