Happy Divali; Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora caves; Happy Bhav Beese
So many Gods, so many holidays. Holiday season is coming to a close here. I suppose the best thing to do would be to be in India from August to early November, then head back to the USA for Thanksgiving and Christmas, then maybe hit Europe for New Years.
It seems like each time I sit down to write, another festival has just finished. This time, the Indian New Year - Divali - has finished. Its the biggest one in India, gifts are given, poojas are done, families get together, a ritual bath is taken before the sun rises on the first day of the new year (the new year actually begins when the sun rises) but the most obvious and in-your-face-and-ears part of the festivities involve what are called crackers and rockets here. I would call these things bombs and missiles. The fire crackers are normal i suppose, but the bigger crackers are like dynamite. And Bottle rockets are pretty standard, though some of the flying fireworks went all directions.
To begin the Divali break, I went with Bobo (my buddy from Manipur, India) to Aurangabad on a 5 hour overnight bus ride - not comfy but okay. Arrived at 4:30am, crashed on the floor of a friends house, then took a bus to the Buddhist caves of Ajanta - carved from 200-800ad i think? These caves are famous for their difficult to see paintings. We didnt take a guide - should have - but the carvings were great, and the setting was really cool. The caves are carved into a the wall of a curvey river valley with a beautiful waterfall and pond at the end.
That evening, we came back to Aurangabad, met up with Lasse of Denmark and Avinash (our friend who lives in Aurangabad). The next day, Avinash managed to get 2 motorcycles, and the 4 us us hit the road, cruising along the beautiful country roads toward the Unbelieveably stalwart fortress of
Dautalatabad . Avinash gave us a guided tour of the fort, then we drove to the caves of
Ellora, closeby. We had been impressed by the Ajanta caves. But the Ellora caves knocked our socks off.
The Ellora caves consist of series of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves and all are works in their own right, but one of the the Hindu caves, called Kailasnath was gigantic in scope and it was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. It covers twice the area of the Parthenon in Athens and is 1 1/2 times as high, and it entailed removing 200,000 tonnes of rock. It took 100 years to be completed and was built top to bottom - imagine begining at the top of a huge cliff face, and carving downward with the result being a temple, courtyard and surrounding caves that look like they have been carved from the bottom up - it's all done from 1 rock. wow.
So we had a great typical meal at Avinash's house that night. In typical fashion, we - the guests - sat on the floor, and ate with our right hands, while Avinash and his parents kept serving and stuffing us with amazing food and sweets. We took pictures together, then left. I suppose they ate afterward. Sometimes this sort of hospitality is awkward, but I am getting used to it. I want to avoid culture shock when I come back to the States so if I come to eat at your house when I return, please remember, to help me feel comfortable, you should cook a great meal (please! don't let me help), serve me, give me seconds and thirds, wait on me, then don't let me lift a hand when it comes to cleaning up. After some time, I am sure I will begin to feel more at home in the U.S., and when I feel the time is right, I will begin to help out ;)
So, we came back to Pune on Saturday, Every shop here and along the way was adorned with garlands of flowers and many shops and residences had made nice designs with colored rice powder in front of their buildings. And ohhh the fireworks! It was like being in a war - i imagine. The bombs were nuts and were going off everywhere. For 8 hours straight it seemed, the streets were smokey and amazingly noisy and the skys were constantly lit with beautifully, bursting bottle rockets. Wow.
I spent a bit of time in a neighborbood on Bobo's terrace, watching and listening, really in awe. BTW, In the North of India, Divali is a celebration of the victory of Ram over Ravan (the Demon King of Sri Lanka). In the South of India, Ravan was a really well respected Demon I am told, who was one of Shiva's best devotees, so I am not sure what celebrating Divali means to them.
To top it all off, yesterday and the day before was Bhav Beese - much like the Raksha Bandhan a few months back when I gained a few sisters. For Bhav Beese, sisters do a small pooja and tie a string-type belt around their brothers. Of course, sweets are involved too, and for my part, I am supposed to continue to be a good brother, and to protect my sisters as best as I can. I went to Reema's house - one of my Rakhi sisters who's from West Bengal (Calcutta) and we did the pooja and they served me an amazing meal - The parents mostly watched and served as Reema and I ate, then finally I asked them to join us and they did. That was nice.
Then I went to Sonal's house and repeated the pooja with her. Good stuff.
Okay, good enough for now. Mom comes in 3 weeks. Working on preparations for that. Also lining up lots of Rotary club visits since I am pretty free nowadays. And this Thursday, I am going to speak at a Lyon's club forum on multiculturalism - just for 5 minutes. Next week I have 3 different Rotary Clubs to meet, and I'll try to do three more the next week.
Hostel Welcome Party 2003, Basketball Tourny, and the Chief Guest at RD college and Dassera
Bummer. I was i the middle of typing this and Explorer just quit. All my windows just disappeared in a flash. No warning message, no nothing. Never seen that before.
So i have switched PC's and will try again.
