Ladies Night at I-Bar

After whining that OWC India Night was all work and no play and most importantly no dancing - I got to shake and shimmy at I-Bar in Bangalore on Ladies Night. This really was Ladies night - vodka and whiskey based drinks free to the gals!! These gals are a really fun, welcoming group, friends of Shubha and lots of fun!

The shots looked a lot more fiery than they tasted - colored sugar water in the most part, but the flames added a dramatic twist. The bar doesn't actually have a dance floor but that didn't stop us - chairs were cleared aside and we moved!

Tonight was "commercial night" music wise, which appears to mean the prevailing top hits, - which thanks to my syncing (is that the correct terminology) with Ads i-pod I am well familiar with. I didn't see the day coming when I would be boogying to the music Adam listens to but it has arrived! I have however been able to educate Ads, giving him "history" lessons  - finding u-tube videos of The Stones to show Ads the namesake of one of his favorites  - "Moves like Jagger."

How many Holidays????

Simon and I left the UK in 1997 with very few Holidays on our schedule. Valentine's was only for lovers or secret admirers, Easter - just REAL chocolate easter eggs,  Halloween not really established, and of course Christmas, celebrated in a typical British understated way.

We then arrived in the U.S. to amplify our existing holidays and add a few more! Valentines sent to all - a mandatory requirement to send to all the kids in the classroom complete with candy, St Patrick's Day - going green with a difference!, Easter - an introduction to the Easter Bunny and his hidden candy filled PLASTIC eggs, the red, white and blue of July 4th, Halloween - costumes and candy - parties for adults and kids, Thanksgiving, and the one we spend mega bucks on, affix lights inside and out, bake cookies and cakes, party big time, cut trees, take pics with the big red, bearded chap  - Christmas!

On moving to India - surprisingly we haven't dropped any but gained yet more. The British Embassy sees we keep up the British end  - even an invite to a party to celebrate this year's royal wedding - toasts to Kate and William! Halloween made it to Indus and appears with gusto in the confines of Vista. We will unfortunately miss it this year as we will be on the overnight bus from Goa - more on that later! Wills, needless to say is not too happy with my bad planning on this one!

At the bus stop no ties or hideous formal Indus shoes on Friday, just an array of costumes......

Wills, aka Ninja (from old Ninja hand down top, Prince Caspian pants and the neckerchief cut out of an old batman cape!).

Since we have been in B'lore we have celebrated - India's birth and Independence, paint hurling Holi, Ganesha, Navrati/Dussera and now we are mid Diwali - which will get it's own blog but suffice to say the first firework I heard this morning was before 7.30am - now was this a hangover from last night celebrations or the beginning of today's celebrations?

Can we stand the pace?

Dynamite Diwali!!

Diwali, the festival of lights, and seriously the loudest of the loud, firecrackers galore! Not a distant echo from a far off field reverberating from an organized display but on the street, out of the front door, to celebrate good prevailing over evil and light over dark. Dawn breaking at 5.20 am along with the first of many bangs, booms, bursts, whooshes, whizzes and fizzes into the now lightening sky.


The fun actually started a few days ago when many of the houses in the 'hood were decorated with lights:

Even some of the Vista streets were prepared for party time, I know I really need to go on that night time photography course! Over the last few days there have been street parties and house parties all bursting with exuberance and goodwill -not to mention noise and food, going on into the early hours. With the party resuming at dawn, well actually before, as there are rituals to be performed before the first fireworks head skyward to greet the dawn, I tell you Indians have stamina!!

Huge temporary firework stalls have been appearing along the city streets getting busier and busier with folks buying literaly carts of firecrackers. Even now at 10.00am there is a steady rumble of firecracker pops. Its all very simple here, merely grab your fireworks, matches, walk onto the street and let rip!!

Regardless of the mythological explanation one prefers and there are a few, what the festival of lights seems to stand for today is a reaffirmation of hope, a renewed commitment to friendship and goodwill and a religiously sanctioned celebration of the simple - and not so simple joys of life.


At the more peaceful end, the little Diwalli lamps, Diyas, I saw being made at pottery town some months ago, are lit, placed both outside and around everyones houses, gifts are exchanged, new clothes bought and worn, friends and relatives visited.....

The festival goes on for at least another day but we are off on the overnight bus to Goa - now therein lies a blog!!

Indus will rock you!!

Over the last week I have had a tempestuous relationship with the kid's school. Being told the day before that Wills has to wear a Halloween costume the following day - not helpful in a land where you can't nip out a buy one at the last moment - managed to cobble together a ninja costume out of 3 old costumes. Then Adam's holiday homework.......supposed to be 40 mins a subject  - as he has at least 8 subjects that's no quick sit down and dash it off ....but then as the English is to read a book and write a book report thereon....all in 40 mins, I feel its going to take a lot longer!!!!

However Saturday night we went to see the schools performance of "We all rock you" and it did!!

The evening started off with a tribute to the Indus community school. On the campus Indus has built a free school for the kids from the local villages which it sponsors - each kid even gets a laptop. Adam gets to visit to help the kids with their English.  Some of the community school girls put on a traditional Indian dance, which was beautiful. The girls were elegant and confident.

One of the girls then gave a speech talking about the advantages Indus had given to her and her peers. There then followed too many tributes and thanks to the VIPs present, including a speech by the founder of Indus which was actually a good speech  - about corporate greed and the values they are trying to instill in their students - but it was a case of wrong time wrong place - everyone wanted the show to begin.

The school did an excellent job and I guess it's one of the advantages of having a k thro' 12th school in that the little kids can be involved alongside the incredible skills, application and confidence of the higher grades. Some of the jokes probably were more time-relevant to the parents!

