eiding and more eiding

As of today, I have officially been in Bhopal for three months. It doesn’t really feel like it has been so long since I arrived here, but then, when I think back at all I have seen and done over the months, it feels like much longer.

The weather is finally starting to cool off to what I would consider an acceptable temperature. The heat of the day, in the afternoon, is still fairly warm, but nothing compared to the heat and humidity that I experienced when I first arrived. The monsoons are officially over, I suppose as of last month, and now it is dry and dusty here all of the time. I looked on the internet, and apparently Bhopal has only an average rainfall of a few days a month, except during the monsoon. I can’t say I mind, so long as the weather doesn’t get so hot again while I am here (which it is not supposed to).

We have another new volunteer, a Swiss-German guy named Aio. As per usual, Sathyu didn’t tell anyone that Aio was coming, most likely he completely forgot. However, just before dinner on Thursday night, Dr. Jai announced to Prabjit and I that there was a new volunteer in the boy’s dorm. We all crowded into the room and asked him a million questions, and just generally hassled him until we were ready to go and eat dinner. He was very patient with my hundred-miles-an-hour talking, so I think that he has passed the test, and we can be friends now. Just kidding Aio…

On Friday night we went to see a Bollywood movie with a huge troupe of people, which was actually really fun. I had been reluctant to go to an actual Bollywood film in the theater, mostly because they are never shorter that about three hours, and if it was as boring as some of them are, then I might have had to try to sleep through the entire thing. The whole night turned out to be quite fun though. We went out to Indian Coffee House for dinner, where I am quickly never tiring of eating, and then to the theater right next door. It turned out that the film we were planning on watching was sold out, so we all managed to pack ourselves onto Rachna’s, Vikas’ and Dr. Jai’s bikes, and drove a few blocks away to the other movie theater. The film was about a small-town girl trying to make it in Bombay, and who ends up becoming a high-class call-girl. According to Dr. Jai, this is a huge problem, since so many young women show up in Bombay every year trying to make money to send back to their families. Anyway, the film was really entertaining, and (Dan and G, are you ready for this?) everyone talks the entire way through the film!! It was great! People even boo and hiss at the screen when the villain came onscreen and cheer when the heroine prevails! It was like the Rocky Horror Picture Show with better songs. I love talking in movies, but am always reprimanded for doing it (except for when I watch movies with Lily and Sylvan, who may in fact talk more than I do), so this was like a dream come true for me! Also, it was somewhat necessary in order to follow some of the finer plot points, since it was all in Hindi and had no subtitles, Prabjit spent a lot of time translating for me. I was, however, surprised to see how much I could follow without her telling me… maybe it speaks to the expressiveness (or over-acting) of Bollywood cinema.

The Muslim holiday, Ramsan (or as we call it in North America, Ramadan) was over as of Sunday. Actually, when it was over was the source of great concern and confusion for us volunteers. Salman came by the day after Aio arrived (Salman always seems to have a sixth sense about these sorts of things, and shows up at exactly the right moment) and invited us all to his house for lunch on Eid, which follows the end of Ramsan. Unfortunately, no one was able to really explain to us what the last day of Ramsan was. We kept getting these vague answers about the moon, and it either being Saturday or Sunday. Eventually someone explained to us ignorant angrezies that if the moon is not seen on Friday night, then it means that Ramsan continues for another day, and Eid is then on Sunday instead of Saturday. It turns out that there was no moon on Friday night, so lunch at Salman’s was on Sunday.

I suppose that after a solid month of fasting I would be starving too, but lunch at Salman’s was like no other. There must have been ten or twelve different dishes; mutton kabobs, chicken biryani, chickpeas, roti, and so on. I stuffed myself silly, and thought that this will make up for the fact that I missed out on Thanksgiving dinner this year. Especially because there was this dessert thing made out of what I can only describe as noodles made out of sugar, that are then boiled or fried and served swimming in milk and topped with dried fruit. I can’t, of course, remember what it was called, but I have been assured that it is not a special Eid thing, and that I will be able to find it when Eid is over.

There was one particular kind of funny, and eye-opening incident at Salman’s house, that I couldn’t help but laugh at when Derek, Prabjit and I were talking about it later. Salman’s family appear to be fairly devout Muslims, and I’m not sure if his attitudes are the result of religious upbringing, or simply a cultural attitude that he holds more than most of the other people I have met here. In any case, the only women eating the Eid lunch were myself, Prabjit and Rachna. This was fine, but when lunch was over and Rachna took off, we were left in a room full of white courta-clad men. So Salman, dear boy, says to us “Emily, Prabjit, I’m thinking that you should go and help my mother in the kitchen”. Derek said that he was watching my face when Salman said this to me, and the look I gave Salman could have broken mirrors, but I managed to compose myself again fairly quickly. I realized that he was trying to be hospitable, and felt that we would be more comfortable hanging out with the other women, rather than in a room full of men, and to a degree he was right. I did not, however, have any interest whatsoever in doing the dishes unless all the other (male) guests were also about to help. I felt bad for his mom and sisters when we went into the kitchen, since there were enough dishes to rival one of Whitney and my Yanksgiving dinners, and as far as I could tell, no running water to wash them in. Yikes! Anyway, as soon as we came in, one of Salman’s sisters sat on the floor and chatted with us, and soon his mom and aunt came in and made paan. Essentially, there was no work being done, or at least not immediately, which I was glad to see. Oh man, I still shake my head when I think of Salman telling me to go to the kitchen to do the dishes….

We have since been invited to more people’s homes than I can count for Eid, despite the fact that the three day festival has now ended. In fact, we have dinner arrangements this entire week, from Monday through Friday, because of Eid. We’ve even had to turn a few people’s invitations down! I was talking to my mom and dad about it on the phone last night, and we couldn’t help but comment that if we had to spend an entire week entertaining people we would go completely nuts. I suppose that the Christmas season is somewhat like that, but it seems much more intense here for some reason. Anyway, I’m a little concerned that I am going to gain back the twenty or so pounds that I lost since I got here with all of this Eid food! Last night we went to the home of one of the rickshaw drivers who are always hanging around on Berasia Road outside of Qazi Camp. It was the guy that I really like, Ries, with the hat (although he has stopped wearing the hat). He had a really nice family, and about a million of his own kids and nieces and nephews running around the house while we ate. We also got our first wedding invitation!! Hurrah! An excuse to finally buy a sari! The wedding is next week, on Saturday and Sunday (we have been invited to the reception and the party, whatever that means…its two days anyway), so I had better get cracking and go sari shopping!!

This evening we are off to the birthday party of Sareeta, who is turning fifteen today! Prabjit and I actually took quite a bit of care to pick out a shirt that we thought that she would like in the Chowk yesterday. I also found some beautiful embroidered fabric for a churidad suit, so I of course had to buy that as well. I had only intended to get a nice black duppta to wear with some of my outfits, but couldn’t find one at the store I like. I ended up getting a white one, since I was told that it could be dyed black. The tailor, however, told me that its hard to dye anything black since it fades after just a few washes, so now I’m not too sure what to do with this white duppta. I suppose exchange it for a different colour…