hot, yoga

It’s hot here. The only reprieve seems to be in the middle of the night, but living on the third floor where the air is stagnant, we don’t get that. I know, I know…I will get no sympathy from anyone in Detroit, New York, Montreal, or anywhere else where you are jumping for joy at the signs of spring. Our Indian friends tell us this is unseasonably warm, just as they told it was colder than usual in January. I am sure they are as warm and uncomfortable as us, but they don't look it. No sweat, no clothes sticking to every part of their body. They even wear their hair down! I stuck mine up in a bun-ponytail thing last week and have no plans to take it down until we hit the pavement in Newark. Even with the 100 degree temps, we still love it here.

Unrelated to the heat, though it would be related if I was doing bikram yoga, I naively thought that everyone in India would be doing yoga all the time everywhere. Not the case. Finding a yoga studio near our house proved to be impossible. So we made up our own thing. The Satsang Bhavan Ashram (commonly called Papaji) is just a short ten minute walk from our house. We knew they had a really nice space and yoga mats because Trudi would meditate there in the morning. And we knew they had delicious food because we had my birthday lunch their. So we asked if they had anyone who could teach us yoga...long story short, they did but she is away until summer and she is the only one who can teach there...except me. They were fine with the idea of someone with no teaching experience teaching. So our group of me, Molly, Trudi, and Dan voted me in as the instructor. I have been doing yoga for 10 years but I have never taught before. Turns out the internet has lots of great lesson plans and the best thing about being the instructor is that you get to do the poses you want to do! Thus yoga and yummy organic dinner became part of our routine. We were doing it two or three times a week, though since Trudi went back to New York, we have only done it once. After Passover we will pick it up again. Also I am very much looking forward to a week long yoga course in Rishikesh at the end of our trip!

We are off to Delhi this afternoon to reunite with other AJWS volunteers for Passover. Lots of stories and pictures when we return...

sunset

We never make it home before dark, but with today marking the end of the festival of Navrati, we had the day off. Being home for sunset meant we were able to enjoy this view from our terrace: And in this photo Dan is spinning the sun like a basketball on his finger. Boyz got skillz.
Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks!

videos!

We shot some videos that will give you insight into the sounds and happenings of India. That's all I have to say about it- check them out. Make sure to have your volume turned on!

In totally unrelated news, Mayawati, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Governor, bussed in two million BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) "supporters" to Lucknow on Monday. These "supporters" are villagers from throughout the state who just wanted a free trip to Lucknow. She is supposed to be an icon as the first dalit woman Chief Governor, but really she is infamous for her ludicrous and unnecessary spending, including a slew of statues and monuments in her honor. You can read about her garland worth half a million rupees($10,000 usd- a fortune by Indian standards) here.

International Women's Day

Cholapur Village, outside of Varanasi, is one of many locations throughout the world that celebrates International Women's Day. This tradition, in its third year, started with the launch of the Vidya Gyan scholarship program, the project I am working on during my time here. I spent last week in Varanasi doing field research (interviews, observing, data collection, etc) so I had the honor of attending the celebration.

Under a white tent in one of the village school yards, about 500 students, parents, grandparents, school teachers, principals, and community leaders gathered. The program was a blend of speeches from community leaders, dances performed by the scholarship program participants, and chants of empowerment.

It was really incredible and having the honor of attending is without doubt one of the highlights of my time here in India. The energy of the girls in this program is amazing- they are all poor, most have uneducated families, and they all deal with discrimination for their caste or religion. The confidence they possess to perform and share their stories is a result of being in the scholarship program. In addition to receiving financial support for their studies, they also attend daily two hour coaching sessions for tutoring, talk about issues they are facing, dancing, singing, and arts & crafts. Puja is a Class VIII (8th grade) student in her third year of the Vidya Gyan program. With the help of the coaching sessions she realized her talent and passion for Indian dancing. At last year's celebration she danced for the first time in front of a crowd. When she returned home that evening her father and brothers beat her and the Vidya Gyan staff had to intervene. This year her performance was the program finale!

Throughout the event the MC would yell 'Mahila Ekla' and the crowd would chant back 'Jindabad,' which translates to 'Women's equality is immortal.' I was asked to share a few words with crowd (with the help of a translator, of course) and I ended by having the crowd chant "Women Unite." They yelled with energy and enthusiasm; I wish I could have bottled it- such an incredible moment.

