Oct 2007

Today is the festival of Karwa Chauth. I had every intention of observing this festival today, but since Manjula doesn't work on Sundays, it completely slipped my mind until this evening making it impossible for me to properly observe it. Karwa Chauth is a traditional festival where Hindu and Muslim women fast for 24 hours for their husband's long life. It also signifies their willingness to suffer for their husband's well-being, and is considered an act of extreme love and devotion. As Manjula explained it to me, the wife starts here fast at moonrise of the night prior, and has nothing to eat or drink until the following moonrise (which would have been tonight) when they look at the moon through a strainer (don't ask me... that is what Manula said... really!) and their husbands give them their first bite of food to break their fast. The wife should also dress up like she did for her wedding, including henna. Also according to Manjula, the whole evening should be "like when you got married," and then she giggled. I can only assume what she meant. J If observed properly, this would mean you get to spend your next 7 lives with your husband. (Hooray for me!) Although, Manjula admitted she used to observe this prior to marriage, but stopped shortly after. Keeran, however, left work early today to celebrate with her husband. Well, even though I missed the observance this year, I can still count my blessings for a wonderful husband and plan on celebrating next year. I'll be sure to send out reminders next year so you can all be sure to have your strainers ready!

Today, being Saturday, was a free day from most other stresses of the week. Dave is getting pretty excited to celebrate Diwali in a week or two and after Dusshera, decided that the most appropriate was to celebrate is to set off fireworks. So, with trusty Baldev, we set off and found a little shop in Defense Colony that sold fireworks. We all know that in the US when you buy fireworks for personal use, you might be able to get some cherry bombs, sparklers, worms, bottle rockets or roman candles--thanks, in part, to our litigious society, but mostly for our own personal safety. Not so here! I kid you not when I say that Dave bought enough fireworks to put any municipality 4th of July display to shame. The shop keeper and his fellow employees were thrilled with Dave and brought out all their catalogs, helping him to chose fireworks that had both color and boom. My personal favorite was a string of firecrackers that you'd light and would continuously explode until all 1000 of them went off. Very loud. The shopkeeper then proudly showed off that he also had a string of 3000, 5000 and even 10000 firecrackers. I think that by the time you lit the first one off, the police would have you handcuffed and in the local jail before the last one exploded. (we didn't buy those). He intends to launch said explosive devices from our very own roof, in our very own neighborhood. Should be quite a show!

Something I learned today... I have noticed over the past several months that almost all women in India have a scar on their left upper arm a little bigger than a quarter that looks like a burn. After having several conversations about the lower place of women in India, I had it in my mind that maybe this was some unspoken ritual branding when a girl got married or something awful like that. Today I asked Manjula what happened to her arm. She looked very surprised and asked "You don't know?" "No!" "I have another one up here." She pulls up her sleeve a little. It is from childhood immunizations, she couldn't remember which one it was for, but it sure leaves a nasty scar. I'm glad I asked, however, I was beginning to get angry over my first speculation. Sometimes it's refreshing to be wrong!

Sunday evening we celebrated Dusshera--the culiminating festival of the 10-day celebration known as Navaratri. The festivals vary widely based on the region celebrating, but all of them celebrate the triumph of good over evil. The production of Ramlila is enacted--which is an abridged version of the Ramayana--which depicts the battles between Ram and Ravana, who abducted Sita, Ram's wife, and the evening is culminated by the burning of the effigies of Ravana, his brother, and his son. I have to say this was the loudest event I've ever attended. Firecrackers, or "bombs" as Indian's call them are going off all throughout the week, with the night of Dusshera being the most elaborate. Not to mention that the giant 40 foot effigies are filled with firecrackers themselves. Baldev took us to a local neighborhood to see their celebration, which was fabulous. I honestly think we were the only non-Indians there. On another note, we've taken to commenting on how OSHA would react at many of the things we've seen here so far. For more photos, check out Dave's blog.

Yesterday was UN Day at AES Elementary School. The kids got to choose a country to represent. Considering this is such an international school, I thought maybe the kids would want to represent the great United States of America... "Uh...no thanks, Mom!" "We wear that stuff everyday." So, A represented Mexico, and D and B represented India. I'm such a boob when it comes to kids' events. As I saw all the children dressed up in their "native" clothes and listened to the Deputy UN guy speak, I started tearing up as I realized that this was how it was supposed to be. People from all over the World holding hands. No doubt that was why the UN was created 62 years ago, but I'm sure we can all agree that it needs a lot of help before we are all holding hands. The future is in the hands of these children. Check out how cute these kids are...

Joan and Lena's last few days in Delhi were fun. See photos here. Wednesday we pampered ourselves with manicure and pedicures, and lunch at Choco La! YUM! We picked up our clothes from the tailors, and took them back for alterations. Thursday was a whirlwind day of Old Delhi--not for the faint of heart. We started off at the Red Fort which is pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the Agra Fort, and definitely not as well maintained. That is one of the really sad things for me (aside from the crushing poverty) -- that these amazing historical places are falling apart. The pools and water fountains don't run, and if they have water in them, they are gigantic breeding grounds for Dengue Fever or Chickungunya. I recognize that it is because of the poverty that this is so. Why would you pay money for upkeep of these buildings when people everywhere are starving and don't have water to drink? It's such an oxymoron, as the history here is so significant and beautiful, yet those who live here can't appreciate it or maintain it. In the US, we'd have dozens of activist groups marching and fundraising to protect and preserve such historical sites, but in India, people are just trying to survive. In the US, history is a few hundred years old, in India it is a few thousand!

