November - December in Delhi
The Jain Parade
There's a large Jain community locally and they've been celebrating a 15 day festival. Last Sunday we heard the now-familiar sounds of a parade starting up in the street outside. Out in front were four white horses in red and gold livery, followed by a noisy brass band in uniform. We all rushed out onto the balconies when someone shouted 'Elephant!', and we could see a decorated elephant come into view up the street. Then we realised it wasn't just one but several elephants. All of them were decorated and bearing large howdahs with several very important looking Jains on top, in glittering robes. The central elephant, as they moved up the road 3 abreast with 2 behind, was painted white, and on top of this elephant sat a man covered in dazzling gold. He was obviously the most important person on the parade, and could have been a raja returning to his city after a victorious campaign, or something similar. Behind the elephants, the parade continued for several hundred yards, taking about 45 minutes to pass our door. There were 5 brass bands whose din merged into a deafening cacophony. Amongst the bands were people dancing, the most raucous of whom were setting off firecrackers and fireworks which showered the street with confetti. There were floats and decorated horse-drawn carriages carrying other dignitaries, and the whole street had been decorated with banners and tinsel.
Teaching
Things are going well here. There's just four of us left now (Joy, Maggie, Alison and I) since Modgala took the other three volunteers down to a project Amida is tentatively starting in Tamil Nadu. So we're working at full capacity since we run four classes at any one time through the day (beginner's 1, 2 and 3 and my intermediate class). It's going well though, I'm enjoying the teaching and finding it great to have complete responsibility for my own classes and what I teach. What makes it really good, though, is the commitment of the students and their determination to learn, which makes me want to give them the best I can. I also like having the more advanced students as we can spend time discussing aspects of Indian culture and Indian society - good practice for their English, and very interesting for me. It is also sometimes eye-opening for them to hear about British society. We've talked about things like poverty and illiteracy in India, gender roles and how this is changing, the dowry system, corruption, the idea of 'real beauty', the meaning of the Indian slogan "unity in diversity" (this was, I think, one of the key concepts of the founding of the new republic in 1947 and has some of the resonance that 'liberte, egalite, fraternite' does in France) and other areas.
There's a large Jain community locally and they've been celebrating a 15 day festival. Last Sunday we heard the now-familiar sounds of a parade starting up in the street outside. Out in front were four white horses in red and gold livery, followed by a noisy brass band in uniform. We all rushed out onto the balconies when someone shouted 'Elephant!', and we could see a decorated elephant come into view up the street. Then we realised it wasn't just one but several elephants. All of them were decorated and bearing large howdahs with several very important looking Jains on top, in glittering robes. The central elephant, as they moved up the road 3 abreast with 2 behind, was painted white, and on top of this elephant sat a man covered in dazzling gold. He was obviously the most important person on the parade, and could have been a raja returning to his city after a victorious campaign, or something similar. Behind the elephants, the parade continued for several hundred yards, taking about 45 minutes to pass our door. There were 5 brass bands whose din merged into a deafening cacophony. Amongst the bands were people dancing, the most raucous of whom were setting off firecrackers and fireworks which showered the street with confetti. There were floats and decorated horse-drawn carriages carrying other dignitaries, and the whole street had been decorated with banners and tinsel.
Teaching
Things are going well here. There's just four of us left now (Joy, Maggie, Alison and I) since Modgala took the other three volunteers down to a project Amida is tentatively starting in Tamil Nadu. So we're working at full capacity since we run four classes at any one time through the day (beginner's 1, 2 and 3 and my intermediate class). It's going well though, I'm enjoying the teaching and finding it great to have complete responsibility for my own classes and what I teach. What makes it really good, though, is the commitment of the students and their determination to learn, which makes me want to give them the best I can. I also like having the more advanced students as we can spend time discussing aspects of Indian culture and Indian society - good practice for their English, and very interesting for me. It is also sometimes eye-opening for them to hear about British society. We've talked about things like poverty and illiteracy in India, gender roles and how this is changing, the dowry system, corruption, the idea of 'real beauty', the meaning of the Indian slogan "unity in diversity" (this was, I think, one of the key concepts of the founding of the new republic in 1947 and has some of the resonance that 'liberte, egalite, fraternite' does in France) and other areas.