Spice Diaries – Vol. 8 – Aug. 30
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
Today is the day – my last day of work a year ago. My last paycheck…that’s a painful thought. But if I think about the trade off of – no money, but world experiences instead – then it’s all worth it.
However, I am working currently (even though I’m paying them to work). The volunteer teaching is certainly a job. I even have to get all dressed up in the proper work outfit every day. At Coach I used to be able to wear jeans, sandals, t –shirts – however my dress code here is very different. No, I am not wearing a sari…thank goodness as I know that I would trip on all of the material, plus no one really needs to see my newly acquired travel belly. Instead, I wear the modern Indian business woman attire – a salwar, kameez, and duppatti – basically ultra baggy trousers and a long tunic with a scarf draped over your chest.
We are required to wear this dress for a few reasons – so that we will fit in and avoid unwanted attention – and it has an added benefit of making us look a bit more professional here. I can’t really say that the outfits are flattering – but what they lack in fit, they gain in comfort. It’s honestly like wearing your pajamas around all day. I could easily fit 3 people into these baggy pants. There are normally about 20 pleats on the pants gathering all of the material, and a simple draw string waist. They could easily double as maternity pants. In fact – I doubt that Indian women need to buy maternity clothes as they can simply keep wearing their salwar up until the time they give birth! The kameez is a long tunic blouse that goes past your knees. However – don’t think that you can wear it as a dress, because there are two slits up the side that would be rather revealing without the salwar! Then there’s the duppatti that is supposed to be draped around your neck so that it hides your chest and the ends drape down your back. This scarf takes some time to get used to…and I believe that it takes more than 4 weeks as I’m still not used to it! It’s like an extra appendage that you have to get used to….it’s always in your way. I’m constantly letting it drag on the ground, shutting it in the car doors, getting it caught on things, fiddling with it so that it doesn’t choke me…I have not yet become ‘one’ with the duppatti!
Photo: Local women learning how to make jewelry…it’s a rainbow of colors!
The other trait of the salwar and kameez is that is has to be colorful! The more color the better. Bright pink, purple, greens – it’s as if a rainbow exploded over India. I think that the bright colors of fabric help you get noticed as you cross the street - yet it doesn’t make people stop or slow down at all – it just makes you a colorful moving target. I’m not sure if I will keep any of my new Indian outfits or not – as I don’t intend to be pregnant anytime soon. However, I will probably keep one for the simple reminder of my colorful time here.
This Tuesday was a national festival in India called Rakhi Bandhan. This is a celebration for siblings – specifically a festival in which sisters tie a thread around her brother’s wrist as a symbol of protection, loyalty, and affection. Brothers give money or other gifts such as jewelry, shoes, or clothes to their sisters in return. I’m wondering when Halmark will be making this into a holiday worldwide. I’m sure it would sell plenty of cards! This tradition is also carried out between friends representing brotherly and sisterly affection. I now have a number of little red string bracelets from my students – I think my gift to them is teaching them grammar!
Besides the bracelets – the other perk about this holiday is that you get the day off. India is a land of socializing and festivals – so it seems like one rarely has to work a full work week! I spent my day off getting up at the crack of dawn to work on some photography around Delhi. I went to some of the normal tourist and religious sites and then went to the flower market. There are many things I enjoy about India, but one of the best things is that the people here absolutely LOVE to have their picture taken. I’m really overwhelmed by the number of requests that I receive to take people’s pictures here. This is rather unique as in many countries the people are not too excited about being photographed. In some countries, people even think that it removes the person’s soul when you take a picture. Needless to say – I don’t want to be responsible for a lost soul, so you have to be careful! In other countries you encounter the people that request money for taking their picture as if they were Kate Moss. Trust me – they aren’t even close to Kate Moss, but you still have to have some small change around just in case they think they are a super model. This is all fine until they tell you that it’s not enough money. At that point I tell them to get an agent and come complain to me later. Therefore, when you are in India, take our your camera, and people come running from far and near saying ”Mam, take picture?” It’s a little stunning. The even stranger thing about it is that when you take their picture – they just walk away – they don’t even want to see it – or quite possibly they don’t know that you can see it from a digital point of view. It leaves me a bit bewildered!
On Wednesday of this week, I decided that I needed to see how the other half lived. I am in a posh volunteer assignment – AC, computers, western toilets, a classroom, beautiful facilities, clean kids, and gardens. However, my fellow volunteers work in a very different environment. I decided to accompany Kate to her assignment to see what her surroundings are like. Kate designs, makes, and sells jewelry in the Boston area. Her volunteer placement is to teach poor, local women here how to make jewelry in the hopes that they can utilize this skill to make some money on their own. Her surroundings are certainly different than my placement. She works in one of the many poor communities ( a.k.a. slum). She works in this little school room on the floor with no AC and surrounded by the local women plus their kids and the random stray dog laying around. I was excited to go with her as it was a wonderful chance for me to not only sweat my ass off, but also get take some colorful pictures of the women and their kids. I even took a little walk around the community to see more locals – but I wasn’t expecting the reception I received. Since I had my camera in hand, I was mobbed! Everyone came from near and far to get their picture taken…never really looking at it, just jumping in front of the lens to be in the picture. In fact, it was near impossible to get shot with just one of two people in it as everyone pushed in front of them until they were about 2 inches from my lens. I needed someone walking around me for crowd control! However – in a situation like that, it’s really hard not to take a wonderful picture. The kids were adorable; they were all so happy and full of energy.
Swept off my feet…
Mam, there are 20 different ways to tie a sari.
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