Cast of 'characters':
Me: American tourist, and as cliche as it is, currently searching for my life's meaning (if you find it, let me know).
Rebecca: My good American friend who I met during our undergrad at Cal. She's studying Bengali language here in Kolkata, although she already speaks it completely fluently (awesome!), and getting married here next month.
Abhijeet: Rebecca's Bengali fiancee. He's working on his dissertation research here focusing on unemployed jute workers.
Baba: Abhijeet's 82 year old father, who I am sharing a room with here (there are two beds).
Why this Title?
I chose this blog title, first of all because my first choice (confluence) was already taken and Rebecca's first choice (curiouserandcurioser) was also already taken. I'll leave you hanging as to the personal significance that our two titles hold for us and, instead, touch on why Rebecca's next choice become this blog title. It is a song/poem written by Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Why? Well, we are in Bengal, he's an amazing writer, and the title seems fairly fitting. Bideshini can be translated as female foreigner or exotic woman. Of course, I like 'exotic woman' better. It sounds, well, more exotic. Ogo can be translated as 'oh' and, according to Rebecca, suggests that one is talking about someone else, rather than referring to oneself. That works since I'd like to use this blog to take a step back and experience my surroundings with fresh eyes, taking the time to notice what makes being in this country, in this state, in this city, unique. I'd like to talk about the things that we tend to take for granted, ignore, and get accustomed to while traveling to, and being, in a foreign place. As travelers we often notice things are different, but they're sometimes fairly basic and aren't always the big, exciting, picture perfect moment we like to go home and talk to people about. Things like... going to the bathroom or taking a shower - it's different here and I'm going to tell you about it! This blog will also be a place for me to take a moment and reflect about my experiences while simultaneously connecting with family and friends overseas so they can be privy to my fabulous and not-so-fabulous adventures.
Epiphany on the Plane:
Halfway through the flight I began playing Sudoku on my ipod touch. I'd never really played it before. I thought of it as a number game and I generally don't jump for joy when it comes to math or numbers related anything - but I figured, well, it's educational, I have nothing else to do, and why not sharpen my numbers and logic skills? So I got a little hooked on it. I began noticing very quickly that I would get invigorated when there was a number I could insert in a box when it was obviously the right number. On the other hand, when there was a column or a section that looked nearly empty, or, even worse, when I noticed the daunting emptiness of the entire graph, I'd automatically think, "oh man, I'm never gonna figure this out, this is going to take forever, I am going to get overwhelmed or frustrated, I probably won't be able to solve this, I don't understand how this works yet, I've never been very good at math, maybe I shouldn't even try cuz I'll just feel shitty if I can't figure it out." I stuck through it anyway, I don't exactly know why. Perhaps the part of me that is so passionate about learning new things and gaining new skills and yearning for being a capable, competent person took hold of me. Maybe I was just bored. Maybe there were other things I wanted to avoid even more than math on that plane ride...
At a certain point, when I just kept going, when it looked like I wouldn't figure it out and I continued anyway, I noticed these magical moments. They were moments when it looked as if I was looking at a scramble of random numbers and that all the empty boxes could be any one of multiple numbers, suddenly and unexpectedly one box would clearly only have one number option. How? The magic of patience and faith. I continued to work through it with the faith that there is some reason for it, that things will work out in the end even if the process feels convoluted. My god! What? Sudoku brought me to this epiphany? I mean, I've been living real life and I've heard philosophers and theists discuss this ad nauseum - meanwhile, during these past few years all this talk of patience and faith has struck me as lovely, yet merely idealistic and theoretical - basically, I'd think, "I wish life were like that. Maybe for other people, but not for me." Wonderful to talk about, hear about, and think about, yet with very mild relevance or influence on my life, at least in recent years.
So - thank you, Sudoku.
Jetlag:
Off to bed for me. Next time I'll actually talk about India... hopefully. It's 3am here, I'm clearly experience 'mild' jetlag.
