It's time to go!

My bags are all packed, and I'm ready to go! Unfortunately, it has been raining nonstop in Houston all morning. I hope this doesn't mean our flight will be delayed. I didn't get much sleep last night in anticipation of my trip, but I'm always like that the night before any big trip, especially when I go to India.

Going to India on this trip has obvious personal significance for me because, well, I am Indian, and technically an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi), "desi" being a familiar term used among Indians to refer to other brown people. Although I was born in the U.S though, I grew up visiting my family in India every summer. I finally sat down and counted all my trips and realized that this will, in fact, be my 16th trip to India! I must admit that didn't exactly enjoy going to India every year when I was younger- I always thought it was so crowded, noisy, hot, and dirty. But now that I'm older I'm very grateful to my parents for having exposed much to India as a child. I can't imagine never having gone as many times as I did or spending so much time there. It's made me as "Indian" as I am today, and I'm very proud of that.

So as an ABCD, I have a uniquely different perspective from others' in the group about India. And my frequent travels to the motherland have taught me by experience what to expect and not to expect. So I'm well aware of the crowds, the noise, the heat, the power cuts, and the mosquitoes. But I'm not entirely sure that this places me at any significant advantage. Beacuse at the end of the day, I'm neither here nor there. In the U.S., I'm seen as Indian. But in India, I'm seen as American. And sure, I blend in more in India on the basis of my skin color alone, but there are other things which give me away. I've found from past experience that I don't even have to open my mouth in order for people to figure out that I'm not "entirely" Indian.

India is a diverse country. Diverse might be an understatement, especially when it comes to languages. In the north, Hindi is generally spoken by all people even in those states where it is not the predominant lanugage. But in the south, it's a completely different story. Every state has a different language. Hindi is one of the national languages of India, but in the south this really dosen't mean anything since most people don't speak it. I know how to read the Hindi script, but this won't help me any in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu is the state where Christian Medical College is located. It is located in Vellore, which is a suburb of Chennai. Chennai (formerly known as Madras, this is how I still refer to it) is the 4th largest city in India. It is where my parents grew up and where I visited growing up every summer. Tamil is the language spoken there. My family is from Kerala where Malayalam is spoken, and is the language we speak at home. Kerala is the neighboring state west of Tamil Nadu. I can understand Malayalam, but my spoken Malayalam is horrible.

My parents, having grew up in Chennai, can read, write, and speak fluently in Tamil but they can only speak our mother tongue (Malayalam). Tamil and Malayalam are completely different languages with different scripts, but they sound somewhat similar. And I've spent enough time in Chennai to where I can get the general gist of what someone is saying in Tamil (if I know the context). My parents taught me to read the Tamil script, so I can read road signs (albeit very slowly). But still not enough to feel confident to speak. So I'll still be the lost American trying to navigate my way through south India, and giving myself away with my "American" English. :-)

Anyway, enough rambling. Time to head to the airport...more from India!

Last minute stuff

Today was another lovely fun filled packing day. My carry-on bag now resembles a pharmacy stockpile. I realized today that India will be my fifth straight month of living out of a box this year. I'm so glad to have the last few months of interview season madness behind me. As much as I love travelling, it's exhausting when you're doing it non-stop. Leaving tomorrow also means that I'm officially done with the residency interview and ranking process. I've allowed myself plenty of time for brooding over it and now I'm committing myself to the version of the list I have now. It's now one big waiting game until match day.

My flight tomorrow leaves Houston at 4ish. I'll be flying with my dad, who'll stay on for an extra week to visit family. We're going on Lufthansa, changing planes in Frankfurt to go to Chennai and reaching there at 1-2 am local time on Saturday morning. I'll be joining Erica, Bimpe, and Nicolette in Chennai and our plan is to leave Chennai for Vellore together on Saturday. I'm going to be staying at an international hostel there. Christian Medical College is an internationally renowned medical institutaion and medical students from all over the world come there to study. So I'm hoping this means I'm not the only lost one floating around.

Packing Mania

The time has come so start this, so here it goes: my official blog for my India trip. I'm one of several recipients of the Paul Brand Scholarship through my medical school, and we've been asked to keep a blog to chronicle our experiences while we're in India. I've never kept a blog before, but this seems like it will be fun.
It's just 48 hours until my departure to India. I'm currently in the midst of packing mania in Houston. Getting everything you need for travelling to India always seems like a never-ending task. Things that you would never have to think about packing when you go anywhere else, like antibiotics, toilet paper, mosquito repellent, power adapters. And yet, I know I'll still somehow manage to forget something after all of my checklists.
More to follow before I leave...check back here for daily updates!