An Attempt at a Tamil Song...

On Sunday evening, after getting back from the wedding in Kerala, my host mother got a call from a Rotarian in the club hosting me named Suresh (Suresh is the wonderful man who has taken Rianna and I on two weekend trips and is just great!). He was calling to invite us to a celebration of a one year anniversary of a gym that opened here in Coimbatore called "Maverick" (yes, I chuckled when I saw the name also...) that was being held at The Residency Hotel- the nicest hotel in Coimbatore where movie stars will stay when they come!
We arrived in the drive and were stopped by a man with a long metal pole with a square wheeling piece on the end who stuck it under the front of our car and then waved us on. I was confused until my host mom explained to me that this man was actually checking for bombs! The contraption was a metal detector! (At least it made me feel REALLY safe the whole night!)
Suresh met me at the door and we waved good bye to my host mother. He then walked me up the stairs to a big hall where the speeches had already started. Rianna was there and we both sat in the front row and listened to several people give speeches about how great the gym is, including a film star named "Annu Hassan" who I've seen in a movie even!
When the speeches ended, there was live entertainment in the form of a man with a keyboard- a VERY talented man with a keyboard! Not only could he play the piano great, but he could also sing! A few people got up and started dancing, and it wasn't long before I joined in and showed off a few Bollywood moves of my own...! We also played a few games where we danced until the music stopped and then would rush to get into a group of the number that the DJ called out. I had a lot of fun with the women playing for this game! We all got in a small circle and danced, and when the music stopped we would all just rush forward and grab onto each other- no matter what number was being called! When this game ended the DJ continued with some more songs and Suresh took advantage of this opportunity to try and convince Rianna and I to go up to the microphone and sing a song. At first we were both a little resistant to get up in front of the two hundred or so people there, but then Suresh told me that the DJ could play "Sutrum Vizhi" and if you've been reading my blogs you know that I LOVE that song and happen to know a few verses of it! I agreed to go up and introduced myself, apologizing first for my lack of singing ability and also for my bad pronunciation of all the Tamil...It ended up going really well though! I think that my voice sounded awful, but everyone loved the fact that I was singing in Tamil and gave me a standing ovation at the end- and a medal(?)! Then Rianna and I got up and sang Titanic- the one and only English movie that everyone here knows! It was a great night with lots of fun and new friends!

A Wedding in Kerala

5:30 a.m. this morning my host mother knocked on my bedroom door to wake me up. We had a three hour drive ahead of us to Thrissur, Kerala for the wedding of one of my host father’s colleagues! I got up and groggily put on my green Diwali salwaar, made tea for my host mother and I, brushed my teeth, grabbed my rain coat and then the two of us went down and met two other colleagues of my host father who had come with a driver to pick us up.
It has been raining non-stop since yesterday afternoon, soaking the ground and causing the streets to be flooded with brown muddy water. The group of us drove through the city at 6:15 a.m. – the streets were already crowded with the early risers, and along with the other traffic on the roads our car waded through the waters. We even passed a parking lot that was completely flooded with at least six inches of water!
We arrived at the marriage hall around 9:30 a.m., just as the traditions were beginning. The first thing we saw was the groom leaving the hall (don’t worry, he came back!) to go out in front and have his feet washed. He was then carried in a small wooden chair over the heads of all of his relatives to a swinging white bench that had been set up in the middle of the crowd. It was there where his bride met him, and the two of them placed three or four strings of colorful flowers over one another’s heads before sitting down on the bench and swinging back and forth together. After about a minute of this (and about a hundred flashes from cameras…) the two stood up and the elder relatives came forward and each places a small spoonful of milk onto the feet of the bride and groom. The elders then each took a small candle and circled around the couple three times. (Three seems to be the most auspicious number, because not only did the elders walk around three times, but three is also the number of times that an Ayer, or Priest, will circle the flame around the head of the God or Goddess in a temple.)
The whole procession was then taken inside the hall where the bride and groom were taken to a beautifully decorated stage and seated on a grass mat beside the Ayer who commenced several more traditions. My favorite one though had to be where the bride sat on her father’s lap- it is a tradition to symbolize the father’s “giving” of his daughter to her new husband, who stands in front of them and takes her hand to pull her up. The bride had the biggest smile on her face during this!
The traditions ended with photos of the bride and groom with anyone and everyone invited. My host mother and I took a photo, congratulated the couple and then left the hall to go out back where breakfast/lunch was being served on banana leaves! We waited until a space at one of the long white tables was free and then sat down to eat. The food was AMAZING! We had rice with all sorts of dishes along with it, my favorite being one specific to Kerala that had pineapple in it!

