KVT Fancy Dress

KVT recenlty hosted its "fancy dress competition" with many of the students taking on the personas of famous people. Mahatma Ghandi and the Statue of Liberty were in attendance, to name a few.

In true Indian style (this is part of a larger discussion that I plan on addressing a bit later on on December, but in general Indian students and by default their teachers and parents are insanely focused on their "marks" or grades. This competitive academic culture (for example, students are often listed in order of class rank) sometimes reaches levels that seem too extreme from a western perspective) students were graded and ranked on what would otherwise seem like a light-hearted event.

It was a fun way to start off the morning!

SEE THE KVT FANCY DRESS SLIDESHOW BY CLICKING HERE

KVT Sports Day

Kendriya Vidyalaya Tirumalagiri held its annual sports day a few months ago, but I just couldn't find the time to blog it... so here it is!

Sports play a less significant role in Indian schools then they do in the US. In the US sports teams usually practice daily after school and have regular interschool competitions regularly both during the week and on weekends. In India most practice is done before the school day (but it seems with less regularity) and competition is largely intraschool and on Sundays. Interschool events are infrequent compared to US athletic programs.

Once a year the regional (state) KV organization sets up a large competition which brings athletes from all over Andhra Pradesh to compete with each other. Specific schools host certain events, depending on the availability of playing fields. KVT has a nice track facility, so it was charged with hosting this event for all the KVs in Andhra Pradesh.

Athletes, coaches, and chaperones slept in classrooms while the school closed down for three days in order to host the event. I made friends with a group from Tirupati which is in the very south of Andhra and home to India's most visited religious site - the Hindu Temple at Tirupati. The group sent a video greeting to the US below:

In the following weeks we had a school-wide celebration to recognize the athletes and all the award winners.

Nag Mandir - Snake Temple

Hindus enjoy the company of thousands of gods and goddesses - some have told me that the numbers are in the millions. Powerful animals are often considered to be forms of gods, and of course the cobra snake is no exception to this rule.

The Nag Mandir, or literally Snake Temple, is one that is dedicated to the snake goddess. We visited the Nag Mandir on the recommendation of Navya, one of my students in standard eleven.

We went in a rickshaw (its only a few kilometers away from where we are staying in Secunderabad) along with Virajita and Vipanchika.

Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the temple itself, so we were limited to some photos from the surrounding grounds.

Mumbai: Gateway to India

Mumbai is India's economic heart and most influential city. It is also where the second largest movie-making industry in the world is located, which sort of makes it both the New York and Los Angeles of India.

One of the things which I have really struggled to fully understand during my stay here is the depth and layers of history and tradition in this country. But India is changing quickly. Almost every Indian I have met either knows someone in the US or has been there, and although I can't say the same about most Americans, I can say that anyone who has called for computer technical support or works in technology fields knows Indians are a huge part of the global economy. Visiting India has shown me that the notions of a traditional and largely conservative Indian culture is hardly in a state of harmony with the burgeoning economic growth and western cultural influence. Nowhere are the signs of these mutually exclusive characteristics more evident than in Mumbai - India's most progressive city.

You're just as likely to see jeans here as you are a saree or a salwar kameez. People carry ipods, work on laptops at cafes, and swig fancy coffees. But they also use bullock carts, wear dohtis (this is the handloom garment worn by Ghandi) and wash clothes at the ghats. It is India in transition - for better or worse. I've tried photographing this cultural juxtaposition in a few frames on the slideshow - garment washers in the shadows of skyscapers, rice boats dwarfed by supertankers, etc.

After visiting the Shri Mahalakshmi Temple we spent our second day on the water. Mumbai is India's main port - connecting it economically with the rest of the world. We left the harbor at the famous Gateway to India - one of the monuments left by the British during the 200 years of rule on the subcontinent. Lonely Planet calls it a "bold basalt arch of colonial triumph, derived from the Islamic styles of 16th century Gujarat". Interestingly the British left through the same arch of "colonial triumph" just 24 years after it was finished as they relinquished control of India to Mahatmas Ghandi and company.

We took a boat from the Gateway of India to Elephanta Island, the site of Hindu cave temples - about one hour's journey through Mumbai's busy shipping lanes in the Arabian Sea.

That night we hung out on Chowpatty Beach - the main cresent-shaped beach that serves as the epicenter for Mumbai's bazaar (I guess in both senses of the word) like atmosphere. You can purchase just about anything on Chowpatty, which makes it sort of like Las Vegas.

