When Ganpati gives you a long weekend

You get the heck out of Pune. At least that's what I did. Thanks to Ganpati festival, which fell on a Wednesday - Thursday 24+ hours time span, we had class off on Thursday and Friday. Four day weekend! Yet another reason why Ganesh rocks my world.

Me and three other people decided to head to Mumbai. It's about three to four hours away, so good for a weekend. We didn't really want much more time than that, anyway, just a chance to see something on our own outside of Pune. It was pretty easy to plan the bus, where we stayed, and what we wanted to see. Success.

It was a really fun weekend, but it definitely had more bumps than we'd planned for. Let's start with when we got there, which was around 7:30/8 at night. Not late, per se, but it was dark. People here have a tendency to make difficult things sound so easy, and easy things sound really tedious. It sounded simple enough that we had to find a taxi so they could drive us to the place we were staying. We were actually staying with a woman who knows one of our ACM staff. It sounded like: we get off the bus at x stop, hail a taxi, and give the phone to the driver so the woman can give him directions. Easy, right? Wrong. First off, the bus didn't even go to our stop, even though we'd talked to the driver and he said he'd call it out in English and we were definitely going there. Lies. We had to get off past our stop and attempt to find a taxi. And by "attempt," I mean it was not successful. We had to walk around for about half an hour in an area which, if one of us wasn't a guy, I would have been way more freaked out of than I already was. It was just really sketchy. And it was impossible to hail a taxi from the side of the Mumbai highway. Eventually, we bribed a rickshaw driver to let us stuff all four people into it. It was tight because one of us had to lay across everyone, but we were definitely not about to split up. Thank Ganpati for sympathetic rickshaw drivers. I put this driver on the phone numerous times with this woman and he dropped us off in what he swore was the right area (and the woman had told us on the phone that she had told him the exact area). Another lie. We had to walk around for another half hour/45 minutes in an unfamiliar dark area to attempt to find this place. None of the directions that people told us or that we called for make sense. They should really invest in street signs. Plus, alleys lead everywhere and n0thing is ever what people make it sound like. Don't listen to any landmark that anyone gives you. It's probably worthless. Eventually, they just came out of the house and met us. Thank God.

And there was more bumpiness to come. Taxi drivers definitely try to rip you off when they know you're not native. We got taken for a ride a few times, but we were also smart enough to know when we were being lied to and called them out on it. There's also a lot more poverty in Mumbai than we're used to seeing. Granted, there's a lot of it in Pune. You can't go a day without seeing it and it's completely heartbreaking, but the Mumbai level was almost unbearable. And like I said before, it's really hard to get around. Really hard. But it was much nicer to do this during the day. No more sketchy areas at night for us, that's for sure.

But for all that hassle, we had a great deal of fun! It's amazing what we were able to pack into one Saturday. In the morning, we set out for the Hare Krishna temple, which was beautiful. There were paintings, sculptures, shrines, and everything was so colorful. People were singing the mantra and playing instruments. I think one of them was a sitar, the other was tabla drums. It was really cool. I felt a little weird because there were actually people worshipping, but they pretty much ignored us. It was so pretty. Then we went to the Haji Ali Mosque, which we had to make sure to hit before high tide. You can only get there by going down the walkway that leads out to the mosque, which is built into the middle of the water. When the tide gets too high, the walkway is covered, so it looks like it's floating. People were actually doing tricks and jumping off the walls of the mosque. It scared me to death, but they were so proud of themselves. It was like a competition to see who could do the coolest flips. No, I didn't try to rival them. I was content not accidentally killing myself.

And in the midst of the city hustle and bustle, we were able to find the Hanging Gardens. Beautiful. It was so strange to see flowers and different plants in the middle of Mumbai. And there were a lot of penguin statues for whatever reason. Maybe they guard the flowers. Who knows.

