Laamb Aathawada (Long Week)

Lots of happenings from the past week and a half!

Ajay and Atul Concert- my favorite little boy

Student on Republic Day dressed up as the god Kali

• Republic Day (January 26): Our group was invited to a school for an Independence Day assembly. We sat in our white attire in a group of chairs in front of the microphone, performance area, and at least 500 parents, teachers and students outside in the school courtyard. So it wasn't embarrassing when myself and a few others walked in late and a teacher beckoned us over to walk to our seats in front of everyone. The assembly consisted of student and teacher awards (the school year begins in January) and song/dance performances from students. What makes the national holiday that much more significant today is the fact that there are some who can celebrate it having been alive pre-independence (India gained freedom in 1947). 

• Movies: Didi took Hannah and I to see Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries- coming out in the States), which means laundry place. It has a good chunk of spoken English in it because one of the characters is an American so we understood it for the most part. The theater was really nice, and not only did they sell popcorn, they sold sweet corn (the veggie), coffee, ice cream, bakery goods, chips, samosas and veggie sandwiches.

• From PC to FC (Fergusson College): With the semester just having begun, all the departments and student clubs put together various events for a week of celebration. All kinds of theatrical performances, sidewalk games, singing and large dance parties took place last week. On Saturday (school does happen on Saturday- primary through college), Hannah and I watched a parade of music and dancing that continued for over two hours in the hot sun. 

• Ajay and Atul Concert: Ajay and Atul are two brothers who sing Marathi music, very popular in this area. We bought cheap tickets, sitting in plastic lawn chairs very very very far from the stage where Ajay and Atul were lowered by a crane carrying them in lit up box. There were all kinds of special effects- laser lights, confetti- and lots of dancing, by performers and the crowd. I had just as much fun watching the crowd as listening to the music, especially as audience members started stacking their chairs to give themselves a better view. A security guard came and yelled at a whole group of people in front of me to unstack their chairs, so they began to grudgingly, stopping when a woman stood up to the guard, refusing to move her three chairs. The guard smiled and walked away, and everyone happily restacked their chairs. I couldn't help watching the little boy who managed to get 6 chairs high to the point where his feet became far from the ground and used this height to carefully stand up and flag down the popcorn seller. 

• Tribal Village Visit: We stayed at a lodge run by an NGO called BAIF (http://goodnewsindia.com/Pages/content/institutions/baif.html), started in 1967 by Manibhai Desai, a follower of Gandhi. The lodge is relatively near to the villages where they work, which we also got to visit. They mainly do small sustainable agriculture projects with the villagers, helping them to begin gardens and small farms, growing tomatoes, cashews and mangoes. Desai, now deceased, is the reason that many of the villagers recovered from alcoholism, which is common in tribal areas. BAIF also helped bring clean water to the people. We saw all of this work in action at the villages (with Desai's picture hung up on houses and trees), as well as touring a Primary Health Center that serves a population of 35,000 people from 30 different villages, 98 hamlets. Our public health professor who lived in the village for a year translated for us while we asked the medical officer questions at the health center. In that 30 minute visit, we saw a woman who had given birth 24 hours prior with her newborn baby as well as another woman being carried in who had been poisoned. Our professor said his best guess would be she tried to poison herself since the suicide rate in tribal areas can be as high as 10% because of poverty, debt, family fueds, infertility and a lack of future. 

Too short of a stay (2 days)
Reminiscing of Kenya and Nicaragua
Interested Indian adolescents (taking pictures with white girls)
Beautiful scenery
Adorable children (my car mates were sick of me saying "aw")
Latest I've stayed up in India (11:15 pm- LOSER)

Very talented artists (paper mache, Warli paintings)
Incomplete but usually paved, bumpy roads
Long, hot car rides
Lack of western toilets
Actually smiling, friendly village people
Gained interesting knowledge on tribes/health
Effective NGO work

• Panorama of Cultures 2011: The foreign student organization at FC held a performance where students sang and danced to traditional music from their respective countries, ending with the singing of each country's national anthem. It was amazing to watch, although I am starting to realize that the American attention span is much shorter than the Indian's. There are 450 international students at FC from 36 different countries, and I'm proud to say that I went on stage with our group to sing The Star Spangled Banner (no practice, no warning). I learned about a new country, Mauritius, watched a French girl try to keep up with the Indian dancers, and tried not to laugh at the grinning South Korean boy doing a "hip hop" dance. 

Off to see the historical caves Ajanta and Ellora this weekend, which are one of the most recommended sites to see in India, with their beautiful architecture and paintings, depicting various religious drawings. Thanks for reading!