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Sorry to all the people who wanted a new post sooner. I finally have a residence in Jalandhar. But I must say it is perhaps the nicest place I could have found. It has two bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a kitchen, and a drawing/dining room. Then there is the roof above which has servant's quarters. The floors are all marble. I also have a cook. He has been cooking well so far. So I am doing quite well. If anyone who knows me would like to come visit, let me know.
So about the SEASON OF FESTIVITIES.
Well first there was dushehra(du as in do, sheh as in shell and ra as in rastafari), the festival where the effigy of ten-headed king of demons Ravana from the hindu epic Ramayana is filled with fireworks and set on fire to celebrate the good conquering evil theme. I wonder if it is not the inspiration for the burning man festival in US. Anyways, I didn't see the actual thing because I had a viral fever.
Actually before that there was the fast season for the hindus. It is like 9 days of fasting but it is the kind of fasting where you can eat fried stuff and fruits so it is actually not much of real deprivation. Then on a particular days people gather little girls from the neighbourhood and feed them and give them sweets. I think the magic number is nine. But these days there are more boys than girls in Punjab so little boys are having to be substitutes. The food is great though. Dry cooked black chickpeas, a sweet halwa of suji(somewhat like oatmeal), and puris (thin puffballs of fried dough).
So anyways great food that day. Then there is karavachauth when hindu women get mehndi (see below, also known as henna) on their hands and buy new bangles and other stuff and keep a fast for the whole day where even water is not allowed and they can break the fast only when the moon becomes visible. This is done to increase the lifespan of their husbands. Some unmarried women also keep this fast for their future husbands. The most interesting thing is that even though these celebrations are of Hindu origin, many of the Sikhs also participate. Culture blends these religions. More likely people practice what their neighbours practice. Hindus often go to sikh religious places and vice-versa. Especially since religions are something of book thing for most indians. They follow the overt practices, but religion as a philosophical way of life is not how they actually practice. They are quite practical in practical matters of life and not terribly idealistic. Idealists of any kind usually don't fit in well with Indian way of life because all the contradictions are present here and all are often held up equally within the same person. They may get revered, if not ridiculed, or both, but they are not understood as practical. Anyways back to the festivities.
Today is the festival of festivals for Hindus and Sikhs. The festival of Diwali. You can read about it on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali
It was one of my favorite festivals growing up. My fun usually started days earlier when the fireworks became available. Often times we would just roam around with matches setting off fireworks or when out of fireworks making little figures of matches and paper and setting those on fire. Once we unintentionally set a whole grass field on fire. It wasn't very high grass, but it was dry and that was a lot of fun and a bit risky because we didn't want to be caught.
The memories of those childhood days are full of free happiness. The weather used to be cooler and there was much less pollution than now. The fireworks used to be small. No huge displays or anything like that. But it was a lot of fun.
Also my parents and grandparents had to buy us something for Diwali. There would usually be some article of clothing and toys. There would also be a lot of sweets. People exchanged sweets as gifts. So, we ate lots of sweet stuff. Then on the evening of Diwali we would set up and light candles, and little lamps outside the house. Then later just about everyone was outside setting off fireworks and enjoying the spectacle.
We set off our fireworks and also went over to our friends' houses and to the market to buy more fireworks. It was a great time.
So I'll check out the changes in the festival today and report back to let you if it is any different now.
4 comments:
First of all, Google Blogger is kind of dumb because they make it difficult to sign in first before you post. If this place was easier to use, there would be more posts. Bad Google!
ANYWAYS, I absolutely love this post. I am sad that it is so much hotter now (global warming...) and more polluted. Now Diwali just increases the smog, it seems. It is interesting that all of these electric lights are used, used you are required to experience power outages every day. Ah, I remember that awesome time when we were out walking in the city, and all the lights went out. The only lights available were the car headlights. Often the cars would be seemingly driving right for us. Great times. Anyhow, I would love to hear examples of how an idealist would not fit in to the Indian way of life. And how does a religious practice become practical without recognizing the philosophy/meanings underneath the practices?
I also would love for you to explain exactly why there are so many more boys than girls that boys have to be a substitutes during dushehra.
Also, that gudhwara in your foto must be new. My question there is why is it attached to a hospital??
I like that supposed 'girl power' holiday karavauchauth but, with the mendhi designs and the bangles the ladies actually have to fast----to increase the lifespan of their husbands. I am all for that, if, at some point the gracious husbands return the favor....but instead of mendi and bangles, maybe they do something else...like wear a ladies pantsuit or sari. I would guarantee soaring lifespans for the women because they would be laughing so hard on that day...and laughter is the best medicine!!
For example a stickler for all rules can't get anything done where the govt. is involved. Often one ends up greasing palms to get things done. Idealists that say and follow the ideal that people should be good or equal, are heard (e.g. saints and holy men), even revered but rarely followed and if its just an ordinary person people privately laugh at that person's naivete.
Similarly most people do not follow the strict injunctions of religion and mix other religions as per being a part of a community e.g. the sikhs should not practice the fasting or keep idols or pray to idols but they do and so do some muslims and the hindus go and ask for boons at muslim shrines and sikh temples as well, because these people happen to belong to punjab community. I shouldn't say this is the norm for all India, but this sort of communal piety is common in Punjab.
There are more boys than girls because girls have become undesirable in Punjab because of dowry that one pays when the girl child is married. This has led to girls being aborted and boys being preferred. Of course this will result in problems later when there won't be as many girls available for marriage and I hope girls start asking for dowries 50 times as large to really teach a lesson :)
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