tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-269522732024-08-29T16:15:56.226-04:00Wander - To walk or move in leisurely, casual or aimless way*** Wanderlust - A strong desire to travel*** Wonder - Desire or be curious to know something*** Wonder - A feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-45605581446578217942007-10-26T00:08:00.001-04:002007-12-22T22:46:33.943-05:00

Everything you need to know you learned in Kindergarten - pshaw!It was nice to dust off some of my adventuring skills again this trip. A little bit of Countryside 101.Get the party started! If eating were a sport, Mongolia would only deal in "ultimate mutton."Mutton with a cute little tail!Hot camel khoumiss ("fermented" camel milk)Making traditional fried mutton dumplings minus the mutton (

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-35253668352987651332007-10-16T03:56:00.001-04:002007-10-26T00:07:56.337-04:00

If one wanted to, hypothetically say, develop an obsession over babies - Mongolia is quite a good place to be.Mongolian babies are so fun. You can wrap them up in fat snow suits and scarves until they reach twice their real body weight, becoming Mongolian sausage babies (appropriate for bold babies venturing out into Mongolian winter climes).You can tie their long deel belts from their stomachs

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-29722755013884462012007-10-10T23:35:00.000-04:002007-10-16T03:56:01.262-04:00

A ger in front of Mt. Jargalant - right outside my villageI just finished up a week long visit to my old Peace Corps village where I spent two years teaching English. I ate too much mutton and got stomach cramps. I nearly lost my clogs in the outhouse. I drank non-filtered river water which resulted in (the much feared Peace Corps phenomenon) explosive diarrhea.It was wonderful!Minus the cell

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-54980270930529532542007-09-24T04:06:00.000-04:002007-09-24T04:25:08.546-04:00

The new Chinggis Khan statue in front of the parliament buildingTossed to the bustling urbanity of Ulaanbaatar, I have spent my first week in a most un-Peace Corps like way. Yoga lessons, chocolate milkshakes and fries, a pedicure (urm, birthday present), and a banquet with Mongolia’s business community held in a scaled back reconstruction of Genghis Khan's capital. Oh yes. And I started my

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-60694855855181854652007-09-13T01:06:00.000-04:002007-09-13T01:21:16.948-04:00

Holding tight to a purist attitude, I've barred myself from blogging until I wandered properly off again. I was expecting it would be a good deal sooner than a year from my last post, but "the real world" becomes increasingly aggressive and encroaching. Pesky thing that.But I'm off now for a couple of months of research in Mongolia. Back to old Peace Corps stomping grounds and dried milk curd

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155715836529363992006-08-16T04:08:00.000-04:002006-08-27T07:06:46.580-04:00

As all good summers must come to an end, and so I find myself packed and ready to prove that my carry-on is indeed toothpaste free to any attentive airport security personnel who might ask. And so the adventures end...at least until next summer when I'm free to wander off again...My roommate Jenna and I in our sari finery."You are invited to the Festival of this world and your life is blessed."-

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155714930858362702006-08-16T03:55:00.000-04:002006-08-16T04:07:47.523-04:00

A few final glimpses of the city...The Birla Mendeer - a Hindu temple.A flower vendor in Calcutta's Chinatown. His flowers are mainly used as religious offerings and decorations.Playing soccer in a public park after the rains.Rush hour (i.e., every hour).A Hindu temple to Kali, goddess of destruction (among other attributes).A house on one of the main roads.Kids on their way to school.Bengali

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155713503980777172006-08-16T03:31:00.000-04:002006-08-16T03:53:54.266-04:00

The Hooghly River is the life line of Calcutta. One of the tributaries of the Ganges, it serves as a religious and economic base for the city. The protection of its curved course initially attracted the British in from the Bay of Bengal and led to the decision to make Calcutta their permanent power base.The Howrah Bridge that connects Howrah with Calcutta. It is said that it is the busiest

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155712474843553772006-08-16T03:14:00.000-04:002006-08-16T03:34:33.873-04:00

Park Street cemetery - where all good Britons came to die. A quiet, walled domain with grass covered avenues that lead between Banyan trees and moss covered tombs, this cemetery houses the memorials of the British who came to India from the 1600s onwards to seek their fortunes with the East India company or preserve the law and order of the Royal British monarchy. Susceptible to the illnesses

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155627734095301242006-08-15T03:32:00.000-04:002006-08-15T04:01:35.603-04:00

This country poses many temptations that lure a woman's soul from the path of the consumerly righteous. Like most sin, it is all very deliciously tempting. I can't say I've done a very good job at remaining strong (my father will certainly not think so), but I think I've done better than most of my compatriots.All the colors and flair of India seem to express themselves in female adornments.

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155558688717503692006-08-14T08:25:00.000-04:002006-08-15T03:32:16.623-04:00

The world of slums, like everything I suppose, is a lot more complicated than one might think at first thought. There are government sponsored slums, illegal slums, slums whose narrow asphalt paths wind around tidy shacks, slums whose tarped tent roofs creep right up to the train tracks - along with various other nuanced incarnations that I know nothing about. A few weekends ago, my roommate

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1155200216135764962006-08-10T04:55:00.000-04:002006-08-10T05:05:43.626-04:00

This summer I have primarily been orbiting around the office world of my NGO. However, once or twice a week I make my way to the village of Narendrapur, which lies on the outskirts of Calcutta in the 24 Parangas. At the boundary line on one far edge of the village, the Snehe Shelter Home is located behind a screen of nodding palm fronds, which brush against the high brick wall surrounding it.

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1154183261048818272006-07-29T10:23:00.000-04:002006-07-29T10:48:49.493-04:00

As the monsoon rains come, so too do the floods. And with every self-respecting flood there should be an ark. And there is - it is the vermin ark that is my home. This is not a criticism of my Auntie's housekeeping - she runs a respectably tight ship. But yet...they come. Two by two by two, by two. It's not of plague magnitude. Just the slow steady trickle of time tested Chinese water

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This year has been rather monsoon light. There's been much speculation on the effects of global warming and a indefinite shrugging of shoulders. But the monsoon, while not in its full glory, still seems to be picking up speed a bit lately. When the rains come, a lot of the pavement in certain parts of the city goes. After a good night of rain, a series of pictures predictably appear in the

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1153649366427169442006-07-23T06:08:00.000-04:002006-07-23T06:09:26.436-04:00

WonderOnce again I wake up. The night withers. The universe shoots out petals. This is the wonder, unending.So many continents have sunk, so many stars have lost luster, and aeons have elapsed! World-conquerors have lost their identities in the shadowy fringe of wordy chronicles. Nations erected obelisks on blood-smeared mud but only to quench the hunger of the dust. Amid these vast ruins,

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Snap [snap]NounA picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused onto film or other light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment.“Snap”, as in: Ugh! I look so fat in this snap! Excuse me, could you please take a snap of me and my friend on this camel? Oh Mr. Firth! Will you autograph your snap for me, please?Market Day Places to go, people to see,

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1152106226568382862006-07-05T09:29:00.000-04:002006-07-05T09:35:55.483-04:00

Every morning my 4 rupees are carefully counted and clutched in a sweaty hand. I wait one street down from the municipal water pump near my house - with the equivalent of about 10 cents, I can bump and screech to work on the local bus. For a while I was faithful to the 212 out of a sense of habit and security. But after the ticket man seemed, for all intents and purposes, to deliberately

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1151991239029065792006-07-04T01:19:00.000-04:002006-07-04T01:33:59.036-04:00

I have been extremely impressed with the municipal government of Calcutta. They seem to be sincerely committed to the launch of public educational campaigns. I've seen flashing electronic signs, similar to the "caution, delays ahead" variety, on the highway advising against pollution and its effects on global warming. These billboards on HIV/AIDS dot the urban landscape in both Bengali and

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1151740004570761252006-07-01T03:41:00.000-04:002006-07-03T11:00:31.180-04:00

Calcutta is the last home of the human rickshaw. A rickshaw pulled by the labor of a man's body alone. I hear tell that you can take tourist pictures with non-operational ones in Hong Kong, but that's the limit of the rickshaw runner's influence in the modern world of transportation. This of course does not include the popular bicycle rickshaw nor the automotive rickshaw still popular

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Rabindranath Tagore, first citizen of Calcutta, remarked at one point that his poetry was a gift to the Bengali people in the Bengali language. How do you really translate poetry anyways? Corrupted verse aside, his poetry is lovely in English as well. Infinite LoveIt seems it’s you I have loved in a hundred forms, unending:birth after birth, through the ages.In many a form you have taken

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1151138703786555652006-06-24T04:37:00.000-04:002006-06-24T04:51:11.776-04:00

This is where I have landed. A little house in South Calcutta - off a major road, but removed by an alley and a dirt path, and somehow strangely isolated from the greater bustlings of the city. It’s been rather fortuitous actually, as my NGO, who was supposed to facilitate my housing, had misunderstood the date of my arrival. i.e., They weren’t expecting me when I showed up one afternoon. i.e

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1150534446646441512006-06-17T04:45:00.000-04:002006-06-26T09:31:31.546-04:00

“Dialogue” is the English translation for the Bengali word “Sanlaap” – the name of the NGO I’m interning at. And dialogue is their foundation idea – insisting on a public dialogue about violence against women. They began as a woman’s rights group almost 20 years ago, but after extensive work in the red light districts of Calcutta, they heeded the voices of the prostitutes and began to work with

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1149245192598823142006-06-02T05:55:00.000-04:002006-06-06T05:14:28.613-04:00

The theme of this blog is the itch of wanderlust and that mental journeying that follows from the scratching of it. I was specifically anticipating my summer in Calcutta, India and the need for a travelogue (i.e., witness to history, internet troubadouring, or some similar Homer-esque forum). Well thanks be, I arrived in Delhi last night. This thing can now cease its cyber sputtering and

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1147653273984456142006-05-14T20:33:00.000-04:002006-05-15T00:21:54.046-04:00

Recently I slopped my belongings into my car, turned in my dorm key and drove 9 hours south, down the east coast to DC. This was a fitting event as this is a self proclaimed wander and wonder blog. What better place to wander to than home? And what better place to wonder but on open highway? There's something about the whiz of black pavement. Maybe it's the hypnotic effect. Maybe it's the

Wander Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15861435418147293247noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26952273.post-1146704281237240102006-05-03T20:51:00.000-04:002006-05-03T22:10:32.076-04:00

I spent all of December in this room. 15 hour, 5 cups of coffee days. I could really only bring myself to come back this past week.Two papers, one exam, five days and counting.Ahhhhhhh.

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