Just Killing Time...

While I was staying in Kanha I became friends with Jay, the son of the guest house owner. Actually it was more along the lines of him having a crush on me, but on my last day there he offered to show me around the neighboring villages and take me to his favorite spot on the river, so I figured I'd take him up on it. We spent the morning touring villages, tasting homemade liquor, playing with kids, and exploring the foot trails created by locals. After taking a break for lunch (Palak Paneer and roti!), Jay and I went out on his motorbike in search of elephants at the nearby watering holes. Instead of elephants, we saw local villagers bathing and washing their clothes in the water, oh well. Next if was off to the river where I would have loved to have gone swimming, but seeing as I was alone with an Indian guy who wanted nothing more than to kiss me, I definitely wasn't about to hop in the water. We walked along the river bank, went rock hopping over to the other side of the river, and sat on the sandy banks chatting. We talked extensively about love and marriages, the pressures he faces from his family, and how deeply the caste system effects his life. Hearing about arranged marriages from someone who lives with its reality on a daily basis is much different that reading about it in a text book. All three of Jay's sisters have already been married, and only one was given the luxury of speaking with her husband to be for 15 minutes before the ceremony. The others saw their husbands for the first time as they took their oaths. Jay told me that he would be happy marrying a girl he had only known for a few hours, so long as she was truthful, honest, and being fresh would be nice too (aka a virgin). In fact, by the end of the day he said that if I were Indian, he would have already proposed. I told him I wouldn't marry someone unless I'd known them for at least a year. He couldn't comprehend why I would waste so much time getting to know someone. He kept reiterating, 2 months should be more than enough time, don't you think?

I took a less than pleasant overnight bus from Kanha to Nagpur and read later the advise in my guidebook to stay away from the buses in Madhya Pradesh because the roads are so bad...ooops. Having not updated my blog since Calcutta, I spent close to 3 hours writing posts, sending emails home, and looking for some couch surfers to stay with in the coming weeks. I also finally found an adapter for my phone and MP3 player, so I can receive calls and listen to music again! And now, I'm sitting at the train station waiting for my 19-hour journey to Chennai to begin. I had to check out of my hotel by 6:30am (24 hour room policy!) so I've spent the last 2 hours hanging out here, and still have 3.5 hours before my train departs. There's nowhere safe to leave my bag, so straying too far is out of the question--I guess I'll just have to pass the time with chais and samosas!