Monday 29 October 2012

*DURGA PUJA 2012*


It took for me to come here to India to witness a holiday as great (if not greater in West Bengal) than Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. This holiday is called Durga Puja. Durga Puja is THE greatest festival in West Bengal, India. It is a celebration of Goddess Durga’s victory over the evil demon. In the states, we celebrate our holidays for one or two days the most (not including the number of days to celebrate Hanukah). Indians celebrate Durga Puja for about five consecutive days. This festival/holiday is more than just a festival, it’s a celebration of life, culture, traditions and it is a time for families/friends to reunite and spend quality time with one another. This is also the time where Indians exchange gifts with each other.

I included many sections to help you understand the meaning behind this famous Goddess, Durga and the Durga Puja celebration here in West Bengal, India. 

 Story behind Durga Puja: Once upon a time there was a powerful demon called the Buffalo Demon. After several years of praying, the Buffalo Demon had his prayers fulfilled from Lord Brahma (a powerful God) that made him invincible to all powers. No power could harm him at all. Once the divine powers were bestowed upon him, he started ravaging the whole world and killing people and eventually wanted to uproot the higher Gods too. The Gods, in dismay, combined their powers to create a beautiful maiden, Goddess Durga, and each placed his or her most potent weapon in one of her ten hands riding a lion. Eventually, Durga killed the Buffalo Demon and won the heaven back for the Gods.

Meaning of Durga: Durga means ‘one who is difficult to approach.’ Since she is considered the mother of the universe, she also embodies love, wealth, power, and beauty. Durga also represents destruction of evil and protection of good—that is one of the main reasons why she is worshiped.

Durga Puja celebration time: Durga Puja is celebrated in the month of September/October every year. When I celebrated this holiday in 2012, it ran from October 20-24. The dates of the festival are determined by Hindu calendar. *All schools, colleges, and businesses in West Bengal remain closed for the duration of the holiday.

How is Durga Puja Celebrated: Months prior, thousands of clay images of the goddess and her family are made by a series of very artistic craftsmen. In addition to the clay statues, temples are also built to house the clay statues. By Puja time, Kolkata is PACKED with friends and families who spend time with one another via walking the streets of Kolkata to witness the different/amazing clay statues of Durga and her family. Each day, people complete a series of rituals and offerings to the Goddess and give each other gifts. People exchange gifts as a way to wish each other for success in one’s new endeavors. By the last day the statues are immersed in the water after the festival.

Festival preparations: Like I said before, festival preparations begin a month or two in advance. All the preparations take place in  Kumartuli (the Art district of Kolkata). Artists basically use clay from the ganges (river) to build the image of Durga and her kids who are also famous gods/goddesses: Mahisasur, Kartick, Ganesh, Saraswati, and Lakshmi. In addition to the clay images, another group of people start building a pandal (a huge covered stage) made out of paper, wood, clothes, and other materials. I just cannot find the words to describe how beautiful the people end up making the pandals. Some constructions are built as a replica of world famous structures.

Mamata Banerjee aka Didi (nickname in Bengali for elder sister)
   
LOL!! This is the closest I got to Didi right
before she blessed the pandal---I am SO extra!!
Rituals to Durga Puja: Right before the puja celebration, the first day begins with a whole day of rituals and prayers for one’s ancestors. The first day of prayer is the only day that’s held in the family because each family prays to their ancestors. By the second day, Bengali’s (that’s what Indians living in West Bengal call themselves) join others within their community to begin the puja celebration. The main puja lasts for three days (excluding the first day of prayer). As a community, Indians fulfill more rituals and offerings that are long, very detailed, and complicated. But, before these rituals can begin, Goddess Durga and her children must be officially recognized. In Kolkata, Millions of people come to the city to line before the pandals and see Durga. Considering how much of a deal it is to reveal the Goddess, the first person to see the Goddess in Kolkata, has to be Mamata Banerjee, the current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office.

Despite the density of the crowd  (mainly the photographers) around Didi, I found a way to get really close to Didi, exchange a few words with her in Bengali (nOmoshkar Didi, amar nam Sandy. Amar desh Amrikay--Hello Didi, my name is Sandy. My country is America), and take a quick picture before she went ahead to reveal Durga. 

