For Your Entertainment

Here's another song to listen to, this one not quite so 'young.' Rather, this one is a love song...one of my favorite Hindi songs from the movie Lagaan. If you've ever thought about checking out an Indian movie, Lagaan is a good one to watch (but be ready to sit because its over 2 hours long). Check out your local library to rent it, my grandma was able to find it at hers, so give it a try!

'Oh Re Chori' from Lagaan

Story Of A Janky Bus Ride

Janky : (adjective) inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and dilapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people. adjective used to describe a person, place or thing which is questionable, wrong, strange, broken down, undesirable, and/or just some thing you can't think of another word for. --definition courtesy of urban dictionary

It had been a long night and day of travel and work. Delhi is known for its extreme heat in summers and we had witnessed exactly that. We arrived in Delhi by train in the early morning and spent the whole day traveling around the city trying to get my Visa situation taken care of. Abhinav and I were both exhausted, hot, and dirty; it was time to go home. At the ISBT (Inter-State Bus Terminal) in Delhi we searched for a bus that could take us home. There were two buses going our direction and neither of them looked comfortable or clean, but the A.C. bus wasn't arriving for another hour-and-a-half. Figuring it was better to just take an old dirty bus now, rather than wait around for a better one (it was getting late and Abhi had to be at work in the morning), we boarded what would be the most awkward and miserable bus ride ever.

We took our seats in an empty row near the back and the bus left shortly after that, around 7pm-just in time for rush hour traffic. For starters, the man sitting across from us decided he wanted to smoke and lit up his cigarette. Now honestly, who smokes on a crowded bus? Have a little respects for others, why don't ya. Abhinav kindly asked the man not to smoke and he put it out right then. No problem there. About five minutes later that same man decided, 'well, if I can't smoke I might as well drink,' and we watched as he very sneakily poured liquor into a chai cup and downed it. Still not a big deal, as long as he kept to himself, right? Its just that drinking in public is very taboo here, you rarely ever see it, so to see the man drinking on the bus was a little uncomforting.

After a while a group of rowdy and obnoxious young guys got on the bus and sat right in front of us. After nearly 24 hours of straight traveling, the last thing we really wanted was to deal with this group of annoying wannabe thugs, so we just sat quietly and minded our own business, hoping they would do the same.

Being a foreigner in India can attract a lot of stares and strange looks from people, especially being married to an Indian. Usually I don't mind it but sometimes people just don't know when to look away. Its like they don't understand that social que of when someone catches you looking at them, you stop looking. These guys sitting in front of us were exactly that type. One of them would literally do a full 180 degree turn and STARE at me, and not just one time but multiple times. I don't like to cause a fuss but he was making both Abhinav and me really uncomfortable. I could feel Abhinav's anger bubbling and after a while he had had enough; time for a confrontation. Abhi tapped the guy on the shoulder and asked him what his problem was, why he kept turning around, and suggested that he keep his eyes forward for the rest of the bus ride. The guy turned around and faced the front but him and his friends were only more excited that they had gotten Abhinav riled up.

Later on one of the guys in front of us turned around to ask us if he could smoke, to which an already annoyed Abhinav replied 'most definitely not.' This caused another little confrontation but eventually the guy relented and put away his matches.

We sat for a while as the bus rolled along (very slowly), our heads bobbing- not awake but not asleep- when suddenly I smelled something peculiar. Weed. I asked Abhi, 'do you smell that?' 'Yeah, they're smoking marijuana.' By this time other people at the front of the bus had already been smoking cigarettes without the conductor saying anything so I guess that meant a free-for-all to anyone who wanted to smoke. For our guys it meant a go-ahead on the pot. Not wanting any more arguments, all we could do now was fully open our windows, sit quietly, and hope that the bus driver would put the pedal to the meta and get us home asap. These guys decided to light up twice before we made it home. Who knows, I might have gotten a little high from the second-hand smoke (is that possible?)...or maybe I was just really tired.

We reached our city around 12:30am (the same time as the A.C. bus that left nearly 2 hours after us) and jumped off that bus as fast as we could. It had never felt so good to be home.

