Today I went to a village called Khambalia. As usual, going in the field is becoming fun as I am starting to interact with the locals a lot more. I try and speak in Gujarati more, however at my own expense as usually people end up giggling at my poor gujarati. Nonetheless, the one thing that I am really observing in my interactions is the importance of physical positioning. As I was mentioning earlier I think, usually when I go into somebody's house, they insist I sit on a chair (if they sit on the floor) or they make a special space for me to physically sit. Today when I went to Khambalia, the house that we were in had a swing. They motioned for me to sit on the swing, and the men sat across from me on a chair. When the women started gathering, they came and sat behind me. So basically, it is men on one side, me in the middle on the swing and then the women on the other side. My back was towards the women. Now, everytime I turn back I see them looking just at me, staring and smiling and some even giggling. But I couldn't exactly start a convo in that position, and they wouldn't initiate a convo either, perhaps because I was sitting on the swing - a space I guess mostly for the men to sit on. So there was a clear power hiearchy type thing going on. Anyway, then I decided to go and sit on the floor with the women, and immediately all of them gathered around me and all of their focus was on me, trying to talk with me. Then I had to take my time and in my broken Gujarati tried to commmunicate with them. Interestingly, when the meeting actually started, they wanted me to once again go and sit beside the men on the chair. It's as if the power between the women and myself was constantly shifting based on how and where I was sitting. Anyway, that was my observation of the day. Enjoy the pics!
