Oh, it has been so long…
Since last I wrote there have been several (some particularly photogenic) interesting things going on in my/India’s life. I will divide this entry into parts according to these high/lowlights: Dev Dipavali, Thanksgiving, Terrorism, Wedding in Jaipur, End of Semester. Sadly, I don’t have my pictures with me to upload right now, but when I do, it will be awesome, so stay tuned!
Dev Dipavali
Yet another festival in a long line of festivals, Dev Dipavali still stands out amongst the rest. The story of Dev Dipavali goes like this. Thousands of years ago, when the gods used to all hang out in Varanasi, the king of Varanasi got jealous.
His subjects were spending all their time worshipping gods, and not paying enough attention to him, so he decided to ban the gods from his kingdom. It was a sad time for everyone involved, but the gods went on their way and left Varanasi behind. The King, seeing how sad his order had made everyone, declared one day of the year that the gods could come back to Varanasi. That day is Dev Dipavali, the day that the gods celebrate the festival of lights, and the people of Varanasi welcome them home. An Indian welcome home is nothing to scoff at, but when Indians are welcoming gods home, they do it with especial style.On this day, the all of the ghats along Ganga ji (aka the Ganges) are decorated with thousands and thousands and most
likely millions of tiny clay lamps. Buildings along the banks of the river are covered in lights, and just about everyone in India comes to watch or take part in puja along the river, send lanterns downstream, set off fireworks, go on boat rides, dance and make merry. As for us, our program staff and students went on a boat ride to watch the insanity from (what we thought would be) a safe distance. It turns out traffic jams are not only a thing of dry land. We were constantly hitting other boats with our oars, and almost getting hit by fireworks set off nearby. It was a magical evening all around.Thanksgiving
We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early, seeing as we were going to be in Jaipur, staying in hotels, without access to kitchens on the actual day of Thanksgiving. This decision was
made about 24 hours before the day that we chose to be our stand-in Thanksgiving, so it was quite the rush to prepare our meal. I, being the one person who actually really cared that we celebrated, was put in charge of organizing things. I skipped class the day before to shop for lots of things that are either very difficult or impossible to find in India, and gave a list of more easily found things to Pandit ji to get for me. The next morning I took a cycle rickshaw to the program house carrying my host family’s toaster-oven in order to double our oven space. Upon arrival Pandit ji told me that he couldn’t find ripe Kohora, which is like pumpkin, the day before, so he would have it by 8 o’clock, and
the cream he bought was sour, so he’d get more by 2, and then I realized that the pie pan-type thing I had didn’t actually fit into the toaster ovens, and I had a sad moment and decided that pumpkin pie would not happen after all. Then the preparations went on, around class. By dinner time our enormous program house dining room table was covered with stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, potato corn chowder, a delicious middle-eastern hummos salad, and lots of other delicacies. Many of the students families and tutors came, as well as all of the program staff, and we had trouble fitting everyone in around the table. There was way to much food, and it really did feel like Thanksgivi
ng. As we were waiting for a few stragglers to show up, someone asked who was going to say some sort of grace/toast before the meal, and a few people suggested that I do it, since I had organized so much. I replied “I don’t talk, I just cook.” Ed laughed and said, “Wow, Ariel, you’ve been in India too long!” and only then did I realize what I had just said.With so many people there we weren’t able to go around the table and have the traditional “things I’m thankful for” talk with everyone, but as I was cleaning up after all our guests left I thought of many things. I am thankful that I was able to celebrate this, my favorite holiday, with all of the other students of this program, who have become like my family here. I am thankful I got to cook with them, clean with them, and have gotten to experience so much more with them. I am thankful that I have so many people to go to for help or humor or anything else I might need here. I am thankful that I have that and so much more at home in Wisconsin. I am thankful for every email and letter I get (and the ones I don't get, I know they are out there somewhere), and for all of the people who fill my thoughts every day. I am thankful that I have my health, and so many opportunities in my life, and especially that I have been given the opportunity to be here, now, learning to love a new place, a new culture, and so many new people. Mostly, I am just thankful in general.
Terrorism
As we were on a train with all nine of the students from our program, heading to Jaipur for our Hindi teacher’s niece’s wedding, we heard by word of mouth that there where terrorist attacks underway in Mumbai. Word of mouth on a train is generally not the best source of information, and even just between us nine students the story just kept getting worse. Sarah heard from her friend that the terrorists were targeting foreigners, checking passports and killing all the British and Americans that they found. The Taj hotel was on fire, and there were hostages there and in the Oberoi. We found out later, when we were able to watch the news and read newspapers, that the terrorists weren’t so much targeting foreigners as they were targeting the extravagance symbolized by those hotels, but none-the-less we were pretty shaken up. It seems every time I get on a train there are terrorist attacks in India. I should stop taking trains.
The day of the attacks, for us, was Thanksgiving Day. As we sat at an extravagantly priced Italian restaurant that night, we talked about what we were thankful for, and Allison said that she was thankful that she doesn’t ever feel like she should worry about her friends and family’s safety in the US. Amen to that. I am also very thankful that I rarely have any reason to worry about most of my loved ones’ safety (except for you, Orian, you are always freaking me out. Don’t die in Africa. Karen, Nate and MinWah, that goes for you too.)
Now...I'll have to finish the rest of this post later. My internet time has once more expired. I'm not sure when I'll be back at the computer again, as my vacation has started and I'll soon be setting off to Delhi to pick up my first visitor, Mausi ji. I can't wait. Life is wonderful, despite terrorist attacks. I promise I'll say more about that later...
Happy Winter to you all. I'll be in touch!
LOVE
Ariel
