Christmas Eve

I decided to have a Christmas Eve party and invite everyone I knew. My mentality was, "Well, I'll be here, I'll be alone, and that will be depressing, so why not just bring everyone to me?" For those of you who don't know my family, Christmas is a big deal for us, full of lots of traditions and festivities. Bringing a taste of Strassman-Gutzwiller Christmas spirit to India seemed like the thing to do. No one I know celebrates Christmas, because everyone I know is Hindu. They didn't have plans on Christmas Eve, so I decided I'd give them the chance to have plans. The more I thought about it, the more I liked this idea, because I like throwing parties.

It was to be a potluck. I just thought that if everyone who comes brings something, we won't need to worry about numbers. So I made little hand-drawn invitations, photocopied about 50 of them at school, and set out personally inviting all the teachers I have a relationship with, which are most of them. I think many were a little surprised, and many of them were already going to be out of town Christmas Eve. Many seemed like they would come, but I didn't put on the pressure of RSVPing. Several of my really good friends were 100% enthusiastic and were instantly planning what they would bring. It was such a nice feeling to give people something to be excited about. But really, I was quite clueless of who would actually show up.

I had a great time preparing. I decorated my house with all these amazing star lanterns that are a big part of Christmas in India. I bought a little fake Chrismas tree, and wove some plastic jasmine garlands, put lots of silver stars on it, some tinsel garlands, and homemade white paper cranes. It was a white and silver tree, but it sat on top of a riotously colorful Indian table cloth. It was a nice effect with little twinkling lights. The night of the party I bought some fresh jasmine garlands which are sold on every street corner daily (women wear them in their hair). If my tree wasn't going to smell like pine, well then fresh jasmine is the next best (if not better) thing. All the guests admired my multi-ethnic tree: Indian-Japanese-Euro-American.



Well, pretty much the only guests who came were the colleagues who were 100% enthusiastic from the beginning, plus some neighbors from my building. Everyone brought their kids, and all in all it was over 20 people, which was perfect in my book. I was pleased as punch. My colleagues prepared enough food for an army, which I felt a little bad about, but it was really tasty feasting. I had made cornbread, mung dal with coconut, and cabbage salad. There were some sweet breads and cakes, stuffed idlis with cilantro chutney, homemade veg spring rolls, vegetable pulao, some other Tamil rice and dal dish... We hardly put a dent in it all. Everyone took more home then they brought.

But it was a gay time! I had downloaded some free Christmas music that was all over the board in genres, we all sat and ate and talked, while kids ran around and played. The mosquito net around my bed was popular with the little kids, because it was like a tent-fort that they had never experienced before. People came and went, many stayed. A few people had even brought me little presents that I opened on Christmas morning.

Really it was sooo sweet and nice, I felt very loved. And I felt like had given my share of love and goodness to others as well. After all, you're supposed to spend time with people you love for Christmas. I remember telling my kids that the true meaning of Christmas is "God loves the world, so we should love each other." My quote had sort of come out of nowhere, it surprised me a little. I had given it no forethought. I actually wrote it on the board as one of my impromptu hangman games, and once they guessed all the letters, they read it out load. Many of them took careful note of this wisdom, I don't think they had heard this take on Christmas before. And I was not too far from the mark at all. "And God so loved the world, that He gave to it His only begotten Son." There you have it! It was a lovely Christmas here in Pondy!

My Birthday

December 14th was a very special day. My 5th standard students were definitely more excited for my birthday than me. Starting months back, they started asking me when it was. (They are extremely interested in every element of my life. When Liz and Maggie were here they came up to ask, "Which one is Elizabeth, and which one is Margaret?") I told them my birthday, because why not? Vidiya Lakshmi, the other 5th Standard English teacher told me that when they ask her when HER birthday is she simply responds, "I don't know, I forgot. I'll have to ask my mother." Now I understand why.

