Okay first let me just apologize for being a horrible blogger these last two weeks. But you know, life in India isn't all about sitting on the computer despite what my constant facebooking may suggest. I mean I've been busy! You know, with the usual: going to school, research for projects, interviews, riding horses, watching polo, sleeping, eating. Oh wait, I guess a few things on that list do stand out a bit, so let me start from the start.
First of all, due to Eid, I had quite a few days off of school which meant I actually had free time. So I decided to go with a few friends out to ride at the Hyderabad Polo and Riding Club. It does seem that no matter where I go or what I do, I find horses. Or rather, they find me. And who am I to pass that up? Anyway, I went riding, which was fun although I was stuck on a lesson horse that hates life. And we kept cantering by jumps that, of course, I was itching to jump. But my self control got the better of me and I refrained from possibly making my horse lame.
After riding, my friends and I were about to leave when a car pulled up and out walked the brand new HPRC polo team and a blonde Brit. Seeing two Americans must have surprised him because he walked up and introduced himself to us and starting asking what we were doing there. When we expressed an interest in watching a polo practice, he suggested that we come to a game that weekend, and even better, to the press conference and photo shoot where the new team would be announced. Why not? I figured at the very least, it would give me something fun to do while most of my friends were partying it up in Goa, and besides, I can never refuse an invitation that involves horse riding.
The next day, me and two of my friends showed up at the 5 star Taj Krishna hotel and were completely taken aback by the number of photographers buzzing around. Polo is not exactly a well-known sport in America, and the press generally would rather write about a new political scandal than about a team galloping around the field at high speeds and attempting to score points. So needless to say, the swarm, who also took pictures of us, was surprising. The reason for the madness became clear as the owner of the team, a famous Tollywood actor, appeared and the photographers were literally yelling and pushing each other out of the way to get a picture of him. I didn't even see that much jostling around when I heard Obama speak.
By this point, my interest was piqued in polo. I mean, it's a sport on horseback, dangerous, and thus highly entertaining, and the best part is that it is played outside on a huge grassy field, which is, of course, something I miss. Greenery is not exactly a Hyderabadi thing. So on Saturday, we headed out for the first match of the season, which runs about 20 days, and it was intense. Mallets swinging, horses and riders bumping into each other, plenty of adrenaline. The horses were incredible and since we had made friends with the team, we were allowed to sit over by them which is definitely the best place to see and hear what exactly is going on. Thoughts of starting a women's polo team started creeping into my head but after seeing how fast the game is played, maybe I'll just stick to some cross-country jumping instead.
Aside from my polo shenanigans though, school has been great fun these last few weeks. Last Monday was Teacher's Day and while I didn't quite make it to get a Saree, it was still a blast to watch the 10th standard girls don their own sarees and teach classes while the teachers observed. The best part had to be the dances at the end of the day where I got to see everyone from 4th graders to 9th graders showing off their moves to Bollywood and Telegu songs. Thank goodness I was able to just be an observer for this. They even gave me a present like the other teachers which was sweet. Thank goodness they nixed the idea of having a student dress up like me and be an IDEX Fellow for a day. I can't imagine trying to get them to understand how to create a business plan on my laptop or teach another student about logarithms while being told how to say them in Hindi (yes that actually happened).
Okay now at least I feel like I have completed my duty of being a mediocre blogger. Stay tuned for more random, weird, and wonderful Hyderabadi shenanigans. Until next time...
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