I am coming up on the end of my fourth month here in Mumbai,
and I feel really blessed. I have learned so much and grown in many ways. The
last couple of months have been jam-packed with activity for me, and I am
painfully aware that I haven’t updated since September.
Since then, I visited a spectacular Buddhist pagoda, walked
in a parade, learned a traditional dance, toured South India, and nearly
deafened myself with Indian fireworks.
In the middle of September, I visited the Global Vipassana
Pagoda. Completed in 2010, this pagoda contains the largest unsupported dome in
the world. Compared the spectacular golden exterior, the pagoda’s interior is downright
stark: a huge expanse of hardwood floor beneath a vast dome of concrete blocks.
A guru sat with about 20 people in the center of the pagoda. People who wish to
enter into the pagoda to meditate must stay for ten days, and they are forbidden
from communicating in any manner, verbal or nonverbal.
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| Pagoda Exterior |
At the end of September, I ventured with the other exchange
students to Pune, a small town of about 3 million that’s four hours away. We went
there for the Ganesha Chaturthi parade. Ganesha Chaturthi is one of the most
popular Hindu holidays for Mumbaikars and Maharashtrans. The festival is
celebrated with ten days of merry-making and worshipping Lord Ganesh. On the
tenth day, the Ganesh idols—some no bigger than a loaf of bread, others thirty
feet tall—are all immersed in a body of water. In Mumbai, it’s done at one of
the beaches, but in Pune, Ganesh was immersed in a river cutting through the
city.
All the exchange students wore traditional clothes for the
occasion. The boys wore white kurtas and brightly colored turbans, and the
girls wore a spectacular array of saris. We walked for four hours, a group of
dancing women behind us and a line of enthusiastic drummers in front of us. Everyone wanted a picture of the
foreigners in Indian clothes. I myself posed with a myriad of small children as
their parents eagerly took pictures, and one of my friends gave an interview
for the Times of India. It was a
phenomenal afternoon!
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| Lord Ganesh |
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| Me, doing the traditional Indian Tilt-a-Whirl dance |
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| Dancers in the Parade |
My computer battery is dying, so I will write about two other festivals, as well as my trip to South India, later.
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| Photo Credit--Miguel Ponce |
