Happy Holi!

This week was my first Holi, and it was fantastic! Holi is the Hindu festival of color, meant to herald in the Spring. For the past 2 weeks, I have been dodging water balloons on my way home from work, as kids get excited for the celebrations.

The holiday was on Wednesday, but festivities began the day before on Choti Holi (Little Holi). In the nursery school we ended early and spent the last 20 minutes playing Holi in the yard. You celebrate by rubbing color onto each others' cheeks and foreheads and saying "Happy Holi!", but with small children it turned into smearing colors all over faces and onto clothes. We all had a great time and it made me even more excited for the following day.

Sudankar and Anshika

Chantale gets smashed in the face with color

Ankita (Although the best part is Chantale in the background)

Me and Punam (One of the teachers)

Manjeet and Bhumi

Me and Nandini

Shristi is VERY excited about Holi

On Wednesday, Rahul and I started early by filling up dozens of water balloons and positioning ourselves on the roof to toss balloons at unsuspecting victims. Later, we walked around the corner to Rishika's friend's house and got ambushed by two kids with a bucket of green water. We went back with water guns to get our revenge. When we returned to the roof, refilling our balloons turned into a full-fledged water fight between Rahul and his two friends and me and Alperna, the maid. We fought valiantly, and eventually, when the roof and our bodies were dyed a rainbow of colors, we called it a tie.

Water balloons, powdered color and spray color -- ready for action

Just a few of our water balloons

Alperna after being doused with green water

Happy Holi!

Me and Rahul

A victim of the local Holi celebrations

Under attack

The roof after our battle was finished

We were all famished after our epic battle, so we went downstairs for a special Holi lunch. Lunch consisted of some of my favorite Indian dishes: puri (puffed, fried bread), chana (chick peas) and aloo (potatoes) with halva and gulab jamun for dessert!

Chana, aloo, raita (yogurt) and halva

Puri

Gulab Jamun

Halfway There

Today marks the halfway point of my trip to India! 70 days down, 70 to go. I have become hypnotized by this country, which constantly has something new to present: a new food to try, a new place to get lost in, a new dilemma to solve. I was reading a book I purchased here, The Accidental Apprentice, by Vikas Swarup, and one of the characters says that India "only adds, never subtracts." This is one of the truest ways you can describe India. You see the old culture side-by-side with the new. Sometimes it is literally side-by-side, seeing 12th century Mughal ruins as you ascend from a 21st century metro. Other times, it is the contrast of a woman wearing jeans a t-shirt walking past a woman wearing a full sari, her face covered. Sometimes it is wandering from a high-class neighborhood with fancy cars into a windy alleyway with open sewage and cows roaming about. Or it is choosing between a lunch of aloo gobi and roti from a street vendor or a cheese pizza from Dominoes. India is a fascinating amalgam of histories, religions, cultures and classes. Although I never had a concrete reason for choosing to come to this place, I most definitely have a reason for staying: to continue to explore this chaotic, beautiful, loud, intoxicating country. 

Sightseeing in Delhi: The Lotus Temple and the Qutub Minar

The Lotus Temple

Gaby* and I visited the Lotus Temple one Saturday afternoon after work. From the clinic we ambled to Nehru Place, a crowded shopping center, and from there decided to check out the Lotus Temple that Geetika had told us about. After wandering through a gorgeous park, we found the Kalkaji Mandir, the Lotus Temple.
The Lotus Temple is a temple of the Baha'i faith. I know very little about Baha'i, even after going through the Temple's information center, but what was clear was that it was religion focused on inclusion. Gaby and I managed to come in time to catch a prayer service, and the service included readings from the Bible, the Qu'ran, the Baghvad Gita and a separate Baha'i prayer.
The temple itself was stunning. From the outside, it looks like the Sydney Opera House closed in on itself. The whole thing is constructed from marble. Inside, it was filled with wooden pews underneath arching marble ceilings. (Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the temple.) You were required to remove your shoes before approaching the temple, and absolute silence was requested upon entry. It was the quietest place I have been since coming to India. After spending some time submerged in the temple's tranquility, Gaby and I sat by one of the blue pools surrounding the temple and submerged our feet in the clear, cold water.

The Qutub Minar

The Qutub Minar is one of Delhi's older attractions. It is a giant tower surrounded by Mughal ruins in the south of Delhi, a few metro stops from where I live. The 237-foot tower was constructed in the 1100s by the Mughal ruler Qutub-ud-din Aibak and is covered in inscriptions from the Qu'ran. The sheer height of the tower was quite impressive, and the other sandstone ruins were fun to explore. Several times Gaby and I were stopped for photos, and at one point a man handed me his baby and asked to take a picture of us. Such is a day in the life of a white tourist in India.

*It recently came to my attention that I have been misspelling Gaby's name with an extra "b". Sorry Gabs!

The DCWA School

In my first two weeks in Delhi, I have spent my mornings helping out in the DCWA school, a nursery school for students 3 and 4 years old. For two and a half hours we do the alphabet (both English and Hindi!), learn colors and numbers, practice writing, play with blocks and sing various poems and songs. The experience has given me a renewed appreciation for the patience of teachers, especially teachers of children this young. While I think I have already decided I will not become a kindergarten or preschool teacher, I am enjoying watching the teachers work and playing with the kids. They don't get the fact that I don't understand Hindi, so they will chatter away at me or tattle on their fellow classmates. I respond with a nod and smile or a reprimanding shake of the head, accordingly, and they seem happy enough.