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| me eating a paan Popsicle. |
In the morning, I had my first of many three-hour intensive Hindi courses. I learned two vowels and five consonants. Hindi “letters” are identified by their sounds. I learned the letter/sounds: “Ca,” “Na,” “Ba,” “Ia,” and “Ha.” Oh, and the spelling of these sounds—I just made it up based on how they sound to me. We also practiced writing some Hindi letters/sounds, and even practiced reading a few words! Very cool—Hindi actually seems easier than English. It is a phonetic language and doesn’t have any upper or lower case differences. There are 46 sounds and endless names for many different nouns. For instance a child would call his/her mother’s parents and father’s parents two different names. Elders are never referred to by name, only their title, such as Auntie, Uncle, Brother, etc. There are also gender distinctions. Here are some Hindi words that I learned today:
Shabash—good
Lurki—Boy
Ji han—yes
Ji hanin—no
After Hindi Class, a bunch of local students (mine was from Delhi University) came and took us IES students out. It was two IES students per Delhi. My guide took us to one of the premier malls in Delhi and to a Sikh temple. After the mall, as we were waiting to catch an “Auto,” which is what the motorized rickshaws are called, and family of beggars came up to me and asked for money. I would have to say most of these beggars I have seen do not speak English, except for one word: food. They come up and draw their fingers together and motion to their mouth as if they were going to pop sunflower seeds into the mouth; while they make this motion they will say “food, food.”
I was ignoring the family of beggars (literally a mother, some children, and a husband) when one of the little girls began to poke at my face to get my attention. In the moment I had no idea what to do and was completely dumbfounded. Then, as I began to thing about the incident I thought how dumb it was to poke someone’s face that you are asking money from—I kept thinking, “Wow, now I really want to give you money after you invade my space.” But now that I’ve really thought about it, I think it is very sad to have to literally touch someone so that they will notice your existence.
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The Sikh temple was incredible—definitely my favorite visits ever to a religious place! When my peer guide, fellow IES student group member and I first entered the temple, we had to cover our heads with scarves. We had intentionally brought the scarves for such a purpose. Then we proceed to the booth area where we handed two men our shoes (much like at a bowling alley). Barefoot, we turned to wash our hands at a row of three sinks. With our hands still wet, we proceed to the white marble stairs, covered in green turf to prevent anyone from slipping. However, before we could trek up the stairs, we stepped into a running pool of very shallow—maybe a couple millimeters deep—of water. Finally we walked up the stairs and along a continuing green turf pathway to the inside of the temple. Once inside, we found a place to sit—it was not very crowded—and listened to three men sing the prayers of the certain saint that this temple honored. The story goes…
Once there was a horrible king in Delhi who only wanted to shed blood and start war. From very far a way, the saint (I did not collect this saint’s name) raised his bow and arrow and aimed high into the heavens. He let go of his taut string and high flew the arrow until it landed. And where it landed was just before the feet of the evil king…and no more was there bloodshed and war.
Note: The Sikh religion value their hair and do not ever cut it. They wrap their long hair under beautiful head wraps seen in all colors.
Pictures of today:
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