Also, I am obligated to inform anyone reading this blog that it is not an official Department of State website, and the views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Critical Language Scholarship Program or the Department of State.
Anyway. The two days we spent in Washington D.C. were a flurry of horrifyingly underinformed guest speakers from various branches of the State Department (such as a woman who consistently referred to Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi as "the Hindic language"), representative from both government jobs and the private sector who told us all the exciting things we can do with our new language skills, and some alums of the different CLS programs, who were reasonably informative. Also high on the list was finally meeting John Thon Majok, the man behind the emails, whose "Well...now you know" line continues to crack us all up.
After a 15-hour flight direct from Chicago to Delhi, during which I was lucky enough to sit in the center seat of the center aisle, we dragged ourselves to the very nice hotel to meet the other scholars who would be doing the AIIS programs in Hindi and Urdu and then were subjected to another couple days of introductory lectures and guest speakers, although meeting Philip Lutgendorf was a plus (and he came with us to Lucknow!). They took us on a choti si field trip to the Qutub Minar, which although being a gorgeous piece of architecture was hard to fully appreciate in the 100+ degree heat. It certainly is hot here in U.P. in June, and the heat is the dry, scorching pre-monsoon variety where you get dehydrated instantly. Walking somewhere outside after the first day of classes in Lucknow, which end at aroudn 1:15 (what was I thinking?) I suddenly truly understood what Anita Desai was talking about in Clear Light of Day when she described the Delhi summer and the white air swollen with heat. But then again it makes it pleasant to go out for shopping or exploring (in groups) after dark, which is when the city comes alive these days anyway.
Yesterday a bunch of us went to a little imambara (not the Chota Imambara but just a small one in the Hazratganj area) in the evening, which was mystical and serene. It's called the Shah Najaf Imambara (Shah Najaf being a name sometimes given to 'Ali), and it was apparently a stronghold during 1857, although the outer walls have fallen into a state of shocking disrepair despite it being a national historic site. The inner sanctum, though, was a beautiful hodgepodge of hanging lamps, old oil portraits, mirrors, tazias dating from the last century that are apparently still used during Muharram, and quotations from the Qur'an. The imambara was constructed by Ghaziuddin Haider, the first nawab of Lucknow (all of whom have been Shi'a), and his tomb is inside as well as those of his three wives.
I live with three other girls from the Urdu program (two CLS, one FLAS), all of whom are of South Asian descent, so it's good practice living with three native speakers. We live in the first floor of a house rented out by an older couple, and it's rather isolated in terms of location and interaction with the household - we live in an area called Gomti Nagar, which lies across the Gomti river from the main areas of Lucknow and close to this enormous, unfinished, absurd Ambedkar park (courtesy, of course, of Mayawati - she decided the have the entire park constructed out of stone from Rajasthan, which means that nine months out of the year no one will be in it). We are, however, close to a new mall called the "Fun Republic" - the great Indian middle class is certainly thriving in Lucknow.
