Greetings. Another week, lots to talk about.
This week’s menu includes Ganesh’s birthday, dengue fever, a high-end fashion
show, and a wedding. I will start and Rae will wrap up. Bon appetite!
On Monday the 2nd, I was feeling a
bit bad because family and friends in the US were celebrating Labor Day (or
Labour Day as it is written here). Well, I shouldn’t have been so jealous
because one week later we had an off whilst you were working away. Monday was
Ganesh Chaturthi, or the Hindi festival which celebrates the birthday of
Ganesh. For those of you who are not up on Hindi Deities, I’ll try to give a
brief primer.
You probably would recognize a representation
of Ganesh. He is represented as having a human body and an elephant’s head. He
is one of the most widely worshiped of all Indian Deities. Not only Hindis but
also Jains and Buddhists worship him or show him devotion. He is known for
removing obstacles (sometimes cited as the god of beginnings for that reason) and
is the patron of the arts, sciences, intellect, and wisdom. You may wonder why he
is represented with an elephant’s head. I am not Hindi but I will try and
relate what I have been told with respect.
According to legend, Ganesha (the terminal “a”
is often left off of Hindi names) was created by the consort of Lord Shiva (Parvati)
out of sandalwood soap or paste she used in her bath. Having created Ganesha,
she set him to guard her bath and not let anyone enter. Shiva returned but
Ganesha did not know or recognize him and refused him entry. Shiva was so angry
he cut off Ganesha’s head. When Parvati discovered what Shiva had done she
became furious and insisted that Shiva restore Ganesha to life, which Shiva
promised her. Despite a thorough search, Shiva could not find Ganesha’s head.
The only head he could find was of a dead elephant so he attached that to
Ganesha and restored him to life. Ganesh Chaturthi is the day his rebirth is
celebrated.
As I said, the image of Ganesh is one of the
most common. Because he the god of beginnings and removing barriers, it is not
uncommon for a statue or picture of him to be given or unveiled at the
launching of a new venture. Here is a statue of Ganesh that is in the common
foyer of our building.
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Shifting gears gracefully…. It is getting to
be mosquito season here in Delhi. I would like to say that as the capital of
nearly a quarter of the world’s population that issues with mosquitos and the
diseases they can carry have been resolved. Alas and alack as “they” say, that
is not the case. Malaria is still a problem in parts of India, less so here in
Delhi. However, for the past decade or so dengue fever has come to the
subcontinent. For those who don’t know, dengue fever is also a particularly
vicious illness passed by them blood sucking little varmints. It is also called
break bone fever, which gives you an idea of how those who get it feel. Even
relatively mild cases are described as feeling like a cross between the worst
flu you’ve had and measles (due to the rash that forms). Mild cases are treated
with fluids to fight dehydration. Severe cases have to be hospitalized and
treated intravenously. Really severe cases are treated with funerals.
Brendon had dengue fever while he served his
mission in Puerto Rico. We didn’t realize until after the fact how sick he was.
Needless to say, we don’t want any more members of our family to have that
experience. I have another reason to kill as many mosquitos as happen to cross
my path.
Well, enough from me. Here’s Rae.
Hi all,
Let me start by telling you a bit about the
fashion debut that we attended. Charu
Modi, who owns the college that Phil runs, invited us to the event. Her daughter and mother have a clothing line
that they design and manufacture. All of
the clothes are handmade and pretty much one of a kind. They are made of the most beautiful and
expensive fabrics available and have beautiful handwork details. It is my understanding that if you wanted a
particular item they would hand make it specifically tailored to your
body. Some of the pieces were actually
quite heavy because of all the bead work and embellishments. It is still quite
warm here for my taste and so even though this was a fall line I couldn’t
imagine wearing many of them, at least right now. The event was beautifully catered and
beautifully displayed, and it was evident that the people in attendance were
the social elite. There were certainly
some beautiful things there, and if I were to want something, it definitely would
have to be tailored specifically for me, as I’m considerably larger than most
any of the petite Indian women that were in attendance. I find myself feeling rather Amazonish on
occasion. I’m hoping at some point to
get a Sari and some other Indian clothing, not that I will look as beautiful as
they do, and will probably even look a bit foolish, but I think they are
beautiful and would like to have some as a reminder of our time here.
Now a bit about the wedding we attended
yesterday. It was not a traditional
Indian wedding, in fact it was a simple Mormon Church wedding, with a few
twists of its own. I’m still continually
amazed at how complex getting married is around here, so I will explain a bit
about the situation for this particular couple.
The groom was originally from another Christian faith and the bride was,
I think, originally Hindu. They are both
members of our Church now, but many, actually most of their family members are
not LDS. It is still very common for
marriages to be arranged marriages vs. love marriages, and even in the case of
love marriages it can be quite complex.
Because family is so intertwined here, it is
important to the couple that they have family approval and support. Because of so many traditions and different
beliefs, this is often very hard to accomplish in love marriages. As a result sometimes the couple just has to
decide that they will get married in spite of family objections. Objections are not always based just on
religion, but also might be based on education level, caste, skin color or, as
in this case, nationality. Anyway, it is
complex and I’m continually surprised at the complexity. As a result of some of these issues, the
groom, who is from Nepal had no family there, and the bride had some
family. Her grandmother, sister, an aunt and uncle, and a cousin were there, not her parents. As I said it is complicated. The couple were married by the branch
president and are leaving tonight for the Philippines, where they will be
sealed in the temple on Tuesday. When
they return to Delhi, they will have a government marriage. Don’t ask me to explain how this all works,
but that is the story of this couple. And here are three pictures from the wedding.
I do know of another couple who wanted a love
marriage and the bride's family who is Hindi was opposed, so they got married
in secret and then told the family they were married. The family did not disown them and they later
had a traditional Hindu wedding and a year later they went to the temple and
were sealed. So it seems that it is not
uncommon for some couples to have multiple weddings before it is all said and
done. It is still a huge puzzle to me
and I’m continually surprised by the twists and turns that come to those who
simply love each other and just want to marry and be together.
Well, I guess that’s it for my part of this
blog. We’ll see what next week has to
offer. Hopefully some cooler weather
will be something I’ll get to talk about soon.
Namaste.
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