Since myself and the other Fulbrights were really not too sure what to expect, we banked on hanging out with as many locals to see how they celebrate Durga Puja. Thankfully our Bengali teacher, Protima-Di, kept insisting that we come to her community to witness the revealing of Goddess Durga at her community’s pandal (see left). I am SO GLAD I went! The pandal of Protima-di’s community was beyond beautiful. Even with all the 50+ pandals I went to see that week, that pandal was my favorite. The pandal was so beautiful and real that it is hard to believe that it was only made for a couple of days or a week.

For the duration of the festival, people walk all over Kolkata to admire the different versions of Durga and her kids

FINAL DAY= WOMEN'S DAY!:The last day is actually my favorite part of the festival because it demonstrates women empowerment and the role of women in the family. Indian women of all ages, married and unmarried join together to embrace one another as they send-off a power woman, Durga, to continue fulfilling her role as an inspiring Goddess who never lets evil come between her and her loved ones.
After all the dancing and putting of the sindoor (red powder—see my post on Indian Wedding), the women from each community must walk the streets to guide the Goddess back to the ganges to be immersed in the water.
I met this lady earlier that day, and she didn't mind me
taking this picture of her performing a farewell prayer to Durga.
*After visiting far too many pandals and see many versions of Durga--we went back to Protima Di's community to celebrate with her the final rituals for Durga. 

Goddess Durga (within the Gold/shimmering pandal)
Protima-Di performing her farewell ritual to Durga
Protima-Di also gives prayer and offering to Durga's kids
As an 'unmarried' woman, I do not get to put the sindoor on Durga but I still got to celebration for Durga.


*Below you will see me, Carolina (ETA), Kara (ETA), and our unmarried/married friends, having fun dancing together. When completing her prayersand offerings, the women usually put the sindoor on themselves and other women (married & unmarried).

Later that night, male members of the community carefully move Durga and her kids on a truck. The women from every community will march down the street with their 'Durga' to eventually lead her to the ganges to return back to her husband until the next year.
While walking with the women, this news reporter from some station wanted to interview me,
a 'foreigner' to ask me  how I felt about Durga Puja.
All the women in Protima-Di's community marching together, Durga is behind us.

 *Since the distance from the ganges and the community is so great, the women only paraded the main streets of Kolkata. Once they returned to their own community, designated members of the community went to the ganges to officially send Durga and her kids into the ganges.  Considering how tired Carolina and I were, we also decided to go home. Nevertheless, look below to see an example of how Bengali's give away the Goddess and her kids in the ganges.
Immersion of Durga in the water

Acknowledgements:

Sunday 14 October 2012

Re: Dear India, I AM NOT MY HAIR OR MY SKIN COLOR! Thanks, SN.

NOTE:  Since I wrote that last post, I had some time to think and I decided to open up this issue with a few people. From my conversations, this is what I think…

I realize that I may have gone a bit too far when I accused the people of India of being ‘racist bullies. By definition the term bully refers to an act [by the bully] that is intentional [towards the victim]. I honestly do not think that the actions [i.e. stares] of the Indian people are fully intentional. Rather, it is conditional.


Although each Fulbright ETA works in his/her own school, it helps a lot that we have each other to talk to about different techniques/our frustrations, etc. One night, Carolina [ETA] and I started talking about the different idea and issues we want to incorporate within our lessons for our students—to help make them more aware about different issues. I told her about my bullying lesson and how it personally affected me. 
Before I go on, I will say that as a Hispanic, her experiences have been totally different too. All Indians associate Carolina as an Indian native as opposed to a Hispanic all because of her skin tone. It can also be frustrating when a society acknowledges you as something you are not based on looks (i.e. hair/skin color).

Going back to our conversation: following my response Carolina mentioned that for so long Indian people have been conditioned to only acknowledge people who are like them (i.e. looks/skin color). When the British colonized India, they established a mindset where lighter (whiter) skin is equivalent to wealth and power while dark (black) skin is associated with manual labor and poverty. Although the concept of the caste system is deemed extinct, this mindset still lingers because people from higher classes are  lighter than those from lower classes. Additionally, people from higher castes automatically have access to better jobs and education than people of lower castes. 

