Day 76: Jane Austen in India
I love books. And therefore, this semester in India has been a wonderful, blessed time to catch up on some of the books I haven't had the chance to read (or re-read) as a college student. Don't get me wrong... I don't just stay inside every day... but like I mentioned a few days ago, research isn't always about going out adventuring. It's more about interviewing, transcribing and staring at your computer for 5 days out of 7 and then having as much fun as you possibly can on those precious days off :P It's nice in a lot of ways. It makes our time here feel more like real life.
Today we got to Rajumundri. We walked around the city and down to the river. It was beautiful and perfectly timed. This city is CLEAN. And organized! We are very impressed so far. It's a city of about 1/2 million people (so small, by India standards).
So to go back to the whole book theme... well throughout the day all my thoughts kept comparing parts of what I was seeing with books I love. I can't help it sometimes :) I think my book memories are almost as real to me as my life memories.
For example, at one point Israel and Carly attracted this huge group of kids. They were obviously poorer children. But what stuck out to me was how they ran around as a group. They all looked alike-- like they had been growing up together for as long as they could remember. Older girls pulled little girls along while little boys teased each other. It was adorable... and I was reminded of how in The Golden Compass, Lyra talks about the Gypsy kids she and the Oxford kids would war with in the streets. I always thought those Gypsy kids seemed so cool-- growing up on houseboats and all!
Then later when we were sitting by the beautiful Godavari River I thought of Jane Eyre and how she says, "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex" and I was grateful to think that I live in a society where women can do anything they please. I'm grateful that I can do what Jane wished to do as she sat at Thornfield (don't tell me she's not real... she so it).
So to finish up this perfect evening in this new town we happened to stop by a bookstore. I had been dying to get my hands on a good copy of a Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell novel. And the moment I stepped into that bookstore I KNEW it was there, somewhere. And it was.
I left that store with a copy of Emma and a copy of my very favourite romantic classic, North and South.
So there you have it. Ladies, the spirit of Jane Austen (and other wonderful writers like her) will follow you wherever you go and be the most loyal of friends :) What would we do without them?
Love,
Stéf
Ps. Go read byudates.blogspot.com, it is my newest blog reading addiction. I'm trying to take it slow so I don't run out of posts to read haha but I think it might have triggered my desperate need for a good book.
Oh and if you haven't seen North and South, please watch it. You don't know what you are missing.
Today we got to Rajumundri. We walked around the city and down to the river. It was beautiful and perfectly timed. This city is CLEAN. And organized! We are very impressed so far. It's a city of about 1/2 million people (so small, by India standards).
So to go back to the whole book theme... well throughout the day all my thoughts kept comparing parts of what I was seeing with books I love. I can't help it sometimes :) I think my book memories are almost as real to me as my life memories.
For example, at one point Israel and Carly attracted this huge group of kids. They were obviously poorer children. But what stuck out to me was how they ran around as a group. They all looked alike-- like they had been growing up together for as long as they could remember. Older girls pulled little girls along while little boys teased each other. It was adorable... and I was reminded of how in The Golden Compass, Lyra talks about the Gypsy kids she and the Oxford kids would war with in the streets. I always thought those Gypsy kids seemed so cool-- growing up on houseboats and all!
Then later when we were sitting by the beautiful Godavari River I thought of Jane Eyre and how she says, "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex" and I was grateful to think that I live in a society where women can do anything they please. I'm grateful that I can do what Jane wished to do as she sat at Thornfield (don't tell me she's not real... she so it).
So to finish up this perfect evening in this new town we happened to stop by a bookstore. I had been dying to get my hands on a good copy of a Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell novel. And the moment I stepped into that bookstore I KNEW it was there, somewhere. And it was.
I left that store with a copy of Emma and a copy of my very favourite romantic classic, North and South.
So there you have it. Ladies, the spirit of Jane Austen (and other wonderful writers like her) will follow you wherever you go and be the most loyal of friends :) What would we do without them?
Love,
Stéf
Ps. Go read byudates.blogspot.com, it is my newest blog reading addiction. I'm trying to take it slow so I don't run out of posts to read haha but I think it might have triggered my desperate need for a good book.
Oh and if you haven't seen North and South, please watch it. You don't know what you are missing.
I finally watched North and South last fall. SO good! I love Jane Eyre- have you seen the new movie?
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