The Best of My India Pictures

I uploaded a project to my portfolio compiling my favorite photos I snapped while in India. Take a peek!

Capturing India

Cheers folks. :)

And Then I Saw A Sindhi Wedding...

"Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak."
~Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."
~Oscar Wilde

 This wedding was a Sindhi Wedding, very different from the South Indian Wedding I attended earlier. It was a very classy wedding, very posh. I didn't see the actual ceremony, the couple was already married, but I came with a few coworkers for an afterwards sort of celebration. In India, weddings last several days with lots of food served.

Food tables - so nice to see ONLY vegetarian food options! Hehe, this would never happen in America...

Warm Milk - very tasty. Weddings are popular for the food served, and a great way to try a lot of new foods. Let's just say I came away stuffed, after tasting quite a few new foods and desserts... My coworkers tease me about being health conscious, and they were joking about how many calories everything had, I told them I would just rather not know for the night, the food was much more enjoyable that way. Tried naan and jilebe for the first time, as well as a few other things I can't remember the names of.

I was surprised to find a little American touch! (the caterer had Liberty in the name)

Mandrap - this is where the wedding ceremony takes place.

Pretty lady!

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night."
~Steve Martin

'Sari' for the Pun...

"Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have." ~Steven Wright

What a busy and wonderful weekend! I believe in Hindi I would say it was 'bindaas', fantastic. Friday night I went to my very first Indian Wedding, a Hindu South Indian Wedding. It was a friend of a friend's wedding, so I tagged along and thoroughly enjoyed the new experience. This I will show in my next blog post to compile the pictures of the ceremony.

Saturday I went to a few other shops I had yet to visit, City Center and Westside, going with a colleague. Browsed selections of kurties, suits (these are dress like items in India, versus the American suit term as meaning a jacket and trousers). I learned from this friend that the term 'vest' in India means a white undershirt. I had pointed to an item that was button up and sleeveless that you wear on the outside of a dress shirt and said it was a nice vest, an American term apparently, and she started laughing and asked me if I called that a vest. Additionally, I mentioned that Americans will call speaking Spanish mixed with English 'Spanglish,' and apparently in India there is something called 'Hinglish,' a mix of English and Hindi. However, the lesser known 'Spindi', is a mix of Spanish and Hindi, which I believe is a VERY recent development in the Indian lingual system (hint hint...). In this type of language, people say things like 'Hola yaar!' and 'Como estas yaar?' and 'Kyaa hal hai, amigo/a?'

Saturday night went with a friend to Shilpa Ramam, a center to preserve traditional Telugu arts and crafts, culture and language. I saw traditional Telugu dance for the first time, unfortunately I don't have pictures, but the women were dressed in clothing styles of several hundred years ago. Brightly colored silks and fabrics, henna, jewelry, and stage make-up. I was told that it takes many years to learn this kind of dance, because it is very difficult, and every movement of the body and facial expression means something. Then I saw some traditional hand crafted goods, wood carvings, art, small statues of gods, jewelry, etc. There were some nice paths to walk around at the place, and I really love weather here at night. Everyone keeps saying how cold it's getting, but I personally think it's perfect weather, pretty similar to Minnesota weather at night in the summer. Also, because it's not the monsoon season anymore, the weather is much drier.

Sunday I wore a sari for the first time. I borrowed it and had help wrapping it by the auntie at my hostel. It's quite a difficult garment to wear, every movement is a very conscious one with all of the folds of fabric. It takes practice to walk and carry it. The sari I wore was a very elegant one, and is featured below. I wore this for a lunch outing at a community gathering sort of event.

Sunday night took my first boat ride with a friend on the lake Hussain Sagar to the Buddha statue in the middle of the lake, also featured below.

First experience in a sari. It is a very elegant feeling wearing a sari, but also takes a good deal of skill to make any sort of movement.

Process of tying the sari, with help from the Auntie.

Just another pic of very typical day to day Indian wear. 

My new 'slippers,' or sandals as they would be called in America.

This bike is how I've been getting to and from work. I like to think I'm just a little bit badass. 

This outfit I wore to the wedding with a dupatta (not shown here). It is a patiala suit, and I believe this style of patiala is also called harlem, to be worn with a kurtie/kurta.

View of Hussain Sagar shore from the boat. The road around the lake is called Necklace Road because from above the lights around the lake resemble a necklace.