Even with the British gone and the caste system officially ‘abolished’ this issue/ignorance is still apparent.
 While Carolina talked, I could only think that despite whether one is conditioned to be a certain way, can they change? What do YOU think? What would be the process for how people can change?

*Note: Once again, I apologize for this long post. After this, I promise to go back to posting more pictures and telling you all more about interesting things that I do here in India.   

Sunday 7 October 2012

Dear India, I AM NOT MY HAIR OR MY SKIN COLOR! Thanks, SN


NOTE: Before you delve deeply into this post, please understand that I was definitely in my feelings when I wrote this. By no means am I demeaning anyone or India as a country. These following words are my personal thoughts and feelings (not that of the U.S. Department of State or the Fulbright Program). I feel as an American and black woman I have the duty to express these thoughts. I can no longer keep this in. Here goes...

This morning I woke up thinking I am going to make this Sunday a productive day! After having some breakfast, watching TV, responding to my latest comments on Facebook, and having one quick Skype session with my sister, I officially felt ready to be ‘productive.’ My first order of business was to complete the next lesson I will be teaching to my students. I had to make this lesson really good because I will also be evaluated by Fulbright on this lesson (yup, my boss and a Language Teaching consultant are scheduled to observe each of the ETA’s on how they connect with their students—they play no games!). Believe it or not, lesson planning is no joke!—props to all teachers. It took me a little over two hours to officially complete this lesson. Currently, my students are learning about Schools in America. Following that I decided to teach a lesson on Bullying—much needed in my school because many of my students are victims of bullying (unfortunately).

While doing some research and putting things together for this lesson, I found that there are several hundred types of bullying—OMG, I thought, can this get any more complicated? As I perused for the least condensed definition of bullying, I came across several articles and such to incorporate into the lesson. An article written by a Black American, titled, India is Racist and Happy About It, blew me away. Let me backtrack a little—how does racism and bullying even link? Well, ‘racist bullying’ is a form of bullying that involves any hostile or offensive action against people because of their skin color, cultural or religious background/ethnic origin. Moving on—as I read and re-read this article, I kept thanking God because CLEARLY I am not the only one who has been feeling this type of injustice. Yes, I am finally admitting it— I believe that I am a victim of ‘racist bullying’ by the people of India. I understand that this is a very broad speculation, but I am totally serious. Let me explain...granted, not all Indians are to blame, however the other 97% definitely have some explaining to do.  

Since I came here to India, actually, since I boarded the plane in Chicago, IL to get to India, people have stopped whatever it is they were doing just to stare at me. Three months later, I still get gawked at on a daily basis by anyone and everyone I pass by. It really is disturbing to constantly have adults and children alike tease and gaze at you. In the lesson I created, I mention how social bullying can be devastating to one’s self esteem due to the public nature of the torments. Granted, I have not been physically touched by anyone (Thank God) but this feeling of being ostracised is also painful. Aside from the stares, I constantly get insults/degrading comments thrown at me (mainly in Bengali or Hindi).

I had one experience where I was headed from school back to my apartment. On this particular day, the bus was PACKED! Despite how crowded the bus was, I stayed focused because I did not want to miss my stop. Sometime during the ride, I took one glance off of the road and to my surprise, this girl that was sitting adjacent to where I stood managed to have her phone casually up recording me while she laughs out loud with her friends. WHAT THE HECK!!! This was not the first time I caught someone trying to record me on their phone. Am I some movie?? I could hardly move from where I stood to react because it was so crowded so I just tried to silence my screams/cries of discomfort. What’s a girl to do??? I kept my frustrations in until I arrived to my apartment, greeted my cook, and locked the door of my room.   Out of nowhere, I just started crying nonstop. I kept my cries quiet in case Hunter (my roommate) came because I did not want to involve him or Fulbright in general. This is a huge culture shock for me and it is hard for me to put to words for someone (who is not of the same race) to fully understand how I feel. Plus, I just didn’t want to worry anyone. Many people would consider crying as a sign of weakness—I did too at some point. However in this case, crying for me became a signal for my strength because I made it through yet another humiliating situation. I just cannot understand why such a country, of great diversity in people, religion, and culture consents to extreme dislike for people with dark skin.

