Chhath - The Sunrise

These images are from the morning sunrise. The noise of chanting and drumming at 5am woke me and I hurried down to the river in the darkness. The tension of waiting for the sun to rise was palpable. Women walked out into the river in their saris with their offerings turning three times. After the sunrise the men of the family joined the women during the part of the ceremony where milk is poured over the coconut offering into the river.

Just when I thought maybe I was being a bit intrusive, I would be offered a prashad, a treat you get after prayers. Friends included me and Jaya had me do the ritual pouring of milk onto a coconut after the sun had risen.

Chhath or Dala Chhath, a festival of the Sun

I was walking back from school in the afternoon when suddenly I was flowing along in a procession of women drumming and chanting. They had baskets of offerings and long stalks of sugarcane.

During this festival the women go down to the Ganges and pray to the setting sun. Then they return before dawn the next morning and chant and pray, often standing in the water, waiting for the sun to rise.

This was probably the most magical time of my visit. Since we have a ghat (steps to the Ganges) at the ashram, it was full of neighborhood women and their families. I spent most of my time right out with them in the dark.

These images are from the night at sunset and before.

We miss our food

The ashram food is very basic. Rice or chapaties along with a bowl of cooked vegies for dinner and oatmeal for breakfast, which I supplement with some fruit.

Dinners out at friends houses are much more interesting & delicious. Here is a lunch Asha served to me one day.


One afternoon snack, shown here, that Asha made for me is sauteed channa (small red chickpeas, a staple) with chopped radish (like daikon) and chai.

But we really appreciate a little cappucino at the Open Hand Cafe,

Or Chai in the afternoon when our wi-fi is working at the ashram.

Children’s Day

Today there was a festival for children at various schools around the city. LSS & the Ashram boys went to St John’s School. This is a huge Catholic prep school with a lovely campus.

It was very disorganized and the kids sat for hours on the grass in the shade. The first competition was called rangoli and it was creating mandalas out of colored powder, rice or sand.

The Ashram boys won in a landslide! They were so creative, using leaves, flowers & glitter as well as the normal stuff. Little Stars came in second with their colorful Ganesh. Santosh won a second prize in the drawing competition.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangoli)

Dinner out

Time is short. I will only be here one more week and suddenly I am booked for dinner out every night.

Monday Asha took me to a Chinese restaurant and tonight we went to her sister Indu’s house. She is such a great cook!
The Puris were totally fluffy and she made Palek Paneer (spinach with cheese).

The highlight of the evening was when her daughter Chickee dressed up in her dancing costume in preparation for a dance competition at the Children’s Day celebration tomorrow. Here you see Asha, on the left, and her sister Indu with Chickee.

Rickshaw Driver

On the way out to dinner we met a rickshaw driver who knew of Asha and really wanted her to take his daughter into the hostel. His wife has died and he sleeps in different places every night. There was a long talk about it in front of the daughter (at the bottom in green).

Asha told him that if she did take the daughter she could not come back and live on the street again. He could only come to visit her at school. I don’t know if she is seriously considering taking the girl.

One problem with taking girls whose parents are still in the picture, however remotely, is that when these girls approach puberty (ie 10-11) the parents have been known to come and get the girls and then sell them.

Like cashing in a bond you had been keeping in a safe place for your retirement.

Shock & Awe

Every family has an arsenal of fireworks ranging from sparklers to small bombs that make me think the plaster is going to fall down. And it goes almost all night.

Asha had a small collection of bottle rockets, spinners & sparklers for the girls. We went out on the street in front of the school and let them off. The older girls helped the younger ones. Here you also see Asha with the newest girl Angela.

Diwali

Diwali is a huge holiday, sort of a combination of Xmas, 4th of July and Spring Cleaning.

Then there is Buying Day which is 2 days before Diwali when everyone goes out and buys something for their home. The stores are shoulder to shoulder.

For lunch on the day of Diwali we went to Tejbal’s family house and had a wonderful dinner featuring a special kind of puri (fried bread) made with white flour & curd. Here is Tejbal’s mother rolling out the dough.

Then I met Asha and we went to the main temple for prayers. Here you see Asha praying at a special tree that her father planted which has his plaque on

Monkeys are not cute

Great excitement this morning. Kamila & Loknat were trying to hang their laundry on the roof when a bunch of monkeys started getting aggressive.. It was impossible to hang the laundry because they started to hiss and growl. So they released the dogs who raced up and chased them away. The dogs, Pero & Laloo (a year old German shepherd) are usually tied during the day and are free at night on monkey patrol. At one point a huge monkey came out of the tree to confront Laloo and I saw why they need 2 dogs.

Hard to see but 2 boys are throwing rocks and the dogs are going nuts.

The difficulties

Today I am home sick so I am seeing the dark side. I think I was just exhausted and slept all day and then was fine. Here are some of the things that get me down.

Electricity is off 10-4 every day city-wide. This means that shops have to use generators during this time, noisy & polluting. Our internet is on about 50% of the time.

Most people cook over wood or dried dung fires. This makes everything very smoky from about 6 – 9pm.

The only real means of transportation for everyday is a bicycle rickshaw and often I have to walk a few blocks to get one. It is sad to have these men pulling me through the potholes avoiding cows, bikes, pedestrians etc, Momentum is everything for them.

The roads are so dusty that people cover their noses with their saris or a handkerchief.

Nothing gets done. Nothing works. The washer and the refer are broken. I bought a new refer for the ashram today but there is no power in the upstairs kitchen. Maybe in a few days they say.

Whatever I leave in the kitchen or bathroom disappears. I have bought 2 packs of clothespins and 2 bottles of cleanser and am learning to keep everything in my room, which has a lock.

But then the little boys begin chanting downstairs and the magic returns.