So, after the Red Fort, we walked over to Chandi Chowk, the maze-like market of Old Delhi. The streets are narrow, and stores are tiny and over-stuffed, but the treasures are great. We had our first experience with eve-teasing*, as the conditions are crowded and cramped; it makes it effortless for the culprit to inappropriately touch or grab the unsuspecting shopper. After the first two, I was daring someone to touch me again... "Go ahead, make my day!" Luckily, that was it. Dave, on the other had, had a smashing find. (see photo at right) When we returned home, he tried on his new outfit and caused Manjula to break into fits of giggles as she asked him if he had a future in politics. He walked outside to model for Baldev and Davender who also laughed and taught Dave to say "VOTE FOR ME!" in Hindi!

Friday was their last day here. We enjoyed another day at Khan Market, more specifically Anokhi, our favorite clothing store. Joan & Lena bought out the store, while I was grateful that I lived here to shop another day! We were so sad to see them go. As always, the trip went by too fast, but it was fabulous!

I should probably finish off the trip to Thailand before I forget everything. The train ride back to Bangkok from Chain Mai was uneventful. I rather enjoy sleeping on the train--it's quite soothing, and our berths seems a tad cleaner than the ride North. We enjoyed a swim at the hotel with the kids, we all ate lunch at the Pizza Company, then Lena, Joan and I went to MBK mall. This Mall was huge and each store was crammed with stuff. We found several "reject" stores with American Eagle, Aeropostale and Old Navy tagged clothes for dirt cheap. I was on the look out for a Kate Spade knock off the entire trip but I had no luck. After getting slightly lost on the Sky Train home, but finding our way back, we rested up for the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Z, Joan, Lena & I braved the bazaar for several hours and were pleased with our finds... especially the Mango & Sticky Rice dessert we discovered in Chiang Mai. (Lena, send me a picture of that...) Here are a few pics from the last few Days in Thailand...

Mc B

MBK Mall

Suan Lum

Night Bazaar

What we couldn't take on the airplane... (ok, not just us)

Long Live the King!

Gotta explain the "Long Live the King!" thing... While we were there, we noticed that just about everyone in Thailand wears yellow, specifically a yellow shirt with a Thai crest on it, partnered with a yellow rubber bracelet that says "Long Live the King!" in English and Thai. After learning that unofficially everyone wears yellow on Mondays in a kind of National Spirit Day because they love their king so much, I was determined to get a bracelet for myself. We looked high and low, markets and malls. We asked a woman where to find them and she said "7-11." So we headed to 7-11... nope, no go. Lena actually checked at 4 more 7-11s, but to no avail. Dave bought himself a yellow polo and wore it home on the plane. (It's really bright yellow). In a last ditch effort, I asked someone at one of the airport shops if they had any or knew where to find them. In a very black market way, she said they had some and gave me an astronomical price. I walked away, but then went back and counter-offered (I really wanted one.) She agreed and sent off her underling to get 3 of them for Joan, Lena and I. It took awhile, and in the mean time I learned that they were made last year for the 60th anniversary of the King on the Throne last year and they are no longer making them. This woman who works at the airport gift shop and her co-workers have a stash saved for people like me. (stupid tourists?) Whatever! I was happy to have succeeded in my quest! Long Live the King!

Happy Birthday to Mr. B! Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest Bollywood superstar ever, turns 65 today. He is frequently referred to as the Indian Harrison Ford. He has acted in 170 films to date. His following here is huge, as is his advertising prowess. He is on billboards all over Delhi, and in the newspaper almost daily. He has a fabulously deep voice (He was the narrator for Lagaan--one of my favorite movies!).

Also, Z comes home tonight from his Week Without Walls (WOW). We've missed him. I hope he took some great pictures. We'll keep you posted!

Congratulations to A for being selected to play Mrs. Mayor of Whoville in the upcoming AES 4th and 5th grade production of Suessical Jr. She auditioned two days last week, and had callbacks yesterday. She was thrilled to find out she got a lead part after lots of practice. The production is in December...Mom, you'll miss it by a week, but we'll get you to a rehearsal. Click here to send her an email.

I'm usually not the kind of person to fill out polls and do cutesy surveys and such, but I do enjoy a good Jane Austen book. So when I saw this poll on my friend's blog, I was curious... "Which Jane Austen heroine am I?" I will admit, the questions are a bit leading, so if you have a favorite character, you could probably fill out the survey with those answers in mind and end up as that person, but I tried to answer as honestly as possible for me. Want to take the quiz?

In other news, we received delivery of our made-to-order table and chairs. We gave them a picture of a table we liked and they built it from scratch and copied 6 more chairs from our originals. What do you think? Can you tell which chairs are the originals and which are the duplicates? There are also 2 - 16" leaves that can be stored inside the table.

1st class sleepers...

October 2007