The next day we ventured to the Dhobi Ghats - home to thousands of men who rent open air stalls to launder clothes - it was quite a site with the modern buildings in the background. We also visited the Victoria Terminus Rail Station, now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, which like many of the buildings in the main "Oval Maidan" area were built in an elegant Victorian style by the British. At times it was difficult to tell whether we were in London or Mumbai.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MUMBAI SLIDESHOW!

Shri Mahalakshmi Temple

Laxmi (pronounced "LACK-shmee") or Lakshmi, is the wife goddess of Vishnu (who has many incarnations, including various forms of mammals, and eventually the flute-playing Krishna and honorable Ram) and is considered the goddess of wealth. Indians are naturally drawn to her and often make puja (prayers and offerings) to Laxmi. Their are a few festivals on the Hindu calendar that recognize her.


On arriving to Mumbai (formerly called Bombay by the British) we decided to make our way toward the Shri Mahalakshmi Temple - the most famous in town. Mumbai is a city of 16 million people (or 160 lakhs, written as 1,60,00,000 if you are using the Arabian numerical system which is what is used in India). Just to put things into perspective, New York, the largest city in the US is about 10 million people and New Hampshire, our home state, is only about 1.2 million. However the United Nations ranks NYC as the third largest in the world, just ahead of Mumbai if the surrounding urban areas are included.

It took us nearly two hours just to move a short distance in insanely heavy traffic. Upon arriving we walked the gauntlet of stalls selling offerings such as tapestries and garlands to decorate the idols within the temple, coconuts and laddus (Indian sweets) for offerings, as well as some other basic amenities for the huge crowds. We bought a plate of mixed offerings - some fresh cut flowers, coconuts, and laddus to offer the goddess Lakshmi. Photography is not permitted within the temple, so I was only able to take a few snaps on the road there. Things got very crowded as we got closer (pilgrims were divided in lines by gender, so Jessie, Erin and I got split up) so I had to pick Evan up and push my way forward in order to pass my offering plate to one of the Brahman (priests) who assembled the offerings in neat piles. He then gave me a half coconut in return, which I was eventually instructed to share with my neighbors.

It was nice way to start three days in the biggest city I have ever been to.

The Art of Mehndi

Mehndi (pronounced "meh-HIN-dee") is the application of a henna-based paste to the skin in order to create temporary designs on usually the hands, arms, or the feet. It is quite beautiful, and yet unusual for westerners, to see it.

I mostly notice mehndi designs on women who have recently attended a wedding (the bride always has mehndi). Jessie had some Mehndi applied at a wedding we attended in August which lasted for weeks. Sometimes these henna designs are also put on the hands and feet of men, but I rarely see it.

To get a mehndi "tattoo", if you will, one simply needs a tube of premixed henna and a friend. It usually takes about 20-30 minutes to do, but varies depending upon the skill and proficiency of the artist.

Our friend Erin, also affectionately known as "this one" (it's an inside Indian joke), was sporting some mehndi before we left on a Sunday trip to Ramoji Film City (blog entry coming!) so we went onto the roof for some photos.

Fulbright Conference

USEFI (United States Educational Foundation in India) organized the annual Fulbright conference in Manipal in the southern state of Karnataka near the city of Mangalore. It was really fun to be reunited with the other seven US Teachers as well as about 50 other Americans who were primarily University Professors, Researchers, and Doctoral Candidates. The theme of the conference was "Evolving Contemporary Fields for Fellowship in South Asia" in which we spent three days in discussions about our various experiences in India (although there were also a handful of participants assigned to Sri Lanka and Nepal).

It was a nice time and Jessie and the boys got to spend some quality time with some other families who have come along for the Indian adventure. We spent a part of the last day touring the Manipal University campus and at an old age home for the elderly doing some outreach.


But the highlight was having Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and all the fixins at an incredible beach house with our extended American family. It was heartwarming when we all sang "This Land is Your Land" followed by "Jana Gana Mana", the Indian National Anthem. I had tears in my eyes, knowing that this whole thing was coming to an end in a few short weeks. I felt homesick but I wouldn't have stepped onto a plane home for all the money in the world.

Of course I have a lot to be thankful for - a lovely family tops the list. But I took the particular point in time to give thanks for the amazing experience we have been given in India and specifically for the amazing people it has connected us to. My new Indian friends top the list - Dr. Sharma and Sudha and their amazing daughters, my colleagues at KVT like GS Reddy, Mohammad and Elancharian, my neighbors and friends Hemanth, Bhanogee, Lakshmi, Shalem, and Chinu, and perhaps most importantly the warm students from my classes XI A and B and IX C and E. Their faces remind me of my students back at CHS in so many ways - so much hope, energy, and possibility. Seeing their faces lights me up each day (OK, most days, when they aren't sweating their "marks" and Vinay isn't bunking my class) and reminds me of why I became a teacher and why I still want to teach every day.