From there we went to the Gateway of India, which also happened to be right by the Taj hotel. How convenient! It was so nice to actually look through the arch of the Gateway and see boats!! On the water! And speaking of the water, the place to be is Nariman Point. Yeah, it's literally a point in the city where the road juts out kind of like a peninsula. There's a great view of the ocean and the Mumbai skyline. And you sit there amongst these rocks that are shaped like jacks. No kidding. Jacks! I don't know who or how or why it was decided that this was a brilliant idea, but it was, in ever sense of the word, brilliant. Those rocks give to much entertainment. People were constantly posing on them, climbing through them to get to the shoreline, racing through them. It was great. Each jack was big enough to fit a few of me at least. These things were giant. Like I said, brilliant.

Even more beautiful that this view at sunset was the view of what's called the "Queen's Necklace" when it gets dark. Not like midnight, pitch black dark, just dark enough when you know it's nighttime. We got to the middle of Marine Drive, which is a huge road, but the middle is the place to go for sure, around 8:30. So. freaking. beautiful. The Queen's Necklace isn't anything but the Mumbai skyline lit up at night. What makes it so wonderful is the way it's shaped. The ocean and the skyline together make a semicircle, so when you look at it from the middle and you see this view and the buildings lighting up at night, it's supposedly as if you're looking at a queen's necklace with sparkling gold and jewels. It's really stunning. And Marine Drive was packed with people, a lot of them locals, who were claiming spots on those giant jack-shaped rocks to see the Queen's Necklace light up. I'm hereby convinced that there is no nighttime skyline in the world that's more beautiful than Mumbai.

Tonight, Pune is the best city in the world!

Sadly, Ganpati festival had to come to an end. And people know how to end their festivals with a bang! With the firecrackers and whatnot, this turned out to be pretty literal. Lucky for us, we had school off that night so we could enjoy the holiday.

First off, the processions of the gigantic floats of a bajillion Ganpatis lasted all day and all night. I woke up in the morning to drums, firecrackers, bells, shouts of "Moria!" all coming from two roads away from me, but it sounded like they were right outside my window. You were able to tell where the processions had been because of the kholi powder that they throw on people was staining the streets. And you could tell who had been in the processions. Every once in a while, we'd pass someone on the sidewalk or on their motorcycle who was stained with the red powder.

Everything closed early. I actually got out of class to go to the phone store because my phone was having issues and my teacher said it was important that I get it fixed before it closed at 11:30 that morning. At least one good thing came out of my phone hating me. Thank you, Ganpati.

At around 8 that night, my friend Laura and I walked down my road to where the procession was. Entire roads were blocked off. It was impossible to get a rickshaw or to get anywhere without crowds of people going the same way. And if we thought getting there was crowded, we had another surprise coming.

It was absolutely impossible to walk on Karve Road. The procession took up the whole thing. People were literally standing on top of each other to watch the people dance down the street and play their instruments. Oh. And see the Ganpatis as well. Laura and I were so excited that we actually jumped into the procession.

And of course, that was crowded, too. I don't know how, but somehow people managed to dance with virtually no space around them. It's a talent that I'm still waiting to acquire. And for all the chaos, it was surprisingly well-organized. The men and the women were separated, which could sound sexist or something, but Laura and I really appreciated. Many of the men were quite intoxicated (and not just with joy for Ganpati) and it was really uncomfortable being in a crowd of them. There was a circle of guards surrounding an area that was just filled with women dancing. It was so much fun! People were so amused. Everyone wanted to show us dance moves.

At one point, a girl said to us over the overbearingly loud music, "Welcome to India, how are you enjoying the festival?!" And, of course, we told her how wonderful it is. To which she responded, "Tonight, Pune is the best city in the world!" Oh, how true that was.

We ended up being out until about midnight dancing with this crowd of women. It was so much fun. Laura spent the night at my house, since I'm close enough to walk to the party. We watched the party continue on TV for a while with Anjali, but eventually we were so tired from all the dancing and excitement that we both passed out around 2 in the morning.

