Republic Day Parade

Yesterday was Republic Day here, so I headed off to see a parade they hold in Delhi which heads through India Gate and down to the Red Fort. I was there with one of my housemates by 6.00am to get prime seats; unfortunately we didn't know that cameras and mobile phones cannot be taken in because the parade is a 'high security operation'. And here I was planning on selling pictures of Indian missiles to the Soviets. I can just imagine a group of bureaucrats sitting in a room charged with turning the Parade into a 'high security operation' and coming up with ridiculous rules like 'no cameras' and 'no mobile phones'; what do they expect me to do with a phone?

Anyway we returned home and travelled back to the parade minus cameras and phone. Unfortunately my housemate had some gum, but after they had watched him eat a piece, they decided it probably wasn't poisonous and allowed us entry.

We had been told that the parade started at 8am. At 9.30, we finally heard some voices and it began.

After half an hour of speeches in Hindi, the tanks came rolling out. We had been sitting on a grass patch in quite a good spot surrounded by a few thousand people (we were in the free seats as we had missed out on buying reserved seating). Police forced everyone to sit so that everyone could see, even smacking the odd person on the head to get their point across. But as soon as the first tank came out everyone jumped to their feet and pushed forward, until the police waded in pushing people to the ground. This happened maybe a dozen times during the parade, whenever one of the more interesting floats (eg any float with dancing girls on it) came out. Each time it happened we got pushed closer and closer together and it got more and more difficult to sit down again. By the end of it there was a human jigsaw puzzle on the ground, and it was hard to work out where I began and everyone else started.

The parade was a mix of Indian defence force grandstanding and floats from different regions of India. The highlight for me was a huge army vehichle with the title 'information warriors.' Basically it was like a big flatbed truck with a large radar attached and two big glass cubes full of computer machinery. Two soldiers in full parade dress sat like secretaries at a couple of laptops in these glass cubes, pretending to tap away, engaged in some sort of 'informatin warfare', presumably.

Another thought-provoking float for me was from the Annaman Islands, a beautiful archipelago to the east of India. It consisted of a model jail complete with prisoners behind bars and a little guard in a tower. It celebrated '100 years of cellular jail', surely an achievement which can only be captured through the medium of parade floats.

Of course there were plenty of enjoyable floats, like the one to the right from Goa, which had great music and some interesting hawaiian shirts and dancing. And there were also some noisy helicopter and jet flyovers which I always like. Overall it was good fun.

This weekend I'm off to Jodhpur, the 'Blue City' of Rajashtan.

Jaipur Festival

jaipur festival
Originally uploaded by lamoney.

I've posted up some photos from the Jaipur festival and our workshop.

The workshop went really well...the kids there were all from the Rajasthan School of Art. Although they were all between 18-21, they are so much more polite and innocent-seeming then western kids of the same age, that in some ways you had a hard time believing they were older than 13.

The difference wasn't as big in Delhi, where they had a stronger understanding of 'cool' and hence were a little more cynical and stand-offish...but still a nice group.

The festival in Jaipur was good fun. Alan, who is from Britain but lives in Belgium, and Etienne, our comic book artist, performed several times there (see the photos). Played a mix of different styles of blues. Susmit Bose, a local folk musician who works a lot with my NGO, also played. It was good to see a bit of live music, and the venue, an old palace converted into a hotel, was fantastic.

The only bad experience I had in Jaipur was losing my camera, which happened on Friday during the workshop. We had a lot of people come in for a closing ceremony and sometime during it someone nicked my camera off my desk.

I had to stay an extra day in Jaipur and spent about 5 hours trying to get the police to do a report, which I needed for my insurance. At first they suggested it was some sort of insurance fraud job, then eventually I had to accompany them as they did an 'investigation'. The officer I was with interviewed a few people from the school and even drew a map of the 'crime scene'. It would have been funnier if I hadn't been so annoyed at losing my camera and then having to waste so much time trying to get a report done.

