On hiatus

Dear readers,

I know that I've been quite naughty this week in not posting regularly; please forgive me as I've been on vacation. Actually, I'm heading off to another two week vacation shortly, and am so unlikely to resume posting until the middle of November. So please, check back in then!

Yours,
Kate

More pictures of street foods and street food markets

Because I know there are more than a few food porn fetishists in my readership...  

Dusshera: Part II

I returned to a Ramlila fairground for the 9th day of the celebration--the day on which the Ravana effigy is ritually burned. Fascinating! I really have so much to say on what the experience of this final day was like, but since I won't be able to say it all, let me just impress this upon you--these festivities really should be better overseen by (a) crowd management people and (b) pyrotechnic experts. In other words, damn--effigy burning is dangerous!

But I get ahead of myself. Before any effigy burning was done I first needed to sit through the final scene in the Ramayana. This, of course, is the epic battle between Rama and his monkey brethren and Ravana and his minions. It was very exciting and, although a bit long--just the final final fight scene took about a forty-five minutes--the audience got really into things

I filmed it for you. I'm really hoping that this can upload with audio, because my commentary is priceless, if I don't say so myself. (What can I say, I just get very emotional whenever monkey fighters are involved).

Ok, so after the actual Ramayana was finished and before the effigies were lit on fire, something very strange happened. I can only really describe this as being forced to watch someone else's kid's crappy middle school dance recital. Basically, the stage was given over to various groups of kids who, all dressed to the nines, performed exactly the kind of dance routine you would expect from a group to regular (re: non-dancer) middle schooler, probably forced to do this by his/her parents. It was pretty painful.

But then, on to the effigy burning!!! However, there was something very strange going on with the set-up; I understand that normally there are three effigies burned--those of Ravana and his two evil side kicks. But, wait, there seemed to be three smaller effigies (still 10-12 feet high) set up in front of the big Ravana effigies...all dressed like terrorists. They seemed to be guarding a barbed wire fence, behind which the larger Ravana effigies stood. And wait, does that say "LOC" on the fence?!?!?!"

For the uninformed, "LOC" stands for "Line of Control" and it means the line separating Pakistan from India. So, basically, the organizers of this Ramlila had set up three effigies of Pakistani soldiers at the fake India-Pakistani border, positioning the evil demons squarely in Pakistan.  And then they filled the Pakistani soldier effigies with fire-crackers and exploded them, to the joyful glee of the crowd.

Basically, this was the most crazy nationalistic things I've ever seen.

But on to the main event, the burning of the Ravana effigies! As you can probably see from the photos, these things are HUGE--40 or 50 feet high. What you can't see in the below photos is how closely pressed the crowd was to these effigies. As I had entered the Ramlila with a VIP ticket (courtesy of a lovely and very hooked up friend) I was promptly shuffled by the event organizers to the front of the crowd and, about 2 minutes before the damn things were about to be lit up, realized that I was standing maybe 15 feet from an enormous paper-maiche statute filled with explosives--tightly hemmed in on three sides by the crowd.

Holy crap.

I panicked, and made a dash around the crowd. Because I have sharp elbows, a New Yorker's instinct for crowds, and was motivated by the primordial desperation of a woman who fears for her life I managed to get to a further and safer viewing point just before the fuses were lit. And thank goodness, because as any crowd-controller should know, as soon as stuff starts exploding on people a few things happen (a) loud scary noises (b) lots of burning ash (c) stampeding.

Actually, even from my safer viewing point, maybe 60 feet away it was still pretty scary. I'm not sure the below video truly captures the experience witnessing of a bunch of fireworks tearing through a 50 foot paper demon, but I can assure you that the sound alone is reminiscent of every WWII movie I've seen where the Allied forces storm the beach.

The good news is that, to my knowledge, no one was actually hurt during these explosions (at least at the Ramlila I attended--apparently every year there are a few, mainly stampede, casualties). But I think I've learned my lesson. Next Dusshera, I get a seat at the back.

