The Party Scene in Mussoorie
I am wrapping up my study at
the Language School next week! I can’t believe that I have already been in
India for almost four months and am almost finished with my formal Hindi study.
I think overall I will be ready to be working and using my Hindi rather than
going to class and studying every day, but I am definitely going to miss
Mussoorie. I have made some very nice friends, and I really love this amazing place! However, I also know that I am ready to make my next step and need to be
challenged to use my Hindi more consistently. I think that the first month in
the village will be really valuable for my Hindi. Right now, most of it’s in my
head. After a few weeks, I expect it to come out more and improve quite a bit.
Before going to the village, I am going to a conference and doing a bit of
traveling in Rajasthan, so hopefully my Hindi soaks in over that time.
This past weekend was full of parties. On Friday night, we
had a final Landour Lecture Series event which featured music. A sitar player who
got his Ph.D. in Sitar and who is teacher at Woodstock treated us to some
Twilight Ragaas. These were absolutely beautiful. I remember going to a sitar
concert last year at Woodstock, but all I can remember is how the musicians flipped
their hair, not the music itself. In a way, classical sitar music is bound because many
of the songs include only a certain number of notes. However, on the other hand, it is totally
spontaneous. Using five notes, Mr. Maiti made up the songs on the spot. He also
explained that in sitar music once the speed of the music increases in a song,
it cannot be slowed again. Therefore, he would start off kind of slow and
gradually increase speed. After the sunset, we enjoyed some dinner at our venue,
DevDar Woods which is a local hotel here in Mussoorie. The meal included
hot chapatis, raita (yogurt spiced with some garbanzo beans in this
case), rajma (kidney beans), vegetable jafrazzi (a mix of vegetables topped
with a bit of paneer, and some chocolate chip ice cream (which was either
pretty good or I have been in India too long). To finish off the night, one of the
language students played his guitar and treated us to some Irish folk music.
This turned into a sing-a-long of everyone coming up with songs they knew, and
a few of the Indian guys showed off their guitar skills on American tunes.
On Saturday, I went to one of my women’s Church groups.
Because it will probably be my last time, we threw a small party.
Everyone brought a dish – chole (chickpeas), rajma (kidney beans), rice, puri
(fried roti), aloo mutter (potatoes and peas), and even a fruit salad. I
brought the sweets – no bake cookies and cookie dough balls (the two easiest
things to make without an oven). The sweets were definitely a hit! We enjoyed
each other’s company and the delicious food. Being my last meeting, I agreed to
speak on Genesis 13 (we have been making our way through Genesis since I arrived). Before going, I wrote everything I wanted to say in Hindi
and had my teacher (another regular at these events) to check it. The story was
about Abram and Lot dividing land because they had been fighting. I basically
focused on peace and non-controversial topics. Probably the hit sentence from
my talk was that “If governments would read this story, there wouldn’t be so
much fighting over borders.” The women love this! And I would like to note that
I executed the Hindi hypothetical tense flawlessly. =)
After this little party, I headed back to Woodside for party
round 2. My neighbors invited almost the entire Woodstock community to our
house, which was a lot of fun! A few of my friends from the language school also
dropped by, and we had a really nice time. The open house from 2:00-5:00 was
extended to about 7:00pm because we were all having so much fun. I also learned
about a musician I was deprived of up until this point in my life – Tom Lehrer.
He wrote a lot of political satire songs in the 1960s before returning to his
position as a professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa
Cruz. Some of the funniest which can be found on youtube for those of you who
have also been deprived are “The Vatican Rag” and “We Will All Go Together When
We Go.”
On Sunday, I went to the Christmas program at the Church I
have been attending. It was a bit different from any I have been to the U.S. but
really fun. Although the kids sung some basic Christmas carols, including
Jingle Bells in both Hindi and English, my favorite had to be the three young
women who were obviously embarrassed but danced to a popular Christian Hindi
song.
On Monday evening, I went to another cooking class where we
made delicious dal makhani and green peppers with potatoes. It was delicious!
Afterwards, I met up with an Australian doctor who has been living in India for
years and currently works with an organization on health care and water
projects in local villages. I am hopefully going to make a trip to one of the
villages with her contacts next week. This should give me some ideas for my
upcoming survey. My friend Emily is coming to visit me starting on Saturday. We
should have a lot of fun together.
Lots of love,
Margaret
This is Anita's daughter and Brashinsa (Seema's daughter). I know Brashinsa a bit better. She is a sweet young girl in the eighth grade (if you can believe it).
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