Me: American tourist, and as cliche as it is, currently searching for my life's meaning (if you find it, let me know).
Rebecca: My good American friend who I met during our undergrad at Cal. She's studying Bengali language here in Kolkata, although she already speaks it completely fluently (awesome!), and getting married here next month.
Abhijeet: Rebecca's Bengali fiancee. He's working on his dissertation research here focusing on unemployed jute workers.
Baba: Abhijeet's 82 year old father, who I am sharing a room with here (there are two beds).
Why this Title?
I chose this blog title, first of all because my first choice (confluence) was already taken and Rebecca's first choice (curiouserandcurioser) was also already taken. I'll leave you hanging as to the personal significance that our two titles hold for us and, instead, touch on why Rebecca's next choice become this blog title. It is a song/poem written by Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Why? Well, we are in Bengal, he's an amazing writer, and the title seems fairly fitting. Bideshini can be translated as female foreigner or exotic woman. Of course, I like 'exotic woman' better. It sounds, well, more exotic. Ogo can be translated as 'oh' and, according to Rebecca, suggests that one is talking about someone else, rather than referring to oneself. That works since I'd like to use this blog to take a step back and experience my surroundings with fresh eyes, taking the time to notice what makes being in this country, in this state, in this city, unique. I'd like to talk about the things that we tend to take for granted, ignore, and get accustomed to while traveling to, and being, in a foreign place. As travelers we often notice things are different, but they're sometimes fairly basic and aren't always the big, exciting, picture perfect moment we like to go home and talk to people about. Things like... going to the bathroom or taking a shower - it's different here and I'm going to tell you about it! This blog will also be a place for me to take a moment and reflect about my experiences while simultaneously connecting with family and friends overseas so they can be privy to my fabulous and not-so-fabulous adventures.
Epiphany on the Plane:
Halfway through the flight I began playing Sudoku on my ipod touch. I'd never really played it before. I thought of it as a number game and I generally don't jump for joy when it comes to math or numbers related anything - but I figured, well, it's educational, I have nothing else to do, and why not sharpen my numbers and logic skills? So I got a little hooked on it. I began noticing very quickly that I would get invigorated when there was a number I could insert in a box when it was obviously the right number. On the other hand, when there was a column or a section that looked nearly empty, or, even worse, when I noticed the daunting emptiness of the entire graph, I'd automatically think, "oh man, I'm never gonna figure this out, this is going to take forever, I am going to get overwhelmed or frustrated, I probably won't be able to solve this, I don't understand how this works yet, I've never been very good at math, maybe I shouldn't even try cuz I'll just feel shitty if I can't figure it out." I stuck through it anyway, I don't exactly know why. Perhaps the part of me that is so passionate about learning new things and gaining new skills and yearning for being a capable, competent person took hold of me. Maybe I was just bored. Maybe there were other things I wanted to avoid even more than math on that plane ride...
At a certain point, when I just kept going, when it looked like I wouldn't figure it out and I continued anyway, I noticed these magical moments. They were moments when it looked as if I was looking at a scramble of random numbers and that all the empty boxes could be any one of multiple numbers, suddenly and unexpectedly one box would clearly only have one number option. How? The magic of patience and faith. I continued to work through it with the faith that there is some reason for it, that things will work out in the end even if the process feels convoluted. My god! What? Sudoku brought me to this epiphany? I mean, I've been living real life and I've heard philosophers and theists discuss this ad nauseum - meanwhile, during these past few years all this talk of patience and faith has struck me as lovely, yet merely idealistic and theoretical - basically, I'd think, "I wish life were like that. Maybe for other people, but not for me." Wonderful to talk about, hear about, and think about, yet with very mild relevance or influence on my life, at least in recent years.
So - thank you, Sudoku.
Jetlag:
Off to bed for me. Next time I'll actually talk about India... hopefully. It's 3am here, I'm clearly experience 'mild' jetlag.
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