Gandhi mate, remember Gandhi….

This was an unusual week. We had Thursday and Friday off of work. Thursday was a national holiday: Gandhi Jayanti (the celebration of Gandhi’s birthday) and Friday was Navaratri a Hindu holiday (actually the culmination of a nine day festival). Saturday was also a festival (Dussehra) but since it fell on the weekend, it was a festival without being a work holiday.  Come to think of it, tomorrow is a Muslim holiday as well (Eid) but that’s for next week. I’ll not get ahead of myself. I’ll talk a bit about each and then Rae can talk about how we spent Gandhi’s birthday and, of course, anything else that grabs her fancy.

So Gandhi Jayanti. Even if a person knows nothing about India, they are likely to know two things. Or more properly, one thing and one person. The thing is Taj Mahal, which coincidentally was somewhat the focus of last week’s blontry. Therefore, I guess it is appropriate that we write about the person. Mohandas Karamchand Mahatma Gandhi is the George Washington of India, the father of his country. Except in typical Indian fashion, it turns out the Indian Constitution prohibits anyone being given that recognition. So, everyone in India thinks he is in fact the father of the country, they call him that, but he cannot officially receive that recognition.

It is interesting to me to think there are people alive who knew Gandhi; who associated with him. That makes the origin of India very real. Gandhi has achieved mythical status. Knowing there are people alive who knew Gandhi somehow makes him seem more human; less of a myth.

Anyhoo, even though they will not designate him father of the country, his birthday is one of three federal holidays; Republic Day and Independence Day being the other two.

Navaratri, as mentioned, is a Hindu festival. It lasts nine evenings and all activities and rituals celebrate the mother aspect of God, as conceived by the Hindus. While the festival lasts nine days, it actually is divided into three sets of three days. The first three days focus on Durga, the mother aspect, and cleansing from all impurities and imperfections. The next three days focus on Lakshimi, the goddess of wealth and the bestowal of spiritual wealth. The final three days focus on Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom.

Dussehra is the first day after the nine evenings/nights of Navaratri and it marks the victory of the goddess Durga over demon Mahishasur. There are ceremonies and celebrations associated with Dussehra, just as there are with each evening/night of Dussehra. In some ways the biggest thing about Dussehra is that it launches the Diwali season, coming as it does 20 days before that “festival of light.” It also launches a barrage of Diwali related ads focused on getting people to spend, spend, spend on Diwali presents.

Well with that historical and religious background, I yield the floor to the Honorable Lady, Rae.

Since Phil had Thursday, Friday and Saturday off, he was available to teach a workshop for the YSAs (Young Single Adults) who had a conference on Thursday and Friday. He was asked to teach two classes on Thursday.  So, we headed to Camp Wild Thursday morning.  Camp Wild is located about 2 hours outside of Delhi.  I tagged along because I wanted to check out the facility to see if it is appropriate for our YW’s camp that is scheduled for the 24^th and 25^th of this month.  After our visit, the jury is still out.  There are some things that we have to have clarified before we are totally sold.  It was still pretty warm (by that I mean HOT) and none of the buildings are air conditioned so if anyone wants to join your prayers with mine that in 20 days the weather will have actually cooled off, that would be great.  I’m sure you’ll hear more about girls’ camp in future blontries. 

From here most of our blog will consist of pictures of our drive to Camp Wild.  I ‘m always fascinated with the things we see as we travel out into the country and thru villages.  Here are some of the things we saw. 

 New construction amidst the huts.

 This stone wall has chunks of broken glass embedded into the cement top layer. This is not an uncommon security technique, even in Delhi.

I’m always fascinated with the various huts or shanties or shacks that we see as we go out into the country.  In actuality you don’t have to go into the country to see some of these.  It’s fairly common to see dwellings here in Delhi that are constructed right on the sidewalk, or on some tiny piece of ground just off the road.  If there’s a trash or dump site you will almost always see some shacks.  Often these are made of some sort of framework draped with tarps.  Maybe corrugated tin is involved. 

It’s the mud huts that I find intriguing. These huts are actually constructed mostly of cow dung but I think mud huts does sound better than dung huts.  As you look closely at the pictures you will notice piles or rows of round discs.  These discs are cow pies [Phil – I think the politically correct term is bovine fecal patties].  They are collected, dried and stacked to create the walls and shape of the hut.  Think a stack of poop pancakes. Yum right?  Once they are stacked they are coated with a layer of mud or dung, not really sure what the finished wall is made of.  Once the walls are mudded they are decorated with different designs. See some of the close ups. The finished result is a wall that is about a foot thick.  Usually the only opening is a small opening to get inside.  A cloth is hung to create a door.  These huts are small and would probably sleep 2-5 people, snuggly.  Usually the roof is some sort of thatch.  

Hopefully the pictures explain things better than I did.  Enjoy.

We also had a wedding and a baptism in our Branch – busy week!

Namaste