Dusshera, part I

 

October is THE month for Hindu festivals, so I've been very busy trying to attend them all! Here's one I've learned so far about Hindu festivals--they involved idol-worshiping, amazing food, crowds and crowds of people, bright lights and larger than life theatrics. All in all, a pretty good time.

First up is the festival of Dusshera, which is a festival revolving around the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu epic that is to India (and much of the Eastern world) what the Iliad and the Odyssey is to the West. Or, more so, actually, because the West still doesn't worship the Olympian gods while as worshiping of the gods and heros of the Ramayana is still very alive in India. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 versus and is hella long. But this is the plot, as I understand it in a nutshell.

Rama is human incarnate of some god, and one of many sons of a king. His wicked stepmother forces his father to banish him for 14 years so that her son can become king instead. Rama's pious wife and devoted brother go into exile with Rama. While in exile, the sister of demon tries to seduce the brothers but fails. She gets pissed off by the rejection and tries to kill Rama's wife, but is stopped by Rama's brother who cuts off her nose. Her demon brother, Ravana, is pretty ticked off that Rama's brother cut off his sister's nose, so he kidnaps Rama's wife and takes her to his evil kingdom (Sri Lanka). Rama hangs out with a monkey god, who agrees to help him get his wife back. Rama, his bro, and monkey god dude all go wage war on Ravana. They win after Rama kills Ravana with a burning arrow.

So, basically what's being celebrated on Dusshera is the life of Rama, and his triumph over Ravana--symbolically the triumph of good over evil. This is celebrated by a 9 day performance of the Ramayana called the Ramalila, culminating on the last day by the burning of an effigy of Ravana (and his evil side-kicks). Basically, it's a big ole party with lots of food and a carnival-like atmosphere.

So, a few weekends ago I went to check out the festivities...wow!

On the first day of the festival, I went to see the artisans making the actual effigies of Ravana, which will later be burned. These things are huge! It's not like they can be kept in a warehouse somewhere so what tends to happen is that the artisans congregate in one area of the city where they make the bodies and heads of the Ravanas (to be joined later) out of paper-maiche, paint them, and leave them out on the streets to dry (and to be admired by passersby). Walking around all of these giant demon heads and disembodied torsos was a truly weird, but kind of magical experience.

After viewing the effigies, I headed to the north of the cities where one of the larger Ramalilas was being performed. What is a Ramalila like? Well, it's a HUGE outdoor theater where the play is performed in traditional theatrical style, combined with a fairground and basically the best food court ever to grace a carnival.

 

[This was the scene where Rama's wicked stepmother convinces Rama's dad to banish him]

[A huge fairground, just packed with people]

[Ok, this stuff that the guys are spinning is actually long strands of ice cream....]

[...which is served to you covered in pomegranate seeds and nut spices. Delicious!]

[This is a mango, frozen and stuffed with ice cream (kulfi), the sliced for easy dining enjoyment.]

[Yep, I was pretty happy with all of the food offerings!]

So, that was my first experience with Dusshera--but as the festival is 9 days long I obviously needed to return on the 9th day, for the effigy burning....

It takes a village

Ok, here's what's going on in the above photo. Three young women got on my train and spotted a very cute baby. They then proceeded to relieve the tired-looking mother of said baby for an impromptu photo shoot with adorable accessory. (Adorable accessory himself was less than impressed).

Then, each of the young women took turns walking the adorable baby up and down the train car, with all riders smiling them on. (At one point, when the baby almost fell over, there was an audible gasp from the train car). They then returned baby to its rightful owner.

I post about this event not because it is hilarious--which it is--but because this is actually not an uncommon occurrence in Delhi's "Women only" train cars. In fact I would say that a good 25% of the trips I've been on are characterized by the temporary theft of someone or another's baby.

I guess it takes a village....

Yep, only in India.

Sadly, I didn't take this picture--but I still thought it worth sharing. 

