Seventeen and Counting

I’ve decided that delaying the blog posts doesn’t help, I just end up writing twice the information in the same blog. The month has been jam packed, easily the most tiring month so far. I promised myself that I would get another post out before exams start and my free time disappears again. In other exciting news, today (January 28th) marks my official 100 days before I turn towards my next adventure back in the states. It seems like yesterday when I was writing about my 100th day, but hey, tis life.

Christmas was uneventful. It wasn’t negative, but it certainly wasn’t what one finds in the heart of New England. I made “cookies”, listened to carols on Spotify, and enjoyed my 90 Ferrero Rochers generously packed by my loving mother. I laud myself for being able to contain myself for 6 months. I use quotation marks because you can hardly call my lumps of dough “cookies” after the horrors they endured. From cooking in a toaster oven, to the lack of vanilla extract (Damn alcohol prohibition!), to the substitution of vegetable oil for peanut oil (What’s the difference?). I’m not sure if I should be proud my Indian peers enjoyed them, they were not a very strong representation of the cookies that I love. The Christmas festival season was disappointing, but every exchange is a give and take situation.

New Years, however, is celebrated universally. I’m sure there were some raves around Ahmedabad; I couldn’t find any. But personally, I enjoy a tranquil night with good friends over parties any day. I spent New Years eve at a friend’s society, where I was surprised with a birthday cake at midnight. (I was born on the 1st of January 2002.) My thanks to Darsh and his family, if they ever see this! We enjoyed it under the society fireworks.

I wanted my birthday to be uneventful, as I always have. That’s not how Indian families work. I thought I had succeeded until we went out for family dinner, where to my surprise, all my friends were seated and ready to eat. (Again, credit to Darsh and my father, who planned it.) Even though it wasn’t the plan I had in mind, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The next major event of January was Uttarayan, the Indian festival of kites. My mother knows that, since I was young, I have always wanted to attend a battling kite festival. It acknowledges the turning of winter to spring in the Indian calendar and celebrates the Indian gods who are said to wake up at this time. But it is not as tranquil as it seems. Imbedded in the strings of the kite are shards of glass (which also makes flying a challenge), which are used to cut the strings of other flyer’s kites. If you cut someone’s kite, you can keep it. It adds a hint of savagery to the façade of innocent celebration. My largest accomplishment in 2019 has no doubt been cutting someone else’s kite (its much harder than it sounds)!

Only a few days later we left for a wedding, which would make the last exciting week of this month. (A week!) It is no myth that Indian weddings are lavish, to say the least. Every day the venue’s decorations changed, the bride was always covered in gold, the catering was infinite. Most of the rituals were a welcoming for god to enter the marriage, which are held with the burning of a fire and continuous prayer. The most memorable, for me, however, is the ceremony where each relative gets to rub the bride with a yellow paste (it must be hard to be a bride), in hopes of her skin appearing to glow in the following day.

I am stuck in the exam preparation routine, and I doubt I will experience much until my exams finish next month. I will make sure that excitement follows.

Finally, I know what it is like to have a brother! Due to the wedding, my host brother, who lives only 3 hours away from my house in the U.S., (Coincidence!) has come back home for a few weeks. He has been a welcomed reminder of the life I will go back to; I can not find many people that I can talk about India and the U.S. with. He is a blessing.

Wish me luck on my Exams! (Seriously, pray for me.) Only 100 days left.