This Sunday my family went on a picnic!! We a part of a family friend group and from my understanding they meet once a month for dinner or some sort of activity. When I first arrived in Indore we went out to dinner and played bingo. This picnic was our second outing with this group and we started off by meeting at a restaurant on the edge of Indore for a quick breakfast before we began the drive to our picnic spot. Nothing is ever as simple as it sounds so a picnic is not just eating a meal on blankets then heading out. It’s a whole day affair, as today proved to be.
After breakfast we all piled into our cars and drove 30 minutes until we stopped on the edge of a rural village next to a waterfall. The scenery was beautiful, as always, with lots of greenery and farming. I’m pretty sure the purpose of stopping at this waterfall was just to take a break from driving and take pictures. I was right but there was also a very intense competition to see who could run to the waterfall, fill up a cup of water, then run back to the road the fastest. It was kind of hilarious to see not just the kids involved but the whole family. This was a large group. There were around 30 people so if you can just imagine dads and moms running around in their nice clothes in the rural countryside of India your would think it was pretty funny too.
We climbed back into our cars and rode for another 30 minutes up switchbacks on a mountain? hill? where we finally reached our picnic spot! Basically we had a nice open cabin on the top of a mountain? or hill?-I still don’t know- with an awesome place to play games in the grass. We played bingo again, I won 10 rupees while Muskan made way more bank than I did. There was an intense game of cricket which considering my outstanding athletic ability I actually participated in. I don’t know the actual rules of cricket but after seeing a few rounds I got the idea and it’s very similar to baseball. I was an all-star outfield player not letting any balls go past me expect those 4 times…I was really good at batting too, but I guess my 4th grade softball training was just too engrained into my muscle memory. When I hit the ball and was about to make a double run I threw my cricket bat to the ground ran halfway to the base, stopped, realized you are supposed to run with the bat, ran halfway back to my bat, realized it was not that important, then barely made it back to the base by the time my ball had been received off the roof of the cabin. Of course everyone laughed but no one gave up the opportunity to remind me that we were playing cricket and not baseball. There were plenty of rounds of cricket before we finally ate lunch around 4:00 PM. We left the picnic spot around 7 after a brief rainstorm and a pick-up soccer game and arrived at home at 8:30. See what I mean about outings being an all day thing? I’ve just figured out that if you are leaving your house on the weekend to go meet friends plan like you won’t be coming home until the wee hours of the morning and you will be set.
Click this link to see a 360 panorama of where we went on Sunday! It's beautiful! http://on.bubb.li/280139araldfjje3hrgev1z
To get the authentic India experience you should never be alone when you are out with friends or family. In India you are always surrounded by people interested in what you are doing or showing you some kind of affection (as a person who’s love language is physical touch I am loving it here). One thing in particular I have come to greatly admire about Indian culture are their family values. Obviously every culture claims to have family values and they all do, but I have never seen a dynamic more authentic and real than that among Indian families. This may be similar to multiple other cultures especially hispanic culture which I am the most familiar with. What makes it distinct from every other society is their inclusion of everyone regardless of age.
The whole day on Sunday during our picnic everyone was together and interacting with all age groups. We had our 9 month old baby Anhad who everyone fauns over, some boys under 10, plenty of girls my age, some people in their 20-30s, and then all the parents. There isn’t really grown-up talk and little kid talk. Everyone is involved in conversation and valued the same. After trying to figure out why this happens I’ve arrived at a pretty solid conclusion, in my opinion. Because Indian society is more on the conservative side there are never any topics that are brought into conversation that aren't appropriate for all ages. A perfect example of this can be seen when you compare the hit songs and their subject matter from different countries with India. If you compare the hit radio stations in the US and in India you will find may variations among the two; the most stark being the subject matter of the music. In the US I can barely go 2 minutes on 96.1 before my mom switches it off because Usher comes on singing about girls dancing on poles. In comparison 93.5 Red FM, the most hip station of all in India, is always on in our car and home radios because their top chart songs aren’t held within the same social norms as in the US. They are sweeter, more innocent, and produced within the confines of Indian values which are more conservative than the US, therefore making them family friendly.
