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News from India 2
News From India 2: Tuesday 11th November.
Sunday the 9th was an auspicious day, and hundreds of people were getting married. It is the season for weddings too, so getting hold of a sari to wear – to the wedding of a childhood friend of Prakash’s – turned into a major expedition! I couldn’t find a ready-made blouse (the bit you wear under it) anywhere. Prakash’s sister very kindly lent me one of hers, and altered a blouse to fit me (she’s much smaller than me). Once sorted so I could actually get into the sari, Pooja helped me re-tie it (there’s a knack to it. I can do it, just not particularly neatly!) but then she and her mother re-did it four more times, until it was just so. It was quite fun, though neither spoke English and I think they were accusing me of being too tall, too white, too big: ‘how can we make this look presentable?’ I imagined them saying.
Finally, trying to look casual in a sparkly blue sari and a bindi, we arrived at a park where there were three big floaty tents with lights and fountains, and hundreds of shimmery saris – but not a single other white person. I became a celebrity for the night. It can be quite disconcerting and you feel like everyone is watching you mostly because they are! Everyone wanted to talk to me. Children followed me around: one gave me a marigold, another brought me some sweets. I’m really not used to being so interesting. Are you a wallflower? Come to India! I was waved over to talk to a family later in the evening, the husband (holding a giant-eyed baby) said: “What is your good name?” I couldn’t believe it, people actually say that?! Sophie is quite hard to pronounce (Saarfu? Sahbi? Sohba? Sooni?) and usually takes a couple of goes to get right, and just when I was getting over that, a girl about my age asked Prakash, “Is she your wife?” I laughed, “No, I’m just his friend.”
As a white person I have a kind of honorary status which, although a bit weird, is useful when it comes to being a female. Sometimes I feel like there’s so much I’m unable to do simply because I’m a girl, but sometimes it’s not a problem. People said that weddings can be really boring for girls, I’d just have to sit there through all this ceremony while the boys could dance and things – but no: I went with Prakash and Sonu to meet the groom in his carriage led by a procession of musicians and dancing people who we joined. We danced with his brothers, and I danced with some teenage girls, and everyone was ever so pleased to see me attempting to dance Indian-style (arms up, twist your wrists, step vaguely in time, shake or shrug shoulders every now and then)! Once inside, I told a brother who I’d missed that I would dance if other girls were there on the disco dance floor. I thought that was that, but five minutes later he was back, and there were a dozen or so girls over by the DJ (or ‘the man who made the music’ as I was introduced to him as) and I couldn’t refuse! It is great fun, people actually Dance – they don’t just sort of sway, they get really into it! Oh, and my sari didn’t fall off, which I was pretty pleased about.
Of course, I’ve been doing more than partying. I’ve also been eating loads of amazing food! The sweets at Diwali were unbelievably sweet and unhealthily gorgeous. I’m getting used to spices, and my curries are improving – I tend to have a great idea, look it up in the book, then give up and just throw stuff together and see what happens! Samosas… oh me oh my, I think I’m putting weight on rather than losing it! Sahishnu has to avoid fried things, sweets and biscuits and things, which must be so hard here where there are so many tasty fatty things. Puri is a kind of fried bread and is gorgeous, but chapattis are great also. I’m really keen on south-Indian food too, Dosas are a kind of pancake thing with potato and other things in them. Paneer is like cottage cheese, but not exactly – it has a great texture and it’s brilliant in really hot curries. There’s also these kind of nut things which are green or black or purple, the size of the space between your thumb and forefinger in an ‘ok’ sign, cream coloured and heart-shaped when you peel them. I’m not sure what they are, but they’re juicy and refreshing. I think my favourite thing though is sweet rice, which is Suvidya’s favourite food too, I’m going to try making some soon – I think it’s fairly easy to do.