View of Birla Mandir Temple from Buddha Statue on Hussain Sagar.

In front of the 17 meter high Buddha Statue. It is the largest monolithic statute of Gautam Buddha in India, carved out of a SINGLE slab of granite rock by 40 sculptors. The lights on it rotate colors, very pretty to observe at night.

Theek hai, that's a 'wrap'! You, know, because of the whole sari thing and all...


P.S. *Disclaimer #1: No, I don't actually drive a bike to work...yet :)
**Disclaimer #2: I have personally coined the phrase 'Spindi,' which is not actually an international term yet, but I believe will catch on very rapidly in the near future, as I am currently promoting the use of the slang.


"You cannot find peace by avoiding life."
~Virginia Woolf

A South Indian Wedding...

"Marwage is what bwings us togever today..." ~The Princess Bride

Last Friday night I witnessed my first Indian Wedding, a Hindu South Indian wedding (this one was Telugu). Indian weddings generally start at night and continue late into the night. This wedding went until about midnight, but it's common for weddings to go until the wee hours of the morning.

I tried several new foods at the wedding, I don't remember most of the names, but I really enjoyed the curry and roti served at the wedding, very good. Then there was some sort of curd, what I think was a paneer snack, rice, fruit, and sweets. An after dinner food was called 'killy' or also goes by the name 'paan'. It was a sort of crystalized sugar sweet bits wrapped in a leaf, and you actually eat the leaf! It was pretty good, it's sort of like a mouth freshener.

It was a nice wedding, and the explanations of the process helped to understand what was going on. Every part of the ceremony has a set process, with meaning and symbolism behind it. First there was the pooja, and about an hour after that the bride arrived. What surprised me right away is that throughout the entire ceremony, people were filtering in and out, staying as they chose to watch, eating when they chose, and even allowed to go up on the stage and see up close. This was very different from an American wedding where there's the ceremony that people sit quietly through (usually in a church), then afterwards have a reception with food, music, and dancing.

Live music was playing during the ceremony at intervals. 

 View of stage. Flowers are used everywhere in decorations in India, as in the stage decor here.

Bride and groom. Bride is in a sari, groom is in sherwani, which I have been told is the 'latest trend' for men to wear this garment. The bride here is in her first sari. In some castes, it is common practice for the bride to change saris during the ceremony. Both bride and groom have henna as well.

Bride and groom with the priest (there is a different name though that the priest is called). The priest will be speaking in sanskrit in parts, which people don't really understand the language. Bride is now in her second sari, a gift of the groom's parents.

Pooja offering. 

In America, we have the expression 'tie the knot' which is merely a figure of speech meaning to get married. However, in India there is an actual part of the ceremony where the man ties the knot of a string necklace around the woman's neck. When I first heard about the literal tying the knot part of the ceremony, I thought it was both the man and woman that tied the knot, but it's actually only the man, so that was really shocking to me that there are parts of the ceremony that only the man does when the couple marries. 

This part of the ceremony was pretty fun. The bride and groom took turns pouring the flowers and rice on each other's heads, and soon there are flower petals everywhere. This action symbolizes the couple's new freedom and relationship with each other. 

This is the last part of the ceremony, in which the bride and groom point at a star in the sky and it's supposed to symbolize two stars that are now together as one I believe, that the couple is now joined.

And that's the wedding!

Happenings

"There are two great days in a person's life - the day we were born and the day we discover why."
~William Barclay


Sometimes I feel like it is difficult for me to write, because I want whatever I write to be extremely good (even if it's not I try). I can compare this feeling to a quote from Elizabeth Bennet speaking about Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, that I am "unwilling to speak, unless [I] expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb." Haha, alright, so an exaggeration, but still a good comparison. Has anyone noticed I will bring up Jane Austen at every possible opportunity? 


Friday night I went out for a double birthday celebration with work colleagues at a place called F9. Another nice spot, with great outdoor seating and good food and drinks. Somehow at every out of office gathering with my coworkers singing seems to usually commence at some point, and hookah is brought out. I was even entreated to sing a bit, and for that I apologize that I'm really not a very good singer. Although, it would be fun to play a tune on my guitar if I had it here. It's nice to see people more relaxed out of the office. 


