independence

I just got home. I'm sitting "Indian style" to avoid these mosquitos that won't seem to leave my poor little legs alone. I swear after India my legs will never look the same, small little circles and indents in places where I can't stop scratching.

I rode the bike to Amrita's house today.
She was one of my close friends here who recently had to stop teaching due to family circumstances.
I showed up a little late and she woke from a nap. Ran around a bit and made some chai. I sat asking her how she was and worry seemed to furrow her brow every now and then.
I didn't bring my camera but I managed to draw her on a scrap of newspaper on the bed.r

Some hours passed and she cooked me dinner with her sister in law. I stood in the kitchen and she practiced her english while I watched her make this vegetable curry sort of dish and rice.

After dinner I interviewed her for the wish book.
This is how it went.

Name: Amrita Singh Date: November 21st 2011

Me: Oh, Singh, this means lion, yes?

Amrita: Yes, how did you know?

Me: Uh, I read it somewhere. ( a book recently on different faiths in the east)

Ok..

1. I wish that there was a day for...
uh for what? anything I want? Just standing at myself, fully independent I want to be. Independent means I just need to earn on myself, not dependent on anybody else. I just don't want to take money from anybody else.

2. This would be good because...
me?...it has somewhere..what to say..secret? It happened somewhere..my mentality, I actually had some problems, that's why I want to earn money on myself. That I really don't want to share, it's family problem, yaar,.

a Amrita smiled her sweet smile all through these questions. I ended with asking her to describe her perfect place, she said:

I'll say I actually, I've never been out of Dhampur, but the peaceful place is at my Mousi's (Aunt's) house.
She gestures to her aunt whose sharing the blanket with me as we're all sitting on the bed and some Indian sort of crime/drama television series is on.

Then she drew her wish;

and she told me

" Everyone needs to fight to get fully independent, everyone fights for this in India..."
she looked over what I had written and added,

"for the mainly, mainly for the girls."

I thanked her and told her how much I missed her at school. It was getting late and she pleaded that I stayed over but I knew I needed to get home.
The road was dark and there are no street lights, but the ride home was short and I knew it.
My path was lit solely by the cars or motorcycles that would pass until I reached the beginning of the mill again.
As I bumped along on the road I sung Disney tunes in my head to try to forget the stories of one of the other teachers villages where girls had been taken recently in the corn fields.
I sung to myself and passed the field and knew of course I'd be fine.

I reached home and now here I am. Another Indian wish and day blowing me away.
Things I have to share.


Again here's the link to this project if you want to help as it continues:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/courtneybird/the-wish-book

the field of Infinitive

it's Novemember.
Happy Novemember everyone.
I just finished a chai during teacher's break while sitting and discussing art with Jyotirmoy.
We finished making a storyboard for this puppet show animation we're going to do with one of our classes. I love working with another mind, they always help remind me to "slooowww down."
Some artists want intsant gratification- sometimes this is very much me. Wanting a result befoe the process, getting so caught up and excited by the idea, the vision in my head and wanting it brought to life right THEN AND THERE.
He told me, "fail twice, succeed third time".
So instead of making these quick drawings to cut out I took a breathe and told myself to give it time.
One time I found a five dollar bill that said,
"Give it time girl, the fine feels divine."


So some things that have been happening.......

first of all, I've turned into a Punjabi dancing Indian. :) and I love it.

We had a Punjabi Dance routine for Children's Day and my friends did not hesitate to deck me out and help me fit in. It was awesome, hilarious and wonderful. A blurry dream, and the kids seemed to have loved it. I got the A-ok sign from one of my little fourth graders named Chavi.

We had a holiday not too long ago and we took the day to drive (or off road rather) to the Jim Corbett forest and Sita Matha Mandir. Which I think translate's to mother Sita's temple. Sita was Ram's wife who he left in this forest/temple when she was pregnant. ( he had thought she had commited adultery, so this place was sort of a shrine to her tragic story.)
The forest is where she went into the earth before death and is now a part of it.
-I think this is the jist of it, although don't quote me!

Anyways it was incredible and bathing in these fountains was this invigorating, extremely laughable experience.


The day's are moving quickly or rather everything is moving the same and more information is being thrown at me. "The Age of Information", that's what Jyoti called our current time period. More future plans coming into focus like the outline of land appearing while being on a ship. Its exciting and nerve racking. I love everything I'm involved with here and it's crazy to think in a less than a month this environment I've grown into will change again.

I feel like I should talk about this project I've been working on because it's important to me and I care about it. And I'm generally very guarded about my emotions and things I care about or am working on. But this project isn't really about just me, (like most my personal work), it's about sharing these things I'm seeing and finding and documenting.
The beautiful lives I encounter.
I'm continuing my Wish Book that I've been working on for some time. It's always just been a way for me to get a little piece of someone, their thoughts and a drawing on paper.

Collecting them and sharing them with others along my travels.
I want to actually get this project more concrete and share with many.
So I'm traveling a little further, - Thailand and China and then back to the U.S. I have a few friends at schools there
I 'd like to show people from all over, different schools, different places, different streets, different bars, different worlds.
You get the idea.


So here's the site if you want to help out or know more:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/courtneybird/the-wish-book

Jyoti showed me some of his portfolio the other night, as we sat talking he said,

" We are very lucky we are in this field of art;
it is the field of infinitive."

Sach.
(true!)