wedding wedding

throughout December it was wedding season - and across from the beach which is on my way to work there was a section where there would be about four weddings being set up each day. Radhika was off to a new one almost each weekend, so I was helping her get ready and buying clothes and jewellery with her. I was invited to one this weekend - the daughter of one of my aunt's classmates. I felt a little wierd about going as I didn't know them but when I reached the first event - it was buzzing with people - I'm sure they wouldn't have noticed. On Saturday it was the Mehndi, Monday was the ring ceremony and Sangeet and Tuesday was the actual ceremony and reception. Saturday - The Mehndi involved the women sitting and getting their hands decorated with henna - it was amazingly fast, I just sat on the floor next to two women and they took my hands and got on with it, constantly checking up on the others progress and design so the final was similar. the rest of the evening was filled with colours and lights and we enjoyed loads of music and dancing and of loads and loads of food with the hinderage of not being able to use your hands until the henna dried - and protecting it from crumbling so the colour could really come out. Monday - The ring ceremony is from western tradition and we didnt see that but the Sangeet was fantastic. A set of dances were performed by the bride's family and friends, the music and dances had been carefully chosen for Riddhi - and some were very amusing to say the least. Whereas Riddhi had clearly carefully choreographed her dances and knew every last detail - it seemed poor Siddharth was quite oblivious so when he was pulled on to the stage to dance he looked shocked and scared and didn't know what to do. After they had finished their programme the music carried on and everyone else joined in the dancing particularly around the bride and groom - although the groom isn't usually involved in this ceremony. Tuesday - Unfortunately due to annoying circumstances I missed the actual marriage which I would like to have seen - seeing as I've never been to a wedding before - but ma assured me they are very boring and i'd have got the gist of it from all the times I've seen weddings in Hindi films, I'm not sure I agree but anyway... we managed to get to the end when the sister's of the bride were negogiating a price for the groom's stolen shoes, they were asking for Rs.50,000! but his sister came to his aid and gave them back to him. again colours, lights and flowers were everywhere, unfortunately my camera seems to have broken so I can't upload the pictures I thought I took. My cousin has decided I am to have a traditional Indian wedding and she will simply just sign a register.

School events

The past couple of weeks have been really busy busy, so much so, mum was wondering whether I was being kept locked in a cupboard cause she'd phone so frequently and at such random times, but I still wouldn't be in. Sport's Day was fabulous. We got a bus from the community to a racetrack were the events were to be held against other centres in the area. We arrived very early, but they were playing music in the stands so we decided to dance. It was fantastic, some of the children who barely talk in lessons really loosened up seeing all us didis and bhais being stupid and we had such a laugh. The spirit was fantastic and I think it was only this that led us to getting 32 medals, in about as many events!!! We were all getting so excited and into it, and even if a child fell over and was bound to loose we cheered through to the end and made sure they weren't upset by it. Some of the children also opened up a lot as we sat waiting for events and really started speaking more English as it wasn't a 'lesson'. The children are so generous, after finishing the races they were given a packet of biscuits, and I was offered so many, quite insistently from the children. Back onto the bus the children were all chatting and excited; the day was a very successful one. The marathon was buzzing - there was so much excitment and cheer it was great. There were groups of volunteers, teachers and office workers from Akanksha who were running as well as a few children. Unfortunately I didn't manage to run with any of them or even meet up but after I finished I managed to go back round and join the crowd cheering everyone on. After the race a lot of the roads were still closed, and I couldn't find any buses or taxis along the way I'd been advised so ended up walking another 2k to get to my cousin's! I'd caught so much of the buzz from the crowd though I could have run all the way back home but I didn't have a phone and didn't want my aunt worrying! The day after the marathon I had complaints from the children because those who went to watch and cheer hadn't seen me! But they told me all stories of what they had seen. On Friday we took them on a school trip to the planetarium as they have been studying the solar system and are doing a small presentation on planets. The bus journey their was fab, cause along the way there were so many places of interest or significance to the children that it was just full of stories. Fabulous seeing how some of the children's confidence in English has really improved through all the chatting I'm doing with them. We went past ma's flat and they were so excited to see were I live. Different children independently invited the whole bus load to visit my flat on the way back, but fortunately for ma they had to get back to the community by certain times. At the planetarium there was a talk on the planets. Each child had learnt about a planet for our upcoming presentations, so as the talk went on some of them were whispering more information about that particular one to me. Really the children have improved remarkably in the past week, unfortunately we know that with all the disruption and chaos in their lives, this good streak may well not last, and it could well hit hard.

