Sunday 31 March 2013

Happy Holi!

 I had been looking forward to Holi from day one in India, so when I found out that it's not a big deal in the South I was a little bit gutted. Of course, I'd forgotten that in India spontaneity is key. Here's what happened...



Holi may have been a small affair at the school, but in a couple of weeks we have our anniversary function at the temple, which I have a feeling will be huge. We rarely teach because of all the dance practice going on so writing out English Nursery Rhymes and making programme designs has temporarily become our new job. We've also managed to accidentally get involved in some classical Indian dancing. Look forward to a video of that after the function!

A guide to helping your brother to pass his exams in one day

1) Do Pooja with 10th class (Year 11 back home). One Thursday morning I joined tenth class with their new pads and pens upstairs for some Saraswathi Devi (the godddess of study) Pooja. We prayed, blessed the pads, ate prasadam, waved fire in our faces three times and drank a special drink. And then it was time for step two.

2) Go to the temple. After ramming the whole of 10th class into a school bus, we sped off to various temples surrounding Tangutur, where coconuts were cracked, after we had walked around the temple three times. We did the same rituals as before at each temple - google Pooja, it's really interesting and good fun!

3) Take a small detour to a science exhbition - was so impressed with all of the different science experiments that I was reminded of A Level Chemistry - before continuing with step four.

4) Visit more temples. The Sai Baba temple was closed at lunchtime so we returned again in the evening, after bathing and changing our sarees of course. It was one of my best temple experiences, and here's why...

Thursday is a special day for Sai Baba so there was a lot going on. The 10th class girls walked around the outside of the temple with us and showed us how to pray to the different Gods. Next the Sai Baba God was carried around the outside of the temple about 10 or 15 times in a cot type thing. We pushed our way forward to take our turn carrying the cot (which was ridiculously heavy) whilst others fanned the God. After giving flowers to the God and touching His feet, we returned inside for prayer. It was gone 10 o'clock when food was served, but it was definitely worth the wait, even if Venkayamma madam was running around with rice in her hand trying to feed us!

Of course along with these four steps, is a year of studying day in day out from 5.30am until 9.30pm, and I'm not sure if my brother is quite at that stage yet, are you J? Still I hope that the blessed Hanuman pad from me and the Saraswathi Devi God band from Raja give you some confidance. We know you still have a few months to go, but from everyone in 10th class, Good Luck Josh!










PS. Visited even more temples in to the run up to 10th class exams, which are now well underway. Cracking coconuts and saying a litter prayer for Josh ended up bringing a tear to my eye. Can't wait to see you all next week!

Friday 22 March 2013

Pilgrim or tourist?

Tirumala is a famous pilgrimage temple in Adhra for the God Venkataswara. If a child is off school for more than a couple of days, you can pretty much assume that they've gone to Tirumala, and if they return with a shaved head, you've got confirmation. One weekend we joined the masses of pilgrims - between 40 000 and 100 000 a day - visiting the temple on a hill. And the main question of curious Indians that we met on the train or in Tirupati was always, "Why have you come to Tirumala?" There are two main types of visitors to Tirumala: pilgrims and tourists. So I'll let you weigh up the different points and decide which category I belong in.

Tourist
- Normal visitors queue for around six hours to see the God, but with the flash of our passports and 300 rupees we were able to cut practically all of the queue (along with babies and the disabled...)
- After lots of pushing, shoving, praying and chanting, we finally reached the God. Unlike normal visitors who had a couple of seconds to pray before being roughly forced to move on, we were called back for a "full viewing" of the God. Not entirely sure how I feel about that, but some things you just have to accept.
- Was unsure about which category to put this one, but I figured that having your shoes stolen is something which only happens to people like my dad (aka mega tourists with maps, goofy sandals, a cap and a sunburnt neck). Anyway, after leaving our cheap Indian shoes (yes, they weren't even Western ones!)at the entrance and running across the boiling floor all day trying not to burn our feet, we returned to find our shoes were gone. As embarrassing as it was hobbling back to the bus barefoot and walking into the closest slipper shop in Tirupati with extremely dusty feet, I have to look back and laugh.
- On our return to Tangutur, my host picked us up on his motorbike. Ramana, Jess and I on a bike should have been an easy task in Indian terms, but of course we fell off... Dont worry, I'm still in one piece so you can laugh!

Pilgrim
- Our journey to Tirupati was spent eating idly in normal chair class on the train - the first glimpse of the temple on the hill at night through the open window was stunning.
- We wore sarees, bindis, kumkum and put flowers in our hair - as usual!
- We prayed and chanted along witht the other pilgrims - as well as pushing and shoving too!
- We ate our prasadam rice and then queued up to collect our special Tirumala laddu to give to everyone in Tangutur.
- We bought a ridiculous amount of God bands and God food to share out, and it's safe to say we weren't the only ones going a little bit wild.