Anyway I am back in Delhi now. This Thursday is a holiday here, Republic Day (26th of January - same as Australia Day). I'll be going to see a big parade they do through India gate which should be fun. The traffic around India gate has been backed up for weeks as all the different groups parading have been in training. It should be fun - I think (although I'm not sure) that its a mix of standard military parade gear (tanks, soldiers, maybe even some nuclear missiles if I'm lucky) and 'celebration of India' groups - camels, elephants, musicians, etc. I'll try to get one of my housemates to take plenty of photos.

Happy Australia Day to everyone back home.

So aside from Eid ul-Adha, I have not been up to anything too exciting. At work we are running a comics workshop this week with a Belgian comic book artist. The poster is on the right (guess who designed it). We have also put up a comics exhibition to run alongside it. I spent last weekend putting it up, and this week have had to put it up and take it down each morning as, unfortunately, its outside.

Its been going really well. We have a lot of Indian art & design students and also a few professional artists and illustrators. Etienne is excellent and gets along really well with the participants. They've all been doing some great work. Really its been better than we had hoped. Next week we take it to Jaipur. Unfortunately this is one of two cities outside of Delhi I have already visited; still, a change of scene will be nice, and they are holding some sort of festival that should be interesting. There are quite a few musicians and artists there that should have some interesting shows.


A few more pictures of the exhibition are below...

Teo left suddenly last week...I came home to find a note on the table and all his things gone. We don't really know why he left, and are even more confused as to why he didn't tell us as we all got along with him well. So now there are 6 in our house but I think more will be coming early in Feb.

Hope you're enjoying the heat in Australia. A couple of days ago it went below zero here...the coldest day in Delhi in more than 70 years. Bloody freezing.

Eid al-Adha Buffalo Sacrifice

Eid ul-Adha Buffalo Sacrifice
Originally uploaded by lamoney.

I wouldn't recommend checking out my latest photo postings. I have put up my photos from the Eid ul-Adha festival. You will see this buffalo die. The Eid ul-Adha festival celebrates Ibrahim's (Abraham's) sacrifice; God asks Abraham to kill his first-born son, Abraham takes him to a certain spot where the sacrifice is to occur, the Devil tries to convince him to disobey but Abraham won't be swayed, is about to kill him, God says ok, you proved your faith, kill a sheep instead. That's how I remember the story anyhow. More information on it can be found here.

Many Indian Muslims celebrate this event by sacrificing an animal, normally a goat or a buffalo, since killing a cow is illegal in most of India.

I was invited to go and see a family sacrifice an animal by Harun, a friend of Paula's (my housemate). Harun's family was going to kill a buffalo.

When we arrived, very early in the morning, the buffalo was outside the family home. They took it down to the nature strip and tied it to a tree. There were a lot of goats and buffalos about, and obviously a lot of animals were going to die that day. I think most families that can afford to kill an animal try to do so.

A hole was dug next to the tree, while a few men tried to tie the buffalo's legs to make it easier to pull it to the ground. The buffalo, which was quite young and small, 2 years old apparently, got more and more frightened by the activity around it and was quite agitated. Eventually it was forced to the ground and pulled into position with its neck near the hole.

There was quite a crowd watching, mostly men from the family and their friends. A lot of young boys, the youngest maybe 2 or 3.

The butcher stood over the animal but the killing would be done by a member of the family. The butcher was for afterwards.

So. Harun's father slit the buffalo's throat. Blood filled the hole which had been dug. The look in the buffalo's eyes was sickening as it gave a few weak movements and its tongue lolled out. There was a bit of sound from it but not a lot. It took a while to die, maybe twenty seconds.

It was butchered where it lay, in the dirt. They started to skin it immediately as it bled to death. Most of the meat is distributed to others while some of it is kept by the family and eaten. There is a four day holiday during which the family feasts on the meat.