But the show must go on! The festival didn't stop until around 4 the next afternoon. Talk about a party! Oh, and the next morning, Laura's host mom said she saw us on TV. Go figure, right?

Sock! Sock! Sock! Sock! Sock!

The great thing about having a professor who's also a legit published novelist is that you get to go to his book releases and meet his super famous friends. Yup. My modern Indian literature prof premiered his new book, "Hostel Room 131" at Crossword, a bookstore here. Google it. Or Bing it. Or Yahoo it. The choice of search engine is up to you. You'll find his name. And as if we didn't stand out enough, we were lucky (ugh) enough to be mentioned a bazillion times in his responses to whatever questions were being asked. "As I told my American students," "I hope my American students aren't offended," "My American students may remember." Mmhm. Oh! And did I mention that he's being published by Penguin books? Just a statement of his legitness. And when you're that legit, you naturally make legit friends. His happens to be a prince. My sparkly invitation specifically calls him "His Highness Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Raj Pipla." It takes up three lines. He is also search engine-able. Go figure. But this is what happens when you're a Gujarati prince who defies your family and starts a magazine. And if you've actually typed these names into google, 1) I'm really impressed; I didn't think you'd actually do it, and 2) You'll find a lot of stuff on GLBT activism. Yep. Both are openly gay and leading activists in India. And highly googleable. Another great thing about the book release: we got invited to His Majesty's palace in Gujarat. I know Raj really wants us to be able to go so we can see a real functioning palace. Sweet!! As to whether or not that'll happen, I'm not sure, so your guess is as good as mine.

Now let me just talk about the pure awesomeness that is dance. I've been doing Bollywood lessons for a little while, now. The instructor is kind of sort of the greatest thing ever. She's actually my friend Kacie's host mom, so bonus right there. Her name's Rajashree. She can't be more than 5 feet tall, which makes me feel like a giant, even though I'm only two inches closer to the sky. There's one girl that dances with us, Laura, whose name she can never get because she keeps calling her "the giraffe." Bear in mind, Laura's at least 6 feet tall. Rajashree's actually taught ACM students in the past, but we're her first in the past few years. She's a trained Bollywood and Bharatanatyam dancer, which is super cool. Plus, really helpful, since a lot of Bollywood dance has a classical base. Hence, we have to learn all the facial expressions, body positions, and hand mudras. And the hands are super difficult. But so far, I can do two different ways to portray both Krishna and Shiva, along with peacock, bee, deer, flower, lightning, beautiful woman, butterfly, and good. And of course, we've taught her our own mudras, which include the hand jive, rock on, I love you, and hang loose.

Kacie had told her about me before dance started because she knew I was super excited. So, by the time Rajashree gave her presentation to ACM, she called me out, "Who is Isabel?" She thinks I'm crazy. The first thing she told me was, "Kacie tells me you're crazy about Shahrukh Khan." And I know your question is: who? Once again, search engine. And the answer to her accusation is: no, I'm not crazy about him. I believe he's quite charming and fun to watch, but that be it. And for the record, Kacie is just as "crazy" about him as I am.

And she thinks I'm legitimately crazy. By which I mean, I have a lot of energy and I think she's used to calmer people. I've become very used to the look of mixed terror and amusement that she gives me. She's teaching two songs that we're going to perform at the end of the semester. The first one is from the movie "3 Idiots." http://www.youtube.com/watch?