What is India? I have started asking myself this question lately and am getting somewhat reflective in the final weeks...

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULBRIGHT CONFERENCE SLIDESHOW

Karnataka Dancing

The family and I traveled to Mangalore with a layover in Mumbai (more on Mumbai to come) for the annual Fulbright Conference (more on that to come as well) which was hosted by Manipal University and USEFI (United States Educational Foundation in India).

Upon arriving we settled in at our hotel and attended a lovely outdoor reception dinner which showcased an incredible performance of one of the cultural dance forms of the southern state of Karnataka (this was our second time in Karnataka - formerly in Mysore and Bangalore). It was somewhat similar to the Kathakali we saw in Kerala, with dramatic hand gestures and facial movements, but unlike the Keralean version this was performed by only women. The dance was accompanied by heavy rythmic percussions, a stringed instrument (not a sitar, but similar) and some mantra-like chanting from a vocalist (not the dancers). The dancers wore thick bands of bells on their ankles that jingled when they moved. As you see, the costumes were incredible - the silk and gold were flowing. In this opening video (see below) the dancers are making a tribute in a form of puja to Lord Shiva - one of the three main Hindu gods and my personal favorite. Shiva and his wife Parvati are notorious dancers - and Shiva once challenged her to a dancing dual (sounds like a healthy marriage!) which she accepted. Shiva did eventually win the competition (but was subsequently beaten by her in a game of dice) and is considered the god of dance. The famous idol (there is a picture of it from the National Museum in Delhi in mu Delhi set) of Shiva pictures him with four hands in an elegant dancing posture while stepping on the demon of ignorance. In this dancing form Shiva is also known as "Natraj". The dancers adorn the idol of Natraj, the god of dance, with flower petals before commencing the performance.

It was really fantastic to see all the other US Teachers again after meeting them for the first time in Washington with the Indian Teachers and then again for our orientation in New Delhi. But I'll be frank, the opening night was about the Indian dancing girls...

SEE THE KARNATAKA DANCING SLIDESHOW HERE!

Camel Vending

One of the funnier aspects of living where I do right now is the completely random street vendor. By street vendor, I don't mean someone selling hot dogs or falafels (I wish) from a steel cart on a corner in NYC. I mean people walking with giant baskets on their heads, riding their bikes hauling a bundle fabrics, or better yet pushing or pulling a wagon of wares. The best part of it is that the street vendor calls people from their homes in a style not too dissimilar from a vendor at the Fenway selling franks.

Now translate "Git yer Fehn-wahy franks heyar!" into Telagu and that is what we hear from our flat on the third floor.

Sometimes I'm really curious - perhaps because the vendor is just a bit too enthusiastic about what he is selling (it must be good) or perhaps because I just in the mood to know. It's enough to get me to the railing of our balcony to find out. The whole trip usually ends with a disappointed announcement like "it's only papayas", or "just a bundle of carpets".

But every once in a while, usually once a month, the announcement is just a little bit different.

"CAMELS! Evan, quick! Get your shoes! The camels are here! (Evan shrieking) CAMELS!"

And the lot of us rushes down the stairs to admire these majestic animals and their unscrupulous handlers. What is 5 rupees for all the other kids becomes 50 rupees for my kid. After about 10 or 15 minutes of negotiations, a couple of false "walk-aways", and some raised eyebrows, the fare is back down to 5 rupees and the owner brings the camel down to the prone position for the riders to get on.

On this journey Evan was escorted by Virajita, the elder of Dr. Sharma's two daughters. It was a fun day for everyone.

Bibi ka Maqbara

The Bibi ka Maqbara has the unfortunate pseudonym of "the poor man's Taj Mahal". In some ways it kind of deserves it - Aurangzeb, the last of the great Mughal rulers (their power waned as the influence of European colonial activity increased - mostly from France, Portugal, and eventually the British) had it built as a mausoleum for his wife in 1679. I have wondered who in their right mind would try to copy the Taj Mahal - arguably the most beautiful man-made structure in the world. I assume that before the information age (and photographic technology, for that matter) someone might of thought of pulling it off. What makes it peculiar is that is for the most part an exact copy of the Taj Mahal - except that only some of the materials are actually white marble and it lacks much of the fine detail work found on the Taj.