Towards the end there was just a skin on the ground, a head, and a hole full of blood.

I have seen a lot to shock me in India, mostly to do with the conditions of people...street kids, the homeless, lepers, beggars,etc. Strangely this was the worst thing I had seen. My stomach just dropped when the buffalo's throat was cut. One of my housemates couldn't watch and started crying.

At first I thought the whole thing was barbaric, but then I thought about the slaughterhouses where thousands of cows and other animals are put on conveyor belts and sliced up by machines, and thought really, this was not nearly as horrific.

If you are going to eat meat, I suppose it is better to know where it comes from and understand the decision you are making. And you understand that a life has been taken when you watch something like this.

A few of us are supposed to go to Harun's house for dinner tonight. I don't think I'll be able to eat the meat.

I've put up the photos, I felt I should, but they are pretty awful and anyone who is vegetarian or does not wish to see this buffalo sliced up really should not look.

Ten Things I Like About India

Going through the blog and looking at the comments from one Indian person who happened upon it, I have realised that I've started to write a little negatively about my trip so far, and about India. Which really annoys me because I hate whiney travel writing! Oh, this is different, people are so rude, I can't get my shoe size, the place smells like a toilet. And I have started doing it! And it is especially bad because so far I have really enjoyed my time here and found a lot to like about India. It has been much, much better than I expected and had prepared myself for.

I suppose sometimes I like to point out the strange things and play up on how annoying they are because its easier to describe why you dislike something than to describe why something is good.

So without further ado and in no particular order, I am going to write about ten things I like about India, and I will try not to resort to cheapness, eg, longnecks are $1 a bottle.

1. I do like the cows. Even though occassionally I tread in their shit. I like the way people feed them, I like the way they lie in the middle of the road and everyone just drives around them. I like that occassionally you have to dive out of the way to avoid mini-stampedes. And they use the manure for fuel, except when dumb westerners step in big steaming piles of it.

2. I like the food. Even though I get the feeling it doesn't like me.

3. I like the way people are happy to give you directions, show you around, etc. The other day when we were trying to get to Gurgaol, the rickshaw driver wouldn't take us as it was too far, but he took us to a bus stop and found someone going to the same place. Then that guy shoved us into the share-cab when it arrived to make sure we got seats, then made sure we paid the right amount, then made sure we knew where we wanted to go and that the driver knew too.

4. I like that Delhi is a place still designed partly for pedestrians. I mean, yes you have to walk on the road most of the time, and cars and bikes beep you constantly, but what I mean is, everything you need is generally within walking distance. Just near our house is a little market that has a few chemists, a half dozen general stores, an electrician, a plumber, a doctor, etc. Its not a city that expects you to have a car to get everywhere.

5. I like the temples and the way religion and modern life go side by side here. I suppose I mean; religion is still taken seriously here, but not in a weird fundamentalist way like in the states. People have little shrines in their houses, or little statues in their cars. Or a sandal hanging from their rickshaw, because feet are unclean and ward off bad spirits, and you won't be in an accident if bad spirits aren't about.

6. I like that when you call a person on the phone here, instead of hearing a 'ring ring' noise while you wait for them to answer, you are more likely to hear the lastest Bollywood pop song. So when they do eventually answer their phone they will hear you singing along; 'Gujarati, gujarati, nana na na nanananaaaaaa'

7. I like having a cleaning lady. I know, I said I wouldn't use cheapness. But sharehouse living is really great when you have someone else doing the dishes...

8. I like that I have learnt to appreciate how brilliant a tap with running water is. I don't even care if you can drink the water. When you haven't had a shower for a week and you turn the tap and water finally comes out instead of just a sputtering noise and nothing, you know what a sweet, sweet thing working water is.