She's convinced that the next one is going to kill her. She keeps saying "December 4th will be the last day of my life." I guess that's our performance date... But no matter how much I tell her she's going to be so proud then, she's convinced that she's going to watch us, be proud, and then keel over. The other girls and I are obsessed with this dance that we're working on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58qky-vPSkE&feature=related. We're insistent that the choreography be as close to the original as humanly possible. This, of course, means that we're working our butts off, but it's going to be awesome. Rajashree keeps calling us "you crazy girls" because of our obsession. If you actually watched the generously provided hyperlink, you'll know that it's super fast and super complicated. It's beyond normal counting to get the moves. Rajashree counts in terms of "1, 2" and what I can only describe as sounding like "sock! sock! sock! sock! sock!" Each "sock" being a different move, of course. I know this poor woman thinks we're killing her, but mark my words: by the time that curtain falls in December, all 5 feet of her will be jumping up and down with complete and utter bollywood joy. Koop chaan!

I also started Kathak dance yesterday at a studio behind ACM. It involves a lot of foot stomping patterns and hand movements at the same time. It's pretty difficult as far as I can tell, but I really like it. The dancers wear bells around their ankles to make more noise when they stomp. It's only been one class so far, but I want those bells soooo badly. It's only a matter of time...

So, I've been wanting a sari since I got here. And I'm happy to say that I finally have one!! Rajashree took me and Kacie sari shopping this past weekend. Man, it was an adventure. First off, getting around Laxmi road is not the easiest thing in the world, especially now, when it's crowded with giant Ganpati (Ganesh) statues and people processing down the street. Ganpati is more important than people right now. And then you have to find a shop that sells saris for a good price. Thank God (or Ganpati) that Rajashree was there because it's completely beyond me what a good sari price is. And there are so many colors and patterns and materials to choose from! And it's not like you can say "I want a blue one." There's a bajillion different shades of blue, along with a bajillion different patterns to go with each shade. And don't forget the border colors of the skirt. Each one comes with a contrasting color, usually stitched along the border, which is also used as the color of the shirt, plus the color of the underside of the thing that wraps over your body (the actual name escapes me at the moment). Decisions, decisions, decisions. So if you give a request to the shopkeeper (ie. "I'd like this color"), they pull out a million options at once. a) I really wonder how they keep track of everything, seeing as most stores have shelves that line every single wall that all contain the folded material. And b) my brain had absolutely no time to process it all at once. Before I could blink, there were colors upon colors of material laid out in front of me probably deep enough that I could have gone swimming in them. The only thing I could ever think to say was "haluhalu!!" (slow down!) or "bas bas!!!!!!!" (enough!). In the end, I became the proud owner of a purple sari with a burnt orange contrast color. Mmmhhhmm. I'm pretty proud. Rajashree says that what we got is an "every day sari." I will not, in fact, be wearing it every day so much as every special occasion, but I love it anyway. They are not performance saris, though. That'll have to be a trip to the bollywood shop... Later.

You underestimate the amount of Ganesh going on

It's a party over here! The Ganesh festival is starting. Yay! And it's all Ganesh all the time. Not kidding. You can't walk anywhere without running into a temporary temple or a place selling these elephant god idols or moduk, his favorite sweet. A few days ago, I had a meeting with my guide for my research project and I got lost trying to find his house, so I called him. He told me to walk straight and I would see a Ganesh temple. To be fair, this wasn't a complete lie. The problem was that I saw three and I hadn't even started walking. I tried saying "there are lots of temples" to which I only got "yes, the Ganesh temple." And I finally had to be blunt and tell him "You underestimate the amount of Ganesh going on in front of me."

The whole festival lasts ten days, so there's more to come, but I'm enjoying the parts that I have experienced at least. At ACM, we made our own Ganesh idols to prepare for visarjan, which is when families take an idol made from a particular kind of clay and immerse them in water. Yes, it dissolves, so it's relatively sad, but it's also considered good because you're returning the soil to the earth. ACM arranged a class for us where people came and taught us to make these elaphantine deities. I felt so artsy. I don't think the instructor agreed with me. Every time I asked her if I was doing something correctly, she said "yeah, ok, no problem," took the clay from me, and did it herself. And the main instructor laughed at me because I was so proud of the tiny bowl of gulab jamun that I made for my god. At which point of course he decided to inform me that Ganesh's sweet of choice is moduk. Whoops. Oh. And of course, he thought it would be hilarious to tell all the other instructors that some girl made a giant bowl of gulab jamun. Well, my Ganesh likes his gulab jamun just fine, thank you very much. He's sick of moduk. The fact that my idol actually turned out to look like an elephant god is a miracle in and of itself.

