Between holidays and visits

I know. It’s been eons. And everytime I say that it’s been eons and apologize and promise to write, I don’t follow through. But this time will be different. I swear that I’m going to sit down on Friday (the day after tomorrow), and I’m going to put up some fantastic pictures and let you all into the past month and a half or so of my life.

It’s been pretty incredible.

It’s reminded me part of the reason that I’m here.

Jobs, like everything else (except maybe chocolate and coffee), have their ups and downs. Mine’s hit a bit of a lull for the time being, and it’s affected the rest of my everyday existence, seeing as I spend 8-10 hours/day at the office. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been here for almost 9 months, the euphoria has passed, my optimism has waned, and my energy has dwindled in the natural cycle of employment – or if it’s the fact that this job is so unique, in its being a one-year post, a temporary, experimental, pressure-and-expectation-packed role, where my job is not only to learn and to teach, to program and to plan, but to understand another culture and to find my way in it, not just to gripe about my perceptions of Indian cultural faults, but to recognize and admit my own cultural limitations. And then, somehow, I have to circumvent. I have to establish relationships and utilize them and make my mark, for the community and for myself.

It seems an impossible task, more than it ever has before, because now I’m deep inside it, and I have three more months to … figure it out.

No doubt, the whole year (our entire lives even) is dedicated to constant learning, but these next three months, I need to start putting into practice the immense amount of learning I’ve been doing. I’ve observed, let down guards, humiliated myself, faced obstacles, confronted impasses, and now I need to make something of all of that.

What a nebulous, terrifying, intimidating goal.

Then again, I’ve done enough thinking – at the office, outloud to friends and family over coffee, in the shower, on the elliptical at the gym, on my sweaty walks to and from work – about my greater goal, that I have zeroed in on my practical goals. And what better forum to enunciate them than here? Maybe writing them down, letting all of my social worlds in on my plans, will propel me forward and remind me of my abilities and my skills, and maybe that will be the push I need to do what I came here to do.

Over the next three months, I plan to:

1. Co-run a madrich-training (Jewish leadership) seminar stayover at the JCC
2. Hold a book sale of duplicate books from the library, to weed out old books and raise money for new ones
3. Hold a family picnic for the Sunday school kids and their families, in an attempt to encourage parents to join their kids at the JCC
4. Finish cataloguing online the 4,000-ish books from the library, so that I can run a one-time research seminar on Jewish learning and Internet use

Furthermore, I want to revise and polish my Barnard/JTS senior thesis and attempt to submit it for publication in some periodical.

The goals are vast, I know, and three months may or may not be enough time, but if there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that, with a set desire, a stated plan, a great deal of background planning and intensive thought, and a crunch for time, I can achieve. (How about that for a personal pep talk of the day?)

That being said, I’m off to teach my Wednesday night Tanakh class. Tonight, we’re covering the highly controversial stories of David and Bathsheba, as well as the rape of Tamar.

Life is nothing if not complicated, messy, and challenging, hmm?

 

TEASER: More to come on Friday! Details on trips to Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa, and Shimla! Family visits from my father, and from my mother and her partner Rick! Future plans for a Pesach seder in Pune, trips to Aurangabad and Amritsar, visits from college friends, and post-India thoughts! And pictures pictures pictures!

Also, an interesting city report on Mumbai:

“As a result of Mumbai’s size and high growth rate, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, inadequate sanitation, and pollution pose serious threats to the quality of life in the city. … Breathing Mumbai’s air has been likened to smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day! The scale of such environmental problems, however, pales in light of a United Nations (UN) report that projects Mumbai’s population to reach 27.4 million by the year 2015.“

The Festival of Trees

Over the past few weeks, I’ve returned to my classes and picked up with my gym schedule. I’ve been reading loads of books (including some of the classics: The Grapes of Wrath and A Little Princess and The Secret Garden to name a few). We had the JDC mission come through, and Sarah and I successfully entertained the 5-14 year olds after they performed Israeli and Bollywood dances for the 10 mission members.