Apparently Wills is singing "We will rock you" in his music class at school and now we all have Bohemian Rhapsody on our i-pods or equivalent - a tribute to the late great Freddie Mercury!!

Caught the Cornrows!

After a not very successful attempt by yours truly, a futile attempt at a salon, I tracked down an African lady to give Wills a professional looking Didya Drogba, Karate Kid (Jaden Smith).....

 Like all in this land of adventure the whole process was not as easy as just driving up to the salon. We had a sort of address - get to a specific hotel near a bank about 30 mins from here, turn down 3rd cross and call. So we did and after driving down this single track road among the Indians going about their business appeared an African lady. She took Wills and I down a side alley into a tiny little house and sat Wills down in the middle of the front room. Shankar meanwhile drove off leaving Wills and I to find a rick home, given we could successfully impart where we needed to go!

Wills was very stoic as his hair having grown a few inches long with a variety of very tight and looser curls, was a tangled mess and she had to tug somewhat to get a comb through it. He also had to sit still for about an hour.......

Nearly there........

Done!!

After the drive there, the whole process and the rick ride back, Wills has decided when the braids come out (up to 2 weeks) he's going to have his hair cut short! But I'm so glad he did decide to get it done as it looks so wonderful - if only once. Now we have to oil it and tie a scarf round it for the night to get maximum life out of the braids! The price of beauty!!

Staircase to Heaven (Navrati Dolls)

Navrati is a time to go visiting in southern India! It is a nine day all female affair - first 3 days dedicated to the Goddess Durga (power and energy), then Laxshmi (prosperity and peace) and finally Saraswathi (art and knowledge). A tiered step like structure is erected in the living room  which is decorated with dolls/models which  may have been collected over the years, handed down from generation to generation. Friends (and friends of friends aka gate-crashers - like me!!) are invited round to celebrate the festival and admire the Kolu.


The dolls essentially represent the court of the Goddess Durga.They are some rules to the arrangements - firstly the number of steps has to be odd (it's auspicious), secondly there is a hierarchy. The most holy are closest to heaven, on the uppermost step. The top step therefore hold the gods, below are the avatars of vishnu (includes Krishna and Rama), then saints and great men. These are followed by mere mortals, perhaps wedding scenes and then tools of business, musical instruments or study books and also animals.

On the 10th night, after the ceremonial arti and prayers, the dolls are laid down and put to ‘sleep.’ And the next day, the exhibits are packed carefully away and preserved for use the next year. Some of these must take a lot of storage.

In the neighborhood, I visited, and saw the two decorations above. Casual California this is not. You don't pop round in your sweats. This is an auspicious occasion and one dresses accordingly (the faux pas I would have made without Shubha do not bear thinking about). Hospitality in India is second to none and as is par for the course I was made to feel at home and the rituals explained to me.


Another friends of Shubha's we visited had a slightly different approach. Around their conservatory they had set up maybe 20 scenarios telling the story of Rama. These were the most intricate and detailed scenes. Below is just one. I think in total there were over 300 dolls/models. The setting up took 2 weeks. Beautiful pictures of an amazing story, an inspiring example of dharma, a great love affair, a tragic exile, a horrific war, which ends in victory and a new emperor.  

Below are a few of the scenes spreading out along one side of the wall.

At the end of each visit we were given a gift bag as we departed. Each of the traditional items to wish us well. 

I am beginning to find tracking down the underlying stories behind these rituals a bit trickier than one would imagine. There are variations from region to region, maybe traditions evolving over time, the individual flourish etc.etc. But in the end the details are not important, the underlying messages of dharma - in order to find the divinely instituted natural order of things, human beings must live in accordance with justice, social harmony and human happiness - look for blessings, wisdom and peace along the way from their gods/goddesses. I maybe losing the plot a bit here!! but suffice to say there is a spiritual feeling and understanding beneath the rituals and traditions which burns strong and hence the details of which god is represented how and when is not so important.

India Night a la OWC

This was the biggie - the major fundraiser of the year for the OWC (Overseas Womens Club), my first as "treasurer in training." Grand plan is when the current treasurer heads back to the UK, muggins here steps in, in an official capacity!!

India Night was quite an extravaganza - big posh hotel, pre-dinner entertainment, free bar (as always a few over-enthusiastic supporters thereof!), raffles, silent auction, fashion show, dinner, bollywood dancers and dancing until the cinderella hour in Bangalore - midnight, surprisingly early for an international hub.

We sold nearly 300 tickets and most arrived attired in formal Indian dress, elaborate sari's for the gals and formal kurta with bling for the guys. All the sari's looked professionally wrapped and I didn't see any wardrobe malfunctions!!

I was attached to my clip board for most of the evening - managed a few glasses of wine but no food and worst of all no dancing!!! They say "you can go anywhere if you look serious and carry a clip board" but what they forget to add is that this bit of nondescript hardboard with it's metal clip also renders you invisible, much like when you deal with someone in uniform you deal with the office/position not the individual. Thus I think I became an extension of my clipboard for the evening not a gal at a party!

Amongst other activities, my date for the evening (my clip board) and I explored the bowels of the Hotel tracking down the photographer's printer, were berated by an enthusiastic supporter of the free booze for the lack of tonic to go with their gin and spent some cosy together time in the designated finance room safely removed from all the fun. However, most importantly we raised lots of dosh for the charities the OWC sponsors and after all that is what it is all about.

But maybe next year my clipboard and I will manage quick shimmy on the dance floor, or perhaps I'll even temporarily dump said partner in a dark corner and find a more interesting companion for a few illicit bollywood moves!!