Nonetheless, despite all their pains of making the biggest deal out of my birthday, I truly enjoyed it. My birthday was on a Monday, so the week before they started scheming. "Kate Miss, we don't have to go to computers on Monday. Come to this room instead. And come 10 minutes late." "Kate Miss, what's your favorite flavor? Chocolate? Ok." "Kate Miss, I know what they're all planning-- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" Lots of whispers and hushes and excited yelps. Vidiya Lakshmi came up to warn me: "I hope you're prepared for Monday." I laughed and admitted I knew they were all excited about my birthday. Apparently Adu had told her, "But Vidiya Miss, she's all alone, she doesn't have any family here. We NEED to do something for her! What if she starts CRYING?! Who's going to be there to comfort her?" This is how sweet these kids are. You don't really get a much better job than this.

For Monday, I bought 80 Kit Kats, which isn't even enough for all the students I see everyday, but oh well. It's traditional to give out chocolate on your birthday, and I told them all that when I was a little girl my mom called me Kit Kat. So for the week they all called me Kit Kat Kate. It being a Monday, I wore my teacher's sari which is our uniform for Mondays. This made all the kids gasp, "But WHY didn't you wear your COLORED dress today?" Everyone wears "colored dress" on their birthdays, which means new clothes that are NOT your uniform. This lets others know it's your birthday. I told them grown-ups don't need to wear colored dress. Besides, I was saving my money for when my sisters came. I'm way too good at buying clothes for myself, so I practiced restraint this year.

After lunch, the party started. The whole 5th standard planned it with the help of Vidia Lakshmi. Each one had made a homemade birthday card for me. I also got a nice pen and a purple plastic dolphin clock. They all had glittery birthday hats, and Priyanka's mom had bought a beautiful, delicious and fancy chocolate cake complete with edible white chocolate bobbly-boos. Yum. They all sang me happy birthday, and the principal came to stuff cake into my mouth with her bare hands (another tradition here.) It was great. I cut cake for all 31 guests. It was very orderly with the help of the teacher and principal, and they cleaned up spic and span just 10 minutes from when it all began. Then I opened all the cards and oohed and aahed at their thoughtful craftsmanship.


But there was a surprise waiting for me 7th hour. My 6th standard also had something up their sleeves, and they had kept it quite secret from me. In the morning I had just given them their English exam, so our focus had been on that the previous week. But they also had something on the back burner.

Someone came up to me and told me to come to the gazebo in the back garden for our class, "but not YET!" I said Ok, and waited to be escorted. It was raining that day, so they were all scampering around in bare feet. They made me cover my eyes, so I walked carefully with my sari cape in front of me just so I could see the ground below and all the little feet dancing excitingly around. All these tiny toads had come out for the rain, so they were hopping everywhere, dodging our feet. When I got into the gazebo, I pulled away my saree and there were 15 smiling faces, all barefoot and glowing, screaming "Happy Birthday!" around the sweetest little cake. It was really precious. This class I particularly love, and oh man they showed it back to me this day. I cut the cake, but not before they all took the first piece and EACH one of the 15 of them grabbed a hunk of it to stuff into my mouth and smear all over my face. It was hilarious! I cut their pieces with my face full of crap, and then gave them all hugs trying to wipe the frosting back onto them. We danced and played in the rain. Great, great Birthday!

Diwali!

Diwali is by far the most beloved festival in India. It is sort of like Christmas. It was my first significant holiday off from work, so I decided to visit my friends in Bangalore. I stayed with Nimish and his mom Promilla, and it was a super time. It's definitely worth staying with a family for Diwali, because my favorite part of the festival was all the friends and neighbors coming by to bring homemade crackers and cookies, and everyone sitting around visiting and drinking tea. My favorite part within the favorite part of food and snacks was helping Promilla make stuffed parathas called kachoris. You roll a ball of dough, work a big hole into it, put some ground dal filling into the hole and pinch it closed. Then you roll it out into a flat disc and carefully put it into a wok of hot oil. Fry on both sides and watch it puff up like a balloon, and eat hot with pumpkin spiced with garam masala and cilantro. Yum! THE BEST!


Here's the first night they called "dress rehearsal". We even "practiced" lighting fire crackers. :) Here is also cousin Tushar, Nimish, Promilla, and brother Ayush practicing their prayers.