Kids dancing for the mission

We printed out a picture of an outline of a tree and taught the kids how to make a collage of things relating to trees, using magazines, newspapers, crayons, and their imaginations. The activity went over well, and after the last children had been collected, the mission headed down to the Taj President hotel in Cuffe Parade. Along with several dozen of the youth, the mission, my bosses, Sarah, and I enjoyed a deluxe buffet dinner and some time to speak with one another. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Jane Weitzman (of the Stuart Weitzman shoe line), who is also on the board of the Jewish Book Council, and we spent over an hour discussing Jewish literature. It doesn’t get much better than that!

A week later, we had another important community event: a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Evelyn Peters Jewish Community Center, where I work. For this event, we had a traditional malida ceremony at the JCC. About 100 members of the community attended – mostly the over-30 crowd, though some youth were in attendance. We incorporated into this ceremony a brief program on Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish new year for trees, because the holiday took place the day after the malida. Sarah and I performed a skit for the community that went something like this:

Winter Passing

I’m a little astounded by how much time has passed since I last posted. I started to realize the large gaps in my posts back in November, before the Mumbai attacks, before my canceled trip with my dad, before my trip with my sister, and before my conference in Israel. Now, all of that has passed, and with it, most of the “winter.” The days in Bombay are already starting to heat up again. The evenings are still comfortable, but the morning sun cooks me on slow simmer as I walk to work. The air seems to buzz a little, reminding me – oddly enough – of summers in Albany: bright, hazy, and filled with the combined sounds of children and construction in the streets.

Being back to Bombay after a week or ten days in Israel is a bit surreal. Only a few months of living in India, and it’s almost as though this is how it’s always been, though always with an underriding sense of discomfort, a feeling of my being out-of-place, stared at, and staring. But any other reality is jarring, too. Walking through the streets in Jerusalem, I blend in, I feel at home (despite never having lived there), I understand when people speak, I have friends and family I can call and see within a short period of time. I forget about India quickly. The feeling of being the firangi dissapates.

And then I’m back, and the smells and sounds and heat are familiar, unchanged. I’m back to old patterns: late mornings sleeping in; lazy days at work, hoping for something to happen, researching and preparing for classes, trying to find the right words and the right ways to make change; late nights at the gym, ordering dinner, playing with the cat, watching DVDs of American TV, reading until I fall asleep. Then I hit repeat and I do it over again until the weekends.

It’s funny because I could do those very same things, have those exact routines, back in the U.S. Only I don’t think I find them boring here. Would they be at home? Even the problems that I could think of as “only in India” situations could happen anywhere. For example, when I first returned to Bombay, the Internet wasn’t working. It turns out that my boss forgot to renew the subscription, so that problem was briefly fixed. Now it fades in and out as it likes. While I tend to address this issue as one of India’s ridiculousnesses, I have friends dealing with the same problem in the U.S. Inconsistent Internet isn’t only in India (though India may have perfected it!).

Then,  it seems that someone stole the door handle to my apartment. One morning it was there, and then that evening, it wasn’t. Nonetheless, I went to the gym, convinced I’d be able to get in, just by having the key to a different lock. Long story short, I managed to lock myself out. A friend rescued me and helped me jimmy into my apartment. He took off the inside handle and that handle’s lock so that I wouldn’t get locked out again, and now there are two big holes in my door where the handles and lock used to
be. Despite having nagged people at work to fix it for the past week and a half, the holes remain. It doesn’t seem like the most safe thing to have those there in lieu of a door handle and lock, but what else can I do but wait?

Then there’s the fact that Sarah and I got lost in Mumbai again. We were invited to a mehendi ceremony (which precedes an Indian wedding), and we got dressed up and into a cab, with a general idea of where we were headed. An hour later, we still hadn’t reached our destination – the neighborhood we thought we knew was covered in construction work, with cars packed tightly together next to cows, handcarts, wallah stands, people, rubble, stray dogs, garbage and debris, and construction workers with sledgehammers and drills. After sitting for another half an hour without budging, Sarah and I decided to ask the driver to bring us home, and we wedged ourselves out of the mess and had the cab driver take us back to our apartment. Two hours of driving and waiting, almost 200 Rs. on the meter, and we were back where we started.

