Off to Cloud City

Hello on October 2nd, birthday of the Mahatma Gandhi! If you are Indian, admire non-violent resistance, or just generally feel Winston Churchill is over-rated, then consider taking the day off.

Tomorrow I am going to leave Delhi for the start of a six week jaunt through two places that have had movements seeking their own states. First, I am heading to Meghalaya ("abode of the clouds") which holds the first and second place world records for most rain ever recorded in one miserably damp place in a year. Meghalaya used to be part of Assam (as in "Assam tea") but it successfully filed for divorce. Second, I will go to Darjeeling, as in "Darjeeling tea". Then I will go to Kolkata (formerly, Calcutta), which is the capital of the state Darjeeling just can't seem to quit.

Meghalaya has a population of two million people, and it is quite a ways off the beaten track for most Indians. Like, quick: what's the third largest city in South Dakota? Because Aberdeen and Meghalaya have roughly the same degree of public visibility in their respective nation's consciousness. Meghalaya people often compare themselves to Native American areas, in that they were in India before the in-migrations/conquests of people speaking languages derived from Sanskrit. It is the Sanskrit-ites, with their many-limbed gods, high respect for cows, and elaborate caste system, that define a lot of what we think of as Indian. In short: in Meghalaya, they eat beef. I only hope they are in the practice of turning some of that cow flesh into something akin to a hamburger.

I don't really know what the odds are of that. Frankly, I have no idea what to expect in terms of how this will compare to Delhi and other parts of India I have seen. The area is definitely going to be a lot less developed and there will be fewer outsiders running around. So I will be saying good-bye to my all-day electricity and I don't know what to expect in terms of running water. On the other hand, the British let missionaries come into animist Meghalaya but barred them from Hindu areas. So, in some respects, westernization is supposedly high in Meghalaya: lots of speaking of English, lots of Christianity.

Oh, by the way, I am staying at the Presbyterian church's guest house. I anticipate having much to report.