I am not sure if the pictures will do the event justice, but you can check them out here. I will post the rest of the pictures from my visit in the next week.

In Indian current events, this Women's Day was particularly significant because the lower house passed the Women's Reservation Bill which will secure one third of all parliament seats women. The bill passed after seven representatives were physically removed from the legislative assembly. You can read more about it here.

an Indian recipe

One of my goals for this trip is to expand (read: create) my repetoire of Indian recipes. My co-workers, Tanvi and Priyanka, gave me a couple to try and now I am on my way. To date I have prepared aloo kisabzi (potato and spices), tehri rice (rice with spices), curried bringal (eggplant in a tomato curry sauce), and bhoondi rhaita (curd with balls of grain). Feeling good about what I already have under my belt, I was ready to tackle my favorite dish, dal makhani (black lentils in a creamy spiced sauce). The problem is that Tanvi and Priyanka have never made it so they could not share a recipe. So I went to the internet. I found a slew of recipes and chose the one that was the 'healthiest'...the creamy sauce usually comes from ghee, butter, milk and oil; this recipe only calls for the latter two. After making it I slightly altered the recipe I found online and here it is! Please let me know if you make it (ahem, Sara J and Lisa C) and how it turns out.

Dal Makhani
1/2 cup whole whole black lentils (urad)
1 tablespoon kidney beans (rajma)
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
3 cloves of garlic grated
1 small piece of ginger grated
1 teaspoon red chili powder (lal mirch)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
2 teaspoons coriander powder (dhania)
3 chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon salt

1. Wash and soak the lentils and kidney beans overnight
   
2. Combine lentils and kidney beans and 1/2 teaspoon of salt with 2 cups water and cook in pressure cooker on medium for two whistles.
3. Add the milk and 1 cup water and let simmer for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally
4. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. When the seeds crackle, add the onions, ginger, and garlic and saute until onions are golden brown
5. Add the chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, rest of the salt and tomatoes with 1/4 cup of water and saute for 5 to 7 minutes
6. Add dal mixture and simmer for 1o minutes until it is thick and creamy
7. Serve hot garnished with coriander

Notes:
I took this picture from the internet.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, a pot will do. Try simmering the lentils and kidney beans for 20 minutes, or until soft.

I am off to Varanasi for the week to conduct interviews in the field for my project. I am most excited to celebrate International Women's Day with the girls tomorrow! A blog post and pictures will follow!

a colorful Holi

I am trying to think of the western equivalent for the Indian festival of Holi; I don't think there is one. Its color, music, color, dancing, reunions with families, color, and the celebration of the beginning of spring. We made plans to spend Holi with Trudi and Molly in Mathura and Vrindavan, about 300 kilometers from Lucknow. Our trip was consumed with seeing the sights of these ancient cities and 'playing' Holi. Here are some of the highlights:

Saturday
On our drive in we passed the Jaigurudev Temple and after noticing its resemblance to the Taj and the crowds of people around, we had to visit. As we took in the beauty of this newish temple and watched as people gave their offerings and prayer, a guy in his mid-teens approached us to offer a tour and some history. We told him to take us where the crowds of people were going. He led us through a closed door (sometimes being a Westerner in India is equivalent to VIP status) and walked us around the balcony...and there they were. Thousands of people all sitting on the floor in their bold colors facing an empty raised stage. Our 'guide' informed us that the guru of this temple was still alive at 109 years old and all these people had gathered to hear him speak. We stood on the balcony overlooking these crowds feeling a little guilty that they were down there fighting for a view and shade and we were up above with both. Our guide, who we later learned went by Prince, offered Dan a view from the top of the minaret. The rest of us joined and after a scary walk up the unfinished staircase, we realized that the thousands sitting below us was actually more like tens of thousands stretching out in all directions waiting for their guru to arrive. We were yelled at to come down from the top of the minaret and found out the guru was not going to speak today, but would tomorrow. Rather than listen to the ‘sub guru’, we walked toward the temple exit and discovered the nine-foot door was closed, with a lock across it the size of my arm. The door opened for a brief second and crowds of people swarmed the entrance, with the 'security guards' trying to unsuccessfully keep them out. Fearing that we would be trampled in the stampede that ensued we looked to Prince who said with confidence "I will arrange for your security," which he did by sneaking us out a side entrance and escorting us to our car.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Krishna's birthplace in Mathura and looking for the Vishram Ghat for aarti, with no luck.

