Diwali: Food, Family and Firecrackers

First let me just say, sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been partially busy with college applications and essays and also putting off writing about all that's happened. It hasn't really been that much the past 2 weeks, but 3 weeks ago was one of the most exciting weeks of my life! Two main reasons. One, it was Diwali!! The second I'll get to in a blog today or tomorrow (I promise!), but it was going to the beach with my family. 

                                           

Rangoli at my rotary club

Anyway, Diwali! Diwali is known as the festival of lights. It and Holi (the festival of colors) were the only two festivals I'd heard of before I got here. It can basically be broken down into three Fs. Food, family and firecrackers. Hence the title of this post. During this time there's at least 2 weeks off from school and a lot of people have time off from work. People go back home and visit with family and eat. In many ways it's similar to Christmas. 

                                  

Candles outside my front door

My family went to visit relatives pretty much every day. It was nice getting to spend time with everyone. Most are younger than me, but there are a few just a year or two younger than me and a few a little older. Most of my host mom's family lives in Pune. I've been seeing them separately the past few months but now I have basically figured out who is related. One interesting thing about Indian families is that they call their cousins their brothers and sisters. This was confusing at first because I thought both my parents came from huge families (as it turns out they each just have one sibling) but I've come to realize that it shows just how important family is in India.

                                  

Lanterns for sale on the road

Another big aspect of Diwali was the food. So, so, so much food. I help my host mom prepare huge amounts of snacks. Most were sweet but there were also some savory ones. Once we finished they filled 5 big containers on our table. In fact, we continued to eat them for the 2 weeks after Diwali. My favorite was karungi. It's a crescent shaped pastry filled with coconut (a staple of Indian cooking) and jaggery (another staple of Indian cooking). This is then deep fried in oil. They were incredibly delicious and I ate at least 4 of them fresh. 

                                 

                                 

Making karungi

                                       

Each day (there's 4) I woke up at about 6 am from firecrackers going off. The idea is to get up and bathe (in case I haven't mentioned Indians do this every day) before the sun comes up. I was able to do this twice. The first morning I got up at 5:30 so my host brother, Sahil, and I could burst crackers with the other kids in our society. It was weird having fireworks so early in the morning, but also really exciting. These crackers are in some ways similar to the ones in the US (sparklers and colored fountains) but there are also ones that are definitely not available in Minnesota. Namely bottle rockets and the really loud ones that come in two rows tied together. For the few weeks before Diwali stalls were set up on the main roads selling every type of firecracker. 

                                            

                                 

Me and Sahil with sparklers

                                 

We used so many firecrackers!

                                             

                                   

                                         

I've rambled off on a tangent, but let me explain my other early morning experience. A good Indian friend of mine, Aditi, who was an inbound in Sweden last year invited me to go to Sarasbaug with her for some kind of lighting that was supposed to be really cool. Some of her friends would also be going including a girl named Sana who was an inbound in Ohio. The only catch was that we had to reach there at 5 am, and since it was halfway across the city that meant leaving at 4:30. In order to do this I woke up at 3:45 in the morning. It surprisingly wasn't that bad and I was pretty awake. It kind of reminded me of waking up really early for sub-zero APUSH reviews at 6:30 last year! Anyway, I dragged myself out of bed hoping that it would be amazing and totally worth it. I reasoned that I should at least check it out since, after all, I'm only going to be in India for a year and I might not get this chance again.

Boy, was it worth it!! It was amazing. First of all, a temple just across the street was completely lit up and gorgeous. Here's a picture.

                                   

When I finally entered the gardens I was blown away again. It was still quite dark, but all over the lawn there were designs made out of flowers, flowerpetals and candles. And complicated designs too, not simple ones. They were breathtaking and for the first 10 minutes or so I couldn't believe I was really there. At the gardens many people were lighting floating lanterns. (Yes, just like in the movie Tangled!) They were beautiful, and since it was still dark and the sky was clear there were lights filling the early morning sky. It was beautiful to see them highlighted against the palm trees and all of the lights on the temple. 

                             

                              

                              

Me lighting a lantern

                              

Me and some Indian friends at Sarasbaug

Overall Diwali was an amazing festival. I spent time with my family, ate good food and enjoyed lots of firecrackers and new experiences. While it may have been almost 3 weeks ago (yet again, I'm sorry!) it was one of my favorite parts of my time here and I loved every bit of it!

Me, Audrey and Tamara lighting 3 fountains at once

Me and Audrey are on the far left and Tamara is somewhere to the right

An action shot of me (and 2 neighbor kids) running away from the firecracker I had just lit

Tamara and I got fancy with the camera effects

I close with an action shot of me running away after lighting a bottle rocket on my roof

Random Thoughts and a Big Anniversary

On November 1^st (last Friday) it was officially 3 months since I arrived in India! My internet hasn’t been working very well so I wasn’t able to post this blog then, so it’s a belated anniversary. Anyway, these past 3 months feel so long, but also really short when I think of how much I’ve learned and matured and experienced in the past few months. It’s been incredible, and I’m not even a third of the way done!