After breakfast we all piled into our cars and drove 30 minutes until we stopped on the edge of a rural village next to a waterfall. The scenery was beautiful, as always, with lots of greenery and farming. I’m pretty sure the purpose of stopping at this waterfall was just to take a break from driving and take pictures. I was right but there was also a very intense competition to see who could run to the waterfall, fill up a cup of water, then run back to the road the fastest. It was kind of hilarious to see not just the kids involved but the whole family. This was a large group. There were around 30 people so if you can just imagine dads and moms running around in their nice clothes in the rural countryside of India your would think it was pretty funny too.
We climbed back into our cars and rode for another 30 minutes up switchbacks on a mountain? hill? where we finally reached our picnic spot! Basically we had a nice open cabin on the top of a mountain? or hill?-I still don’t know- with an awesome place to play games in the grass. We played bingo again, I won 10 rupees while Muskan made way more bank than I did. There was an intense game of cricket which considering my outstanding athletic ability I actually participated in. I don’t know the actual rules of cricket but after seeing a few rounds I got the idea and it’s very similar to baseball. I was an all-star outfield player not letting any balls go past me expect those 4 times…I was really good at batting too, but I guess my 4th grade softball training was just too engrained into my muscle memory. When I hit the ball and was about to make a double run I threw my cricket bat to the ground ran halfway to the base, stopped, realized you are supposed to run with the bat, ran halfway back to my bat, realized it was not that important, then barely made it back to the base by the time my ball had been received off the roof of the cabin. Of course everyone laughed but no one gave up the opportunity to remind me that we were playing cricket and not baseball. There were plenty of rounds of cricket before we finally ate lunch around 4:00 PM. We left the picnic spot around 7 after a brief rainstorm and a pick-up soccer game and arrived at home at 8:30. See what I mean about outings being an all day thing? I’ve just figured out that if you are leaving your house on the weekend to go meet friends plan like you won’t be coming home until the wee hours of the morning and you will be set.
Click this link to see a 360 panorama of where we went on Sunday! It's beautiful! http://on.bubb.li/280139araldfjje3hrgev1z
To get the authentic India experience you should never be alone when you are out with friends or family. In India you are always surrounded by people interested in what you are doing or showing you some kind of affection (as a person who’s love language is physical touch I am loving it here). One thing in particular I have come to greatly admire about Indian culture are their family values. Obviously every culture claims to have family values and they all do, but I have never seen a dynamic more authentic and real than that among Indian families. This may be similar to multiple other cultures especially hispanic culture which I am the most familiar with. What makes it distinct from every other society is their inclusion of everyone regardless of age.
The whole day on Sunday during our picnic everyone was together and interacting with all age groups. We had our 9 month old baby Anhad who everyone fauns over, some boys under 10, plenty of girls my age, some people in their 20-30s, and then all the parents. There isn’t really grown-up talk and little kid talk. Everyone is involved in conversation and valued the same. After trying to figure out why this happens I’ve arrived at a pretty solid conclusion, in my opinion. Because Indian society is more on the conservative side there are never any topics that are brought into conversation that aren't appropriate for all ages. A perfect example of this can be seen when you compare the hit songs and their subject matter from different countries with India. If you compare the hit radio stations in the US and in India you will find may variations among the two; the most stark being the subject matter of the music. In the US I can barely go 2 minutes on 96.1 before my mom switches it off because Usher comes on singing about girls dancing on poles. In comparison 93.5 Red FM, the most hip station of all in India, is always on in our car and home radios because their top chart songs aren’t held within the same social norms as in the US. They are sweeter, more innocent, and produced within the confines of Indian values which are more conservative than the US, therefore making them family friendly.