Okay, so what else has been going on? The week of Diwali everyone was busy, there was so much going on! I went to a party and they insisted that I light some fireworks, with a sparkler, and even though I was scared silly of the things going off in my face I couldn’t refuse. The decorations, the lights, the bangers… I didn’t sleep much that night! The two days after Diwali I went sightseeing. I went to the Tibetan area and saw a temple and a market, the temple was very square, set in a garden with a round entrance and statues. The shrine was amazing, and the paintings inside too, some were familiar from the Manjushri centre and there were also some east-Asian style paintings of the Buddha’s life. It was calm and quiet, hardly anyone was there. It was still really hot when we got to the Red Fort (it’s Huge!!), so I decided not to wait in the hour-long queue in the midday sun, and instead went on to Rajghat: A Gandhi memorial site with a marble plinth and a fire in the centre. It is the place where Gandhi’s ashes were scattered. The gardens were really well kept, loads of topiary, and it joined onto three other parks with lakes – there were lots of ducks and less familiar birds there.
The Lotus temple came next, rising from behind yet more topiary it is a stunning piece of architecture, but its magnificence comes after waiting in queues (where two girls, one in a burka, asked to have their photos taken with me, and a boy said ‘welcome to India’ as he walked past me) silence is requested and you step into the main dome. I sat on a low marble bench with my notebook and wrote this: “It has been a hot day filled with sights; I am sitting in the middle of the lotus temple. It is cool here and calm, I am happy. The sound of ankle bells reverberates around the amplifying vaulted ceiling, along with the sound of children and coughs. It is a Baha’i meditation hall open to all faiths, and there are many here. The shapes are beautiful, cream marble and wood, and the hall is filled with the colour of people’s clothes.”
I saw the sun set at India gate, which is lit up after dark. There’s a boating pond nearby with a fountain in the middle you can get to across stepping stones. The first is missing, so I had to step in up to my knees to get to the second – brave? Probably just stupid. The next day we went to the zoo, which is next to Old Fort – I think parts of the ruins are part of the enclosures. Some of the animals looked great, but some not so much: maybe they were just too hot.
We have started teaching at Seelampur (beautiful moment: in the midst of the noise as kids were in groups playing with the word games, a little 2-year old stood in front of the shrine with prayer hands to the Buddha), Natu Colony (Noisy, chaotic, exhausting!) and at our flat too, as well as Shanti Nagar (walking back through the streets now dozens of children run to say ‘Namo Amida Bu’ to us, lovely!) and holding services (we held one for a new family who is hoping to join Amida - it went really well - though a strange moment was when we walked back to the main road by candle-light). It’s not too much, but after busy weekends, shopping, washing (trying to catch the water when it’s on), cooking, reading and planning it’s plenty! I still haven’t got round to planning what to do on my week off in December, and it’s taken me weeks to get round to writing this!
I’ve been on a bus, and on a road train – neither of which were as bad as I thought they would be. I’ve been to see Golmaal Returns: a modern film in Hindi – but I understood more than I thought I would, it was a comedy which was pretty easy to follow. I had a really random moment after though, I was thinking ‘all the actors are really pale’ and when I went to the bathroom afterwards, I looked in the mirror and thought: ‘blimey I’m white!’ I’m probably more tanned than I’ve been since inter-railing but I feel so white!
My favourite time of day is the hour before sunset, when the polluted sky (worst in years apparently) glows pink and gold, and the air is cooler. It’s still quite warm here, though I’ve been putting a long-sleeved t-shirt on in the evenings, and some people are wearing jumpers. I’ve seen some amazing things, buildings and people and signs (‘foot over bridge’, ‘Lovely Flowers Day Care’). A few days ago I saw a cage of sad looking chickens strapped to the back of a bike with four particularly awful looking ones just sitting on top of the cage, not trying to escape, just lying there. I saw some really tiny puppies last week on a heap of rubbish in a side-alley of the market at Pahar Ganj (more interesting and calmer than the main market which can get really overbearing). Coming back from Shanti Nagar in an auto, we drove through a wave of incense.