So, as much as I've tried to fill out the pilgrim section with points, I don't think I quite fit into that category yet. Still, it was an amazing and humbling experience,which gave me a little bit more of an insight into Hinduism. I may not have returned with a shaven head, but at least I now understand why the visit to Tirumala is such an important thing for many students at my school.








Wednesday 13 March 2013

Class photos, UK style...

Another new initiative this week was taking class photos for the UK classroom. Overcoming the Indian photo faces (aka very serious) proved a challenge, so we opted for some "UK style" shots too. Maybe this isn't so "UK style" but it was certainly a fun end to the lessons!
IVth B/S
IVth A/S


IIIrd A/S

Vth A/S

Vth A/S

Computer Classes in the UK Madam's Classroom

Awful photos, but this was one of my most exciting days at school. The computers are finally working! After 2 previous sets of volunteers and 6 months of my nagging, the computer classes which were originally planned are now up and running. Unfortunately we have exams this week so teaching the students how to switch on and off the computers has been put on hold. Looking forward to getting stuck in with lessons next week though. Let me know if you have any tips!










Wednesday 6 March 2013

Four bowls of frogspawn

Reading magazines and eating chocolate may not have been the most Indian way to start my birthday celebrations but I soon got into the spirit of things. Here's what the teachers told me to do...
1) Have a "headbath"
2) Put on a new saree - invested in a super-net one which all the teachers find "super super super!"
3) Wear at least twelve bangles on each of my mehindi covered arms - some of the children came to my room and brought bangles as a gift which was so lovely.
4) Flowers and a "fancy" chain are a must too!
5) Drink payasam.

Payasam. (Telugu: à°ªాయసం) is a rice pudding, which is a traditional South Asian sweet dish. It is made by boiling rice or broken wheat with milk and sugar, and flavoured with cardamom, raisins, saffron, cashew nuts, pistachios or almonds. It is typically served during a meal or also consumed alone as a dessert.

Doesn't sound too bad? It is awful. It's like drinking thick sugary milk filled with frogspawn. And on my birthday I ate/drank four bowlfuls, yes four! But I can't complain, and I went for the 'grin and bare it' technique because I did truly feel touched that two different families thought of me on my birthday and prepared the special drink for me. As weird as it may sound, it was one of my best birthday presents.

We spent the afternoon getting ready for the function, changing our sarees and even putting on a little bit of mascara. Soon the children were back and we had fun pulling crackers, blowing up balloons and playing games. Gradually more and more students in their half sarees and teachers in their glitzy sarees arrived, and I put on my new shiny silver slippers to go and join them. Of course things were being prepared on Indian time, so the stage still wasn't set up over an hour after the function was supposed to start. We chatted with the teachers, who all shook my hand wishing me a happy birthday, and even did a cat walk!

Soon it was time for us to take our places. After listening to lots and lots of speeches (in Telugu) from all of the chief guests, who were welcomed to the stage by having flowers thrown over their heads, Brahmin Sir organised for my bright pink 1 kg cake to be brought to the stage. He then proceeded to tell everybody about how I was a true Indian girl - later in the evening he even asked me if it's possible that I stay another year! Managed to get over my embarrassment and enjoyed cutting the cake in front of over 200 people and giving pieces to the chief guests - Jess even had to feed me!

After that excitement was over, we sat down to watch some of the dance programme, Bollywood music danced to by 9th and 10th class students. Will have to try and get some videos up for you because the boys especially were amazing! Then, absolutely starving, we headed for food - lots of special treats including vada, indian sweets, bananas, and ice cream, as well as all of the chocolate bars people kept giving me for my birthday. Jess and I nipped back to the room to drop off the cake only to see Ramana Sir and Venkayamma Madam dancing on the stage from our balcony. We were so shocked that we literally ran back to school and had so much fun watching the rest of the dances.

We managed to avoid braving the stage a second time until the final dance of the night at gone 12.30 am. Brahmin Sir had had it planned all along. We tried to drag Venkayamma Madam up with us but in the end it was Ramana Sir who was most keen. All of the other male teachers joined us on the stage too (the female ones wanting to keep their "dignity") and we soon found out that Sai Sir is actually a pretty impressive dancer. Will never know what everyone thought of our Indian macarena and Ramana Sir's Egyptian/ dad dancing...





















Monday 4 March 2013

19 in India!

Just a quick post to let you all know that I had an absolutely amazing birthday on Saturday. So behind with marking, cleaning, diary writing and washing now but it was worth it! Thank you to everyone who sent me cards and gifts - they really meant a lot. Keep your eye out for another blog post in the next couple of days explaining what I got up to. Lots of love from India, Katie x

Some more circus photos