The view out my window

Right now I’m in the midst of Diwali, probably the biggest holiday here. I’ve been on vacation so other than celebrating (mostly eating) not much has happened. I’ll post a blog in a few days describing Diwali (with lots and lots of pictures!) but in the meantime here’s a collection of random thoughts, pictures and things I haven’t talked about yet.

Chai

Since I’ve been here I have drank on average 2 cups of tea a day. I have it in the morning with my host parents when I first get up and usually sometime in the afternoon or early evening when I get home. The tea I have with my family is about like what I drink at home, though with less sugar and it’s drank immediately so it’s usually near boiling. However the tea that you can buy at restaurants and on the street is completely different. I don’t know what they put in it, but it is heavenly. I think only masala is added, but they might also put fairy dust or something else in it. Honestly one of my goals for this year is to be able to make tea that delicious when I go back home.

The view of the street near my school

Shopping

Overall everything here is super inexpensive. Right now the Rupee is actually doing better and is about 61 rupees to one dollar (it got up to 70 in August) but relatively it’s still cheap. Still at the shops on the street it’s very inexpensive. Usually a few hundred rupees, depending on what it is. Compared to these the malls are crazy expensive. The prices are still less compared to the US (maybe 15 dollars for a nice shirt), but relative to all the other expenses here that is incredibly expensive.

Shopping here is very different than in the United States. First of all there are so many different places. There’s regular stores, huge malls, little stalls and whole streets where both sides are lined with stores and stalls. Storekeepers here are incredibly attentive and kind of suffocating. There always seems to be at least 2 employees for each customer and if you so much as remove a hanger from a rack they’ll try and help you. It can be very annoying, but I also feel bad when I don’t get anything, so I guess their tactic is working. My attitude while shopping has changed a lot since being here. I’ve learned that if I go into a clothing store I need to be committed to purchasing something. I’ll pick something (say a scarf or a kurti) that I want to get before I go inside and make that my goal. Especially on roads, like Tulshibaug, where it is completely stalls and a tiny lane for shopping I’ve learned to not touch anything I’m not willing to consider buying and to never make eye contact with a shopkeeper.

Tulshibaug

Cars Backing Up

One of the randomest things I’ve found here is that when cars are backing up they play music. I actually don’t know the reasoning behind this, other than it being a reminder that you’re in reverse, but it’s actually pretty cool though. I don’t think you can customize them but there are tons of different songs. I usually hear Fur Elise from one of my neighbors in the morning and often My Heart Will Go On. Sometimes they’re not even well known songs, just little melodies, but other times suddenly you’ll hear an electronic version of a Jennifer Lopez song as a nearby car reverses.

Random street pictures as per my sister's request:

Street food

On most streets you can find a few vendors selling street food. They have almost anything and everything. Corn on the cob (roasted in front of you!), momos (a type of dumpling), roasted nuts, a lime soda, nearly every kind of fruit and traditional Indian street food like bhel and pani puri. Right outside of my school there are stands that I visit nearly everyday to buy either momos with chili sauce or a little cone of warm, salted peanuts.

A few weeks ago to celebrate the end of exams Audrey and I met up with some of our Indian friends and ate Bhel and Pani Puri. Bhel is kind of like a chex-mix of different ingredients in a soup, kind of similar to chili. Pani puri is a little crispy ball sort of pastry thing. I can’t really describe it, but hopefully the picture below (stolen from Google Images) helps. It’s filled with some sauces and then little spicy cheeto like things are on top of that. They were both really good.

Pani Puri!

Audrey and our friend Kunal eating bhel

By far the most exotic part of street food is the fruit. There’s your run of the mill apples and oranges, but there’s also ones that look like alien eggs out of a sci-fi movie. (Google jackfruit and star fruit if you don’t believe me). The most popular fruit to get is probably coconut. Not only is it really good for you, it’s also fun to eat. The people who sell them cut off the top just enough to get a tiny hole for a straw to drink the juice. Once that is finished they will cut the hole larger and then make a perfect spoon out of a piece cut off the side so you can scoop out the flesh inside.  On our way home from running errands last week my host mom and I stopped to buy some fruit at such a cart on the side of the road. In addition to the many vegetables there was a big pile of pineapple. We decided to get some and right in front of us the vendor cut the fresh fruit and wrapped it up. As we were walking away I realized that though I’ve had pineapple plenty of times I’ve never had it actually cut from the fruit, much less right in front of me. It was just a little friendly reminder of how exciting and different India is. After 3 months here I’ve started to forget, or perhaps just get used to, the many differences between the United States and India. Still, there are little reminders like these that I am in a country halfway around the world from my old home.

The view from the hill behind my house (my building is the one in the center on the left side of the corner)

Finally in honor of it being a big anniversary and all, thank you to everyone who has helped me with this year and continues to help me. It has been the greatest experience of my life and it can only get better from here!

A gigantic dhunyavad (thank you in Marathi) to everyone!

Elisabeth

Views from each side of the pedestrian bridge over Karve Rd