These past two weeks have been crazy. I’ve been to Mumbai and Shirdi and back, a Bengali club, and a city wide Garba performance. Now that festival season is in its peak it seems the list of things to do and see never end. Navratri started on the 13th and commenced on the 22nd which was followed by Dusshera. Navratri can be translated in Hindi to mean 9 nights. It’s a festival celebrated at night to honor the 9 forms of the Goddess Durga. There are many legends describing the history and origins of Navratri, just like everything else in India and Hinduism. The most common belief/version I heard most often was that of Ramayana (symbol of God) and Ravana (symbol of evil or the devil). The basic outline of the story is Rama’s wife, Sita, was abducted by Ravan and in order to gain the power and strength to save his wife Ramayana worshiped the Goddess Durga for 9 days. Those 9 nights which Rama worshiped are now celebrated as Navratri, the parallel between the legend and modern celebration is pretty straightforward. On the tenth day of Rama’s worship Lord Ramayana killed Ravan. This day is now known as Dusshera, meaning the tenth day, and is typically celebrated by burning a large statue of Ravan signifying the triumph of good over evil.
Navratri and Dusshera are celebrated most in the state of Gujarat. They even specialize in a dance for this particular festival. Garba, as the dance is called, is a group dance done in rotation around an image of the Goddess Durga or a lit lamp. The costumes involved are electrically colorful with lots of bodily adornments. My Hindi teacher took me and the two boys, Sam and Liam, to see the large Garba performance in Indore. This particular performance is very official, one needs to purchase a ticket and have a badge and everything. We were able to get floor seats so we could see the action up close. The dance lasted for about an hour and a half along with live music. The dance was extremely fun and resembled some other Indian folk dances I’ve seen with a lot of pep and hand movements
Navratri and Dusshera are celebrated most in the state of Gujarat. They even specialize in a dance for this particular festival. Garba, as the dance is called, is a group dance done in rotation around an image of the Goddess Durga or a lit lamp. The costumes involved are electrically colorful with lots of bodily adornments. My Hindi teacher took me and the two boys, Sam and Liam, to see the large Garba performance in Indore. This particular performance is very official, one needs to purchase a ticket and have a badge and everything. We were able to get floor seats so we could see the action up close. The dance lasted for about an hour and a half along with live music. The dance was extremely fun and resembled some other Indian folk dances I’ve seen with a lot of pep and hand movements
As a part of our program with AFS as exchange students we have three orientations throughout the year. An arrival orientation, mid-program orientation, and departure orientation. Our mid-program orientation was due so on the 16th the four of us hopped on an overnight train to Mumbai. I love train rides and the fact that the US doesn’t have a national passenger rail system makes me very disappointed. They are convenient and cheap when you live in a large country. I guess we can’t have everything though and I’ll just have to add long train rides to my list of reasons to come back to India. We arrived in Mumbai the following morning, washed up at our hotel, and ate our hearts desire in chakos (the only good cereal in India) before sitting for an all day orientation. Usually I hate orientations and I find them painfully boring but this particular AFS meeting was actually helpful and enjoyable. It was only the 4 of us Americans with two, young girls from AFS India. We were able to openly discuss some of our long running issues with the Indian education system and authority figure respect complex. We sat in orientation all day Saturday and half the day Sunday so that gave us a whopping 4 hours to explore Mumbai. Mumbai, formerly/also known as Bombay, is the film capital of India known for the production of Bollywood movies and tv series or cereals as they say here. The architecture is stunning. All the buildings constructed by the British still stand, preserved and used. Which is sort of interesting considering the not so positive attitude held by Indians about the British and colonialism. We were able to see the Gateway to India, also constructed by the British, on the coast, eat some vada pow, a Mumbai specialty, and hang out at the sea wall looking at the skyline
On the 12th I spent the night with my school counselor, Jaya Mam. She is Bengali and Navratri and Dusshera are the largest collective festivals for Bengalis, it’s equivalent to Christmas for the US. I was fortunate to spend the night with her twice during this festival to see another denomination of Hinduism that was different from my family (my family is Punjabi, from North India, and Jaya Mam is Bengali, from East India). Jaya Mam took me to to see the celebrations that are unique to Bengali culture. The club consisted of a school, temple, and various other facilities. The first night I visited it was the eve of the first night of Navratri so everyone was preparing by performing puja (worship) for Ma Kali (a Goddess). The first thing that was extremely evident about the differences between Bengalis and Punjabis was how they worship. My family seems a little more relaxed and typical about the whole thing, but the Bengalis were very loud and used lots of clanging instruments. The puja lasted for about 20 minutes and we basically just looked Ma Kali’s idol while the Pundit (priest) did certain ceremonial things such as flicking water, waving a fan, and moving the smoldering coals in a circle. The active members in the club were playing an impromptu song of many, many loud bells, symbols, and a blow conch. After the 20 minute puja my hearing was suffering from a high, continuous ringing noise. When you can’t hear yourself talk your speech becomes distorted but even more so in your second/third language so I definitely said some interesting things in Hindi, like “bahut mazza” which means very mango juice instead of “bahut mazaiya” meaning I enjoyed very much.