5 things I now appreciate

Below are 5 things that my time in India so far has granted me an unexpected new appreciation for:

1. Lipstick. I used to never wear lipstick because of all of the makeups, it is the most annoying to wear. It gets on your teeth, smears everywhere and quite frankly, normally only stays on until my first drink or first snack. However in India it is simply too hot to wear make-up on my eyes or skin because I can like, feel it sliding off with the sweat about 3 seconds after application. So to signal that I, in fact, put some effort into my evening party look, I have now resulted to wearing brightly colored lipstick. In doing so (and perhaps putting a bit more effort into application and upkeep of lipstick), I feel I had unfairly maligned its prowess in the past.

2. Sidewalks. Very few streets have sidewalks here which means whenever you're walking anywhere you need to creep along the side of the road--one eye on the craziness of the vehicles swerving past and one eye on the potholes and garbage scattered on the edges of the street. Sidewalks, a dedicated area where individuals can merrily stroll along--free from worry of imminent death by rickshaw--are a much undervalued and brilliant invention.

3. Air conditioning. Because, obviously.

4. Yogurt. Plain yogurt is a brilliant, brilliant food whose true utility I had never recognized before coming here--though now I make sure I have a vat of yogurt in the fridge at all times. Yogurt can be used with fruit or cereal for breakfast, with honey for dessert, as a lovely lassi drink, or pretty much with any spicy food to make the spice bearable and delicious. It's healthy and filling and will make your doctor happy because it's filled with bone-strengthening goodness. Yogurt is amazing.

5. Leather vests. My boss, who is a hotshot, wears a leather vest every day to work. No, he doesn't ride a bicycle, no, it's not cold in his office, no, there seems to be no obvious reason why his vest should be the one constant item in his wardrobe. (I should mention that he appears to only have one leather vest which he wears every day--it's not like he has a whole closet full of them. Or hey, maybe he does and they're all identical, but that would just be weird). I must admit that the question of why he wears this vest every day is a usual topic of lunchtime conversation amongst my colleagues, but I've moved on. I don't care why he wears it every day, all I know is that it looks AWESOME. Very bad-assey--which honestly, is probably why he wears it. I have truly come to believe that leather vests are an undervalued item of clothing for any hotshot lawyer.

Post on hiatus till next week

This is a big week for me friends--starting in a few hours I'm helping to host an international conference for the handover of the UN Special Rapporteur mandate on the right to health. We have experts flying in from all over the world; please lord, let none of them get stuck in the airport for 4 days due to lack of polio vaccination card, as apparently happened at the last big conference my organization hosted. And then pretty much as soon as this conference ends I myself am hopping on a plane to Dubai to enjoy a few days of walking on sidewalk, and other such pleasures of the developed world.

So, my blog will be on hiatus until Monday 13, please check back in then!

Vegetarian hamburger

FYI, this is what it looks like when you order a hamburger from a vegetarian restaurant. Yup, that's fries in a bun with a bit of lettuce.

Racism, mob violence, police apathy and my Sunday afternoon

 

Last Sunday afternoon I found myself witness a mob attack three black men in the metro station. This is what happened:

I had joined a local walking group to take a tour of some of the festivities leading up to the Dusshera holiday. As we were passing through the central metro station of Delhi--basically Delhi's equivalent of Penn station, always insanely crowded and hectic--I immediately noticed a large group of men with their phones out filming something.

My first thought was, I wonder if there is a Bollywood actor there, but what famous person would be crazy enough to come into this metro station? But then I noticed the glass police booth, and the man standing on top of it.

I was standing about 50 feet away, beyond the edge of the crowd, so I didn't have the best view. But this is what a I did see: One man, in a brightly colored shirt, was crouched on top of the glass police kiosk while a crowd at least 300 men strong (I didn't see any women) formed a semi-circle enclosing the kiosk. The way this station is laid out there is also a sort of balcony overpass which was also packed with onlookers (men and women here)--I'd say all in all at least 800 people were watching this spectacle.

The crowd around the police kiosk were throwing bottles and other things at the man crouched on the roof, which he was attempting to dodge. I saw one man from the crowd try to climb onto the room to pull the guy off, but he was promptly rebuffed by the fellow on top by a painful-looking kick to the face.