So, that’s life back to normal in Bombay. The days pass mostly the same, and the weekends I spend with my friends or at the apartment and gym. I went to an Indian mall for the first time since I moved here. I shopped at Aldo and Nine West, Mango and Adidas, but it felt a little strange, out of place and time (or is that me, here in India?). I went to see “Slumdog Millionaire” last night – an intense, and at times an appalling, movie to watch and deal with, especially while living in India.

What else is new? I’ll have off tomorrow for Republic Day, but then the week will pick up its pace because a JDC mission is coming through India, and Bombay, to see what work we do here and to encourage donations to the organization worldwide. In mid-February, Sarah and I are holding a madrich-training institute for some of the youth, to teach them how to be Jewish leaders, to plan programs and activities for people of all ages, and to have the creativity, charisma, enthusiasm, and energy for it. Right after that, my dad will hopefully be visiting, and by mid-March, my mom will be here for her trip. A close friend of mine from college, and maybe another from my high school youth group, will likely visit during April.

When I look at the calendar like this, the months pass by quickly, and before I know it, it will be time to leave. My mind, of course, is filled with thoughts of what I will do next. Should I be preparing right now to find a job? Should I be writing grad school applications? Should I be studying for and taking the GREs (as will one of the youth that I mentor at the JCC)? Should I be planning a backpacking trip?

All I can do for now is take things one day at a time, continuing to hope and work for the opportunity to make a lasting impact in this community, and putting my busy, overwhelming, crowded webs of thoughts on the backburner. For now.

Off to Israel

My apologies to you all since the latest blog updates have pretty much said: “Hi, I’m around… but not here and not for you!” This time, I’m off to Jerusalem, Israel for about a week for the mid-year seminar for the Jewish Service Corps fellows. I’ll spend Shabbat with a family friend, and then I’ll be at a hotel Sunday through Wednesday, sitting through meetings and programming. Hopefully, in between, I’ll be able to relax at a coffeeshop and meet up with some friends. Maybe I’ll even be able to update the blog a little more comprehensively!

Here’s a taste of the trip Syd and I took, though:

• Arrived on December 27th, slept through the afternoon, went out to dinner and a lounge at night.
• Spent the next couple of days seeing Bombay: downtown at the Causeway and the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel, Mani Bhavan (Gandhi’s house in Bombay), Haji Ali (the mosque out on the water), one of the blue synagogues Kinesset Eliyahoo, a little shopping, tasting foods at various restaurants, etc.
• December 30th, we had a 7 a.m. flight to Delhi – but it was delayed for almost six hours because of fog. We finally arrived around 2 p.m. and took a whirlwind car tour of the city: the outside of the Red Fort, Jama Masjid (the biggest mosque in India), India Gate, Parliament, and India’s “White House.”
• December 31st, we woke for a 6 a.m. train to Agra. We toured the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, ate at Pizza Hut for dinner, had a Costa Coffee for dessert, and took the late train back to Delhi to have tea on the roof of our hotel and watch New Year’s fireworks go off.
• January 1st, we went to the Red Fort in the morning and found it far less impressive than the Agra Fort. We then raced to the train station for our 3:30 p.m. train to Haridwar. Six hours later, our hotel picked us up at the station, and we drove to the resort for a late dinner.
• January 2nd, we went white-water rafting down the Ganga River!
• January 3rd, we went rock climbing and rappelling.
• January 4th, we had Ayurvedic massages and were supposed to take a flight from Dehradun to Delhi and then to Bombay… However, the flight to Delhi was canceled, so we drove six hours to Delhi, slept at the airport, and took an early morning flight back to Bombay.
• January 5th, we shopped and shopped!
• January 6th, Syd had to leave…

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip, and I promise to give many more details (and pictures!) when I next have a chance.

