I have now been here a month.  Classes are going well, mentally exhausting, but my Hindi is improving more than I had though it would.  I am now much more confident to speak with the locals than I have ever been.  It is great having other international students around as well.  I run into a Korean woman who has class before me as we are switching rooms every morning.  She speaks no English, and of course I do not speak Korean, so we converse in the only language we have in common, Hindi.  It is so fascinating to me that two people, from two very different lives are brought together by a common interest.  I think its great that we can speak to each other, and it helps us both practice our Hindi as well!   

I am sure most of you have read about the happenings in Mumbai. The most recent attack was the fourteenth big blast in the past eighteen years.  Before it, the most recent was 26/11/08.  This time, instead of hotels and Western frequented places, the blasts came from a motorcycle and a tiffin box (lunch box).   Mumbai’s vulnerability makes it an easy target, it is roughly a third the size of Delhi, but has 29,000 people per square kilometer, compared to Delhi’s 4,000 people per square kilometer.   I have read numerous accounts from newspapers and magazines, recounting the events of 13/7/11.  Each one asks the same question: “Why again Mumbai, why?” Mumbai’s citizens are “tired of living in fear,” as one citizen was quoted in India Today, and sick of the danger involved in living their everyday lives.  Even this high up in Mussoorie, locals are sick of hearing the horrific accounts of what happens in their country.  It’s sad that in a country so vibrant and full of life, religion, and culture, people live their daily lives in fear of when and where the next blast will be. 

I was planning a trip to Mumbai for mid August, but I think I will skip over and head straight to the South.  I am sure I would have been fine, now that almost all the bigger cities are on high alert, but I am going to play it safe.  I was selfishly happy to have been up here, tucked safe away in the mountains when all the commotion happened.  I am hoping to spend some time in Bangalore before my parents get here.  I want to visit some spice and tea plantations and relax a bit in a drier place after I finish the Hindi textbook. It will be my reward for completing the entire course in just two months.   For now, my daily life consists of nothing special.  My days are filled with school, walking in the bazaar, and hanging out with my other foreign friends and locals.