pongal & impressions.

as it seems i have celebrated the new year twice so far. the first time was in singapore at the harbour, where i was squeezed inbetween thousands and thousands of people and admired the gigantic fireworks. apparently the singaporean government has lots of money to spend, because the firework went on for a full 20 minutes. in india, this is different. similar to chinese new year, tamil new year isn't celebrated on january the first, but on the 14th and 15th. the more common name is 'pongal'. pongal is basically like a harvest festival and only celebrated in tamil nadu (my state) and in parts of sri lanka. officially, 'pongal' translates to 'spilling or boiling over'. rice, milk, nuts and some unknown indian spices are mixed together and boiled until it spills over in a claypot over a small fire. this symbolizes material abundance for the household.

almost every household and/or institution in tamil nadu has it's own little pongal celebration, as did my school. i was staying in bodhi zendo at that time and decided to go and see my little children on this special day. father ama samy and all the teachers were gathered outside the building and were cooking - even in this small environment the importance of said little claypot becomes very obvious, it is almost regarded as something holy. again, religion makes itself noticed but doesn't come on too strongly.

 

after a lovely introductory speech about the significance of pongal, father ama lit a part of some golden statue-like candle thing (at the moment i lack the words to properly describe it) that only important people are allowed to touch and light. to my great surprise he called my name, told the bystanders that i was the new teacher at the school (which was followed by a lovely round of applause) and let me light the second part of the statue. i cannot even describe how honored i felt at that very moment, surrounded by people who valued my being part of the team. luckily, my friend gerd (from austria) managed to take a picture in this very important moment :)

after this 'official' part, we proceeded to doing what indians do most and best: eat. promptly i was handed a banana leaf with a bit of pongal (the dish, so the rice-milk-nut-spice mixture) and a huge piece of sugarcane. and here i went again, eating in the traditional south indian way - with my right hand! let me tell you, it's not easy to balance a giant banana leaf on your left hand and still manage not to make a complete fool of yourself by eating only with your fingertips. banana leaves are actually more interesting than i thought, i learned that if you try to form them in some way the automatically break, HOWEVER if you heat them first, they become like rubber and can be shaped into whatever form you wish. before plastic became popular, banana leaves were used as bottles, wrapping foil, and as any sort of container you would now buy from tupperware. quite fascinating! as is the sugarcane. i was a bit confused because i didn't know what exactly to do with this 3cm thick piece of woodish-looking substance, but i soon learned that you tear off the 'bark' with your teeth, take a big piece of it in your mouth, suck on it and then spit out the rest. honestly, it tastes better than any candy you can imagine (which also makes it more damaging for your teeth and health but nevertheless). pongal was a great success!

soon afterwards, after the people had left and the remaining pongal had been eaten by..me.. i went to kodaikanal. unfortunately, i had forgotten my camera in my room at the school so i have yet to go back and take a couple of pictures. honesty, it's nothing like the on the pictures google gives you. when you search for kodaikanal, you either get images of a wonderful lake surrounded by lovely looking trees, somewhere you might see part of a bazaar.. this was precisely what i was expecting. however, as it turns out the lake is quite small, dirty, the bazaar is just a cluster of 5 overpriced stalls and the trees are by far not as green as anticipated. i don't want to say that it's not nice, it's just not AS nice as advertised. still, kodai gives you everything you look for. what the internet advertises is the tourist area. if you go one street further, you find the real kodai. and it's all a matter of what you make of it. if you find the right shops, you get excellent prices. if you find the right people, you get right directions instead of directions leading you out of town. if you find the right hidden path, you get a wonderful view over the city and the hills and it looks as nice as in travel guides. it's just important to keep away from the tourist areas. if i had to pay money to come here, i still would. there are excellent restaurants and spas around the lake and wonderful hidden shops. everything is condensed into two small streets, which means that after 45 minutes of walking around i had kodai figured out, but it doesn't make it less interesting. i've been there three times so far and every time was completely different, i discovered a couple of new things to buy and things to see each time. it's definitely worth a visit! but beware, it's still typically indian. slightly polluted, slightly chaotic, slightly overpriced if you're a foreigner.