Until then, a belated Happy 2009 to you all…

Happy Hanukkah!

I can’t believe it’s already that time of year. Generally, I associate Hanukkah with cold nights in upstate NY, cuddled up in five or six different layers, reading by the fireplace until it’s time to eat latkes (potato pancakes) and light the hanukkiah candles, looking out on the snow and ice covering the world outside. Instead, I am in Bombay, wondering at the still 95-degree heat, the clear blue skies, the green palm trees lining dusty lanes.

Last week, we had a small Hanukkah party at the JCC for the Gan Katan kids. We told the story of Hanukkah, asking them to use clues to find missing words that we needed for the story (i.e. Antiochus, Maccabee, eternal flame, etc.). We played “pin the shamash (helper candle) on the hanukkiah,” and we taught the kids how to play dreidel. We ate some snacks, and we even awarded prizes to the best competitors. All in all, it was a minor event, but I think it was something the kids really needed – and that the community at large could have done with.

Learning to play dreidel

Cute girls in cute dresses

Then, Sarah and I decided to hold a Hanukkah party for some of our friends here in Bombay. We cancelled because it seemed like no one wanted to come, and then a bunch of people came anyway! I made applesauce, potato pancakes (latkes) and sweet potato pancakes from scratch, and friends brought drinks and snacks – both Indian and American. Our JDC country director, who was in from Israel for a few days, even came! We explained the story of Hanukkah, lit the candles, played dreidel, ate lots of oil-packed treats, and shared one of the most fun Jewish holidays with our non-Jewish Indian friends.

Potato latkes in the making

The miracles of Hanukkah

Enjoying latkes!

Family Hanukkah photo

And for good measure, here’s one of me and Sarah enjoying falafel (me) and shwarma (Sarah) while we were in Israel for the Emergency Evacuation (Vacation?) a few weeks ago:

Israel is tasty

I apologize, but I’m going to be going on hiatus for a couple of weeks (maybe less, if I can find the time and the Internet connection). My younger sister Sydney arrived earlier today from Albany to spend a week traveling around India with me. We’re off to Delhi, Agra, and Rishikesh after a couple of days relaxing and getting over jetlag in Mumbai… Then, I’ll have a couple days back in Mumbai after she leaves and before I head to Israel for the mid-year seminar (how is it already time for the mid-year seminar??).

So, everyone, please take care and be well. I hope that your Hanukkahs were full of light, your Christmases full of festivity,  your stomachs full of holiday fare, and your holiday seasons full of happiness and warmth. Happy (encroaching) 2009: May it be a year of health, happiness, fulfillment, unexpected adventures, and unparalleled memories.

More Press

An article about an acquaintance of mine from Bombay, another American Jew, and one of his (also American Jewish) friends: Local Expats Pained by Attack in Mumbai

NPR’s “All Things Considered” featuring my country director, and boss, at the JDC, Antony Korenstein: Jewish Community Shocked by Mumbai Attacks

Back to Mumbai

Well, I’ve returned to Mumbai. I apologize for the gaps in my postings, but I had limited access to the Internet while in Israel.

Sarah and I spent about 10 days in Jerusalem, staying with a couple very good friends of Sarah’s for both Shabbatot. We ate, slept, and played Settlers, for the most part. It was also our time really to decompress after everything and to gear up for our return to Bombay.

The week in between those Shabbatot – the week when my father was supposed to arrive to Bombay for a three-week visit, which was, needless to say, cancelled – we stayed at a hotel close to the JDC office. We spent our days ambling around the city, going to the mall, eating falafel and other kosher foods (for Sarah, that meant lots of meat! ; I revelled in the high quality coffee – especially at Tachanat HaCafe, or “The Coffee Mill”), seeing old friends (including Natasha!), finding happy-hour specials (most notably, a two-shekel shot deal at a bar named Scream), and enjoying the much-brisker-than-Mumbai December weather. We made trips to the shuk for Marzipan rugelach and salty seeds, cheap Israeli chocolate and plentiful halvah.