Sunday the 9th was an auspicious day, and hundreds of people were getting married. It is the season for weddings too, so getting hold of a sari to wear – to the wedding of a childhood friend of Prakash’s – turned into a major expedition! I couldn’t find a ready-made blouse (the bit you wear under it) anywhere. Prakash’s sister very kindly lent me one of hers, and altered a blouse to fit me (she’s much smaller than me). Once sorted so I could actually get into the sari, Pooja helped me re-tie it (there’s a knack to it. I can do it, just not particularly neatly!) but then she and her mother re-did it four more times, until it was just so. It was quite fun, though neither spoke English and I think they were accusing me of being too tall, too white, too big: ‘how can we make this look presentable?’ I imagined them saying.
Finally, trying to look casual in a sparkly blue sari and a bindi, we arrived at a park where there were three big floaty tents with lights and fountains, and hundreds of shimmery saris – but not a single other white person. I became a celebrity for the night. It can be quite disconcerting and you feel like everyone is watching you mostly because they are! Everyone wanted to talk to me. Children followed me around: one gave me a marigold, another brought me some sweets. I’m really not used to being so interesting. Are you a wallflower? Come to India! I was waved over to talk to a family later in the evening, the husband (holding a giant-eyed baby) said: “What is your good name?” I couldn’t believe it, people actually say that?! Sophie is quite hard to pronounce (Saarfu? Sahbi? Sohba? Sooni?) and usually takes a couple of goes to get right, and just when I was getting over that, a girl about my age asked Prakash, “Is she your wife?” I laughed, “No, I’m just his friend.”
As a white person I have a kind of honorary status which, although a bit weird, is useful when it comes to being a female. Sometimes I feel like there’s so much I’m unable to do simply because I’m a girl, but sometimes it’s not a problem. People said that weddings can be really boring for girls, I’d just have to sit there through all this ceremony while the boys could dance and things – but no: I went with Prakash and Sonu to meet the groom in his carriage led by a procession of musicians and dancing people who we joined. We danced with his brothers, and I danced with some teenage girls, and everyone was ever so pleased to see me attempting to dance Indian-style (arms up, twist your wrists, step vaguely in time, shake or shrug shoulders every now and then)! Once inside, I told a brother who I’d missed that I would dance if other girls were there on the disco dance floor. I thought that was that, but five minutes later he was back, and there were a dozen or so girls over by the DJ (or ‘the man who made the music’ as I was introduced to him as) and I couldn’t refuse! It is great fun, people actually Dance – they don’t just sort of sway, they get really into it! Oh, and my sari didn’t fall off, which I was pretty pleased about.
Of course, I’ve been doing more than partying. I’ve also been eating loads of amazing food! The sweets at Diwali were unbelievably sweet and unhealthily gorgeous. I’m getting used to spices, and my curries are improving – I tend to have a great idea, look it up in the book, then give up and just throw stuff together and see what happens! Samosas… oh me oh my, I think I’m putting weight on rather than losing it! Sahishnu has to avoid fried things, sweets and biscuits and things, which must be so hard here where there are so many tasty fatty things. Puri is a kind of fried bread and is gorgeous, but chapattis are great also. I’m really keen on south-Indian food too, Dosas are a kind of pancake thing with potato and other things in them. Paneer is like cottage cheese, but not exactly – it has a great texture and it’s brilliant in really hot curries. There’s also these kind of nut things which are green or black or purple, the size of the space between your thumb and forefinger in an ‘ok’ sign, cream coloured and heart-shaped when you peel them. I’m not sure what they are, but they’re juicy and refreshing. I think my favourite thing though is sweet rice, which is Suvidya’s favourite food too, I’m going to try making some soon – I think it’s fairly easy to do.