I visited the club twice more during the actual nights of Navratri and I was introduced to countless friends of my counselor, all in Bengali of course. Just when you think you’re getting the hang of one language they have to slap another one in your face. Jaya Mam helped me learn some basic introductory sentences in Bengali such as, “Aamar naam Kate.-My name is Kate.”, “Aami America theke eshechie.- I am from America.”, and “Aami ekane dosh masher jonno eshechie- I am here for 10 months”. It sounds very similar to Hindi but with more “shh” and nasal “o” sounds. Seeing the way the Bengali club worked was really interesting and a nice contrast to what I have learned about Hinduism thus far. Everyone I met was really impressed with my Hindi speaking/comprehension and my traditional dress of a sari (curtesy of Jaya Mam). I’m glad I make others happy that I’m trying to learn Hindi and more about their culture, but my language abilities are still lacking. Although, now I have more motivation to embrace the confusing world and education styles of the Indian teaching system to be able to just knock these people off their feet with my Hindi knowledge.
The last night I went to the club there was a large aarti going on and somehow Liam, one of my male exchange counterparts, and I got sucked into dancing in the puja. This type of thing happens all the time, some traditional Indian dance or performance is going on and then the awkward white people get pulled into it as well. Liam and I grabbed an earthen pot with smoking grasses and started following the other performers to the beat of the conch shell blows and drum beats. There were several local reporters at the aarti so we were the stars of the show for a while and we appeared in several local newspapers the following morning.
The last night I went to the club there was a large aarti going on and somehow Liam, one of my male exchange counterparts, and I got sucked into dancing in the puja. This type of thing happens all the time, some traditional Indian dance or performance is going on and then the awkward white people get pulled into it as well. Liam and I grabbed an earthen pot with smoking grasses and started following the other performers to the beat of the conch shell blows and drum beats. There were several local reporters at the aarti so we were the stars of the show for a while and we appeared in several local newspapers the following morning.
When I was finally back home, safe and sound with my host family, we had some Navratri/Dusshera celebrations of our own. We had several young girls and a few young boys sprinkled in over to our home to break our fast. As is tradition in the Punjab on the 8th day of Navratri young girls are called into peoples homes to break their fast. The two days before my family was fasting but not the kind of fasting that came to my mind when I was informed that we would be fasting. At first I thought we would not be eating all day or only be eating before or after sunrise/sunset but I was very wrong. In my family fasting is more like feasting. For fasts Hindus can only eat certain foods: paneer, dried fruit (nuts), fruit, milk, potatoes, kicheri, and a few other foods. My mom and masi (aunt) prepared a huge lunch and we ate far more than normal. Hence my fasting is feasting in my house conclusion. Anyway these young girls are brought into peoples homes and treated like Goddesses Durga. My host dad ceremonially washed their feet then my host mom came by offering them food, money, and chocolates. These little kids were adorable and we had three rounds of them come through our home! It was a good day for cute babies.
On Dusshera when the statue of Ravan is burned my family and I went to a kitty party. Kitty parties are just a gathering of multiple families that involves lots of games and bingo. After dinner we lit our small Ravan (about 7 feet tall) on fire with sparklers and stood back admiring the spectacle. There were fireworks in his body and every time a fuse went off the crowd of families backed away another step. It was definitely a fun experience and I’m glad good still wins over evil!