Ganpati, and much, much more.

Last week marked the end of the Ganesh Chaturthi, a 10-day Hindu festival celebrated all throughout India. On the last day of the festival, Viviane and I took to the streets to celebrate. All throughout Bombay were hundreds of processions like these, where people dance around the giant plaster idols of Ganesh. (I’d actually seen them being made before at the Colaba Market – there was this huge room filled with dozens of these gigantic sculptures in the process of being painted.) Each procession slowly (VERY slowly) makes its way to the sea, where the idols are ceremoniously submerged in the water. Viviane and I only saw the smaller idols being submerged along Gita Nagar because dancing in this procession got tiring after the first half-hour or so of getting virtually nowhere. We met these cute little kids who ushered us right on in to the dancing. A group of women came over and started dancing with us almost immediately, and smeared this red powder on our faces (which is as AWESOME as it is difficult to wash off, haha). Indian hospitality is amazing (: Also, strange men kept taking pictures of us . . . haha. This is a view from Marine Drive of Chowpatty beach, where the biggest crowds gather for the submersions. We didn’t end up going there because we didn’t want to get trapped forever and we were already tired . .. but hey, it’s all the more of a reason to come back next year (: The next day, we went to Juhu Beach to participate in one of Rotaract Club of Mithibai College’s community service events – a beach-cleaning drive. Juhu (along with all the other beaches of Bombay) was absolutely COVERED in trash and bits of plaster elephant god. The Ganesh Festival is hell on the environment, but it’s part of the culture, and people are definitely willing to help clean it up, as there were dozens of community service groups along the beach that day. Here’s an article about the event: http://www.bindass.com/post/beach-cleaning-drive-rcnm/ Me with some of the exchange students and Rotaractors who attended the event. The group! All of the beach-cleanup pictures were taken by Disha Jain, one of the Rotaractors. By the way, did I mention that WE WERE INTERVIEWED BY MTV? I’m supposed to be on television tomorrow at noon (: Right after the event, I hung out with my friend Archit, since he lives right in Juhu. We saw my first Hindi movie in theatres – Kaminey (Hindi for “bastards/scoundrels”) – which he so graciously translated for me. Luckily, it was filled with lots of explosions, so despite not really understanding it, I was very much entertained. And I really do not mind staring at Shahid Kapoor’s face for two hours, even if it’s in total incomprehension. Gotta love Bollywood. I ALSO really love how most films here are based in Bombay. It’s really cool to see the city you’re living in portrayed on the screen. It must be awesome to have grown up somewhere that people actually make art about. The next day, my wonderful counselor, Razia, invited me to an Indian wedding reception at the Sahara Star. It was only the reception, so no singing and dancing, but it was still great to get to wear Indian clothes and eat glorious gourmet Indian food. I loved looking at everyone’s saris (: The hotel itself was absolutely RIDICULOUS. I’ve never been anywhere ritzier in my entire life. They had pyrotechnics and laser shows over this huge pool. And did I mention that the food was GLORIOUS? My god. I ate so much. I figured I’d never get a chance to eat food that ritzy again, so I really seized the day there. The bride and groom also had these gigantic magazine-quality photographs of themselves draped everywhere . … Definitely the most lavish party I’ve ever been to. If I get married, it won’t be in India, because I don’t think my wallet could EVER recover. A couple days after that, Elfi, Joia, Viviane, Carmen and I attended the Fresher’s Party (for Rotaract Club of Jai Hind members) at the Red Light club in Kala Ghoda. Sooooo much fun. Before I had thought that clubbing was just a bunch of young people acting carnal in order to desperately feel like adults . .. which is kind of dead-on, but it’s also FUN as SHIT. I’d never actually been out dancing before, so this was definitely a crash course on the matter, because at one point all of us exchange students were dancing on the table, haha. If I wasn’t an extrovert before I came to India, I am one now. Luckily I knew all of the songs because my host sister, Dipti, plays them all the time. Also, it turns out I’m actually going to college now! Perish the thought! And still . .. I don’t really attend unless I particularly want to, haha. The first lecture I saw was Hindi . . . taught completely in Hindi . . . so I didn’t really learn much. HOWEVER, I made friends right away with some girls from my class – Ruhi, Rudri, Nilofer, Numena, Radhika, and Benaaz, and they promptly taught me how to swear in Hindi. So far I’ve learned much more from them than I’ve learned in school. We bunked the next lecture and went to Mocha for shisha. That was two days ago, and since then I’ve only attended one other lecture, Philosophy, which I was 15 minutes late for. I wish I could say that it was interesting . . . but it really wasn’t. It was mostly all stuff you could discuss freely with any willing stoner friend back home. I was kind of hoping it would be about specific philosophers and schools of thought, but nope. The lecture after that had been cancelled, and then today, BOTH my History and Poli Sci lectures were cancelled, because the teachers neglected to show up for school. Sigh.

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