We also had the opportunity to present our experiences working in Mumbai to a host of the staff at the JDC office at a special lunchtime program. We made a nice little powerpoint presentation and spent some time talking to about 30 staff members about the Bene Israeli community, the education and programming that we do with them, and our hopes for the future. It was nice to take advantage of the increase in interest in the community (because of the attacks) for a better purpose – educating somewhat high-profile people about a minority community.

[During my time away, I received an excess of e-mails, Facebook messages, and blog comments, as well as a couple of blog acknowledgements. My blog was even noted to the North American council of JCCs. I was also interviewed by my local news station, Capital News 9, from Albany, NY. If you're interested in seeing the piece, it is up online here.]

After our 10 days in Israel, we boarded a plane at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to return to Mumbai. Seven hours of turbulance later, we were back in Bombay. A friend picked us up at the airport, where we also bumped into a friend of ours from the Israeli consulate in Mumbai (who we happen to be having dinner with later tonight). Careening through the traffic-filled Mumbai streets, walking up the four flights of stairs to our flat, unpacking and cleaning, it was almost as though we had never left…

Except that our feelings about being here aren’t exactly the same.

The night before leaving Israel, Sarah and I had the opportunity to make a decision about whether or not we were ready to return. We took a short walk from Sarah’s friends’ apartment, to a local petting zoo, where we stood by the placid turkeys and ducks and the sleeping goats, to discuss for what felt the first time our feelings about returning to Mumbai. We’d been asked countless times to retell our experiences over Wednesday night through Thursday night, from the start of the attacks to our evacuation, and we had been questioned about our experiences with the community and the work that we do with them. But, that Saturday night, Sarah and I paused to decide how we felt about the situation as a whole. How did we feel about returning to a place where terrorists demanded British and American passports? Where the Chabad center had been held hostage? Where our friends had been killed? How did we feel about being so visible, so white, so American, so Jewish, in a place where terrorists had likely killed people for just those things?

Truth be told, we are both still nervous. But we returned. Better now than a week from now, when we would have built up the return, elevated it and dramatized it, expanding our own fears. And better now than never, partially because we don’t want to send the message that the terrorists scared us out, partially because we don’t want to let fear override us, partially because we have built lives here in Mumbai and to some extent it is our home, and mostly because we have a a job here. We have a responsibility to the Bene Israeli community that neither of us wants to give up, because we have formed relationships, and those go both ways. They are counting on us as much as we are counting on them.

Unfortunately, many things have been cancelled because of the attacks. My father’s trip is one; my sister’s might be another. I don’t blame either of them, and I know that if circumstances were different right now, they would be here in a heartbeat. I’m angry and frustrated because I should be with my family right now, but instead I am trying to find other times for them to come, and I am continuing to be far from them in so many ways. Now, Sarah and I are fighting to maintain the plans of the shaken community (click through for an interesting perspective piece from the BBC): putting on the Khai Fest cultural performances (taking place in two weeks), holding a youth camp for the JYP members, having a Hanukkah party for the children and youth, reinstating classes, helping with services for the Jewish Reform Union. But I know that – trite as this will sound – in our minds and hearts, we are asking, “What more can we do?”

Ultimately, if you want to how we’re doing, we’re fine. Sarah and I are back to our routines. We come into the office, do our jobs, go home, work out at the gym, watch tv, cook, eat, sleep, live. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

But inside, we are still just a little bit nervous, somewhat angry, and mostly sad.

Shavua Tov

It’s a new week. I spent a restful Shabbat in Jerusalem, after having been evacuated late Thursday night from Bombay. Sarah and I stayed at her friend Rebecca’s apartment with Rebecca and her husband Dave, who graciously took us in, fed us, and gave us their hospitality, friendship, and home.

Services on Friday night were at Shira Chadasha, beautiful, quasi-egalitarian modern Orthodox services where the people are welcoming and the singing is full of glimmering harmonies. I haven’t been so emotionally moved by a service before – both the product of the services and of the situation at hand. It brought me to tears.