9. I like that not everyone wears jeans and a t-shirt, or a business suit. People still wear what people have worn in India for centuries - Saris, kurtas and skirts, scarfs wrapped round their heads, turbans, etc. India, with its films, music and fashion, has really managed to maintain its own culture to a large extent, rather than just opening up its arms and mimicking the west

10. I like the tea. No, I can't lie...I'm bloody sick of it. Its good occassionally, but I am starting to ask more and more for plain black tea, because I am completely sick of the sweet, milky mixture they give you otherwise. It seems to no longer have any taste for me and I feel it sitting in my stomach for hours after I drink it.

So, nine and a half things I like about India. There are plenty more but those ones came to mind first...

By the way, the photo above was taken by my housemate Kate, who has taken some excellent photos here. They are online here if you would like to see some more.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a good night.

I decided to stay in Delhi - Friday I was feeling too sick to face the train trip to Nanital. Teo ended up staying in Delhi as well, he was afraid Nanital would be too cold. Apparently it was freezing, around 1 or 2 at night, although the photos Mauri and Paula brought back were beautiful. I'll have to check it out in a couple of months once it warms up a bit.

I went to see a Hindi movie on Saturday. 'Bluffmaster'. That's not a bad English translation, it was released here with that title. See, the main character is a master of bluffing, sort of like a con artist.
So naturally they came up with the title 'Bluffmaster'! On the whole it was actually a pretty reasonable little flick. It was partly a rip-off of 'The Game', including wholesale the final scene where Michael Douglas jumps off the building only to crash on to a big blow up mattress which has been planted there in expectation of his fall. But 'Bluffmaster' takes more of a romantic-comedy slant and was a little more 'zany', which is a word I don't use lightly.

I was struck by the costumes in the film. The girls were running around in boob tubes and mini skirts, which I had no problem with, but you never see girls in India wearing anything even remotely like that. Or if there is a place where they wear those clothes, I haven't found it yet. I mean, they will wear western clothes, but nothing too revealing. Most Indians, girls at least, seem incredibly conservative when it comes to things like sex and fashion (I've heard). Pre-marital sex is a massive taboo here. Guys are desperate for it and girls under massive pressure to avoid it. I don't know if that's all over India or more in the North, but its very strong here. Its funny because their music videos and films are full of references to sex and are very sexual themselves, but in reality society here is strongly conservative.

Saturday night I went to a small party with some of the other trainees here in Delhi. I wasn't really feeling too well so small and quiet was fine with me. At midnight firecrackers went off all over the city, including heaps on the street outside our house.

On Sunday Teo and I visited Gurgao, which is a mini-city on the outskirts of Delhi. It houses many of the major multinationals' headquarters here in Delhi, and is also home to several of the big Indian call centres. Lots of luxury apartments and shopping malls. Stepping into one of the malls is like visiting another country for a day - doesn't feel like India at all (except when you go into the movies and you get frisked - I'm not sure why they do this, I suppose they have a very strict candy bar policy). The drive there was the highlight - we got into a 'share-cab' with 10 others, basically a big four wheel drive, with a driver who seemed to think he was playing GTA. Some very insane driving even by standards here. At one point a car in front of us tried to make an illegal turn, temporarily slowing our driver down - so he reached out the window at about 40 km/hr and smacked this car on the roof for making him brake. Nice move.

Varanasi Photos

early morning on the ganges
Originally uploaded by lamoney.

I've uploaded some of my photos from Varanasi, available here.

They're not in a set as I am not allowed to create any more sets - but the last twenty or thirty odd photos are from Varanasi and they should be the ones that come up first.

I forget to mention the ceremonies on the Ganges that occurred. They had a nightly concert with lots of bells and drums which was quite interesting to watch. More authentic and more interesting though was what you could hear in the mornings. At about 4.30, 5.00, a chanting rang out across the river that was reminiscent of Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (sorry, I tried to find a more high-brow reference and failed). Getting up and listening to it at that time through the fog was really something. The noise they made sounded incredibly ancient and...well, actually pretty spooky too. You wouldn't go for a walk through the fog listening to that sound anyway.