Pouring Down Fun!

This morning after waking up at 6:40 a.m., I got up and made myself tea and cornflakes for breakfast. The morning was cool and overcast, and my host mom slept off in her bedroom. At 8:15 a.m. my friend Appurna and I met up at the out gate of the apartments and walked two blocks to Avinshi Road (the main road). Once there we waited a few minutes until a big, rusted red and silver bus rolled up to a short stop in front of us. We got on, me expecting to find a huge crowd of people but the bus was actually pretty empty! We rode for a few blocks and then got off and met another girl from our class named Sangheeta. We all walked to her house for a few minutes and had a few snacks and played on the terrace above the house. Around 9:00 we left the house and walked back to the main road where we caught another bus to Gandhipuram- this time I wasn't disappointed at all! Not only was every seat in this bus filled, but the aisles contained at least fifty people all squished in together, reaching one arm up to overhead poles for support. We squeezed our way into the middle of the crowd for the fifteen or so minutes that we rode and sang along with the radio to the songs that we all recognized.
In Gandhipuram we stopped at a small juice shop where Appurna and Sangheeta got banana and mozambie juice before going back to the bus stand, catching one bus and realizing it was the wrong one (we had to jump down as it was slowly pulling out...), and then finally finding the right bus that took us to one of the many movie theaters here in Coimbatore where we met up with eight other girls from our class. We all saw the movie "Kanden Kadhalai" (sp? The title means "I Think It's love") which was a remake from a film that was originally in Hindi. The movie was really good! I loved all of the songs and the story was also great. I was the only one who really liked it though...all of the other girls have seen the Hindi version and will only praise that! I guess I'll just have to see it and compare!
When the movie ended at 1:00 p.m. we all walked a short way up a side street until we reached a retaurant called "Rayappas" where we had naan and paneer butter masala for lunch (EVERYONE loves naan and paneer- so it was perfect!). It was all of my friends' first time out alone without their parents, so they were all super excited to be independent!
After finishing our lunch, Appurna, Sangheeta and I left the other girls and headed towards the bus stop at Gandhipuram to go home. We walked down the long street, through the lightly drizzling rain and trying to avoid stepping in the giant puddles! We reached the bus stand after about fifteen minutes and boarded a bus headed for Peelamedu (the district in the city where we live). It was a longer ride, but very comfortable since once again, we ended up on a bus that was less than half full.
Appurna and I got down at our stop and waved good bye to Sangheeta as the bus drove off. We walked the two blocks back through the drizzle, looking up at the dark and swollen clouds. I guess we reached the apartment just in time, because as we said good bye at the front of my building the sky opened up and the downpour began!

Singing (and dancing) in the Rain!

Even though this is only one short event that happened, I wanted to blog about it because of the sheer joy that I felt while dancing and singing in the rain!
I had just come up from the basement after my yoga class with the teacher and the other two women that do the class with me when I looked outside. To my great excitement it was DUMPING rain! I placed my shoes, water bottle and mat on the ground and sprinted out into the downpour- holding my hand up over my head and smiling up toward the dark night sky. I put my headphones from my I-pod into my ears and turned on one of all time favorite songs- Human, by The Killers. As soon as the music started I started to jump around and spin, already completely soaked! My hair was dripping and my white T-shirt and shorts were completely drenched, but I couldn't care less. I laughed and smiled and simply had fun in the water that was being dumped in buckets over my head! The weather was not cold, but it wasn't warm either and so I was shivering when I stepped back under the cover of the clubhouse where the ladies still stood watching me and laughing at me the entire time! But, even though I was cold, the smile stayed on my face even as I ran up the three flights of stairs back up to the apartment!

