A couple nights ago I went out for a drink with a friend, this really petite fashion conscious white-girl my age who studies India and really likes it and is fascinated by it, but is wary of coming across as an uncritical orientalizing Westerner trying to go native.
Anyhow, she had told me before that she got into this by researching the politics of Kerala in college, but then got hooked on what makes an Indian "god", and how that does or doesn't differ from a human, and since then she's never looked back, and her mom has also told her stories about how when she was little once she found her in front of the tv mesmerized by an Indian woman dancing some traditional dance, though my friend doesn't remember this now, she was too young.
Last night, though, we started talking about hijras, and she said that one time when she was on a train in India with this guy she was dating who came to visit her at the time, and this hijra came around begging and really liked her boyfriend and started poking him in the arm, and then they gave him money, and she loves how not only for all their overlaps with prostitution and whatnot are hijras accepted in India, but they're considered auspicious.
Today at lunch I sat with an Indian scientist who's done brainscans of people meditating, including TMers. He said it definitely changes your brainwaves, but TM doesn't do that exclusively, nor just Indian religion. I wanted to ask him what he thought about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, and Ama, but then the lunch-lecture started, so I didn't get a chance. Next week!
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