New Toothpaste
So today since it's the first day that I haven't really had anything planned, I decided to go shopping here in Pune. I slept in, and then Anju and I moved rooms (finally!) and then I headed out to Fashion Street, a little marketplace. But it was uneventful. I bought only a few things, which consisted of a scarf, two locks for my suitcase, and then a tube of Colgate toothpaste. But it wasn't just your usual toothpaste. no no no. It was herbal Colgate, made with sage, myhrr, camomile, and some other herbs I don't really remember. I hope I like it!
Cricket!!!!
Yesterday I attended my first cricket match ever. My new professor, Prithvi, played cricket at the University of Mysore when he was in college, and the first day of class (Ancient Texts and Religion) we started talking about religion, and then all of a sudden, he pauses, and talks about how there is a cricket match on Friday and if we wanted to go he'd take us, and that cricket was really the true religion of India. And it's not a lie. Everyone here seems to be a cricket fanatic.
So directly after class on Friday we all jump into rikshaws and head to Nehru Stadium to watch part of the Indian Railways vs. West Indies Cricket Match (as part of the Maharashtra Cricket Association of Pune). We sat down on the cement stadium seats, and I was confused from the very beginning. There was a huge grass field, on the other side of the fence with barbed wire (in place, becaue I guess they need a lot of crowd control, there can be riots when it gets tense), and lots of men in white. Two wickets, a leather ball, and a rope in a giant circle around them all. This, I learned, was the boundary line. I guess if it rolls over this you get 4 points, and if you hit it over you get 6 points. Hmmm. It seems like each time a person was up to bat they just lightly hit it to one of the fielders, I didn't understand why they didn't just smack it over the boundary line. But I guess it's much harder than it looked. What I was most impressed about was the bowler. That guy could pitch SO FAST. 80-90mph. wow. Or so I heard.
Our group stayed for about 40 minutes, baking in the sun. Then there was a tea-time break. Everyone was ready to get out of there. The action was slow, I think everyone was bored and tired. So everyone except Prithvi, Obie and I climbed into rikshaws and headed back to the hotel. I wanted more. And I wanted to actually understand this new sport. So we stayed for over a hour longer, and it was excellent. The action picked up and there was lots of huge hits outside of the boundary. Also, since it was just us three, Prithvi explained a lot to me.
The fun, and also distracting part of the Cricket match was that of course, our group of Americans stood out. And evenmoreso, me being a lady in the crowd. The entire time I was at the match I was scanning the crowd (of at least 1,000) for women, and I only found two.
So today since it's the first day that I haven't really had anything planned, I decided to go shopping here in Pune. I slept in, and then Anju and I moved rooms (finally!) and then I headed out to Fashion Street, a little marketplace. But it was uneventful. I bought only a few things, which consisted of a scarf, two locks for my suitcase, and then a tube of Colgate toothpaste. But it wasn't just your usual toothpaste. no no no. It was herbal Colgate, made with sage, myhrr, camomile, and some other herbs I don't really remember. I hope I like it!
Cricket!!!!
Yesterday I attended my first cricket match ever. My new professor, Prithvi, played cricket at the University of Mysore when he was in college, and the first day of class (Ancient Texts and Religion) we started talking about religion, and then all of a sudden, he pauses, and talks about how there is a cricket match on Friday and if we wanted to go he'd take us, and that cricket was really the true religion of India. And it's not a lie. Everyone here seems to be a cricket fanatic.
So directly after class on Friday we all jump into rikshaws and head to Nehru Stadium to watch part of the Indian Railways vs. West Indies Cricket Match (as part of the Maharashtra Cricket Association of Pune). We sat down on the cement stadium seats, and I was confused from the very beginning. There was a huge grass field, on the other side of the fence with barbed wire (in place, becaue I guess they need a lot of crowd control, there can be riots when it gets tense), and lots of men in white. Two wickets, a leather ball, and a rope in a giant circle around them all. This, I learned, was the boundary line. I guess if it rolls over this you get 4 points, and if you hit it over you get 6 points. Hmmm. It seems like each time a person was up to bat they just lightly hit it to one of the fielders, I didn't understand why they didn't just smack it over the boundary line. But I guess it's much harder than it looked. What I was most impressed about was the bowler. That guy could pitch SO FAST. 80-90mph. wow. Or so I heard.
Our group stayed for about 40 minutes, baking in the sun. Then there was a tea-time break. Everyone was ready to get out of there. The action was slow, I think everyone was bored and tired. So everyone except Prithvi, Obie and I climbed into rikshaws and headed back to the hotel. I wanted more. And I wanted to actually understand this new sport. So we stayed for over a hour longer, and it was excellent. The action picked up and there was lots of huge hits outside of the boundary. Also, since it was just us three, Prithvi explained a lot to me.
The fun, and also distracting part of the Cricket match was that of course, our group of Americans stood out. And evenmoreso, me being a lady in the crowd. The entire time I was at the match I was scanning the crowd (of at least 1,000) for women, and I only found two.
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