Our idols were actually so awesome that we made the news here. Yeah, we're kind of celebrities. No big deal. I'm having trouble finding the link, but I promise I'll get it up here as soon as I locate it.

We had to wait to paint them until after they dried completely, so about three days later. It was actually really hard to paint nicely. The statue in and of itself is detailed because there are so many nooks and crannies, plus we imprinted a lot of designs with toothpicks, so there's a lot to cover and not a lot of room to mess up. I, of course, messed up. My poor Ganesh looks like a kindergartener painted it. That's ok, though. They get submerged in the water anyway. Don't worry, I'll post a picture on facebook.

Quick side note, the two German girls that lived with me and Alex are gone. We had a little goodbye dinner and everything. Now in their place are two other girls. One happens to be German. Her name's Irina and she's here to teach German in schools. The other one is from Spain. She's actually living in the apartment that my host family owns, but she comes over every day for breakfast and dinner. Her name's Gema, and she's here to study aryuveda. She specifically studying marmapoints (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly), which is like acupuncture, but with your fingers. She's floating around different clinics and doctors around the city. They're both here for a month and they're really awesome. They love going places with us and chatting and whatnot.

Ok, back to Ganesh. For the actual start of the ceremony, Irina, Alex, Gema, and I (plus a few other ACM people) went to Laxmi road, where they start the procession. It rocked. There was absolutely no escape from the drums. Boom! Boom! Boom! All the time. And everyone's shouting and dancing. They carry a big Ganesh behind every procession on a float type thing. Except the floats are all really ornate and silver and they're decorated with flowers and whatnot. Along with the inescapable drumming are also the inescapable firecrackers. Every so often, we'd see people running away from a certain area, so there'd be a circle of people surrounding something. That was the signal. A lot of people lit strands of firecrackers for maximum boomage. Some of us didn't like the noise, but I absolutely loved it. A city-wide festival is never complete without some firecrackers. And that's a fact of life.

You could not get away from a procession on Laxmi road. They just kept going like an energizer bunny of procession. And the end of one would lull you into a false sense that it'll get quiet soon. Except then another one would be starting a mere few minutes behind it. Surprise! In one case, people put hats on us and had us join them. Which, of course, involved taking lots of photos, but they were also really happy to explain everything that was going on. They all seemed to lead to a temple of some sort, or at least a shrine-like thing. And they're everywhere. There's the richest Ganesh, which has jewelry of pure gold and precious stones, the oldest Ganesh, which starts the procession, and my favorite, the Ganesh surrounded by lights, which Anjali fondly calls "disco Ganesh."

We also became famous here. News stations wanted to interview us, newspapers wanted to know how we were "enjoying the function." Yeah, all of Pune is going to know we're celebrities.

On a completely un-Ganesh rated note, I have seen my first Bollywood movie on the big screen. Oh yeah!! Now, I've seen Bollywood before, but it's always had subtitles. But of course, they don't need those in theaters here because everyone understands Hindi... except us. We saw a new release called "Dabaang." Holy baloney, was it amazing! We could get a general idea of the plot, so we weren't totally lost, but we had such a great time. Plus, we just had Karan explain the story when we got home. It was a movie about a sheriff trying to catch a corrupt politician (that's a really, really rough summary), so it was a fairly serious and legit subject. But then, all of a sudden, they'd burst into song and dance! So. much. awesomeness. And going to a movie here is a completely different experience than it is at home. People in the audience love to interact. They'd whistle for a pretty girl, clap when Dabaang punched a guy in the face, sing the songs, dance... Our movie-going experience in the States is clearly inferior.