Diwali is the festival of lights, and represents the triumph of good over evil. Nimish's family are Jains, so for them it represents the birth of their main prophet Mahavira. Promilla drew this picture! These pictures are from the "real night". Filling the tiny terra cotta lamps with oil and wicks, arranging them, and lighting them was so much fun. Just like decorating a Christmas tree.

Navarathri

So, in the September and October of last year we celebrated some pretty sweet Hindu festivals. I haven't posted to my blog in a LOOONG time, and this dark thunder cloud hanging over my head of wanting to write about Diwali and Navarathri has just grown bigger and bigger. It's daunting, because I feel like I need to give a full, educated description of these festivals to teach all you all about Hinduism. Ha. Well, I've given up on that desire. I've learned a lot, but the Hindu faith is still a crazy web of folktales and names and I just can't seem to be that expert for you all. Parvati alone has 108 names. And in Tamil Nadu, they call them all different names too. Every family I've talked to has a different way of understanding these festivals. Different scriptures say different things, and then there are regional folktales that confuse it all even more. But I will share what I've learned with my running commentary on these pictures.


Navarathri is a nine day goddess festival. It is mostly dedicated to Durga, who is the angry warrior form of Parvati, who is the mother goddess. The other two goddesses in the uber-important goddess trio are Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and luck, and Saraswati, the goddess of education, music and art. Each goddess has her own special day in this nine day festival. My downstairs neighbor Priya made this impressive display that took up half her living room. It sort of reminds me of a Christmas Nativity with Mary, Jesus, the cows, angels, wisemen and shepherds... But this is waaaayyy more. The eleven tiers represent different stories and scriptures. The top shelf has an idle of the three goddesses coming together as one. My other neighbor Sujata said this was Mookambigai! But I heard that comes from a Tamil Nadu folktale, not everyone believes that. Then below are the three goddesses. One shelf even has all ten avitars of Vishnu (Krishna being the most popular by far.)


Here are small dolls representing Priya, her husband, her son and daughter. They are at the base of the 11 shelves, and the offering is placed before them. I think it's pretty cool how this female-based festival also makes this a festival to worship the family unit. Every day is about bringing your family peace, wealth, education, luck.... Keeping everyone from harm. Placing the idols of yourselves in front of the idols of the gods seemed very important to me.


Here is a shopkeeper selling all his goods. On Lakshmi puja day, all the store keepers clean and decorate their shops to bring wealth and luck. Priya's spread also included the entire miniature scene of Krishna playing his flute up in a tree to coax the beautiful bathing maidens out of the river. My camera battery died before I could take the picture of that. Sorry.


Saraswati puja was my favorite day by far, because I consider Saraswati to be my personal goddess. For this day, I got invited to my friend Sujata's house. This is their family prayer room, with a special alter set up for Saraswati. Notice the scissors, spoons, and other daily tools placed to the right of the alter. The significance is to bless the things you use everyday so you do things with the educated, artful guidance of Saraswati. All the books the family was currently reading were placed underneath the alter. I put my pen along with the tools, which Sujata returned to me a few days later. The whole family sang some songs, and they process around the house with incense to bless every room.


After puja (prayer), they went outside to feed the cow who comes everyday for breakfast (not their cow, just a cow who knows to come every morning by 9:30), and then up to the roof to deposit some rice for the crows to eat. Sure enough, the crows came flocking the minute Sujata banged the plate to call them.


That evening, I went with Sujata and family to the big temple near our neighborhood for even more Saraswati puja. Here is a vendor outside the temple selling all the figurines you can collect to make your alters like Priya's. Believe it or not, this was the first time I've set foot into a temple since I've been in India! I thought this was very significant, that my first trip was to go worship Saraswati. I lit her a little lamp of ghee, and Sujata and her mom explained all the parts of the temple, with names that sent my head spinning because I realized, once again, that I do not completely understand who is who amongst the Hindu gods. I did buy a small idol of Saraswati. Manjula helped me finagle a really reasonable price. Here she is in my house!