Sunday
Erev Holi. We woke up at the crack of dawn to make our way to Govardhan to see the 6am aarti. Like the aarti the night before, we missed it. Our driver drove us as close as he could but when the road turned into a parking lot, he suggested we walk the rest of the way. Just as we were about to get out of the car, something was thrown at us. I thought it was rocks and dirt; it was pink powder, of which I would see a lot more of. We started our walk, weaving through the buses, cars, people, and cows to Govardhan. Our hope was to make it to the mountain that legend says Lord Krishna raised above his head with his pinky finger. The walk there became stressful- between weaving through the traffic and defending ourselves from the color, it was tough. Throwing color is one thing, but trying to get it in the Westerners eyes, ears, and mouths, and down their shirts...well just sucks. We made it to the water and had an incredible experience of watching people submerge themselves in the river and explored the temple there. By our walk back to the car, we got pretty good at defending ourselves from the color. Rule of thumb- if a bus full of people in it and on top by, duck and cover.

We spent the afternoon back in Mathura to see the Holi Gate and the Dwarikadheesh Temple. On our walk from the gate to the temple we took a detour at an astrologer/jeweler who told Molly he saw yellow sapphires in her future and then tried to sell her yellow sapphires. Good shtick. As we made our way down the alley like street, we passed a group of Americans who were covered from head to toe in color and warned us that if we kept walking that way, we would be too. We were torn- we wanted to play Holi but we also wanted to watch Holi. We knew that the parade of color was coming towards Holi gate so we made a plan to invite ourselves to a second story balcony with a great view of the gate. Our plan worked! We had a great view of the festivities below, which turned out to be a parade, complete with floats (read: 20 Indians piled on the back of a truck throwing color). A woman came over and asked Molly and I if we could come have our picture taken with her. As westerners, we get this request often and didn't think anything of it, until she pulled out the powder. The three of us were surrounded by six or seven photographers as they instructed us to put color on each other and snapped away. We watched the entire colorful parade from our view above and had a great time. The colors, the music, the dancing, the 'floats, the laughter...all amazing. Dan went down and joined in with the party a couple times. We learned after we left that the building from which we were watching belonged to the Congress Party, the political party currently in power in India. Score!

Monday
The hotel manager told us that the photos of me and Molly made it into three newspapers. Apparently they really like the idea of Westerners playing Holi. We later found out we also made it into the online edition of the Hindustand times, a national paper- here is the link! We decided to put our Holi clothes back on and make our way to Vrindavan, the city where Lord Krishna grew up. Our driver took us as far as he could and then it was up to us to venture through the streets to see the sights. We got out of the car and instantly were covered in color. We saw a temple about 100 meters away and headed for cover, but not before we were attacked with color, hugs and gropes. It was intense. I like the 'game' part of it, but I did not like feeling targeted. Apparently most women only play with their families, not out on the street. We made it to the temple where no color throwing was allowed and realized we were at ISKCON, the Hare Krishna temple. My previous experience with Hare Krishna was limited to airports and I came with some judgments. I tried my best to push those thoughts aside and embraced the chanting (Hare Krishna, Hare Hare Krishna), the dancing, and the sights of the beautiful temple covered in fresh colorful gerber daisies. At 1pm, the game of Holi ended. It was as if a national truce was called. We took a bicycle rickshaw tour of the rest of Mathura and saw the Madan Mohan Temple and the Banke Bihari Temple.

Our trip was action and color packed; incredible and overwhelming, at times. Holi might have ended days ago but the evidence of this national “color war” can still be found on people still stained with color as well as the dogs and cows who were only innocent bystanders in this holiday. Here are the pictures!

and the winner is....

Matilda Mountain!

Thanks so much to everyone who played our little game! By the way, Matilda, our winner, is 1...yes a 1 year old got all the right answers on her first try!.

It means a lot to us that you are following our blog. We had a really incredible few days in Mathura and Vrindivan to celebrate Holi...pictures and a post are on the way.