Dinner was intimate, with just me, Sarah, Rebecca, and Dave, and excessive and exorbitant amounts of incredible, Middle Eastern/American Jewish food – a familiar and welcome break from the past five months of Indian food. Then, we sang zimirot (Shabbat songs) and played a couple riveting games of the strategic Risk-Monopoly hybrid, The Settlers of Catan.

Today, I slept in late, ate another fantastic and enormous lunch at Rebecca and Dave’s (along with 7 other guests), and played an extended game of the Settlers of Catan (expansion set, for the larger crowd!). We relaxed and talked in the early evening, and I have been speaking with people at home and returning more e-mails and catching up on the world, for the rest of the night.

For the record, my dad postponed his trip. Luckily, Continental Airlines was very understanding and is letting him shift the flights for no extra cost. And for some reason, the transactions with the travel agent didn’t go through, so he didn’t actually end up paying for anything that he then had to cancel. We’re still working on the internal-India flights, but I don’t anticipate any problems we can’t work our way around.

Most of my friends in India are safe and well. A few left the city to escape the craziness, while others are already back at work. Meanwhile, our dear friends at the Chabad House – Rabbi Gaby Holtzberg and his wife, and my close companion, Rivka (or Rivke) – did not make it through the terrorist attacks. The New York Times is reporting that they likely were killed sometime on Wednesday night, though nothing is certain; nothing except that they will be greatly missed. While all Chabad shlichim (messengers) do important work, this couple was especially warm and hospitable. They made my months alone in India more palatable, and Rivke was one of the kindest and most impressive women I have every met. I cannot believe that they are gone.

Rabbi Gaby and the wonderful Rivke

In other news, please read this very interesting and wry piece from the New York Times on the link between India and Israel. It’s a worthwhile read, if not for the shout-out to the Bene Israeli Jews, then for the final lines:

“Hinjew leaders today conceded the merger of Hinduism and Judaism has not worked out as planned, as instead of forming a super-religion to fight off the common Islamic enemy, they have instead created a race of 900 million people who, no matter how many times they are reincarnated, can never please their mothers.”

Let’s hope that this week will bring peace to India, give us the ability to laugh even when we are hurting, and help us preserve the good memories of special people and a very special city.

Safe in Israel

Just to let everyone know, the JDC evacuated Sarah and me late last night from Mumbai. Earlier on Thursday, they had told us to pack bags, in case they made the decision to get us out of the country. Then, they phone around 6:30 p.m., to say that they were going to try to send us to Vienna, Austria, where another JSC volunteer works, but they didn’t know when the flight would be – anytime from then until Sunday. Then, about half an hour later, they called back and said we had to leave for the airport immediately, to go to Israel.

We left for the airport less than half an hour later, grabbed our bags and bolted. We reached the airport by quarter to 9 p.m. We had no tickets in hand and the line to even reach the policemen guarding the door was epic. Miles long. Our boss met us at the airport, and he had arranged for one of the El Al men to bring us inside. We cut the line, promised the policeman we’d bring back our tickets to show him in five minutes. We ran through back corridors and construction zones to get to the El Al office, where they gve us our ticketing information. Then we ran back out to the policeman to show him the tickets, ran over to the initial security questioning, went to the ticket counters to get our boarding passes and drop our suitcases, and ran to security. We went through checks (two of them!) and then landed at our gate at 10 p.m. We even had time for coffees. Our flight, which was supposed to take off at 11 p.m., ended up leaving around midnight. We arrived in Tel Aviv at 5 a.m. local time. and were in Jerusalem by 6 a.m. We stayed with the Ralph Goldman fellow for the night/morning, made contact with all of you at home and all of you in Mumbai, and dropped off to sleep restlessly for a few hours. Now we are showered and staying with a friend of Sarah’s, in a neighborhood in Jerusalem.

