India Update: Photos from January 10
Wish me luck! I have my first test tomorrow. Ask me anything about bones, joints, and muscles! :)
Remember the other day I told you that I learned about many types of offerings (yajña) {pronounced yawn-yuh} in my Indian Culture class? This morning on my walk to school I saw a real life example of one of those offerings.
Bhuta yajña is an offering for the well-being of all living things. To practice bhuta yajña, one places food out for the cows, crows, or neighborhood animals, before serving their own meal.
This electrical box is on the corner by a popular restaurant called Sangeetha (apparently there's a Sangeetha in Sunnyvale, CA, where I used to live, but I digress...).
I'm guessing the Sangeetha staff put out this banana leaf full of rice and yogurt, plus two cups of either water or tea (it's above my eye level, so I couldn't see well). My heart felt so happy to see this, ad to see the two crows eating. What a sweet offering and sweet tradition. <3
Here's my friend (I don't know her name yet as we don't speak the same language) and today's beautiful rangoli. If you recall, rangoli is another type of yajña, an offering for the well-being of the home, neighborhood, and nearby people.
I have kept up my tradition of bringing her a little gift each day, to return the happiness that she brings me with her beautiful art. Yesterday I brought her 3tangerines (she usually has two girls with her) and today I brought her 3 candy canes I brought from Texas. Her face lights up with each little gift. It might just be the best part of my day.
Notice that this one has a pretty blue bird and a big lotus flower just inside the gate. The lotus flower symbolizes rising up out of the mud and becoming something beautiful.
I walked by again on my way home from lunch and she showed me the book she was using to plan tomorrow's rangoli. <3
This is the shop were I print my "ppt's", which is what they call slides here. Printing is a little bit of an ordeal.
First I had to find a place to buy a "pin drive"/USB drive at a reasonable price. Each time the school emails me a file from one of my teachers I have to go home (either on my lunch break or at the end of the day), move the file from my computer to my pin drive, then walk back into town to get my pages printed.
Now I've figured out that I can email files to them, so that does cut down on walking back and forth, so long as my wireless hotspot is working.
It's a typically tiny shop. The man in the blue shirt is standing on the sidewalk (there's an awning, at least) and waiting for the staff to spiral-bind a book for him. I snapped this photo while my ppt's were getting printed. They also have a xerox machine and a large format printer, like for blueprints, in their back room.
We manage to communicate enough that they know I like my files printed two slides per page, double sided. And if we ever have a communication problem, there's usually an English speaker close by who's more than happy to step up and help out. Have I mentioned how nice Indian people are? <3