which brings me a couple of fun things that happened to me in kodai. the first shop i walked into was and still is the best so far. i went inside and immediately found a couple of blouses i liked. i asked the shopkeeper for the price and seeing as it was insanely cheap, i said okay. big mistake. always bargain, even in shops where prices are fixed (the only exceptions are supermarkets and restaurants). lucky as i am, the shopkeeper taught me how to bargain. 'girl, you've got to bargain. ask me for 200 rupees less, otherwise i won't do business with you'. i ended up paying 350 rupess instead of 600 - 5euros for two typically indian high-quality cotton blouses - and left the shop, completely satisfied. obviously i was very happy and thankful for the shopkeeper's kindness, so i went back after a while to talk to him. as it turns out, he's one of ama samy's oldest and best friends and supplies both the bodhi zendo and the school with his stuff - faruk is the man's name. he told me that ama samy had told him about a new volunteer coming and that he had guessed it was me because i was desperately looking for something  'typically indian' to wear. ever since i bought the two blouses from him, i visit faruk and his shop every time i go to kodai. faruk is very honest with me and told me that normally, he would charge foreigners more but seeing as we're all part of the 'zendo-family' as he calls it, i get the local prices. also, he gives me tips on where to eat, which shops to go to for the best deals, and which taxi driver to ask to take me home. thanks to him, i went on a shopping-spree that lasted a couple of hours and cost me about 20euros, including the taxi ride home (which lasts 35 minutes). so far so good. i can proudly say that i am behaving like a native!

being a foreign native in india requires a lot of insight. it might be weird for me to say this after only two weeks of being here, but i have talked to a lot of people and gotten a lot of practical tips.
these include: always saying that you are part of bodhi zendo - no one wants to disappoint you as it would jeopardize their business, which is largely dependent on the international community from the zendo coming to shop. also, the zendo is well-known in the entire region which is an asset; always ask a taxi driver for the price BEFORE you enter the taxi (taxis here are not marked but mostly just old cars with old men without meters); always try to wear indian-looking shoes (i have found out that a lot of people here judge you based on the shoes you are wearing. tourists tend to wear sneakers, people who have lived here longer wear slippers no matter how cold the weather); drink lots of tea in public (costs about 5 rupees, so approximately 8 cents) because it shows that you are capable of consuming the actual local things, therefore you will get offered cheaper and often better more local food, which adds to not feeling like a tourist.

i'm sure there are more to come, but i have been trying to do these things and there are no beggars circling me, no people offering me overpriced taxi rides, no people looking at me weirdly and no attempts whatsoever in trying to persuade me to buy fake buddha/shiva statues. fantastic!

also, come to think of it there are a couple of things that i have realized about india.
- indian vocabulary consists of words like 'hence', 'therefore', 'spectacles', 'proximity' and 'arranged marriage', but does not include words like 'tomorrow', 'fork' or 'unemployment'.
- the first three things indians want to know about you are 'what is your name, where are you from and are you married?'. other questions include the name of your parents and how many children you are planning to have later on.
- indian traffic is, once again, extreme. nothing can ever make me feel anxious ever again, i swear. overtaking in a curve with 100km/h on a mountain 1500 metres high with nothing apart from a few stones marking the end of the road and the beginning of the cliff.. i really have no sense of fear anymore. sorry mum if you're reading this, i know it doesn't help, but i'm still alive and james and sasim both said that at least they know how to react quickly..they have a point. still, i'm trying to stay away from cars. and roads.
- showering with a bucket instead of a shower hose saves a lot of water and makes you aware of how little water you actually need to get properly clean. i'm very picky when it comes to hygiene, everything has to be disinfected before i come along and i seriously feel marvellous after one of those showers. i have also realized that although the environment here is heavily polluted, even the poorest of the poor here are always showered and very clean. remarkable!
- when confronted with a monkey wanting to steal your food from you, give in. the monkey always wins anyways.

sigh. india sure is different than everything else i have experienced so far. but i like it. meditating has helped me get more in touch with myself (i never thought i would like it THIS much! i've even set up a small meditation space in my room at school now that i'm not at bodhi zendo anymore..) and conversations with people from all sorts of different backgrounds have helped me embrace this experience even more. i'm happy here.
my actual teaching experience has begun today as it seems, neither the children nor the teachers actually understand what i'm trying to say. and boy is tamil difficult. i've been trying to learn five words a day but even that's a challenge. but there will be a separate blog entry on that one when the time is right :)

anyways. i am now officially helping in the montessori school (8:30am to 4:30pm, children aged 3 to 6) AND in the evening tuition (5:00pm to 7:00pm, children aged 10 to 16). my first day of teaching/helping/being there for any work that needs to be done started today. once i have taken an adequate amount of pictures, i will tell you all about it :) but now i'm off to meditate again for a bit. vanakkam! and speaking of meditation, i did manage to take a picture during today's morning meditation for you.