jenny b

So much has been going on. I am eager to tell some stories and share some pictures!

I’ll start with the most recent happenings. This last weekend (as you may know) was the huge Indian holiday Diwali. The several days-long festive event was most aptly described by my friend Fizzy as “a combination of the 4th of July and Christmas, but both are on crack.”

About a week before the actual holiday, this year the 17th, Udaipur began to transform. Shops decorated with “Christmas lights” (I am aware of the ethnocentrism here, but it gets the job done for my primary audience) and other colorful arrays of fabric, shiny things, and lighted things. Many also extended their shops into the street to make room for the loads of fireworks they would pedal in the coming week. It was a loud, happy week. Children, from tiny to adult-size experimented to find the best fireworks of the year – all in good practice for the big night, to be sure. The most popular, apparently (and much to my dismay) was a gun-shot sounding ‘cracker that was always referred to as “Bomb!” Boys appeared to love this one the most.

So, what I’ve gathered of Diwali (things are always so complicated here with layers and complexities woven over thousands of years) is that it is essentially the Indian New Year. Hindu’s look to Lord Ganesha and the Goddess Lakshmi to bless their new year with prosperity and good luck. It is also a celebration of the return of the Ayodhyan Lord Ram after defeating Ravana and rescuing his wife Sita (a great way to learn about this classic epic, Ramayana,  is the super-creative film ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ – a must see!). People busied themselves buying little pottery bowls to burn oil and light their doorways/windows with a welcoming glow, a ton of sweets to give as gifts, and of course loads of fireworks. By and large everyone was in a very festive spirit leading up to the big day.

Though the streets were filled with decorations (best appreciated at night) and the Old City came alive in the evenings leading up to Diwali, I can only share the following picture of a sweets vendor (my Samsung i85 is a point and don’t shoot at night – big bummer). The day of Diwali this street was crammed with bodies and every sweets stand had a mob vying to buy boxes to gift to friends, family, and neighbors.

I was really excited to have been invited to join my friend Kailesh and his wife Goodi to their village for the big holiday. I was excited to have the opportunity to get out of the city and see the holiday celebrated by a small family, in their home.

Kailesh owns a shop in the Old City (he sells beautiful household things like bronze depictions of gods and goddesses, gorgeous wooden boxes, hand-painted ceramic wall hangers, and such) and had to work on the 17th until the evening, when he said we would catch the bus to his village. The name and the distance was never clearly communicated, and I just didn’t really care – what a great opportunity!

We finally boarded a government bus at 9 pm, after being turned away from all of the full private buses he preferred us to take. Many people were headed home at the last minute as well. It wasn’t until boarding the bus that I inquired how far we would be traveling to see his family – I had assumed, I think maybe I thought he had said some weeks ago when first inviting me, that it would be within 100 kms. “7 hours.” “Oh… huh.”

So, I spent the big blow-‘em-up, light up the sky holiday night riding in a bus that stopped at every little village on the way to Kishangarh, some 250-odd kms away. The fun thing was seeing the big to-do in each village along the way – crowds of happy people, drunk on chai and sweets, elaborate downtown decorations, and fireworks galore. It was actually quite cool and I didn’t mind so much showing up in a ghost town of Kishangarh at 4:30 in the morning, only to walk across the town to Kailesh’s family’s house. His sleepy family happily welcomed us in and ushered us to some beds to rest up for a big day of being happy and giving well wishes.

Kailesh and Goodi have only been in Udaipur for the last 6 months. They came to try to make something out of a shop in the closest, most appealing tourist city. They had to leave their 8-year old daughter, Shivani, behind with Goodi’s family (which is quite common it turns out – the parents go on ahead and get everything sorted out before bringing the kids along). I’m not exactly sure how long it had been since they saw their precious little girl, but to see the reunion it may have been the full six months.

The family home was very clean and simple. The center “courtyard” was surrounded by four rooms (very small) for each family set – Kailesh’s 70-something parents; his brother, his wife and their two small children; a young couple that is not related but are friends worthy of sharing the home (and their two kids); and Kailesh, Goodi, and Shivani’s old room. As the brother’s wife, Rheca was the only “daughter” of the house – she was busily tending to all of our needs as well as the many household chores throughout the entire time I was there – always with a big smile and often a little loving pinch on my arm as she walked by. I loved her, even though she wouldn’t let me help her.

The day, for me, really began when Madun (Kailesh’s brother – above, right) wanted to take me around the city to “take some photographs,” which was code for show off the white girl to every friend within a 15 km radius. For three hours we traipsed around visiting friends (me – no Hindi, them – no English = lots of smiling and laughing and “Oh! Obama country! Very, very good! Bush? Bad man.” “Achaa. Yes, I agree.”) The last home we visited was livened by these two lovely ladies who insisted on painting my nails and giving me a bindi – they were a riot!

We arrived back at the home compound full on four cups of chai and who knows how many sweets – yes, drunk – and Kailesh’s mother got inspired by the bindi and asked to give me some henna.

While we were doing this, the first hoards of guests began to arrive and little 8-year old Shivani (who took all of the above photos) began to shine in her innocent photographic brilliance. (The one of her blind grandfather makes my heart skip). The day was one to pay respects to all your friends and neighbors by giving them personal well-wishes for the new year and accepting their offer of sweets and chai (while being gently serenaded by “bombs” going off in the streets).

In the evening, Goodi got her wish. She had begun talking (in her extremely limited English) about wanting to dress me up in a sari so we could take a picture to send Brian in America. It will be “very good” – said with pursed lips of satisfaction and fingers together in a gesture of excellence.

Sadly, the adventure came to an end that evening. Though Kailesh wanted to perhaps stay another day (only one day with his daughter and other loved ones!) we both had important work in Udaipur – me a busy office day, and him a potentially (and much needed) profitable day in the Old City. We took the 9 pm private bus back (which was shockingly cheaper than the “poor man’s bus” we took to get there) and arrived to a cold, quiet Udaipur City at 3:30 in the morning. What a weekend!

Post Script:

All of the photos on this blog thus far have been untouched, straight from my camera to this blog. Does anyone have a recommendation of a good, free (or cheap) photo editing program that won’t bog down my little Asus Netbook?

Post-Post Script:

We have received some feedback that this blog is not properly loading in Internet Explorer, particularly IE7.  For those of you having that problem, consider updating to IE8 or better yet walk away from Internet Explorer and never look back. I recommend Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. It’s easy to install and transfer over your bookmarks, etc. and I bet you will find internet life being a lot happier in the end (and not just because my blog will look nicer… ; )