A Week of Events

This week has been hectic here- my life in India has always been a little overwhelming, but this week there was quite a few events that kept me pretty busy!
On tuesday evening, Rianna (the other exchange student from NY) and I went together to the Coimbatore rail station to meet up with a group of exchange students from Pune (near Mumbai) who were coming through Coimbatore from Ooty. We arrived there a bit early and just hung out for a while until, suddenly, there was a group of foreigners standing in front of us! It was so weird, and honestly VERY cool to see so many foreigners all in one place- all of them are around my age too! We all introduced ourselves to them and they introduced themselves. There were several girls from the US too! One from Montana and the other from Ohio! There were also students from Germany, Belgium, Finland, Brazil, and Colombia! Rianna and I had a lot of fun getting to talk to all of the kids, even though we only could talk for about an hour before their next train, it was worth the trip to go and meet them! I had been corresponding with a Rotarian in their district, and he was a chaperone on this trip. This Rotary district goes on quite a few trips, and so it's been great to have contacts because now Rianna and I have been invited to join in on them! We are both planning to go to Goa with this same group in December- which will be absolutely AWESOME!
On Wednesday I came home to an empty apartment. My host mother's company was having a bg meeting all day and my host father left for Germany over the weekend, so for the first time I was on my own in the kitchen! At first it didn't go so well...my first attempt at making a dosa completely failed, but learning from the mistakes that I made I was able to make the next few perfectly! Then came the microwave to heat up the dahl...I guess I wasn't thinking because I stupidly reached in and grabbed the metal dish- completely burning the skin off of my right thumb...yea not so fun! But, I think it was pretty good for my first time alone!
At school lately everything has been centered around the swine flu. Yes, it's a problem here too. A few kids from my school were diagnosed last week, and therefore the school wanted to take precautions and hired a doctor to come and check all of the students in each of the classes where a student had been sick. It's crazy! Every student is being checked, and every kid who shows any symptoms at all is sent home for a week. The entire 12th grade has three days off because over half of the class had symptoms and was under observation!
Today is Thursday and I woke up to a cool morning and dew on all of the flowers outside. It had rained hard overnight, and on the way to school in the van we drove through several puddles (that looked like small lakes!), arriving at school and then tracking in all of the mud from our shoes. The day was overcast, and for the first time (while in Coimbatore) I felt chilly in the afternoon breeze. The school seemed quiet without the 12th grade, and since the kids are taking exams this week I have been free for the first three periods every morning. Therefore today, with the cool weather and dark skies it was hard to stay awake! The halls were silent and I took advantage of the silence and studied some vocabulary from my SAT book (yea...the SAT. Might as well study when I have time right?)
I just got home about an hour ago, and after helping my host mom type and email and eating lunch, here I am blogging. We are going to be leaving in just a few minutes to go to Padma's house (where I made a teddy bear near the beginning of my stay) and we'll be discussing the details for my Delhi trip with her and a few of her friends! We'll be leaving on the 16th and we'll be gone for a week! I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to see the Taj Mahal!

A Birthday Night Out (not exactly trick-or-treating!)

In the evening on my seventeenth birthday, my host parents and I went out for dinner and a movie! Our dinner was an all around favorite- my favorite restaurant, Annapoorna, my favorite food, naan and paneer butter masala, AND my favorite desert, a mango milkshake! It was a great meal and a fun dinner! My host parents and I discussed Halloween in the US- the costumes, traditions and all the candy! I told them how much fun it has always been to have a birthday on Halloween, and how this birthday was extra special and would always be throughout my life!
The movie we had gotten tickets to see, Aadhavan, started at 10:00 p.m. The story was about a man (Surya acted this part!) who is a killer and gets an assignment to kill another man. Throughout the movie he gets close to the man and in the end it is discovered that the man was actually his own father! The movie itself wasn't great, but both my host mother and I loved all of the songs and had a good time singing along in the theater! My host father hated it...:) Oh well! It was a great night and a great birthday that I will never ever forget!
P.S. the photo above is of my host mother and I in front of the theater before the movie!

Another Birthday??

After coming home from the orphanage with a big smile on my face, my host family and our neighbors (the two little girls and their mother Vadivu) each had a slice of the birthday cake that Rianna had brought over for me. It was really good! The first cake that I’ve liked since being here actually! The cakes here taste NOTHING at all like the cakes at home- they have an almost earthy taste to them…but this cake was different, and even had my favorite flavor for the frosting- strawberry! Vadivu, Sanju and Bapu also gave me several wrapped packages to rip open and find some really thoughtful gifts; a piece of artwork in the shape of a triangle, a small photo frame, a stitch kit, and a cute little basket/teddy bear from Bapu!
After my host father finished his lunch, he took me and dropped me off at another birthday party- one for a friend of mine whose birthday was over the week. She had it at Hot Chocolate, the restaurant where I first had a sizzling brownie! I arrived to a small welcoming party at the door- they were so cute! Even though it wasn’t my party, they all sang “happy birthday” to me and even gave me some jewelry and a card as a gift! We took some photos as I thanked them and wished the birthday girl a happy birthday, giving her a gift from Oregon- a deck of playing cards and a few pencils from the San Diego Zoo. We all went and sat down then to order, taking more photos and chatting as we ate through three pizzas, six tacos, a sizzling brownie, french fries and coke. The party ended with a bit of a mess….we all decided to force feed the birthday girl a taco, and then we dumped chocolate into her mouth from the sizzling brownie! It was a lot of fun!
P.S. the photo above is of me and the OTHER birthday girl!