Alternating Current

In Faridabad, the power goes out quite frequently, at least a handful of times per night. One night the volunteers, Mama and Baba Ji, and some guests were gathered around the low table at night. This was early on in our trip and someone had asked me what my profession was. I told them I was a teacher and taught Math and Chemistry. No sooner had I said the word "chemistry" then the power died and the dim lighting that we had went completely out. When the lights go out at the ashram, it is literally pitch black because there are no other lights for miles around. To my surprise the conversation carried on in the complete darkness...

Someone spoke and the only words I could understand through the thick accent were "sodium" and "water". I said yes and silence ensued, only to be followed up with some Hindi. A moment later I heard the same sentence, and I just said yes. After about the 4th round of this, I finally understand someone was asking what happens when you mix sodium and water. Having understood the question, I told them that it explodes. "Sodium in water? Like bomb, boom!". It was such an awkward and random conversation that in the future, every time the lights went out I would wait a second and then say "sodium" and we'd all laugh.

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Rhymes needed batteries for his camera, but Deepu didn't seem to understand what exactly he needed or how to procure the item. I had seen them in a shack in town and so I decided to take matters into my own hands. A couple days earlier I had made a rather clever observation that Indian people sometimes don't understand English words unless you say them in an Indian accent, to which our Indian-American volunteer agreed. I walked up to the shack and pointed to the batteries hanging on the wall and said "doh batteries". The guy just looked at me. Sticking my jaw out I tried again: "Doh bahtehres". He instantly understood, reached back, and presented us with the batteries which were subsequently purchased. This became another one of our many running gags...