Mumbai Marathon

I am running for Akanksha in the Mumbai Marathon (http://mumbaimarathon.indiatimes.com/index1.html?reload) on Sunday- I am running a shorter distance, cause I haven't been able to train and I'm pretty sure I'm running 7k but am unsure of my details at the moment. As previously mentionned, Akanksha is a NGO focused on bringing light to street children by giving them the education and skills to empower them and allow them to get a better job and hence move into a better standard of living. Find out more at http://www.akanksha.org/ but really read about the children and the situation in my own blog. In our school we are teaching the children in the corridor of a school, after lessons are finished, through some of the year it is shaded, but other times you are either in direct sunlight, or you have the monsoon rains around you. We do have books and pencils and access to teaching resources, but there is obviously a tight budget on photocopies and new materials. The children try hard and with just 2 1/2 hours speaking english a day (for some of them) they really have to, and have achieved amazingly well. And if you want to sponser me please directly contact mum or contact either of us through email, if you don't have our email address message me on here and I'll get back to you a.s.a.p.

Mirzapur and Varanasi

Well as soon as James left, mum, Aled and Bron arrived. We spent a short weekend in Alibag, cut short by the need to pack and be off on a long journey to Mirzapur (dad's cousin - Chinki's place). The place was a palace with peacocks and pheasants roaming in the grounds. Chinki had a fantastic fruit and vegetable garden, with almost every type I could think of, and a dairy so the majority of the food was as fresh as it gets, save eating it covered in soil and worms! Christmas eve, day and Boxing day were spent in a wildlife sanctury. On arrival we split into groups and went off in 2 open-top jeeps on a trail through the forest before sunset. Aled, Bron, mum and Vinoo uncle had two tigers approaching the road, only to be scared off by excited surrounding jeeps. The animals have now become quite used to the jeeps and come very close so we managed to see a beautiful range including: kingfisher, wild hog, peacocks, monkeys, vultures and many types of deer. For Christmas day the hotel which we were staying in organised a barbeque and traditional Indian folk dancing, which was fantastic and so exciting we couldn't help getting drawn in to join! Mirzapur is just a short distance from the Ancient city, Varanasi, one of the first cities in India (if not the world). Being located on the Ganges, it is a very holy place, filled with brilliant temples. The stone masons are strongly associated with the area, so the temples were covered in carved statues of gods and goddesses as well as animals associated with them, dancers and many other ornamentations. The main tourist area was filled with narrow little streets with stalls all over the place and almost anything available to buy. We headed down to the river along with all the other tourists and all the people heading to sprinkle ashes, or hoping for the curing of their illnesses, or simply hopping for blessings. People travel from miles away just to visit the river. We went on a small boat down the river and where told about all the ghats which have been built along the river bank. There was one dedicated to the washer men, and hence we saw several people washing clothes there, but I'm sure this number is greatly reduced since the convenience of washing machines. We didn't go all the way down to the burning ghats, as we could see a cremation was going on at the time. Bodies are carried all the way through Varanasi to get to these ghats whilst calls to Rama are made. When the boat turned around we each had a chance to row along the ganges, although none of us handled the strain of both oars! Chinki's husband is in the carpet industry and so we visited his factory and saw all the fascinating stages involved in carpet making, right from the plotting out of the design and the obtaining of fuel, to the buffing of the final products and the processing of waste products.

Fantastic Darjeeling - F*** Racism

We escaped from the confusion and eerie quiet that over-swept Mumbai not knowing what we were stepping into (I have never ventured north or west of Delhi before). We arrived at the airport and met a Dutch guy who had been sitting opposite us on the plane, it seems we were sat on the wrong side as he had some fantastic views. Chatting we found he was also heading for Darjeeling so we shared a lift and enjoyed the 3 hour crawl up the foothills together (hills here would definitely be considered mountains back at home (and the roads could not really be classed roads with all the rubble, pot holes and twists and turns)). But as we were making our way up we laid our eyes on the mountains... and o my gosh what i sight... its something where the cameras couldn't quite capture the beauty at all. I for one could not stop looking at them and was pointing them out even till the last minute of our trip. James, still being jet-lagged, managed to sleep soon after we arrived and so we didn't explore Darjeeling till the next day when we took a long walk up to the highest point we could, watching the mountains all the way up. Darjeeling seems to be filled with strategically placed wires which ran through every ideal photo location! Throughout our stay, as it would typically be we bumped into our Dutch friend on several occasions throughout our stay :- shopping in the market streets where