That being said, we are here and safe and relaxing for the time being. We are so worried about everyone in Bombay, especially our close friends at Chabad. We’re not sure how long we’re going to need to be away, whether we’ll stay in Israel, go to Vienna, or maybe possibly try to come home to the U.S.

I’ll keep you all updated.

Thank you for your thoughts, love, concerns, support, and prayers. I miss you all.

Terrorist Attack Update

Well, the situation hasn’t changed much. Neither Sarah nor I really slept at all last night. I rested for about twenty minutes at a time, always waking to my cell phone ringing or beaping with a text message, to the apartment phone ringing, or just jumping up with a start, remembering everything that has happened and running to the computer to check the news updates and respond to worried e-mails, Facebook messages, and blog comments from all of you.

Currently, they’re saying that the Taj has been evacuated completely. The Oberoi and Nariman House (where the Chabad House is located) are both still under attack, with terrorists inside, holding guests hostage. The Chabad rabbi and his wife, my good friend Rivke, are still inside the Chabad House, supposedly unconscious but alive. Their toddler son, Moishe, has been taken out of the house along with his nanny, and they are with the police, safe. Both locations are under fire.

The police want to take down the terrorists alive, for questioning, but nothing is changing right now. The terrorists are inside holding foreigners hostage, and the Indian government is… waiting? I don’t know a better tactic, and I am certainly not criticizing the response to the situation. I’m not in the right field to judge – I just don’t know enough about these things. But I am incredulous that the terrorist attacks have been continuing now for more than 15 hours. When will it end??

Meanwhile, the JDC has asked that Sarah and I stay in our apartment. We are under house arrest until further notice from the organization, and the American Embassy has also sent out warnings that Americans should stay indoors until alerted. They want travelers to avoid coming to Mumbai in the next 48-72 hours. My dad is supposed to visit this upcoming Tuesday. I can’t even imagine what will happen in the duration of this day – Thanksgiving 2008 -  let alone what will happen over the next few days. Will a weekend be enough to allow things to quiet down, to start rebuilding, to ease back into the way things were, albeit with a greater deal of security measures? Or will this marr the coming months?

I am sure that my life in Bombay will not be the same after this is over.

At least there has been so much support, love, and caring from all around. Our friends and coworkers and neighbors here in Mumbai have been calling and messaging to ensure that we are safe, that we have food to eat, that we know to stay inside under any and all circumstances. Our family and friends, former professors and coworkers back in the U.S. have been bombarding us with e-mails and notes, wondering where we are, how we are, what they can do, what we will do.

To answer your questions, we are home, in our apartment, about 45 minutes north of the downtown area where all of the gunfire and attacks have been taking place. We are fine; shocked, shaken, nervous, sad, angry, confused, homesick – for our peaceful and comfortable and familiar American lives, and also for the Bombay I have lived in for the past five months that ceased to be as it was, at around 10:30 p.m. last night. You can keep checking in on us, letting us know that you love and miss us and are thinking of us and of our dear Mumbai and all of our friends and surrogate families here. You can keep up with the news, and you can pray, whether or not you believe in it. As for what we will do… we will be listening to the instructions of the American Embassy and the JDC. We will be watching silly children’s movies and funny tv shows in our apartment, eating the food we would have had (apple crisp, pumpkin pie, garlic mashed potatoes) at our Indian Thanksgiving dinner tonight before we had to cancel it. We will be keeping you updated, reminding you and ourselves that we are ok and that we will get through all of this – and Mumbai will get through it.

On behalf of me and Sarah, enjoy your Thanksgivings. Relax in your warm houses and flannel pyjamas while you watch the Macy’s Parade in just a few hours. Have a cup of coffee or four, because you have the day off, and you can enjoy those cups of coffee at leisure. Later, eat copious amounts of turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, and loads of sweet potato mash with marshmellows melting on top. Enjoy multiple slices of apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies with no guilt. Go around the table and say what you are grateful for this year.

Sarah and I will be doing the same.

I love and miss you all.