In all my life, I will say that I have never lost pride in my identity nor race. This experience almost put me to that point but no matter what, I will not let that destroy my pride as a Haitian and African/Black-American woman. I know I can’t change my skin color (and I am not asking to do that). It just frustrates me how I am only identified by my race/skin color here. I did not come to India for this. This treatment thus far has definitely had a profound effect on my emotions, interaction with locals and overall worldview

Being as I have about six more months left in this grant, I must keep my head levelled. Thus, I make sure to do my best at the job I came here to do and I volunteer often (you can never go wrong with helping those who can’t help themselves).

I definitely apologize for ranting so much. I just felt that you (my readers) needed to know holistically how my experience here in India has been for me.

*This is kind of random but totally relates to this post, I would like to mention that the title of this post was inspired by a song written by India.Aire called “I am not my hair.”If you haven’t heard it, I definitely suggest it, it’s an oldie (kind of). This song inspires self love, empowerment, and beauty in Black woman. The second part of the title was obviously related to this post.


Saturday 6 October 2012

Morning Assembly


After entering school, all students must go to their respective home rooms to have their attendance taken by their classroom (home-room) teacher. Following attendance, each and every student leaves their bags and tiffin (lunch) boxes to gather at the school courtyard. At the courtyard, each class must stand together in rows. Each class must have two rows, one for the girls and another for the boys. They all stand according to their roll number (which is issued at the beginning of the school year). In each class there is a prefect/monitor. Prefects/monitors are responsible for disciplining the class on behalf of the teacher. Amazingly enough, students do listen to them. As the students stand in their respective rows, the ‘prefects/monitors,’ chosen students checks each classmate to ensure they are straight in the row, have their ID badge, correct uniform, and that their nails are clean.   




On the stage, there are a select students who either act as the chorus group or play instruments like tabla, congo, harmonium, and synthesizer. Few of the head-charge teachers also stand with/next to principal sir (yes that’s what I call him) on the stage. The school starts the morning assembly at 8:40AM. The morning assembly always starts with a prayer in Sanskrit that sounds so beautiful (See the video below). Thanks to one of the teachers on my staff, in translation it means:


"Oh God! Lead me from the unreal to the real from darkness to light from death to immortality Om Shanti,       Shanti, Shanti, hi!" Shanti means peace.


After the prayer, everybody stays silent for about a minute and them starts to do the meditation noises: ohm, ohm (about 4x). Following this, the students recite the pledge in whether English, Hindi, or Sanskrit,. At my school, the morning assembly is in English Mondays through Wednesdays, Sanskrit on Thursdays, and Hindi on Fridays and Saturdays. After the pledge, select students recite international, regional, and local news, random but interesting facts, another student would say the thought of the day.

Then we celebrate the birthdays of students by singing to him/her. Principal sir also gives the students his blessing, a birthday card, and chocolates. Sometimes principal sir says a few words to the students either about a meeting/conference or their discipline. Finally, the school sings the Indian national anthem. When singing the national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’, all students and staff stand rigid facing forward with their arms at their sides.


Following all of this—the students move to get back to their classrooms to begin their day of school. 

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Monsoons in Kolkata

Kolkata experiences three major seasons: summer, monsoons, and winter. From March to June is summer, then June to November is monsoon and November to February is winter. Unfortunately, the weather has been delayed because the monsoons started late July and have yet to stop. As I write this post it's raining. The worst I have experienced with the monsoon took place while I was in my Bengali class with the other Fulbrights. On my way to class, the weather was not so bad, but I could tell something was going to go down because there was cloud buildups. Thankfully the actual rain down poured while I was in class. It rained so hard, the road in front of the classroom building turned into a river (ankle plus deep). Half way through class, I got a chance to look out. Cars were back up, driving extra slow, people were hiking up their pants/dresses and rushing to a nearby place to stand until the rains calmed. Even with all the hurricanes I have experienced back in Florida, I have never seen something like this before. **It was so bad, our teachers got a driver to take us back to our apartment.