Quaratine!

The swine flu "epidemic" has escalated to an air of unreality in the state of Maharastra where we are studying. The government has created a kind of "state of emergency" closing schools, universities, shopping malls, movie theaters, etc. and cancelling festivals and celebrations. (Internet cafe's were closed until recently as well). About a dozen people have died in Pune (pop. roughly 3.8 million) including several school children. To put this in perspective perhaps, 13 people per day die in traffic accidents in India, about one a day I believe in Maharastra.

But it feels like everyone is on the verge of panic. We have cancelled our trip to a very rural/isolated village for fear theat the uneducated villagers will really panic. The experience has extremely highlighted the sense of being "other" which of course already exists because we are a group of white, single women traveling unaccompanied by a male. People eye us suspiciously and cover the mouths and faces. No crowds of children run up to talk to us as they did in 2007 -- just suspicion and fear. Swine flu comes from our country. Imported by "foreigners" to India.

This is the closest we get as white women in a white culture to experiencing the twin impact of "otherness" (female + race/ethnicity). Even as women in our culture still struggle for rights and privileges, most of our "other" experience is muted. It's when we are in a place where our race stands out and our gendered place is (usually) circumscribed that we might have a glimmer of the experience of some groups and individuals in our own culture.

To walk down the stret and be eyed with suspicion; to have children chant 'swine flu" behind your back. These at once call me out and put me in my place.

The constant change of plans and increasing loss of control of our experience, even though externally created, causes a level of claustrophobia and even paranoia: What next? Will we as foreigners be quarantined ourselves just by virtue of our otherness? Will the last 1/3 of our trip be within the confines of our hotel?

It may be that the rest of the trip will not end in confinement but it will be irrevocably shaped by, as usual, things beyond anyone's control. What an antithesis to us as women coming from a place where personal power and control is highly valued.

Not quite quarantined. Not really free.