Okay, so what else has been going on? The week of Diwali everyone was busy, there was so much going on! I went to a party and they insisted that I light some fireworks, with a sparkler, and even though I was scared silly of the things going off in my face I couldn’t refuse. The decorations, the lights, the bangers… I didn’t sleep much that night! The two days after Diwali I went sightseeing. I went to the Tibetan area and saw a temple and a market, the temple was very square, set in a garden with a round entrance and statues. The shrine was amazing, and the paintings inside too, some were familiar from the Manjushri centre and there were also some east-Asian style paintings of the Buddha’s life. It was calm and quiet, hardly anyone was there. It was still really hot when we got to the Red Fort (it’s Huge!!), so I decided not to wait in the hour-long queue in the midday sun, and instead went on to Rajghat: A Gandhi memorial site with a marble plinth and a fire in the centre. It is the place where Gandhi’s ashes were scattered. The gardens were really well kept, loads of topiary, and it joined onto three other parks with lakes – there were lots of ducks and less familiar birds there.
The Lotus temple came next, rising from behind yet more topiary it is a stunning piece of architecture, but its magnificence comes after waiting in queues (where two girls, one in a burka, asked to have their photos taken with me, and a boy said ‘welcome to India’ as he walked past me) silence is requested and you step into the main dome. I sat on a low marble bench with my notebook and wrote this: “It has been a hot day filled with sights; I am sitting in the middle of the lotus temple. It is cool here and calm, I am happy. The sound of ankle bells reverberates around the amplifying vaulted ceiling, along with the sound of children and coughs. It is a Baha’i meditation hall open to all faiths, and there are many here. The shapes are beautiful, cream marble and wood, and the hall is filled with the colour of people’s clothes.”
I saw the sun set at India gate, which is lit up after dark. There’s a boating pond nearby with a fountain in the middle you can get to across stepping stones. The first is missing, so I had to step in up to my knees to get to the second – brave? Probably just stupid. The next day we went to the zoo, which is next to Old Fort – I think parts of the ruins are part of the enclosures. Some of the animals looked great, but some not so much: maybe they were just too hot.
We have started teaching at Seelampur (beautiful moment: in the midst of the noise as kids were in groups playing with the word games, a little 2-year old stood in front of the shrine with prayer hands to the Buddha), Natu Colony (Noisy, chaotic, exhausting!) and at our flat too, as well as Shanti Nagar (walking back through the streets now dozens of children run to say ‘Namo Amida Bu’ to us, lovely!) and holding services (we held one for a new family who is hoping to join Amida - it went really well - though a strange moment was when we walked back to the main road by candle-light). It’s not too much, but after busy weekends, shopping, washing (trying to catch the water when it’s on), cooking, reading and planning it’s plenty! I still haven’t got round to planning what to do on my week off in December, and it’s taken me weeks to get round to writing this!
I’ve been on a bus, and on a road train – neither of which were as bad as I thought they would be. I’ve been to see Golmaal Returns: a modern film in Hindi – but I understood more than I thought I would, it was a comedy which was pretty easy to follow. I had a really random moment after though, I was thinking ‘all the actors are really pale’ and when I went to the bathroom afterwards, I looked in the mirror and thought: ‘blimey I’m white!’ I’m probably more tanned than I’ve been since inter-railing but I feel so white!
My favourite time of day is the hour before sunset, when the polluted sky (worst in years apparently) glows pink and gold, and the air is cooler. It’s still quite warm here, though I’ve been putting a long-sleeved t-shirt on in the evenings, and some people are wearing jumpers. I’ve seen some amazing things, buildings and people and signs (‘foot over bridge’, ‘Lovely Flowers Day Care’). A few days ago I saw a cage of sad looking chickens strapped to the back of a bike with four particularly awful looking ones just sitting on top of the cage, not trying to escape, just lying there. I saw some really tiny puppies last week on a heap of rubbish in a side-alley of the market at Pahar Ganj (more interesting and calmer than the main market which can get really overbearing). Coming back from Shanti Nagar in an auto, we drove through a wave of incense.
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