Party People!

Man, what a week! Most of the weekdays were spent in introductory lectures on India (e.g. political structure, Hinduism, Indian economics, Caste System)... basically India in whirlwind form! We learned a lot and had many of our questions answered. One surprising thing I learned is that in Hinduism, there is no such thing as a martyr; you cannot die for the faith and be viewed as having the "ultimate good karma". But now with religious fundamentalism in Hinduism, this is being challenged. The concept of caste is still an element that is difficult to address. The general idea in our group is how can this practice be legitimized? It seems so counter-progressive, yet we are becoming aware that great emphasis is placed on maintaining Indian tradition and culture, regardless of how it stands when thinking about social equality. Every morning of this week was devoted to practicing Yoga with a chap who we just called S.K. (Indian names can get kind of lengthy, so initials have become clutch!). S.K. is a trained gynecologist/Yoga guru (sort of a "Jack-of-All-Trades" if you will). We are on our own now to carry on the practice...

So this time in India is HUGE for festivals. Yesterday was the festival of Ganesh. Ganesh is the Hindu god of prosperity and has the body of a man and the head of an elephant. The young girls living at Visthar invited us to their dormitories for a ceremony. At the celebration, we all sat on the floor in front of a statue of Ganesh and all his offerings given by the girls. Everyone was given a bit of rice that we threw at Ganesh. Then all adults, including us students, had a pile of this powder spooned into our hands. Most of us wanted to throw it at Ganesh seeing how well it went with the rice. But after watching the rest of the adults there, we were apparently supposed to shove the 3 tablespoons of this powdery white stuff in our mouths. Some just lapped it up; I went for it and most of it missed my mouth. But the bit I did managed to pour in there tasted super sweet. It reminded me of the crushed Fruit Loops at the bottom of the box that you throw away because it only makes your milk taste like Toucan Sam is trying to give you diabetes. Funny thing about cereal here: the milk we get for our corn flakes every morning is hot. We asked Nassar, our program guide/caretaker, if he had ever had cereal with cold milk. He laughed at us and said no; that's just crazy talk.

I'm starting to feel like I'm becoming a member of a community here. It's more than being a student with the Social Justice, Peace, and Development group (we call ourselves SJPD for future reference) :). Fellowship with our neighbors in this new city of ours has been greatly needed and never in short supply. Invitations to visit homes are streaming in from friends of Visthar. And I'm now in a place where I'm comfortable saying "We are Visthar, and Visthar is us." Now that we're adjusted to the life and times of Bangalore, it only seems right that we give credit where credit is due - I'm glad my life is being supported in a place where all the people live by the idea that the purpose of their lives is to affirm the lives of others regardless of social standing, economic status, age, gender, or religious affiliation. This place is incredible.

Check out the link to my photos for some visual India! Also, I'm going to add links to other blogs of the kids of SJPD just to give you all a different perspective of what is going down in Bangalore. It's never the same trip for any of us here - I learn new things myself just by reading what my group mates have to say! They're all so brilliant - I think you'll enjoy their thoughts!

Thanks for stopping by!

ang