• every other shop sold tea
• there was such a strong smell of satsumas (I was definitely taken to Christmas)
• women sat at their stalls whilst knitting/crocheting warm hats and cute frilly dresses to sell
• people walked down the street carrying massive bags using straps across their forehead including 100kg cement
• man walking down the road with a basket on his head of 10-15 chickens

we also saw him at Tiger Hill where we watched the sun rise over a valley where the lights of the city and towns were seemed to be reflected in the billions of stars in the sky. The Sun flooded across to the mountains making them glow from blue to pink to white. It was absolutely stunning and although it wasn't completely cloudless, it seemed the mountains were floating in the sky, making it almost more breathtaking.

Finally we re-met him whilst learning the wonders of tea manufacture and in our discovery of Happy Valley Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Piko One Tea, the tea named and sold by Harrods! Claiming to be the only organic estate in Darjeeling, it is the only place where you can sample delicious and tasteful tea brewed in front of your eyes in just 5 secs. It was fantastic stuff, shame you probably have to spend £40 to get it from London!

We really learned a lot more about the situation with Tibet at a fantastic Self Help Refugee Centre, which though playing an important part made us realise how little is being done to help the situation and how truly terrible the state of things are.

we have both now sat in amazement at how adamant people can be that all this happening is soo wrong but then they themselves can hold such hatred and prejudice against people. no matter how rationally and fairly we based our arguments we could find no way of convincing anyone they were wrong.

all well and fine

just to inform you all... we here are all fine and well. unfortunately this is occuring just as James has arrived in India, so he is not getting the best views of Mumbai - we confined to ma's apartment. telephone communications and live news are unpredictable but we're staying up to date through the gift of the Internet. some family members and friends have had nasty experiences but as far as we know, none of our significantly close-ones have been killed or even physically hurt. we had plans to go to darjeeling and will try and go away tomorrow morning we have been advised by an aunt currently in darjeeling, an aunt in the tourist office and a friend in the police that this is the best option. I will however most likely not have access to the internet. last update: 16:19(Mumbai) 10:49 (London)

Busy Busy schooling

OOO golly gosh, I am loving it at the school. I've got a group of children who always come to work with me and the teacher is now noticing that they are improving tremendously!!! My grandmother was saying how almost everyone in our family has become linked in education in some way or another, and whilst listing people out, we found it wasn't far from false, so she reckons I should stay on for longer - not sure whether there was an ulterior motive to be had. Last Friday was Children's day (a day to celebrate of childhood and children, special focuses are now being made, to make this day particularly special for uderprivaleged children). The school in which we have been situated had organised a party for children from a different local community, which meant we were meant to be teaching outside in the playground, whilst the children's friends walked by in their best clothes, and music blazed from the hall. Fortunately the school father's admitted it was unlikely we would be able to teach in these conditions and allowed us to use a classroom, but there was much calamity and disturbance as the children aren't exactly the most focused! On Saturday we had sports day trials, to choose which children would run which races when a few groups meet together. It was in a graden just across the road from the area where they live, and at a time when most of them were just wondering around, so a lot of them came along even if they didn't want to compete. A lot of the children's meals are unpredictable so some known-to-be fast runners just didn't have the energy to run. But we made light of it and had fun trying out silly activities like the three legged race and wheelbarrow and taking photos of each other. On Monday and Tuesday, there have been band practices in the playground, so we have been teaching whilst being accompanied by loud bass drums, rolling snares, trumpets and whistles. This not being enough of a distraction for the children, there was also a group of children practising a dance routine using Kolu (a pair of sticks with jingles which are beaten together). The dancing was phenomenal, the problem being the children were all too keen to be watching that as opposed to listening to us talking about prepositions! I have grown to hate worksheets already - the children are so focused on finishing the sheet, they won't realise the importance in understanding the information to begin with. They have a huge fear of getting the answer wrong though, so for each question they'll check the answer with me first, and then ofcourse everyone else will hear them and copy it down. Realising that I didn't want this to happen, one of the girls with a particularly loud voice has started sitting next to me and whispering the answer in my ear to check. Besides being asked to come everyday, I've been asked all sort of wonderful questions which ofcourse i forget in the chaos of the day but there's been stuff like: didi (sister), why are you so gora (white)? didi when is your wedding? and many questions about my family, especially asking me to bring in photos of them. The girls are very neat even though their clothes are often torn and stained, always sorting my hair out for me if they arrive early and telling me straight away if my slip got hinched up under my kurta or its strap has fallen down.