wayfarer

Thursday, February 17, 2011

art class with grade 7: blindfold painting

we tried this exercise with the 7th graders and it went really well. we blindfolded them and had them paint (with only black paint) for 15 minutes to music. the pictures of them doing this were kind of funny.. especially of the one boy who started writing on the floor. but they came out with some amazing work.

me enjoying myself while watching them

and.. gautam !

puja: a religious ritual performed by hindus as an offering to various gods

last week we were invited to two pujas. one was at Manisha's (school administrator) house and one in front of the school that the teachers all decorated with a tent / shrine to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. the two were very different. the puja at Manisha's house was at night with two brahmin priests. the men were seated separately from the women, and the ceremony was to help bring positive energy for her husband's health (which isn't too good at the moment). the puja at the school was on the holiday to celebrate the goddess and it was set up on the lawn on a particularly beautiful morning. it had just rained the night before and there were lots of flowers.. i helped string all the marigolds that seemed to have appeared over night. a brahmin priest was also there and Vineet and Pushpendra (music teachers) were playing the keyboard and tabla (a famous northern indian drum). the person(s) leading the ceremony (host), Rajesh and Nisha, throw flowers and rice on everyone and place a dot on everyone's forehead with a red liquid mixture made from herbs. someone also goes around with red yarn and ties a piece on everyone's right wrist.. i am starting quite a collection. anyone who wants to make an offering the god goes up and moves a plate (full of fruit and flowers) in a circular motion a few times in front of the god's image. at the end of the ceremony, everyone sits around a fire, and while chanting along with the priest, throws spices and herbs in the fire together. we had a huge lunch on the grass afterward and just relaxed.. below are some pictures from the puja.

                         decoration at the puja at manisha's house. this is not what
                          it looks like... this is the swastika, but known here and in
                         eastern religions as a sign of peace and well-being.
                                so no dad, i haven't been abducted by nazis.

small puja shrine at manisha's house

lovely puja on lawn at school

vineet playing the tabla

spices & herbs

saraswati doll / shrine

saraswati with offerings & marigolds i sewed

rajesh and nisha leading the ceremony

melanie & i dropping spices in the fire

dropping spices in fire

rajesh & nisha presenting the offerings

brahmin priest leading the chant

pushpendra playing the tabla

nisha & jason (one of the teacher's sons)

preparing the very spicy lunch

in search of nothing

the town that i thought of in rural India is clearly not rural enough. every couple of days we feel the need to find nothingness.. it's harder than i'd ever imagined. but in a country of over a billion people, it's not surprising that we've found refuge in going on our walks. we had gone on bicycle rides, but last week we really had a chance to explore. gautam suggested he would take us to a temple that was in the middle of the forest and near a river. we had off that day, so we had the whole afternoon and it had just rained the day before, making it a beautiful warm day. the walk was about 1 km to the temple.. and it was straight through a sugar cane field. we walked down a road until we came to a few small temples (for gods shiva, krishna, etc.) grouped together and decorated with various offerings (candles, flowers, incense) from visitors. all of us sort of scattered once we got there.. looking around. melanie was listening to music and gautam got a phone call.. anna and i had to pee. we walked along tiny irrigation paths along the side of the sugar canes and found what we thought was a good spot. we both were mid-pee w/ our pants down next to one another when about five women carrying baskets were coming towards us to go tend the field. we all started laughing as the women when past giggling something in hindi to each other. anna had the idea to follow the women and explore. so we kept going... anna was sure there was a river about half a mile up ahead and that we should go. we figured it wouldn't take long and that we could come back for gautam and melanie. i'm so glad we did.. we walked through what seemed like a long time through tall stalks of sugar cane, and arrived at the bottom of a small hill that was lined with hundreds of tall eucalyptus trees. at the top of the hill there was a calm wide river down below. it was so beautiful.. so desolate. we started walking back since we knew that gautam and melanie would probably be wondering where we went. and sure enough, about halfway back, we heard them coming our way through the cane fields yelling out for us. once we told them about our adventure and how we found a river, we took them there. we sat at the bank of the river for a long time, talking about coming back again and even camping there. we walked back a different way.. along the river and eucalyptus trees to a main road, biting into sugar cane that we got from a farmer on the way. gautam and i took pictures as melanie and anna walked ahead.. the sun sank over the horizon, leaving bursts of warm color on everything, my favorite time of day. now that we know this place, we go on walks a couple of times a week in search of nothing.