The crowd was certainly involved in the spectacle, people were yelling and throwing things, but it seemed like the vast majority of onlookers were watching and filming. Literally--there had to be hundreds of phones recording.

Despite the whole mob occurring around a police kiosk the police were no where to be found.

Suddenly the a group yell/cheer erupted from the crowd and a number of people broke away and started sprinting in my direction. Our guide leader--who is generally a total stress-pot--absolutely freaked out. She screamed, "We need to get out of here NOW" and ran towards the further end of the platform. I walked in that direction too and had my back turned to the mob for about 20 seconds. By the time I reached the corner of the platform and looked back the man was no longer on the roof of the police kiosk and waves of cheering were being pouring from the crowd. (Like you hear at a sports match. "Ooooooh", "Aaaaaah"). I said, "Shit, I think they pulled him down." My friend said, "Or maybe the police have just arrived?"

Well, given that we were totally unable to cross the platform my group decided to take the metro one stop down in the wrong direction, and then switch over at the next stop. So, we exited the mobbed platform swiftly and made it to our final destination without incident.

But, four hours later I was passing through the exact same metro station and walked by the police kiosk. The area was now empty, except for the semicircle of about 15 police officers who were guarding what had been the kiosk. I say, "What had been" because, if you recall my initial description, the police kiosk was made of glass--and all four walls now lay shattered on the ground--intermixed with lots and lots of blood. Lots of blood. It was a gory scene.

So, that's what I saw, but I really had no idea what happened until the papers came out today. There seem to be lots of confusion over the facts of what happened--and it's interesting to see how different newspapers portray the events with either lots of sympathy for the victims ("Africans climb police booth roof to escape mob") or lots of sympathy for the mob  ("Nigerians 'misbehave' with woman on subway, beaten up"). Here is what seems to have happened, however.

Three black students (erroneously identified by almost every newspaper as Nigerian, although actually none of them were, and two may not have even been African) got into an altercation with some Indian men on the metro car. This altercation 'may' have been incited may improper behavior towards a woman, or it 'may' have just been a shoving match between a the black men and a group of Indian students. The black students were pushed off the car, and followed by some of the Indian passengers. I think at that point the police intervened and took the black students to the police kiosk, but either the mob took the students away from the police or the police just kind of let the mob do their thing until back-up arrived. According to most the news stories, the black students injuries were minor--but considering how much blood I saw I think that is really unlikely to be the case.

In any case, videos of the event have been circulating on facebook, click here if you're interested. But, warning--this is not for the faint of heart.

Don't fuck with a monkey

This is the monkey that tried to attack me.

Oh, I know what you're all thinking: Kate, what are you talking about? That monkey looks very sweet and peaceable. I don't think he would hurt a fly. Well, if you think that you're a fool because NO MONKEY is sweet and peaceable--they're all natural born killers. One other life lesson learned in India--don't fuck with a monkey.

This particular monkey showed up, as you can see, on the balcony outside my office. At first he just sat there, looking at me, plotting, and managed to lull me into a false sense of security. So, I got out my camera, moved a bit nearer and started snapping pictures.

This was the last picture I took before the monkey attacked me.

Now, ok, to be fair--maybe I got a bit too close. And I guess, realistically speaking, I probably wouldn't like it if someone got up in my face with a camera either. But all I know is one moment I was peaceable snapping photos and the next the monkey had raised its ears, bared its teeth and attacked.

I might be new to the monkey world, but I'm not fool--there was always a closed door and window between me and that monkey. You think that monkey cared? He did not. He grabbed the ladder you see gently resting next to him and began to bang it against the window. I think his plan was to break the window with the ladder, and then bite my jugular--probably while slashing away at my face with pieces of the broken glass.

I didn't give him the change. Locked door or not, I take no chances with monkey. I grabbed my camera and dashed back into the main part of the office.

Having secured his territory the monkey stopped trying to break the window, and all was peaceful once again.

Monkeys, man--they're going on my list of people and things not to mess with, right between Condoleezza Rice and the Roman Legions.