DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

FOB, or fresh-off-the-boat is a word that I have used so many times in the past. It refers to Indians in the US who were born in India and still retain some of their Indian mannerisms and habits. Any time my parents mispronounce a word, like saying “mujic” instead of “music” or adding “isn’t it?” to the end of every sentence, I always call them fobs. It’s funny because even though I always use the term in a good-natured way, I have never really known what it feels like to be a fob until I came to India. I should fit in here since I am of Indian heritage, but in so many ways I stand out. The second I start speaking, the kids in my class laugh at my accent and for once, I’m the one being made fun of for mispronunciation. I’ve found that even though the kids aren’t trying to be hurtful, it’s frustrating that they have to point out our differences. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for Indians who come to the US for grad school and are constantly mocked by their peers.

I have been so impressed by the students we worked with at the Bhavins College, students who want to study abroad and will become future “fobs.” After getting to know them, I’ve seen how close they are to each other and how proud they are to be Indian. Even though India has more than 3 times the population of the US, the sense of national identity is greater here than I’ve seen anywhere at home. Yet, despite all this, these students want to leave everything they have to pursue their education abroad. That takes a lot of guts and dedication to their studies. Our main goal for our project with them was to show them that there’s more to education that purely academics. I think we’ve succeeded in raising their awareness of extra-curricular activities, but more importantly, I have learned from them what it means to truly love to learn. So now, when I go back home and see the Indian grad students around campus, I’m not immediately going to think of them as fobs, but as role models.

I was more upset than I expected on Friday when our project with Bhavins/the RK School ended. I’m going to miss hanging out with students our age and getting to see their way of doing things. At the same time, I know that the college kids are going to do an amazing job at continuing our science demonstrations at the RK School and I’m excited to see how their project progresses.

Last thing, yesterday was Friendship Day so Happy Friendship Day to everyone!

The rock formations in and around Hyderabad are an incredible sight. They originated when molten magma from the Earth’s core pushed upward to the crust and hardened into domes of granite. After breaking through cracks in the crust and being weathered, the unusual formations that are seen today resulted. Geologists have approximated the rocks to 2500 million years back, making them among the worlds oldest. The shapes and positions of these giant granite boulders look like delicate balancing acts that could collapse at any moment. Some of them even seem to defy the laws of physics, with enormous stones sitting atop stones that are a tenth of their size. Although I have noticed the formations alongside the road when we’re driving through Hyderabad, I did not realize how many of them had been destroyed due to weather and construction sites until our rock walk today.

Save the Rocks Society is a local group in Hyderabad that works to protect the unique rockscape of the city. Today we attended one of the rock walks organized by the society each month. It was surprising to see the other people who joined us for our walk- there were people from literally all over the world and in every age group. We traveled about 45 minutes outside the city to Venkateshwaraguttanear Shamirpet Lake, a gorgeous lake on the Deccan Plateau surrounded by the formations. We all trekked to the top of the hill, stopping along the way to climb some of the boulders. I was scared going up some of the boulders, but our tour guide, Vasu, made it look so easy. He looked like spiderman climbing up rocks that looked like they were completely smooth with no place to find a grip. Somehow he still managed to climb up. The view from the top of the rocks was breathtaking. The area was so serene and looked like a vast expanse of untouched land. It was hard to imagine that Hyderabad once looked like this before all the buildings and people were there. At the very top of the hill, there was a temple that was carved into one of the rock formations. I was so impressed by the way people were actually using the natural landscape to build rather than destroying it. Earlier, Narendra Luther had described the beauty of the rocks and after today I completely understand why he was so passionate about preserving them
 

    Last night was pretty rough because our power went out in the room so we didn’t have any fan…I don’t think I’ve had that much trouble sleeping since we first got here and I was jetlagged. But it’s ok, because this morning Leela and Prasad came and showed us how to make the most amazing coffee so that made up for it. I have to say that the two places in the world with the best coffee are Italy and Andhra Pradesh. I have been craving it since the last time I came to India and now I can make it whenever I want! Plus, since all of us couldn’t sleep it felt like the first week again when we would all sit in the living room talking, which was nice.