But it's still an impressive structure.

We finished the day with an afternoon at Aurangabad's general bazaar which included a stop for jelebe - one of the countless delicious Indian sweets.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BIBI KA MAQBARA SLIDESHOW

The Ajanta Caves

The Buddhist caves at Ajanta are perhaps the most significant site in the state of Maharashtra outside of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). It, like the rock-cut temples at Ellora, are listed on the UNESCO world heritage sites and are the home to some of the oldest known paintings and frescoes in Asia, dating back to 200 BC. The caves remained in somewhat obscurity until 1819 when a British hunting party apparently came across them in their travels. Although the caves are completely isolated in the hills, I find it hard to believe that not one of the 1.2 billion Indians living here didn't know about them!

We hired a car in Aurangabad (an awesome guy named Aleem) and traveled to Ajanta which is located about 100 km north of the city. We took a leisurely stroll through the 30 caves which took the better part of a day - most of the caves had elegant pillars and statue-type reliefs from the cave walls. Many of the frescoes were in good shape - which is amazing given that they were done using completely natural dyes and pigmentation. The detail in the art is astounding given that much of the work was done on the ceilings (I'm thinking Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel) of these cave temples and the fact that most of them have endured for over two thousands of years.

Evan again made sport of calling out each and every Buddha that he saw ("there's a Buddha and there's another Buddha..."), and it was fun to watch him run around and enjoy the caves since they were nice and cool.

On a separate note I've been corrected numerous times by my students (at KVT) for my pronunciation of Buddha:

"No sir, it's Bood-THA!" (with a strong accent on the second syllable).

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AJANTA CAVES SLIDESHOW!

The Temples at Ellora

The festival of Diwali gave us a 4-day break from my teaching responsibilities at KV Tirumalagiri, so we (Jessie, Evan, Eli, Erin McGraw - our travel companion from Malekpet in Hyderabad and Rodney Kleber - US Fulbrighter from the North Hampton, MA area currently assigned to A KV school in Pune, Maharashtra not far from the megacity of Mumbai) booked overnight train tickets from the Secunderabad Rail Station to Aurangabad - which is located in the northwesterly direction in the state of Maharashtra. It is named after Aurangzeb - the last of a line of great Mughal rulers who extended his reign all the way south into our region of Andhra Pradesh (he was the last conqueror of Hyderabad after seiging the main fort at Golconda in 1687).

Ellora is about 30 km from Aurangabad and is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its incredible rock cut cave-type temples and monasteries that date back to about AD 600. It was an absolutely fantastic place, with intricate Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples (the area was alternately inhabited by these religious groups) jutting straight out of the sheer rocky cliffs. There was an inexplicable harmony between the natural surrounding and the architecture of the temples themselves, with some of the 34 caves going inside the mountain and some of the solid rock temples, including the masterpiece Kailasa Temple, standing separately where mountain had once stood. The Kailasa Temple, built in about AD 760, required 200,000 tons of solid rock to be removed!

The coolest part was that we were able to walk freely in and around the temple caves with no restrictions. I remember hiking out to the Keet Seel site in 2003, an Anasazi Native American cliff dwelling in Navajo National Monument in Arizona (it's about a 3 or 4 hour drive northeast of the Grand Canyon). We had to get a permit from a US Park Service Ranger, hike out the eight miles and meet a different ranger there who guided us through the ruins of the village. She permitted us to touch almost nothing, and significant portions of the site were off limits. I'm sure that some of it had to do with the frail sandstone in comparison to the granite at Ellora, but it was such a different experience to be able to wander around and explore at your own pace.

Evan made a game of counting all the Buddhas we found in each temple. The lighting inside the temples was very difficult to take photographs in without using the flash (both Jessie and I hate using the flash for a variety of reasons, but primarily because it's just hard to use it with good results). I opened the lens up all the way and bumped up the ISO to the maximum setting and hoped for the best. I've also decided to drop all the color and show them in black and white since most of the images are shot in extremely low light.

After visiting the caves at Ellora we quickly visited the simple marble tomb of Aurangzeb in the courtyard of Alamgir Dargah in the walled village of Khuldabad (Heavenly Abode) as well as the 14th century mountaintop fort at Daulatabad (by the way the very popular suffix "abad" means "home of" - so Daulatabad is literally the home of Daulat, etc.). It was a great day with lots of walking!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ELLORA SLIDESHOW!