Returning to Routine

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After weeks  – well, really, months – of travel, I’m sitting still for a while.

I’ve pretty much been up and around since November, when Mumbai was attacked and Sarah and I were evacuated to Israel.

Falafel and shwarma - we tried to make the best of the evacuation...

In December, my sister Sydney visited, and we went to Delhi, Agra, and Rishikesh.

Sydney and me at the Taj Mahal

At the Gateway of India in Bombay

Whitewater rafting in Rishikesh with Sarah and her brother Daniel

In January, I left again for Israel, for my fellowship’s mid-year seminar.

At the Western Wall in Jerusalem

February brought my father to India for a trip to Rajasthan and Kerala.

On an elephant in Jaipur, up to the Amber Fort

Shopping for textiles in Jodhpur

Sitting in a tea plantation in Munnar

Standing by our houseboat in Kumarakom

And in March, my mother, her partner Rick, and I trekked to Shimla.

My mom and me in Shimla

Post-trek

I spent the first Passover seder with a random group of Jews and non-Jews, Americans, Canadians, Australians, and Indians, at my friend Jay Lurie’s house (you can read the article he wrote about it here).

A random crowd for Passover night #1

Then, I spent the second Passover seder in Pune for work.

My friends Doron and Tamar outside of one of the Pune synagogues

And then the month of April also took me, with my college friend Sarah Sher, to rural Maharashtra, to the Ajanta and Ellora caves and to the Sula winery in Nasik (did I mention we accidentally went on a dry day? oops!), as well as to Punjab, for three days in Amritsar.

Me at the Ajanta Caves

My friend Sarah at the Ellora Caves

At the Sula winery vineyards and factory

At the Golden Temple in Amritsar

And now, I’m back in Mumbai. I have to go out of town in a couple of weeks for a work function – a youth camp that will revolve around visits to the Konkan villages where the Jews first arrived when they shipwrecked in India – but otherwise, I’m settled for a bit. Hopefully, I’ll be able to resolve a couple of frustrating situations while I’m sitting tight in the Bombay heat.

For starters, I’m still trying to handle the visa situation. For those not already in the know about this particular problem, here are the basics: when I first applied for my visa, I was granted a one-year employment visa, despite my instance upon the fact that my job is a volunteer position. No problems really except that when I registered at the Foreign Regional Registration Office in Mumbai, back in February, I was told that in order to extend my visa (I’m currently supposed to leave the country in June), I needed to have it converted to a voluntary work visa. I called and e-mailed the Indian Consulate in NY and was told that they would sent a letter to the FRRO here. I received two e-mail confirmations. With no notification of the receipt of the letters, I headed down to the FRRO in person, with Solly Uncle in tow, not once, but twice, only to be told both times that they had no such letter. The Indian Consulate in NY won’t send me a copy of the letter for me to bring in to the FRRO myself. The FRRO can’t find the copies sent by the Indian Consulate in NY. I’m at an impasse. Thoughts? Suggestions?

So, I have no idea whether I’m supposed to be leaving India, and my job, in June or in August. That’s one thing.

Then, there’s the issue of getting my cat back to the U.S.

Picabo

I’ve looked up India’s animal export laws and America’s animal import laws, and now I just need to figure out which airline I’m flying home (and when I’m flying home!), so that I can tell them I’m bringing a cat in the cabin and ask them what I need to do… As far as I can tell right now, I need to make sure her health papers are updated, and I might possibly need to have her microchipped? I also have to see if her carrier will fit underneath a plane seat. More things to add to the ever-increasing to-do list.

Next year’s plans have yet to be determined. Mostly, I’ve been spending the past few weeks dwelling on how nervous I am to return (I think this is enhanced by the fact that I’m clueless and out of control, with regard to when I’m going home). I get a pit in the bottom of my stomach thinking about it. It’ll be fantastic to be back in my element, to fit in, to see my family and friends, to have life be easier, smoother, less impossible (less hot!). But it’ll also be a letdown. It’ll be exciting for the first week, maybe two, and then I’ll just blend in. I’ll be back, and it’ll be a relief, but it’ll also be… normal. There’s a part of me that is terrified of that point. I also know that it’ll be as big of a transition, if not more so, than when I first moved to India. There will be ups and downs, and I’m bound to change more, and I’m anxious for those things, too. Thoughts about what I should do once I return? Suggestions? Job offers?

Well, those are some time off, still. Maybe two months, maybe more. The FRRO will decide, and I’ll wait.

At work, the pace is picking up. We had a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) commemoration last night at the JCC, and this coming Sunday, we’ll have a Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) celebration. Then, April 30-May 3, Sarah and I are off to the Konkan for youth camp. I’m still working with the Szarvas youth to nag them into finishing their programming for youth camp, and on top of that, we’re just beginning our preparations for the May 31-June 4 day camp. It’s really an interesting position to be a youth mentor, trying to coerce these kids into doing their work (work they committed to doing in order to attend the camp in Szarvas, Hungary last summer), knowing that I could get the work done in a shorter period of time, with much less pushing and frustration.

Sarah and I have picked up our old enjoyable habits, downloading beloved American TV shows from the Internet, going to the gym, etc. I just finished reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, and I’m nearing the end of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta. My good friend Natasha is back from her six-month stint at a kibbutz in Israel, so that perks up my social life a little bit. All in all, things are going pretty nicely, but for the weather, which crawls up into the low 100’s every day, with humidity levels that make it feel much, much more brutal.

I hope you all are doing well, and I will do my very best to update a little more regularly! I also hope this post somewhat compensates for my irregular presence over the past few months. If you want to see more pictures, check out my Facebook pictures, which you should be able to view if you click here.

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Filed under Daily activities, Travel

Tags: anxiety, jew, Travel, visa