Blitzschlag

This past weekend was the annual Blitzschlag gathering for college students in Rajasthan. This is the 6th year that MNIT has held the festival and it's a blast. There was people from 20 different colleges here for the weekend. Friday night was the opening ceremony and there was a dance competition. Many teams were competing and it lasted a long time. It was interesting to see students dancing to hip hop and R&B, especially when they were songs we recognized (even better to hear the old school songs like Summer of '69) There was also the traditional dances and music being played. I'm not sure if I was more entertained by the music and the dancing, or by the reactions from the crowd. I noticed that what the men hooted and hollored about was not the same things that men hollor about in the States.

Saturday MTV was there for Pulsar and the Ghost Riders performed stunts on their motorcycles. It was pretty neat, it was hard to see though and for the first time I was glad that the boys and girls were segregated because there were far fewer girls there than boys and I could actually see SOME of the show rather than not at all.


Then in the evening there was a fashion show. That was an experience let me tell you. First of all, when we get to the lawn; the area is swarming with military and security guards; now I'm pretty sure most of them were not carrying guns; they had large sticks. So one can assume that they are there for crowd control and not for security reasons. Guys are behind our section and are separated from the girls and we get the VIP seats. (why, I don't quite know)

So the first group comes out and their theme is Valentine's and I just though "oh no!" They came out in really skimpy clothes (and I mean skimpy in the Indian sense not the American skimpy) So all the guys behind us start yelling and pushing on the railing because the guys in back couldn't see and were trying to get up front. Well they pushed so hard that the railing broke and nearly hit us all in the head. All I was thinking was if they fall, I am the cushion for ALL of them. Needless to say I was very tense the entire presentation and even the guards who were trying to control the crowd were having trouble.

The show was really good though and Brent (another NDSU student) was in one of the fashion shows. Their group got third place! I was very entertained the entire evening by both the show and the crowd.

One In A Crowd

In my past two weeks (yes TWO) here, I've noticed that we REALLY stand out. Not the stand out like... having your shirt on backwards or wearing two different shoes, but the kind where your continually stared at. We are really one of the few white people here. Whenever we go and visit a site people continually ask to take a picture with me; or I'll watch them try to take a photo on the sly, with someone SLOWLY walking past me and their friend take a photo when they were near enough to me. Usually its the tourists that want photos with the locals, but I've never heard of locals wanting photos of the tourists. It's all amusing really.

I've even noticed myself doing the same thing as the local people. If I see a white person I find myself staring or trying to figure out what they're doing here. Then I just have to laugh. The other day in the market, there was a man from England that was shopping and he came up to me and seem flabbergasted that we were there. He said... "I've been here 8 months and your the first white person I've seen!" So we chatted and turns out he's an engineer that lives just down the street. I've definitely gotten used to all the staring and I realize its mostly just a curiosity thing so it doesn't bother me, but at first it was a bit unnerving.

Saraswati Pooja

Photo Courtesy of Dimpy Kamra

I went to a Saraswati Pooja. Its a festival to celebrate the Saraswati; the Goddess of Wisdom. We went with some of our classmates and followed there lead. When we got there we had to take off our shoes and sit inside the tent facing the alter; boys on the left and the girls in a section off to the right. There was a man in yellow whom is traditionally a priest or the eldest son in the family, he led us in the ceremony. Some of the men were even blowing conch shells, and their was a man playing a drum. The main offerings were fruits of various sorts and flowers.

Once the ceremony began, we all stood near the alter while some people passed out flower petals, these we had to grab with our right hand. We had to press our palms together and a Havan (Hymn) was repeated. We handed back our flowers with the right hand and this whole process was repeated 4 times. After the Havan's, we had to place our hand over flames of incense and put our hands up and over our heads.

Then we all went to eat on the other side of the tent. We sat on a large blanket facing each other and people came around to serve us. We talked and ate and overall it was a very interesting experience and I'm glad I could partake.

India.... Day 2

Ok so I've officially been in India for almost two days! I still can't quite believe it, its awesome! All except for the traffic, that's insane. We rode in a bus to get from Delhi to Jaipur which was the craziest bust ride I've ever been in. The drive was unbelievably bumpy. Everyone is in a hurry so people are constantly trying to switch lanes I think. I never actually saw people following the lane lines, in fact most people drove completely off the road to try and pass someone! This means, that traffic goes much slower and is much more confusing. This inevitably leads to honking. And a lot of HONKING!!!!!! Not only do people constantly lay on the horns, but there all different tunes and melodies. Some are like... do do do dee do, or da da da da dum, and any other type of horn you can think of; its awesome. Although when you leave the airport at two in the morning, its not so awesome.

Yesterday we ran around with our heads cut off, we didn't land in Jaipur till about 8- 8:30am and since then we ran around. I was dying from exhaustion and all I wanted to do was shower and sleep; to no avail. We met some of the 4th year Architecture students on campus and they seem incredibly nice! I'm excited to hang out with them. Everyone here has made us feel so welcome! It seems completely different than that of the states. Our accommodations are nice, we each get a LARGE room to ourselves with a walk through closet and a large bathroom. the floor has stone tile and that seems to keep the room a good 15-20 degrees cooler than outside. Which is good for when it gets to be in the 100's. But for now, its 70 degrees; So nice, especially when I think that its usually in the negatives back home! There still doing work on our building, I think they did a massive over hall to it, because they've been working quickly and have gotten a lot done in-just the short amount of time we've been here. My toilet still doesn't flush well though, most unfortunate. There's so much sand and gravel in it that the toilet paper won't even go through... I think I need a new toilet. Other than that, there are no complaints. Everyone has been asking if our rooms are ok or if they can get anything for us and so on... they've been unbelievably accommodating.

I still can't get over all the garbage and trash everywhere, or the lack of garbage cans! I just want to get a garbage bag and pick up all the trash; sad but true. This place would look completely different if it was picked up. We have cows on campus that hang out, its pretty neat, we've named one Jorge, and we're determined to name them all. There are also alot of dogs on campus, which is why there is a specially designed gate at the 3 entrances to the campus; so that the animals don't escape.

All of our meals here are vegetarian... so.. I guess I'm a temporary vegetarian (never thought I'd say that). I think I have the hang of this whole eating style, use your fingers. We went to the market today to buy food and supplies which was neat, people were asking us a lot of questions, but friendly enough. Now I know what it feels like to be the odd one out. We stand out like sore thumbs! But surprisingly, it doesn't bother me, I think it helps that people are more interested and have a positive manner about them; its refreshing.

Second Blog

This is going to be a blog about my travels in India. This will be more generalized; whereas my other blog "India and Landscape Architecture" pertains only to Landscape Architecture.