Wat Amavasya

Yesterday we celebrated a small festival called Wat Amavasya, in which wives pray for the long lives of their husbands. Wat is the Hindi name for the Banyan tree and Amavasya is the name for a New Moon day. In this festival the Banyan tree is recognized for its size and age and represents the long life that women hope for their husbands. In Indian culture there are four festivals per year of this nature in which the wives pray/fast for their husbands. We finished everything by morning time since Abhinav had to go to work early.

For festivals many women apply henna the day before. This was done in the market by a professional.

Branch of a Banyan tree used during prayer. 

Me and my Mother-In-Law. This is the same saree I wore for our wedding. 

Giving a gift of different foods to my Father-In-Law.

Sounds Like Home Radio

Chaar Baj Gaye, Party Abhi Baki Hai

This song is pretty popular in India right now and I just had to post it because it reminds me of something I would here on a normal pop music station back home...maybe Wild 95.5 for South Florida. And the meaning of the song isn't far-off from something we would hear at home too; mostly about drinking and partying. I guess no matter what the language, young people are thinking about the same things ;).

Chaar Baj Gaye, Party Abhi Baki Hai = Its four o'clock but the party's still going on.

Someone Give That Baby A Name

Its called Naamkaran, the ceremony that takes place in which a baby receives his or her name from a Hindu priest. Naam means name and Karan means celebration, or something of that nature. We went to be a part of the naming of the baby of Abhinav's aunt. He was born April 7th and just now received his name on May 25th, a month and a half later. In the U.S. we would find this strange that a baby doesn't have a real name for almost two months. How can he have a birth certificate made without a name? What would everyone call him for the time being? And why wait for so long, you've had nine months to consider your options?

According to Hindu religion every person has specific astrological attributes according to the time of their birth. In the case of names, the priest must determine the star constellation in which the moon is placed during the baby's time of birth. According to this, their are some options for the baby's name. Usually the priest will give the first letter or beginning sound that fits with the zodiac and then the family can choose a name that goes with the given first letter.

Unfortunately, we ended up being a little late for part of the ceremony and then a gigantic storm came through that postponed a lot of the fun, food and dancing. But we did get to be there to celebrate and meet the precious little boy....everyone meet Ekaksh.

Mother-In-Law holding Ekaksh...check out how much hair he has! 

Me holding the baby. 

And here he is :) 

--Note: the black dot on the side of his forehead is not a big mole. Its black makeup put there to keep away evil spirits (the evil eye)...more about this later. And the red dot is a tikka, or type of blessing.

Mangal Sutra Mishap

My Mangal Sutra

I wrote before about the ways (at least in North India) that one can spot a married woman. One such way is the Mangal Sutra, a necklace that the groom puts on the bride during the marriage ceremony, equivalent to a wedding ring. Its made up of a gold locket at the bottom and strings of small black and gold beads connecting both sides; the black beads are meant to keep away evil spirits and the connecting of the gold pendant represents the union of husband and wife. Traditionaly, the wife wears her Mangal Sutra until death without removing it, but in today's world there are exceptions for removing it (necklaces break, girls want to wear other fashionable necklaces for different occassions, etc.), though one should avoid removing it to her best ability. Since our wedding day I have only removed mine once because I needed a new clasp on the back, the old one was irritating my skin and giving me a little rash. Yesterday I discovered that a string was hanging from my necklace and saw that part of it had broken and all of the black beads had fallen off. We decided to take it to a shop the next day to have it fixed...but what would I do until then? I was thinking it was no big deal, for less than 24 hours I could give my neck a little freedom, some fresh air, and return the necklace the next day.Wrong. A new bride should be without this Mangal Sutra. The cure? I would wear my Mother-In-Law's Mangal Sutra until mine could be fixed.

Mother-In-Law's Mangal Sutra

**May 27th Update: My necklace repairs are finished, now with a few style changes. Take a look:

Cycle Chalana!

Riding Bicyles! One cool thing about the city we live in is that the British once lived here and left a few neat monuments behind. One such 'monument' is a man-made canal that runs through the middle of the city. The canal runs more than 400kms (250miles) outside of the city and provides cool air during the summer season. The canal was first used for irrigation and water transportaion while the British were here, but now its used purely for recreation and enjoyment, swimming and other water sports.

Today Abhinav and I took advantage of his day off and decided to go bicycle riding along the canal. Here are a few pics.

Road along the canal where we rode bikes.

Bridge built by the British on the canal. 

Riding Bikes :)