Day 2 on this journey began somewhere around 3 and 4am. Sounds of fireworks, or "crackers" being set off by kids eager for Diwali and celebrating Choti Diwali (little Diwali) the day before. Its like there is some chain reaction of sound. From pure silence where event the crickets are sleeping, one blast makes a dog bark, a dog barking begets another dog, the dogs wake up the people whom you can hear brushing their teeth and beginning their routines, then the bikes, and the honking.
None of these sounds really get noticed by anyone, unless you happen to have just landed and are acclimating to your surroundings and really would rather be sleeping. These sounds somehow also come with a charm. Somewhere in this time the large pigeon sleeping in the exhaust fan area of the bathroom makes his loud 'coo coo' noise and the echo into the bathroom sounds like a large cat is purring. It's actually endearing. Feeling how different it is to my home back home makes me smile. Although I'm here on a mission, enjoying the context of being a world a way from home can be a wonderful feeling. It gives you perspective on what you're doing in your own life, and gives some space to mentally relax from the typical rat race we live in.
I was able to enjoy an incredible breakfast, eggs and toast sandwhich, also with dosa and chutney. The family here has been feeding me more than I should eat and helping take care of my laundry. I have literally no worries in the world beyond whatever I need to deal with in the day. After having lunch and having some time to wait as I prepare to go shopping, I timepass with the daughter of the house keeper, Monica, who is able to speak some English and very curious about everything about this American.
Since Ravi's sister and her family landed the evening after we did, it took an extra amount of time for everyone to get rested and ready to go out in the evening. There were a few hiccups in everyone's schedule that day. For me, my right foot had swollen up like a balloon just after lunchtime.
Ravi was on his way over and looking down and seeing one giant ham for a foot when I am a world away from my own language and culture was very daunting. A strange panic set in where I connected the dots to seeing only one swollen leg, being on an airplane travelling for about a 24 hour journey, and I felt completely and utterly terrified. Truth be told, I have had panic attacks in the past, anxiety is nothing to shake a stick at, but this was amplified with a severe loneliness caused by being out of one's normal element.
To my surprise I got to experience what it was like going to see a doctor in India. Wasn't in my itinerary, but the curious part of me that stays lucid in the back of my mind while experience this panic was able to remember some of the details.
We went to a place called omni hospital and walked into a triage room. There a nice doctor tried his best with a slight lack of bedside manner that I was fine, its normal, and nothing is wrong. What he couldn't understand was the type of panic I was feeling, and despite my future sister in law asking me to be normal and not express how afraid I am, and me successfully doing so, they basically dismissed me.
I couldn't help well up in tears thinking of some of the worst possible outcomes if this was something as severe as DVT, and at the same time I had never had anything like this happen to be so I was unable to think of a simple and more probable cause such as dehydration.
After a bout of crying my soon to be family helped me talk to one more doctor after shortly waiting in a dimly lit waiting room that had a green tinge to it, I'm not sure from the lighting or the paint on the wall. The people in the waiting room seemed like patient zombies, completely attuned to whatever appointment system is taken. Somehow, luckily, I was able to skip that line. This new doctor had much better tact and empathy for my situation and explained to me nicely about how edema in the legs work. He gave some tablets that I'm still unsure of (Enzoheal, for digestion or edema, if you google it, you be the judge.), assured me I was safe to walk around, exist, sleep, etc and sent me on my way. I took an ACE bandage to wrap in compression around my right leg to help keep the swelling down.
With being somewhat assured and still acclimating, we decided to take advantage of some of the time that evening and went shopping at Mehbaz. This is a multi tiered store with Ladies wear on the first floor and gents above.
We were checking on some of their special half sarees, but it seems they need a very long lead time for the stitching of such things. We then looked into special sarees. It was here several people worked to take sarees from their shelves and lay them in front of us at a table where we all sat, enjoying some water (and I with my bottled water.) One after the other, different designs and colors were displayed in front of us, one beautiful saree at war with the next trying to be the lucky one who is chosen by very specific and detail oriented purchasers.
I selected one that I wanted to try on, with a lighter georgette type material, and two ladies wearing identical sarees slipped a velctro belt on me to act as my "petticoat" to try this on. I was mezmerized watching the one in front of me pleat the waist section, tucking it into the belt first, then wrapping the rest around me, as the other lady quickly created the pleats in the pallu and in about 15 seconds I was already dressed. Now that's efficient! And as I looked in the mirror, something was slightly missing. I took my hair out of my ponytail and heard a few "wow!"s coming from everyone involved in this affair. I think I had found a winner.
The next selection was to be made for a pattu saree made from kanchevaram silk. Commonly known as kanchepattu, these are usually two to three colors in rich, decadant silk that can be a little heavier, with dramatic pallus to fall over your shoulder, with the silk sometimes being tied off in little intervals to act as decoration.
I am trying to make these selections across a language barrier and with some translation so I was able to point to a color I could see and request they bring the pattu sarees in that color. Throughout this whole shopping process, again I am finding my future mother and law and I have similar taste. The final selection came down to two very similar sarees but with inverted colors. I'm intentionally leaving the specifics out so the photos of the wedding events will reveal the true detail of these clothing items.
I picked something more decadant than I thought, but I think it will just be elegant and amazing for our engagement. I'm very excited to see how it will be. We took those, and a jewelry set Ravi spotted to match, and decided to use Vodhina's (sister in laws) tailor for the blouse stitching.
After returning home, I felt accomplished in shopping but still very scared about the events and very isolated. I felt afraid to be alone. Everyone was very understanding, and very tired with their schedules being mixed up for the flurry of events happening, so they agreed to let Ravi come work over here and keep an eye on me while I slept. It made me feel so much better. And beyond just that, the way my future family is interacting with me and taking care of me is giving me a piece of mind that I wouldn't have had otherwise, so slowly I have been able to calm down from the panic and start to really enjoy Hyderabad.
None of these sounds really get noticed by anyone, unless you happen to have just landed and are acclimating to your surroundings and really would rather be sleeping. These sounds somehow also come with a charm. Somewhere in this time the large pigeon sleeping in the exhaust fan area of the bathroom makes his loud 'coo coo' noise and the echo into the bathroom sounds like a large cat is purring. It's actually endearing. Feeling how different it is to my home back home makes me smile. Although I'm here on a mission, enjoying the context of being a world a way from home can be a wonderful feeling. It gives you perspective on what you're doing in your own life, and gives some space to mentally relax from the typical rat race we live in.
I was able to enjoy an incredible breakfast, eggs and toast sandwhich, also with dosa and chutney. The family here has been feeding me more than I should eat and helping take care of my laundry. I have literally no worries in the world beyond whatever I need to deal with in the day. After having lunch and having some time to wait as I prepare to go shopping, I timepass with the daughter of the house keeper, Monica, who is able to speak some English and very curious about everything about this American.
Since Ravi's sister and her family landed the evening after we did, it took an extra amount of time for everyone to get rested and ready to go out in the evening. There were a few hiccups in everyone's schedule that day. For me, my right foot had swollen up like a balloon just after lunchtime.
Ravi was on his way over and looking down and seeing one giant ham for a foot when I am a world away from my own language and culture was very daunting. A strange panic set in where I connected the dots to seeing only one swollen leg, being on an airplane travelling for about a 24 hour journey, and I felt completely and utterly terrified. Truth be told, I have had panic attacks in the past, anxiety is nothing to shake a stick at, but this was amplified with a severe loneliness caused by being out of one's normal element.
To my surprise I got to experience what it was like going to see a doctor in India. Wasn't in my itinerary, but the curious part of me that stays lucid in the back of my mind while experience this panic was able to remember some of the details.
We went to a place called omni hospital and walked into a triage room. There a nice doctor tried his best with a slight lack of bedside manner that I was fine, its normal, and nothing is wrong. What he couldn't understand was the type of panic I was feeling, and despite my future sister in law asking me to be normal and not express how afraid I am, and me successfully doing so, they basically dismissed me.
I couldn't help well up in tears thinking of some of the worst possible outcomes if this was something as severe as DVT, and at the same time I had never had anything like this happen to be so I was unable to think of a simple and more probable cause such as dehydration.
After a bout of crying my soon to be family helped me talk to one more doctor after shortly waiting in a dimly lit waiting room that had a green tinge to it, I'm not sure from the lighting or the paint on the wall. The people in the waiting room seemed like patient zombies, completely attuned to whatever appointment system is taken. Somehow, luckily, I was able to skip that line. This new doctor had much better tact and empathy for my situation and explained to me nicely about how edema in the legs work. He gave some tablets that I'm still unsure of (Enzoheal, for digestion or edema, if you google it, you be the judge.), assured me I was safe to walk around, exist, sleep, etc and sent me on my way. I took an ACE bandage to wrap in compression around my right leg to help keep the swelling down.
With being somewhat assured and still acclimating, we decided to take advantage of some of the time that evening and went shopping at Mehbaz. This is a multi tiered store with Ladies wear on the first floor and gents above.
We were checking on some of their special half sarees, but it seems they need a very long lead time for the stitching of such things. We then looked into special sarees. It was here several people worked to take sarees from their shelves and lay them in front of us at a table where we all sat, enjoying some water (and I with my bottled water.) One after the other, different designs and colors were displayed in front of us, one beautiful saree at war with the next trying to be the lucky one who is chosen by very specific and detail oriented purchasers.
I selected one that I wanted to try on, with a lighter georgette type material, and two ladies wearing identical sarees slipped a velctro belt on me to act as my "petticoat" to try this on. I was mezmerized watching the one in front of me pleat the waist section, tucking it into the belt first, then wrapping the rest around me, as the other lady quickly created the pleats in the pallu and in about 15 seconds I was already dressed. Now that's efficient! And as I looked in the mirror, something was slightly missing. I took my hair out of my ponytail and heard a few "wow!"s coming from everyone involved in this affair. I think I had found a winner.
The next selection was to be made for a pattu saree made from kanchevaram silk. Commonly known as kanchepattu, these are usually two to three colors in rich, decadant silk that can be a little heavier, with dramatic pallus to fall over your shoulder, with the silk sometimes being tied off in little intervals to act as decoration.
I am trying to make these selections across a language barrier and with some translation so I was able to point to a color I could see and request they bring the pattu sarees in that color. Throughout this whole shopping process, again I am finding my future mother and law and I have similar taste. The final selection came down to two very similar sarees but with inverted colors. I'm intentionally leaving the specifics out so the photos of the wedding events will reveal the true detail of these clothing items.
I picked something more decadant than I thought, but I think it will just be elegant and amazing for our engagement. I'm very excited to see how it will be. We took those, and a jewelry set Ravi spotted to match, and decided to use Vodhina's (sister in laws) tailor for the blouse stitching.
After returning home, I felt accomplished in shopping but still very scared about the events and very isolated. I felt afraid to be alone. Everyone was very understanding, and very tired with their schedules being mixed up for the flurry of events happening, so they agreed to let Ravi come work over here and keep an eye on me while I slept. It made me feel so much better. And beyond just that, the way my future family is interacting with me and taking care of me is giving me a piece of mind that I wouldn't have had otherwise, so slowly I have been able to calm down from the panic and start to really enjoy Hyderabad.
No comments:
Post a Comment