The last few weeks have ranged from CRAZY busy to quite relaxing. Our Hostel Committee decided to go ahead with a party as a mixer for all of our students in both the Gents and Ladies hostels, and in order to share our cultures. It was the first time this has been done at the University, and we really tapped into something special in the process. It was a huge success.
A small group of us basically planned it. Then myself and one other guy made it happen. I was technically in charge of the activities and sports on Saturday afternoon, then a few more folks were to work on the Food Festival and Cultural Program, set for Sunday evening. But the other coordinators were also busy cooking and as I am the only American, I found myself too busy organizing to prepare any typical American dish so instead, I helped coordinate the food festival too.
For sports, we played volleyball and soccer. Then, for the activities, we did the old "raw egg toss" to your partner, to see who could successfully toss the egg the furthest. We did a relay race where you run, sit in a chair, reach in a bag and eat whatever you pull out (banana, cup cake, pastry, cookies, whatever) and then you had to say "I love Pune University" clearly before you could run back and tag the next person in line - we did this game back in Highschool and it was a huge success here here as well.
Then we had a Tug-of-war with a 12 meter long, 1" diameter rope. It was getting dark, rain was starting, the rope snapped after about 3 seconds, half the people fell down, and everyone declared themselves winners so it couldn't have gone any better.
Then the next day, for the food festival, we had members of 14 different countries (India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Iran, Ethiopia, Sudan, Germany, Japan and France) who prepared food.
Some of them began a day or more in advance. The hostel rules were relaxed and the amosphere was humming and happy as men and women mixed throughout the Gents hostel, sitting on the floor and chopping, making momos on desks, frying pakoras ouside on gas stoves, hanging out in rooms together (scandalous!) while others practiced for the cultural events to come. The food and the presentation was outstanding. Wow. Most people wore their traditional dress. I got lots of pictures and one guy took a video as well so I'll get a copy of that to bring home.
We had a sound system set up for the event, and right there in front of the hostel, we held the cultural program. It was a total suprise. I didn't expect anything so professional. We have amazing talent in the hostels. A Canadian-Indian girl did a Bharat Nataym dance (typical south Indian). We had a guitar, tabla(Indian drums), Clarionette group. An Uzbek dance, a Thai dance, several Nepali Dances, a typical Bangladeshi dance, an American song by a Canadian, and some traditional Indian music with Harmonium and Tabla. Isaac of Ghana danced to an American R&B song. My friend Sonal did a great south Indian dance, and even the security/cleaning staff of the hostels did a dance. At the end, we put on the music and all danced.
I was under a ton of stress most of those last few days, but it all worked out beautifully.
Oh, one more thing. The Thursday before this whole thing, an organization called Africans Abroad organized a basketball tournament at the courts in front of my hostel. I ended up refereeing and playing for one of the teams on Thursday and Friday - and got a photo in the Pune Times newspaper.
Oh, and one more thing... as usual, i overcommitted. A week before the event, a young man named Salim knocked on my door and woke me up early on a Saturday morning. He knows one of the cleaning staff at the hostel and he invited me to be the Chief Guest at a local college celebration. I was hesitant b/c i knew i would be short on time, but I agreed. Great move. So after the baskeball tourny, before the sports/activites of the hostel party, I picked up Henny (of Germany) and we went off to this event at R and D college. It turns out it was a celebration of National Tourism and Travel day. Each of us spoke for a few minutes, were felicitated with too many flowers, and had the opportunity to watch the student's traditional dress competition. Then we went up stairs with the Principal and VP and some teachers, and we sampled about 20 different typical Indian dishes from all over India that the students had prepared at home - a mini food festival. WOW. At the end, we presented the winning students with their awards and shook hands for the camera. It was such a great experience.
So after all this, all this crazy - but rewarding - time, I woke up on Monday, packed up, and went off to Bangalore (22hours by train) and Mysore in the South of India for 7 days. It was a much needed vacation. I met Daphna (Rotary scholar who's studying in Hyderabad) in Bangalore where we were given a tour of the city by some Indian friends of hers. Then that same family put us up for the night, cooking us amazing south Indian typical food and dessert, and smothering us wtih Indian Hospitality.
The next evening, they drove us the 3 hours to Mysore and dropped us with Kyra - another Rotary scholar who is living in Mysore.
So Daphna, Kyra, Seth (Kyra's boyfriend) and I spent the week together. There was a huge festival called Dassera, in India at the time and the biggest celebration of Dassera is in Mysore. Whew, I'm losing steam here.
Bangalore is nice. Mysore is great - nice palace, good climate. Got lots of relaxing in.
Saw great dancing and musical/singing events. And then we climbed a bamboo ladder and sat on the limb of a tree to watch the final procession of the 10 day festival and saw elephants and dancers and floats as we sat dangling our legs, looking down 15 feet at the masses of festival goers.
It was spectacular.
Now i am back in Pune. Have 4.5 weeks until Mom comes. Planning our trip. Classes are finishnig up. Just had a great talk with Brian on the phone. Sorry Dad for waking you up - and really sorry for missing your Bday, but I am back in town now and will call tomorrow.
love,
Colin