…But we had to get out of the house so we went back to Mulgudi, the restaurant where we had our first meal in Hyderabad, for lunch. I think everyone’s tolerance has gone up because the first time we were there it was so hard to eat anything and today we could at least handle the spice level somewhat. After we went shopping for awhile, we went to our decent baker and asked them to make us a cake for Bastille Day. This will be our third cake in 4 weeks. I don’t really know why we’re celebrating Bastille Day, but it’s another excuse for a cake! The baker was really confused because I showed him a picture of the French flag and I wrote “Happy Bastille Day” in Hindi in the middle. He kept thinking I meant to write “Happy Birthday” but I kept telling him I wanted as I had written. He just laughed and looked at me like I was an idiot. Hopefully they actually write Happy Bastille Day…

Leela and Prasad had brought over some Indian movies for us this morning so when we got home we put on “Hyd…bad Nawabs.” I think this movie was made for us because it had scenes of most of the places we had been and it had people who were supposed to be from America in it. The movie was about two guys who are in love with these two girls and want to marry them. The girls’ father already has them arranged to marry a pair of NRIs (non-residential Indians) so the guys have find a way to stop the marriage. The movie was great because it featured a great mix of 90s music, a Bollywood dance sequence, and lots of random dialogues that didn’t fit the plot at all. I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to be entertained for 2 and a half hours!
 

One of the most interesting things about going to a different country is finding out what American music is popular there. Fortunately for us (at least the girls), India’s choice of music all comes from the mid-late ‘90s…songs that we LOVED in middle school. I don’t think I’ve listened to so much Britney Spears, Aqua, and Spice Girls since 6th grade. We had an hour and a half car ride to Ramoji Film City and we sang the entire way. Mahesh had a burned CD with all these songs on it and it was pretty awesome. He was extremely amused when we started singing because I don’t think any of our voices can go high enough to match the pitch of any of these songs. It was surprising to actually listen to the words of the songs now because I’ve realized how inappropriate most of the lyrics are…

Ramoji was equally as surprising. It has more than 2000 acres of land and is the world’s largest film studio complex. It reminded me a lot of Universal Studios. We saw how a movie was made with all the special effects (sound, green screen, editing), we toured the grounds. It was really cool because the buildings they used for sets would be one thing on one side and the backside was something completely different. They also had one street of shops that looked like it was in North India and then the next street looked like South India. We also ate at this place that was supposed to be American fast food at a place called Guns and Smoke…burgers and fries…..except of course they were chicken burgers. The best part is that they do weddings and honeymoons at Ramoji so I definitely need to make a reservation…and have Guns and Smoke cater…just kidding. To top it all off, as we were leaving, Hit Me Baby One More Time was blasting through the film city.

I’m definitely burning more CDs for our 3 hour long drive to Warangal next weekend. And I need to get Barbie Girl out of my head..
 

You never really realize how big Hyderabad is until you see the entire city from a 400 ft hill, which is exactly what we did today.

We traveled to the city of Golconda, which is located a few kilometers west of Hyderabad to see the Golconda Fort. The fort was the capital of the Qutb Shahi empire until 1590 when the capital was moved to Hyderabad. The site is incredible because the entire fort, which has a 10 km circumference and 87 individual bastions, was constructed using naturally occurring rock formations. When we entered the fort we saw doors with giant spikes all around them that were used to stop elephants from knocking them down. At the entrance, there is a certain point where you can clap your hands and the sound can be heard at the highest point of the fort, more than 1 km away, thus allowing the kings to be warned in case of an attack. In another one of the entranceways, there are carvings of peacocks and lions around the doorway, symbols of both Hindu and Muslim architecture. It amazes me how tolerant the kings were at the time of religion. In fact, on the way up to the highest point of the tomb is a Hindu temple. When we got to the top of the fort, the view was amazing- the city seemed to stretch endlessly along the horizon. It’s hard to judge how far away anything is from our house because it takes so long to drive anywhere, but the city itself is actually surprisingly large.

In another part of the fort, we climbed the world’s largest tree. It was funny because our driver Mahesh just climbed up like it was nothing and all of us were so scared and were so slow to go up and down the tree. The tree is hollow so we could actually go inside the trunk. It was really cool but I am really claustrophobic so I think I got out after about 5 seconds.

For dinner we went to McDonalds…yum. What’s funny is that I don’t think any of us would really eat at McDonalds if we were at home but we’ve wanted it ever since we saw there was one in Hyderabad. The Maharaja chicken mac is fantastic. On the way back to the house Mahesh stopped in the middle of the road and this guy got in our car. We were all really confused, but then we found out it was his brother. I think they both think we’re really weird because we kept asking the one question we know how to ask in Hindi “aapka naam kya hai?” (what is your name?). Plus, we have random bursts of laughter and I was wearing one of those McDonald’s crowns.

So next week there are supposed to be some major changes to our schedule. We have a new language teacher and I think our focus at Safrani is going to be geared more towards artwork than it was before. Hopefully everything works out for the best. I’m eager to see what this week brings us…