The AmedaBad Girls Club: Weekend trip #1

Trip 1: Village in Uttar Pradesh

One of my friend's family lives in a village in Uttar Pradesh. His family manages some mango and lychee farms, and he helps out. He is also very close to his parents, brothers, sisters, and school friends there. I was invited to stay with them a for the weekend

This family is Muslim. Uttar Pradesh is predominantly Mulim and is considered to be a very dangerous state. Of course that was told to me by Hindus. Gujarat (where I live) is said to be the safest state. But recently I was told by a Muslim that it was a very dangerous state. Not long ago there were bad race riots in Ahmedabad, many were killed and Muslims were pushed out of many parts of the city. I do not want to preach or give a history lesson, but the point is that there is a lot of racism here and "safety" is a matter of perspective. Since I was staying with a Muslim family, I was not too concerned, but many friends did warn me that I was crazy to go.

Indian villages are not like American small towns. They are very densely populated, not spread out in single family homes. This village had about 8,000 people in a very very small area.

I am so glad that I went. The family was so wonderful. They spoke no English at all, and laughed at my poor attempts at Hindi. They fed me wonderful meals. The sister did mehndi on my arms. I found out later that the mother invited a tailor to the house to measure me for an Indian suit as a gift, but there wasn't time to complete it before I left.

We went swimming in a canal, very refreshing on a hot day. I toured the mango farms, and helped with the harvest and packing. I got to ride a motorcycle through the countryside. We also visited a friend's cricket bat "factory" (OSHA would have had a field day here, no safety measures at all). Mostly I just enjoyed the hospitality. Everywhere we went they pulled up a woven bed for us to sit, gave us tea and mangos, and just shot the shit.