T.I.I.

Jaisalmer, India

Just under a month into our respective internships, the FSD Jodhpur staff organised an intern retreat. We were headed to Jaisalmer, located in the Northwest of Rajasthan about 8 hours from Jodhpur. Known as “The Golden City,” it is famous for its peasant-occupied fort and majestic camel rides through the Thar Desert sand dunes. Our method of transportation to Jaisalmer was a wagon … no and I know what you’re thinking, not a camel-drawn wagon, but a station-wagon. With ten people in our entourage, including our driver, it was quite a squeeze.

Unfortunately, the ride to our destination is my last memory of the trip not involving a bed and/or a severe bout of nausea. The dinner from that evening must have battled it out with my stomach overnight, and I am disappointed to report that dinner won the right to be flushed, rather than digested.

Over the course of my first month here in India, situations such as these have been categorized as “T.I.I.,” or in its full form “This Is India.” Yes, for those of you who have seen the movie “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, this is a blatant rip … Although, I have presented it with a new twist: “Africa” has been supplanted by “India” to symbolize the excruciatingly frustrating events, which must simply be accepted while living in this country.

Examples of the former included mundane exercises, such as: sitting on a bus and having someone drastically alter their seating position just to stare at you blatantly; or being absolutely stuffed, while still being force fed one more roti (i.e. round flat bread). More convoluted examples include: trying to discern which train to take, when the list is written in Hindi and organised by train names which have no relation to their destination; or searching for a dietician to run a workshop, when the person searching for you is actually one themselves, but forgets to inform you of this fact until the day before the workshop. To the unfortunate: where after flushing a toilet, the pipe connecting the tank to the bowl becomes dislodged, and before you can zip up and move away, your bare feet are swimming in toilet water. And now for the absolutely absurd … having someone whip it out and go to town, while riding a motorcycle, not once … no, not twice … but three distinct times. Fortunately, I am very happy to credit the last example to my fellow-intern Leah, who is both incredibly patient and markedly hilarious.

In any case, as you may have guessed … Jaisalmer was a bust. However while lurching around the city, I serendipitously stumbled across the guileless essence of T.I.I.:

T.I.I. ... cold, refreshing and fun for the whole family!