A few dessert places I have had food from are Naturals (my favorite ice cream here), Cream Stone, and The Chocolate Room. I've also had food from more American places, like Quiznos, Subway, and Pizza Hut. Although the food options at these places have much better vegetarian options than in the US I must say! There is more than one sub at Subway and Quiznos that is vegetarian (the rest in the US always have meat), which I have to say is nice for a change, and they use really good spices in them.


It's a real task trying to keep living quarters relatively bug-free here. It still grosses me out when I find bugs I've never seen before. Since I grew up in a colder climate, I would say Minnesota's bug situation is very mild compared to many places around the world. Here there are more bugs, larger bugs, grosser bugs, and then there's the lizards, too. Did I mention bugs are everywhere? 


I've had some very interesting conversations with people here about marriage. And it almost blows my mind how different the concept of marriage is in India. It's not the norm to have a love marriage, and arranged marriage is by far most typical. This is gradually starting to shift, I think love marriages are becoming more acceptable by families, but the current social norm is an arranged marriage within your own caste. The urban cities are more liberal minded in this, but I've heard situations can turn violent in rural areas if a woman marries a man below her caste without her family's permission. It is expected that by the time a girl is about 26 and a guy about 30, that their families should look for a someone for them to marry (it used to be that couples would get married much younger I've heard). It is not expected that a couple "fall in love" before they get married, but they will be able to meet several people that their parent's find and approve of, and then if they talk and like each other, then they might get married. I've heard a few stories of people who have wanted to get married to someone that their parents don't approve of, and it kind of breaks my heart that that means they can't get married, or if they do risk being cast away by their family. I think that the status of women has really become much better in India now, as it is very common for females to go on to higher education and work, and in my office there are a lot of women working. I've also heard that Hyderabad is one of the safer cities to be in India, people have told me Delhi is unfortunately not very safe. But it is also fairly common, although becoming less so, that women will not work after they are married, or not be permitted to work by their marriage contract. Here's my opinion on all this marriage business from Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter by JK Rowling: "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!"


But I have also tried to explain that there is almost the opposite pressure in America on marriage, although I would say it's more accepted not to get married at all in the US than India. There is an expectation that people will find a perfect love marriage, and then live happily ever after. This "fairy tale" fantasy is exactly how many Americans want marriage to be. And there is still pressure from families to get married and raise a family with an acceptable partner, with similar beliefs, values, education, etc, except that it is up to you to find your own partner. But there are also fewer demands and expectations from the couple's families on the marriage. Still, I'm not sure if the US has it exactly figured out if you look at the 50 percent divorce rate or so. Everywhere you go, there are societal pressures to live a certain way, it's just that those societal pressures are different depending on the culture, although I would say the US has a little more leniency on this issue.


I also learned this weekend that up until about 15 years ago it wasn't very common for people to have a landline phone unless they were rich (remember this was before the mobile phone sprung into popularity). I was talking to someone who had never used a phone until about 8th grade (or 8th class as they say here). I really can't imagine that, as having a phone has been commonplace for everyone in America for decades. But now, basically everyone in India has a cell phone, and minutes are extremely cheap, so having a mobile is very affordable. 


Last week I visited a coworker's house that was pretty amazing, encompassing white marble, glass,  spectacular chandeliers, custom artwork, and a lift. This was one of the most amazing houses I've been in in the US or India. It was a fun girls night with a couple coworkers. First we got fed with home cooking until we were stuffed, then watched a Hindi movie called "Kaminey" (in English "The Scoundrels", I watched with the subtitles so I could understand it) which actually surprised me how good it was. I was expecting what I conceive of as a Bollywood movie with singing and dancing. This was more of an action movie with a great plot, which also had some singing and music in it. I also learned from this movie that a "crore" is 10 million. In India, the numbering system is different than in the US, and makes more sense to me once I looked up how the commas work in India's numbering. 


US: 
10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore
100,000 = 100 thousand = 1 lakh 

India: 
1,00,00,000 = 1 crore (100 lakhs in a crore)
1,00,000 = 1 lakh


Someone asked me if people have heard of India in the US, and really, I hope expectations about the US's global knowledge aren't that low. Yes, I believe nearly everyone in America has at least heard of India, even if they don't know much about it, I mean, the country does have the second largest population in the entire world!


Cheers for now.


"Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."
~Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling