India's Animals

So, this morning I ever so gracefully arose out of bed after having been woken up by cooing pigeons that live just above the air conditioning unit outside of my window. These are some clever little fellows. They pretend to be all cute and quiet and the moment I doze off or even venture into some day dream, they FREAK OUT and start maniacally pecking at one another signaling to me that the pigeon apocalypse is at my doorstep. In conclusion, these pigeons follow my main framework of how to approach Indian strangers in general: They may be friendly, but they aren't necessarily your friends.

After I got ready for school, quite early for me I might add (around 7am or so--Mom and Dad you should be proud), I walked downstairs to join papi for breakfast. Papi likes to wake up ridiculously early to read the paper, stretch, and do adult-like things. I typically join him at the end of his routine at his most talkative point, but this morning I caught him at a rather surprising moment in the front garden. I looked out the front door and there is papi with a tin of biscuits in his lap. The biscuits are crumbled and there are FIVE (YES FIVE) CHIPMUNKS crawling on his shoulders and chest feeding right out of his hand. Deeply affected by my ravaging fear of rodents, I instantly reacted with a scream, not the expected, animal-friendly sigh. The whole house gets woken up, my one scream has wreaked havoc on the whole family. Wow, I'm an idiot. Then again, how can I not be shocked when my host father is feeding chipmunks, humming in a garden like snow white? Who voluntarily touches rodents, honestly?

And, for another piece of news: My host sister, Mintu, may be getting married next month. Last night she asked me for my schedule in the month of March so that she could start coordinating guests and relatives. Apparently her boyfriend, Sanjay, has been pressuring her for the last month or so to finally get married. Yay! So I hope the whole thing works out and I get to be involved with all the festivities. Then again, considering Mintu's high-maintenance attitude and general approach to life, it may be thoroughly exhausting sitting through all the fittings and wedding decoration decisions which I normally couldn't care less about. We'll just have to see.

That's all for now. I think this afternoon I may head to a book fair near the old city of Jaipur and see what I find.