Food, Bollywood, & ISP

So I'm sitting in the library right now snuggled comfortably into one of the corner floor couches with a lovely wool shawl. I felt a little under the weather this morning. I woke up with a sore throat and stomach pains so I'm a little worried, but then again, I'm not going to feel 100% all of the time. Today, like class day (typically Monday through Friday) we have a catered lunch at the program center. I look forward to this meal every day. Our cook, Uday-ji, is amazing, always using fresh ingredients and foolproof recipes. Today we had a sliced cucumber and carrot salad, white rice, brown lentils with parsley in a dal style, sauteed okra, raita with chickpeas, and fresh chapati. Dessert was gulab jamun. Yum. These past several days we have had the host parents of various students join the group for lunch so that they all feel more connected to the program. It's been nice meeting my friends' "parents". My friend Greg actually sort of resembles his host father. They eat similarly, walk similarly, are both tall. It's really cute.

Last night I returned home from school with my neighborhood buddy Josh and decided to dive into my newly created pirated Bollywood DVD collection. Josh has a sort of obsession with pirated DVDs and videogames, so he has become an expert in the art of DVD hunting and Bollywood culture. He gave me a great DVD with the top 6 Bollywood Movies of 2008--really great. After we got home, we watched "Om Shanti Om," a film with Shah Rukh Khan, the male Bollywood sensation. The story essentially follows a boy-next-door trying to make it into stardom and his huge obsession with the starlet of the day. It takes place in the 1970s for half the movie and the second half in the present day. It's musical madness coupled with oversexualized interactions that don't actually result in sex. It's great escapism which I plan to dive into far more over the semester.

After my movie evening, I went with my host sister, Mintu, to a hotel in my neighborhood for several drinks and a get together with her friends. The hotel is pretty ritzy and expensive, but the top floor has a Mediterranean themed rooftop bar and lounge, with an open roof and beautiful view of the city. India has seriously gotten it right with all of the rooftop and open air architecture across its metropolitan cities. Then again, when it gets that hot, you really need to be elevated to catch some of the wind sweeping through the miserable heat. Mintu's friends arrived, an adorable couple from Jaipur. The husband, Sachin, is a general surgeon and owns a hospital in Malviya nagar, a nice neighborhood of Jaipur. His wife, Chinu, is a contractual hospital management and public health consultant for the government. Currently she is working on a project for the World Bank observing the management and allocation of funds across a secondary sector of hospitals across 5 Indian states. I really enjoyed talking to her and getting sort of an idea of the Indian hospital system. I got an invitation to visit Chinu's hospital at the beginning of March. After the couple left, Sanjay (Mintu's boyfriend/fiance), Mintu, and I all hung out a little longer and danced a bit. It was really fun and a nice escape from my typical routine.

At school, I'm in the process of designing my ISP, or Independent Study Project, which will be my complete focus for the month of April. I feel like I'm on the brink of something really good, but I just can't seem to hone down on one specific topic. My general interest as of now is looking at Food and Development. Ha. Yes, I know. Broad. The three abstracts I proposed are:
1. Looking at produce vendors in urban areas and their incoming competition from the commercial supermarket industry. What are the relationships between the food vendors and farmers? What infrastructure exists to protect the employment of these individuals? (I need to further expand this idea to sort of come up with a project goal).

2. Examining food aid programs in a state, NGO involvement, intertwined with food education. Evaluating methodology and distinguishing some of the unique challenges facing the public aid sector.

3. Researching and studying nutritional education in India and the influence of Ayurveda and the commercialized and popularized notions and approaches to health. How does the media influence individual's perceptions of nutrition and health.

Honestly, I am open to suggestions. The ISP needs to be specific. These categories are rather broad and open-ended. I am currently reading a lot of economic food policy and also "The Political Economy of Hunger" which is fascinating. Eventually I want my ISP to be creative and really reflect my interests. I also want to be based primarily in an Indian city. So, yeah. That's where it stands as of now.

Next week the group is traveling to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer for a development and NGO excursion. While in the two cities, we will be doing some sightseeing, but will primarily visiting and interviewing NGO managers trying to get an idea of the development "industry" in India. We are also going for a camel trek and camping in the desert for a night. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!

Anyway, I should probably sign off because this has been a long entry and I've undoubtedly exhausted or bored you. Please give me feedback about the ISP at my email address: mtaskier@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

--Madeline/Mimi